Four New Yamaha Keyboard Apps = Music to Musicians’ EarsFour New Yamaha Keyboard Apps = Music to Musicians’ Ears
Technology. What can’t it do? For Yamaha, the answer apparently is: nothing.
Consider the latest Yamaha tech roll out: four amazing new apps for the iPhone or iPad to help musicians extract more beauty and resonance out of their instruments. Here they are:
1. NoteStar
Ever wanted to jam out with your favorite band? If so, this iPad app will deliver the goods in the form of easy to read sheet music that flows smoothly (no need to stop and scroll while you’re inthe middle of a song) – backed by real vocals and bands. You can get the download free at the App Store and purchase any song for just $3.99.
On Yamaha.com: http://usa.yamaha.com/products/musical-instruments/keyboards/apps/notestar/?mode=model
2. Page Turner
Here’s another digital sheet music app for the iPad. You can wirelessly turn the pages of your music, if you own a Yamaha EZ-220 keyboard. The app is amazing – it’s essentially a mind reader. It knows when you need to turn the page. You don’t need any extra accessories or setup. Just download the app at the App Store, launch it, and start playing. The app also has an audio recorder so you can get instant feedback. It’s due out at end of May.
On iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/page-turner/id399359552?mt=8
3. Song Chords
This app for the iPhone (available in February 2012) is also a dynamo. It features a built-in chord dictionary, chord charts, music store, and lead sheet. You can practice, supplement a live performance, or use the chords to vamp for a missing band member.
4. Scale Tuner
Scale Tuner lets you tune your digital piano or Yamaha keyboard and more. Preset scales include pure temperament, Arabic, etc. The Scale Tuner is compatible with lots of Yamaha models, including CVP501, 503, 505, 509 and CGP1000.
On Yamaha.com: http://usa.yamaha.com/products/musical-instruments/keyboards/apps/scale_tuner/?mode=model
Do you want more information about Yamaha keyboards, pianos, or other products? To make your playing, recording, and performance experience that much more stellar, connect with the most respected Yamaha piano dealer in the Bay Area: Pianos Plus.
We have been serving the East Bay Area for over four decades; our staff is hugely knowledgeable; and we offer amazing value and quality.
Call us at 510-581-1660, or learn more at www.pianosplus.com.
Live Your Artistic Dream this Year by Learning How to Play an Instrument or Sing
Admit it: You’re a sucker for shows like Glee.
You love a good musical extravaganza. On the other hand, you also love to sing in the shower, indulge in a bit of a heavy metal and rap now and again, and blast some Top 40 radio in the car when no one is watching. You might also appreciate a more cultured aesthetic – you like artful jazz and classical music concertos, sonatas, symphonies, and rhapsodies from the great composers. You enjoy alternative rock, humming, whistling, country, and basically every other music in the musical rainbow (including, sometimes, blessed silence!).
But you have yet to join in on all the fun. It’s time to change all that.
It’s time to make 2012 the year that you finally learn how to play an instrument and/or sing. To find your musical inner voice and begin to express the lyricism you know is deep inside you.
Learning to sing or play an instrument is an exciting, long-term undertaking. The right tools go a long way to making your journey pleasurable and fulfilling. Just like you need good coaching to master the musical arts, you can also benefit profoundly from the right instruments for your level, needs, and space. Learning to sing or play an instrument is an exciting, long-term undertaking. The right tools go a long way to making your journey pleasurable an
The team here at Pianos Plus will help you find the affordable tools for learning music. For 40 years, we’ve served the SF Bay Area’s piano needs. Our teachers are extremely experienced and knowledgeable. We can help with piano, vocal, guitar, harmonica, and bass lessons, rentals, new & used pianos and more.
Meet the music teachers.
Learn more about our services and what sets us apart at www.pianosplus.com, or call us for help now at 510-581-1660.
image sources: graysonstunetown.com kellertmusicstudios.comSiri Can Play Your Yamaha Disklavier {Video}
Siri (only on the iPhone 4s) can give you directions, time weather, tell you where the closet dry cleaner is, recommend a hotel, but did you know Siri can play the piano too? Check out the video below.
What is a Piano Sale? Don’t Be Fooled.
What is a Piano Sale?
When you hear or see ‘Piano Sale’ does this mean that the only time to get the best price on a piano would be when this sale is in progress?
Not hardly!
Dont be fooled! Piano sales events cost dealers tremendous amounts of money in promotional costs, these costs are passed on to you, the consumer. These ‘fantastic deals’ offered for a short time have these cost in the special sale price of the piano. In today’s retail marketing, there’s always a reason to sell because there is always the consumer looking for a reason to buy, this reason to buy is achieved throughdeceptive sales strategies designed to create a buying frenzy. These buying frenzies are with the promise of special short time prices never to be seen again.
At Pianos Plus we do not use these deceptive sales tactics, we continue offering the lowest prices every-day on every piano and always with a guarantee that our selling price on new Yamaha pianos will belower than any competitor’s pricing during one of their highly publicized (and costly) piano sale events. Don’t be fooled by misleading special sale events.
Benefits of Buying a Used Piano
Maybe your darling daughter (and budding prodigy) has finally pushed you hard enough, and you want to buy her the piano of her dreams, so she can light up your home with beautiful music. Or maybe you’re looking for an instrument to sharpen your concert skills in preparation for a recital or recording effort.
Irrespective of your purpose, you face an urgent decision: Should you buy a new or used piano.
There are lots of good reasons to buy new. And we will delve into those in separate blog posts.
But reasons to consider the “oldie but goodie” option also abound. Consider:
1. Aesthetic Appeal.
Some “old school” pianos – particularly those engineered and built by master craftsmen – look absolutely gorgeous. If you plan to practice in a private studio – where no one typically visits – this design factor might not mean as much. But if you’re buying a piano for your living room (e.g. to use entertain guests), aesthetics matter.
2. Affordable.
In today’s strapped economy, musicians (in particular) are desperate to save where they can. If you are a sharp bargain hunter, you can find a very solid, extremely reasonably priced used piano – provided you do due diligence.
3. Easy.
You need not go to piano tuner school to learn how to choose the best instrument for your needs.
By following a few, easy to remember heuristics (rules of thumb), you can make your piano shopping far easier. For instance, memorize this one: “bigger is better.” Bigger pianos last longer and yield up more depth of sound. Small pianos can create a tinny sound, due to the high harmonics created when the shorter strings get hit.
Testing the Piano
To test a used piano, start with the bass section, since the bass is the first to wear out in old pianos. But just because a piano is three decades older (or even older) doesn’t mean that the bass sections will disappoint.
You should also examine: hammers (to make sure they are not too worn) tuning pins overall condition of the piano.
Getting Help
Perhaps the most important element is a good guide. At Pianos Plus, we sell both used pianos and new pianos – so we have no intrinsic bias either way.
We can help you find the right instrument for your needs, budget, and other values you hold.
We’ve been an East Bay Area piano leader for nearly four decades, and our knowledgeable and professional staff can walk you through your questions and concerns – call us now at 510-581-1660 or visit www.pianosplus.com.
Monster Concert
MONSTER CONCERT
October 29th 2011
Music Teachers’ Association of Southern Alameda County present:
Waltzing Flowers Flashing Swords
Boogies Sambas Can Cans
Secret Agents
Champagne Bubbles
Phantom will appear just in time for Halloween!
Over 240 students on stage, performing piano, flute and violin pieces.
See 36 musicians playing 12 new Yamaha grand pianos at once! Students range in age from 5 -18.
Ashley Lo ( CVHS,2004) will conduct this spectacular concert.
All proceeds go towards student scholarships.
Come and enjoy a fun musical afternoon for the whole family.
Pianos graciously donated for the afternoon by Pianos plus.
Following the concert, pianos will be available for purchase.
Sale continues on Sunday- noon to 4 pm.
Tickets $10 on sale August 25th –Castro Valley Center for the Arts
Rehearsals will be on Oct. 8,9,15,16 (small groups), 22,23 (larger groups) at:
PIANOS plus 1446 “A” Street Castro Valley, CA 94546
6-9 pm.
For more information contact:
Jeanne Fisher
jeannelfisher@gmail.com
510-889-6062
Piano Yoga
Piano Yoga
Can Practicing Scales Do the Same Thing for Your Body as “Tree Pose”?
What associations do you have when you hear the phrase “practicing the piano”? If you’re like most modern Americans, you picture yourself sitting rigidly upright, concentrating crazily on notes, rhythms, and instructions, and perhaps playing with a bit of fear that your piano teacher might wrap your knuckles if you “screw up.” In any event, you think of playing as an effortful activity that’s intense, physically demanding and possibly even stress inducing.
But a new school of thought has emerged to challenge this conventional way of thinking about
piano practicing. The “piano yoga” approach suggests that playing the piano can be as relaxing,
meditative, stress relieving and health-inducing as practicing asanas and deep breathing. That
may sound outlandish. But consider it deeper. When you play the piano, you bring yourself
into deep awareness of the present moment – just like you do during other kinds of yoga and
meditation. You are not thinking about the past. You are not thinking about what you’re going to
eat for dinner tonight. You are thinking simply about the music being played.
Secondly, your posture – ideally – should not be rigid or overly upright but rather relaxed and
well conditioned – much like a professional golfer swinging a 9 iron. A practiced pianist will
flow through the motion of playing in a relatively effortless way that validates and improves
posture, breathing and general fitness – just like traditional yoga does.
Then we have the emotional, therapeutic benefits. When you connect with deep rhythms,
harmonies, melodies and the wisdom of brilliant composers, you participate in a vital experience
that delights the senses on many levels. This all leads to positive physiological effects, as
well. “Proper” yoga-like piano playing should reduce your stress, increase your happiness and
buoyancy, improve your musculoskeletal system, enhance your ability to concentrate and even
potentially change the way you look at the world.
If you are an Bay Area resident, musician or teacher, the authorized Yamaha piano dealers of
Pianos Plus can help you find an piano (new or used) that meets your needs at the price you want. Learn
more about our unique approach at www.pianosplus.com, or call our offices to get all of your
questions answered by enthusiastic professionals: 510-581-1660
Top Piano Apps for Driod, iPhone, and iPad
Whether you own a Droid, iPad, iPhone, or all three, here are some cool apps to improve your piano experience.
Droid Apps
1. Droid Record
Whether you’re practicing a Sonata, recording an album, or simply jotting down passing musical thoughts, Droid Record is easy and simple to use. The app is a basic recorder. The red button lets you record. The green button lets you play. What more do you need?
2. Rehearsal Assistant Continue reading
Piano Video story
Long Distant Piano Playing?
Columbia, SC (WLTX) — You can make a call long distance, you can make a jump long distance, and now, you can play piano long distance. Midlands students are using new technology to get lessons that reach across state lines.
“Once you start playing, you forget, or at least I forget about everything else,” explained USC music student Claudio Olivera.