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.comTrue or False? You are Way, Way Too Old to Learn to Play the Piano.
True or False? You are Way, Way Too Old to Learn to Play the Piano.
Completely false of course!
Perhaps you had a few years of piano lessons as a kid, but then you gave up the instrument because you wanted to play sports and pal around with friends. Or maybe you always desperately wanted to play the piano, but you never had the opportunity, the encouragement, or the proper instruction. Now you are a “grown up” – a young professional, parent of young children, or retiree – and you are reflecting wistfully on your lost opportunity to cultivate musicianship.
Know this: it is never – repeat never – too late to learn to play the piano.
In fact, adults have many advantages over children when it comes to learning instruments. First of all, adults who are truly intrinsically motivated will find the time, energy, and resources to practice diligently. Children – particularly those who are forced to practice and play – are at a disadvantage here.
Adults can leverage their critical-thinking skills, planning acumen, and sense of “logic” to learn music quickly, develop a harmonic vocabulary, and communicate their needs, frustrations, and discoveries with their teachers more specifically and accurately than children.
You may already have developed and cultivated musicianship. Perhaps it’s dormant. Perhaps you have mastered another instrument (or your voice). In any case, you can plumb the depths of your musical experience to enrich and enlighten your time learning the piano.
Adults – at least adults who haven’t had their attention spans decimated by the internet or by watching too much television – also have an attention span advantage over children. Mastering any musical instrument – the piano, violin, ukulele, whatever – requires discipline and concentration. If you have developed any concentration skills, you can deploy them to maximize your time at the piano. In a nice feedback leap, practicing piano will also help cultivate your overall ability to concentrate. So it’s a classic “win win.”
Adults also have a physical advantage because they have the muscular strength, coordination, flexibility, and stamina to practice longer and make complete use of the whole instrument.
Lastly, adults have far more brain plasticity than they realize. Contrary to the old adage, it is possible to teach old dogs new tricks. New advanced neurological research suggests that our brains are highly plastic – even as we age into our 50s, 60s and beyond. Indeed, some researchers believe that just pushing ourselves to learn new skills – or by honing old, dormant ones – can lead to emotional growth and perhaps even physical and neurological benefits.
If you would like to boot up (or reboot) your piano career, the professionals at Pianos Plus will be more than happy to help you.
We are the San Francisco Bay Area’s most respected authorized Yamaha piano dealer, and our staff is knowledgeable and passionate about the piano.
Learn more about our services at www.pianosplus.com, or connect with us at 510-581-1660.
Teach Your Child Music! Explode His/Her Potential.
“students who learned fractions through rhythm notation scored 100% higher on a test”
“children who had significant musical performance experience “scored 57 points higher on the verbal portion of the [SAT]“
Teach Your Child Music! Explode His/Her Potential by Offering a Musical Education
Whether you’re a happy new parent who just bought your 18-month-old his first xylophone or you’re the proud mother of precocious twin 5-year-old girls who’ve shown a knack for musical aptitude since the age of two, you have probably heard a lot from fellow parents, educators, and experts in the media about the relationship between musical education and lifetime success.
Truth be told, teaching your child to play scales, master composition, or hone her rhythmic and tonal skills won’t guarantee her a future slot in a Ivy League school. But a surprising amount of evidence suggests that musical education can have both wide and deep benefits for children.
Consider, for instance, research done by the College Board (the company that develops the SATs and other achievement tests), which found that children who had significant musical performance experience “scored 57 points higher on the verbal portion of the [SAT] and 41 points higher on the math portion than students with no course work/experience in the arts.”
Another study, published in Neurological Research in 1999, found that students who learned fractions through rhythm notation scored 100% higher on a test of fractions than students who learned fraction math in a standard conventional setting. A study by Dr. James Catterall inUCLA – that tracked over 25,000 students – suggested that music-making students score better on a variety of proficiency exams. Other tests suggest that those who learn musical skills willunderstand math better, get into medical school, enjoy higher emotional health, and improve thefunctional capacity of the right brain to stimulate creativity.
Of course, skeptics point out that some of these studies are correlational, so you shouldn’t draw conclusions. In other words: sure there’s a relationship between people who perform well on tests and musical ability – but that relationship does not necessarily imply causation. It could be that some other factor – for instance, a genetic tendency to be BOTH smart AND musical could explain what’s going on. Thus, practicing more music won’t necessarily make you smarter.
Then again, other evidence suggests that the relationship is far more robust – that is, learning music actually fundamentally changes the brain in positive ways. Albert Einstein once famously said that if he had not been a physicist, he would be a musician: “It [the theory of relativity]occurred to me by intuition and music was the driving force behind that intuition. My discovery was through results of musical perception.”
Of course, to develop effective musical proficiency, you need good instruments, good teachers,and the discipline and passion to follow up. If you live in the Bay Area, the dedicated and knowledgeable staff at Pianos Plus can help you select the most appropriate piano for your children (or students) to use and provide piano lessons so they explore and develop their musical capacities. Visit us on the web at www.pianosplus.com, or call us for an appointment at 510-581-1616.