Check out this link! Many of these are in Colorado. Our own piano teacher has a youtube video on the 16th St mall piano.
http://www.boredpanda.com/street-pianos-play-me-im-yours-project-luke-jarram/
Here is our piano teacher's youtube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTdV0Z8nV1k
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Although the piano wasn’t born this way, Lady Gaga’s lead keyboardist, Brockett Parsons had to have something just as unconventional as the shows he was performing in. With a team of “mad scientists” his vision of a circular keyboard that surrounds him was made a reality. The team consisted of Chuck Johnson- point man who gathered the team, Dave Starkey- the electronic man of QRS Systems, and Richard Fell- the piano pro who made it real. His round keyboard, which he lovingly nicknamed the “Brockettship” made it’s debut in Seoul, South Korea for Lady Gaga’s Born This Way 2012-2013 tour. With a mission to “re-imagine the world of keyboard performance and deliver ground breaking, performance grade keyboard creations” the PianoArc was born.
SEE ALSO THE EARTH HARP IS THE LARGEST STRINGED INSTRUMENT ON THE PLANET
Rather than the traditional 88 keys, the PianoArc consists of 3 full keyboards, totaling 294 keys. If you look closely you can see the separate boards that come apart to make the instrument transportable. The height and tilt can be adjusted as well. See this masterpiece in action in the videos below. For more information on the PianoArc, including a quote for your own, check out their website.
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SANFORD, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35 ORLANDO) - At the young age of 7 years old, Leah Flynn is a disciplined violinist.
"I like practice because it makes me get better and better and better each day," said Flynn.
The Sanford 2nd grader has performed as a soloist at numerous concerts and venues. She started playing at just 5 years old, and ever since she's been taking lessons and practicing daily with her father.
"I'm extremely proud and I tell her it's a God given talent that God gave her and she should use her talent wisely," said Paula Flynn, Leah's mother
And that exactly what Leah wants to do, her mom says when she saw the unrest and rioting in Ferguson, MO in the aftermath of the Michael Brown shooting, she wanted to do something.
"She said to me 'mom what's going on?' and I explained to her because I have to, I told her what's going on and she said 'but it's not right these people look so sad maybe I could do something for them,'" Flynn said.
So, her father taught her the song "Let there be peace."
"There's a lot of scariness there and violence and fighting so I really just want them to have peaceful and happiness," said Leah.
Now Leah hopes to be able to travel to Ferguson to play her song of peace to the community.
"In her eyes she believes that she can create some sort of change in the atmosphere down there," Flynn said.
You can view some of Leah Flynn's videos on her YouTube channel
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ST. LOUIS — By day, Dan Chitwood of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis is a plant morphologist who studies how the form and structure of tomatoes evolves differently as they adapt to new environments. By night, when he needs to think through a problem or take a break, he plays the viola.
Chitwood has now crossed his passions for plants and stringed instruments by publishing a study that documents the evolution of violin shapes using the same methods that he uses for charting the evolving form of leaves. The study published Oct. 8 in PLoS One used these methods to examine the shape of 9,000 instruments built over a period of 400 years.
The morphological analysis Chitwood used enabled him to classify violins according to region and violinmakers’ lineages. He identified four major groups of stringed instrument makers, or luthiers, who each crafted their own signature shapes that were passed down with small changes generation by generation—what Chitwood notes was “descent with modification,” in deference to Darwin’s theory of evolution.
Chitwood gathered images of thousands of violin specimens, culled from the Cozio.com archive of stringed instruments. The archive includes detailed photographs of the front and back sides of valuable violins sold at auction, and Chitwood used open-source statistical computing software to analyze the shapes of their bodies and their f-holes (sound holes). Using linear discriminant analysis, a statistical technique that separates different classes of objects he developed scatterplots that separate individual instruments by luthier. Based on these shape differences, he clustered violins into four main groups of luthiers, whose designs still predominate in most modern instruments. The cluster map resembles an evolutionary tree.
As he studied the clusters, he noticed violins from families of luthiers possess similar qualities — like plants of a common genus, he says. He says many violin-making families included several generations, and a younger apprentice might have made a small change to distinguish his instruments from his forebears. “Different families will go in different shape trajectories than another family. It is like speciation,” Chitwood says. “It’s modification by descent. You mostly recapitulate the design, but you put a little change — a little mark of yourself — and it changes, like a mutation.”
Jim Woodhouse, a structural dynamicist at Cambridge University who provided Chitwood with information about violin acoustics, says the study confirms what luthiers know intuitively. “[This study] reveals some fairly clear trends, and also clear clusters of related shapes,” Luthier says. “This puts some scientific substance behind the anecdotal evidence of makers and expert dealers.”
History also plays a role in shaping violins, according to Chitwood’s analysis: Violins morph in a linear fashion with time, with many of the changes attributable to the rise of Antonio Stradivari. The violin master started producing instruments in the mid-17th century and remained the most prolific luthier of the Renaissance. He introduced a key change around the turn of the 18th century, developing a larger outline shape than other violins of the time. “There had been no other violin until that time that had that particular shape,” Chitwood says. “This shape really foretells the future … because it’s well documented that everyone copied Stradivarius.”
Stradivari Cluster
Four main clusters, named by prominent luthiers they contain, are indicated by color. Known copyists of Antonio Stradivari cluster with the Stradivari cluster, and often members of the same family cluster together. Members of family houses that cluster together are indicated. Blue, Maggini cluster; red, Stradivari cluster; purple, Amati cluster; green, Stainer cluster. Credit: Dan Chitwood of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, and PLoS ONE.
Does the obsession with shape really matter? Modern violinists can’t distinguish the sound of Stradivariuses from brand-new instruments, says Claudia Fritz of the University of Paris. In studies published in 2012 and 2014, she asked accomplished violinists to blindly play “old Italian” violins and newer ones and compare their sound. The players couldn’t tell the instruments apart when they performed in a hotel room and, later, in a concert hall. Slight differences in form—the outline or the shape of the f-holes—have little effect on tone quality compared to the arched shape of the instrument, its varying thickness and its wood.
Chitwood wonders whether some luthiers are just copy cats. A Stradivarius isn’t necessarily the best; it became perceived as the fittest, so it proliferated, he says. “There are a lot of other masters — the Guarneri family, Nicolo Amati — why don’t we copy them as much?
“It was just perceived that Stradivarius instruments were superior,” he continues. “If all the attributes of the violins were made to mimic Stradivarius, maybe one reason we can’t tell the difference is because everybody copied him.”
That the study sets aside differences in sound makes it unique. “This is respectable research, halfway between science and history in terms of academic disciplines,” Woodhouse says, “and revealing things about the story of the violin that were not obvious before reading it.”
Reference Cluster
Thin plate splines, deforming grids to transform violins from members of reference clusters (vertical) with those of targets (horizontal). Averaged violin outlines from prolific luthiers from each cluster are superimposed and indicated by color. Differences between reference and target outlines have been amplified by a factor of four to better visualize subtle details. Blue, Maggini cluster; red, Stradivari cluster; purple, Amati cluster; green, Stainer cluster. Credit: Dan Chitwood of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, and PLoS ONE.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/plant-biology-informs-the-origins-of-the-stradivarius/
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Pete Pigeon - Guitar Songwriting Didgeridoo
Pete recently moved here from the East coast where he taught private lessons for 19 years. He has developed a customized approach to help each student achieve their potential. Pete excels at developing an accessible personable report and adapts his curriculum to suit each student’s independent needs and desires. He has extreme patience and a good-humored nature. This has yielded powerful results with students from age 5 to adult. His personal endeavors include spiritual growth and travel. He holds a degree in Jazz Guitar from the State University of New York. He is versatile in Jazz, Funk, Rock, Hip Hop, Alternative Country, Groove, Fusion, Experimental, Acoustic, World Music and more.
We will have an open house at the Lakewood location on Monday 11/17 from 6-6:30. You can meet Pete, hear him play, and learn about his teaching style. Refreshments will be served.
Pete has shared the stage with some of the best musicians across the country from Oregon to New York City. He has been a working musicians since before he was old enough to drive to his own gigs. He worked in the bands as guitars and singer. He has had press describe him as: plays guitar like a roadhouse Pat Metheny and has the easy touch of George Benson...has a knack for digging into the soul of a song...and more... He was nominated for a Grammy for his music in 2012...
Here's a Vimeo video of a Grammy interview: http://vimeo.com/68186101
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The quick answer is YES! Private instruction is when a student is able to work one-on-one with a professional musician, the private teacher is able to work more in depth with the student on their instrument. Students will get help with developing a more professional tone on the instrument, fundamentals of playing their instrument correctly with better technique and help with a set of goals that will help your student excel on their instrument. Of course, the student must do their part and practice the lessons and assignments that the private teacher assigns to the student. Over the years, we know that when a student studies privately, they will improve as a musician. We have never witnessed a student become a worse musician when studying privately. What could be easier to help your student improve on their instrument by taking lessons?
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Four generations of Gregory Walker’s family have been scholars and musicians. So perhaps it was destiny – but probably more so an abundance of talent – that he has become a critically acclaimed violinist and award-winning composer as well as a professor at the University of Colorado Denver.
“I don’t think I really got to choose a career … I didn’t really think in terms of having a choice,” Walker says. His father, George T. Walker, is a composer and pianist and the first African-American to win the Pulitzer Prize in music. George Walker also taught at CU-Boulder. Gregory’s mother, Helen Walker-Hill, is a pianist and music historian, holds a degree from CU and also was a faculty member. Gregory’s grandfather, George Siemens, taught genetics at CU Denver.
Even before he finished his doctoral work at CU in 1992, a family friend – Associate Professor Emeritus Donna Bogard – encouraged Gregory to apply for a teaching position at the university: “Way back in 1991, the music faculty here knew they wanted somebody comfortable with rock music, but really didn’t know where to start. Lucky me.”
Walker has been a soloist with orchestras and symphonies around the world and composed numerous pieces, including those for electric instruments. He has produced CDs for several record labels and performed with a diverse group of artists, from pop star Lyle Lovett to violinist Itzhak Perlman to pop and jazz trumpeter Doc Severinsen.
He says music (to the occasional impatience of his wife, Lori, and sons Grayson and Dashiel) doesn’t go away when he gets home from “work,” but he finds time to participate in the traditional Chinese martial arts and to write. His novel, “Trigram Cluster Funk,” will be published by Double Dragon Press in October.
1. Your CD, “Electric Vivaldi: Global Solstice,” will be released in September. How did this collection come about and why is it special to you?
One of the reasons I enjoy working with my College of Arts and Media colleagues is that their mission of creating an intersection of art, technology and commerce resembles my own passion. That maybe doesn’t have so much to do with commerce as it does with extending new artistic expression to a wider audience, which just happens to include that commercial population. I think I’d be happy pursuing any number of creative directions, but about 10 years ago, I was listening to an obscure European orchestra’s colorful approach to the popular Vivaldi Four Seasons violin concerti. Suddenly realizing that it might be possible to not only take the orchestra’s ideas even further, but also create an accessible version of the music for contemporary audiences with electronic sounds, I launched into a yearlong process of pulling together financial and artistic support for a first “Newport Classic Electric Vivaldi Four Seasons” compact disc. When it was released, I knew there were possibilities that still hadn’t been fully explored, but my creative attention span is much too short to continue mining the same vein for very long. Consequently, this latest Centaur Records “Electric Vivaldi: Global Solstice” adds elements of world music and a new instrument that was a big part of my youth, the electric guitar.
2. Tell me about the instruments you play and your compositions.
At one time or another, as an orchestral soloist I’ve been engaged to play a variety of different kinds of violins, guitars and electronic paraphernalia. For other types of engagements, I may resort to other instruments, usually ones with strings. Even the instruments I love the most don’t necessarily come easy, but I’ve always been motivated by untapped potential, theirs and mine. And I do admire anyone who can play the piano.
I’ve written dozens of songs for local progressive rock bands and electronic dance music producers, as well as a similar number of large-scale symphonic, chamber and electronic works that have been premiered around the United States and abroad. Then there are the recordings and music videos that I contribute to as engineer, director, editor, art director, you name it. This summer, there’s even been an invitation to show off mellow stylings I did not know I had with Swing Je T’aime, an up-and-coming gypsy jazz band.
3. Why did you choose to compose for and perform with orchestras? What are the actions you take when you compose?
I grew up in a family of classical musicians. Music wasn’t entertainment, wasn’t a job, just a way of life. The symphony orchestra was considered the ultimate medium. In some ways, the orchestra is the closest music can get to the diversity of the natural universe. On the other hand, it also embodies culture’s regimented, domesticated mass obedience. The soloist is a defiant point of light.
When the time comes to actually write for the thing, I go to the instrument for which I have no aptitude, the piano. Every little idea emerges clumsily over weeks because my fingers can’t move any faster. So slowly, many ideas are just lost mid-stream, but we can hope that if they were forgotten, they were forgettable. Eventually, imagination and the wonders of computer software allow me to add additional dimensions. And when the world premiere finally arrives, it’s over in minutes … maybe leaving an impression there was something behind the notes.
4. What are some of your favorite stage performances? What made them special?
There are two aspects of musical performance that are especially poignant for me, but they’re easy to miss.
The first is the sensation of audience connection, real or perceived. Some years ago, I was hired as a violin concertmaster for a small orchestra performing Handel’s “Messiah” at a church in Boulder. At one point, a profoundly bitter and inebriated homeless man walked in the door and loudly proceeded to the front of the audience. We all just tried to concentrate and ignore him. When we got to the famous “Hallelujah Chorus,” the audience joined in singing along with the orchestra’s choir. After the last chord and before the next aria, the homeless man stood up and walked toward me. I saw him out of the corner of my eye, reached over the edge of the stage, and we shook hands.
The second aspect is personal challenge and visceral risk. In 2009, the Philadelphia Orchestra engaged me to premiere a violin concerto by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer George Walker, my father, with a $4.5 million dollar Stradivarius in a performance that was broadcast nationwide on National Public Radio. This would seem like an enviable, dossier-enhancing activity for anyone who has not suffered from lifelong stage fright.
My father’s music carries a unique meaning for me not only because it’s cool to play your dad’s music, but because I believe he’s an unsung musical genius for the ages.
5. What is your teaching philosophy and what do you hope students take away from your classes?
Compared to my diverse and accomplished colleagues at the College of Arts and Media, I’m not much of a teacher, per se. I try to be a kind of interpretive artist in the classroom. The value of a music curriculum, of all things, can be just like the proverbial tree falling in the forest with no one there to hear it – unless I can interpret the curriculum’s significance and bring them around. Going to where those who share this world – the students – are, and coming to a mutual understanding so they can actually be inspired to accompany me. Because the only thing they’ll ever bother to take away is what became significant.
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