The Academy Award winning film Shine made pianist David Helfgott a household name. While purporting to be a true story, the movie is actually full of fabrications. Now for the first time, Margaret, David Helfgott's eldest sister, who knows him better than anyone from their early years, sets the record straight. Dispelling the many untruths propogated by the movie, Margaret tells the real story of her extraordinary brother, of a life, a career, and a legacy that will remain foever...Out Of Tune.

Mozart's emergence as a mature artist coincides with the rise to prominence of the piano, an instrument that came alive under his fingers and served as medium for many of his finest compositions. In Mozart's Piano Music, William Kinderman reconsiders common assumptions about Mozart's life and art while offering comprehensive and incisive commentary on the solo music and concertos. After placing Mozart's pianistic legacy in its larger biographical and cultural context, Kinderman addresses the lively gestural and structural aspects of Mozart's musical language and explores the nature of his creative process. Incorporating the most recent research throughout this encompassing study, Kinderman expertly surveys each of the major genres of the keyboard music, including the four-hand and two-piano works. Beyond examining issues such as Mozart's earliest childhood compositions, his musical rhetoric and expression, the social context of his Viennese concertos, and affinities between his piano works and operas, Kinderman's main emphasis falls on detailed discussion of selected individual compositions.

Now you can have over 100 of the most useful chords right at your fingertips. This chart gives you all the basic chords in every key. Each chord is shown in standard music notation and as an easy-to-read piano keyboard diagram. Fingerings are given for each chord. Also included is a clear description of inverting chords.

Born in Wisconsin in 1919, Wladziu Valentino Liberace began his career as a performer at roadhouses, bars, stag parties, afternoon teas, and dances in the Milwaukee area. Television brought him to stardom in 1952, when The Liberace Show was watched by more than 35 million people each week. His television exposure led to one of the most lucrative concert, nightclub, and recording careers in history. His death from AIDS in 1987 continued the perpetual speculation about his personal life. This book charts the always controversial life and career of Liberace, from his birth in America's heartland to his death as one of the most flamboyant entertainers of his generation. A short biography and chronology present his life in capsule form and give full attention to the scandals that plagued his career. The chapters that follow detail his work in film, television, radio, recordings, and concerts. Each entry provides fascinating information about his performances, and an annotated bibliography describes sources for additional information.

It's never too late to play piano is perfect for those who wished they'd learnt to play the piano when they were younger, or those who wish they hadn't given up. At last a truly grown-up approach to learning the piano! Pam Wedgwood, author of many popular piano series, takes you through the rudiments of piano technique and music theory in her own friendly style that's guaranteed to get results. The book is organized into clearly structured progressive units with a fabulous array of music to get you playing straight away, including Pam's own jazzy pieces, plenty of well-known classics and a smattering of pop and show tunes. Help and information is included at every step with top playing tips, technical boxes, fact files, general advice noticeboards, crosswords, recommended listening and boxes of fascinating musical history. The accompanying CD is packed with over 90 backing tracks as well as interactive activities to help you practice optional extras such as a teacher's accompaniment parts can be found below! This is an extensively revised and updated new edition for a new generation of beginners - proving it really is never too late! The ground-breaking It's never too late... Series gives adults the opportunity to learn the piano with a method devised especially for them. This best-selling tutor breaks the learning into manageable chunks, features accompanying CDs, and is packed with irresistible music and fascinating information - all the motivation needed to make learning fun!

The harpsichord was the standard keyboard instrument for three centuries before the invention of the piano. It enjoyed a revival in the second half of the twentieth century, but because of the interruption in its history as a more regularly used instrument, many details about its construction are lacking. In The Harpsichord Stringing Handbook, Thomas Donahue integrates available historical evidence and modern physical principles-from both musicological and scientific literature-to provide practical quantitative information about the stringing of this instrument. The Harpsichord Stringing Handbook covers the composition and properties of iron and brass wire, the interrelationship of frequency to string length, safety factors involved with stringing, the scaling of string lengths, the calculation of diameters, and the determination of the transition from iron to brass in mixed-strung instruments. Supplemental topics include the elasticity and plasticity of wire, inharmonicity, tension and stress, and the interpolation of string lengths. Additional material includes data on selected historical harpsichords, absolute diameters of historical gauge numbering systems, a generated list of tensile strength values for historical wire, and sizes and tensile strengths of currently available wire. This book offers specific guidance for instrument makers, restorers, curators, technicians, musicians, kit builders, wire manufacturers, and acousticians, filling in critical details that historical treatises and surviving instruments may not clearly address.

Many of us baby boomers learned to play a musical instrument in our youth, and typically left that skill behind with our youth as well. Yet today studies have established that learning a musical instrument is one of the best ways to keep the aging brain agile and retentive. This finding is especially true for playing, or even trying to play, the piano. Learning the piano in later life is strictly a hobby and like any hobby, it should be fun. The author has discovered a secret about becoming a pianist in later life: you don't have to be very good at it to derive enjoyment from playing, for others to enjoy hearing you play, and to help keep your mind thinking young. Your ultimate goal is to become an independent pianist, not tethered to exercise books or grade level-type of instruction books. You play what you like and like what you play.

Each piece in the Solo Books coordinates page-by-page with the Lesson Books, reinforcing newly learned concepts presented at the lesson. Includes adorable full-color illustrations that enhance each piece.

This book contains nine pieces from ABRSM's Grade 4 Piano syllabus for 2021 & 2022, three pieces chosen from each of Lists A, B and C. The pieces have been carefully selected to offer an attractive and varied range of styles, creating a collection that provides an excellent source of repertoire to suit every performer. The book also contains helpful footnotes and, for those preparing for exams, useful syllabus information. The enclosed CD features inspiring recordings of all 30 pieces on the Grade 4 syllabus, performed by Yulia Chaplina, Mei Yi Foo, Nikki Iles, Dinara Klinton, Charles Owen, Robert Thompson and Richard Uttley.

This volume contains valuable practice material for candidates preparing for the ABRSM Grade 3 Piano exams. The book is written in attractive and approachable styles and representative of the technical level expected in the exam.

Jazz, Rags & Blues, Books 1 through 5 contain original solos for late elementary to early advanced-level pianists that reflect the various styles of the jazz idiom. An excellent way to introduce your students to this distinctive American contribution to 20th century music. Available separately (item #18115), the CD includes dynamic recordings of each song in Books 1-3 of this series.

In lucid and engaging style, Stinson explores Bach's 'Great Eighteen' Organ Chorales - among Bach's most celebrated works for organ - from a wide range of historical and analytical perspectives, including the models used by Bach in conceiving the individual pieces, his subsequent compilation of these works into a collection, and his compositional process as preserved by the autograph manuscript. Stinson also considers various issues of performance practice, and provides the first comprehensive examination of the music's reception, its dissemination in manuscript and printed form, and its influence on such composers as Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Brahms.

Clark provides an extensive survey of the keyboard culture of the young American nation. Written in straightforward, accessible style, the volume covers the period 1787-1830. Clark's unusual organization of the music by genre . . . reveals the wide expanse of the early musical output. . . . This volume belongs in every academic library and on the shelves of all pianists interested in US national musical heritage. Clark's `overriding wish is that some of this music will be played and heard again.' This reviewer heartily concurs and applauds this book as a solid cornerstone upon which his wish may be built. Choice ... a thoroughly excellent piece of scholarship. Professor Clark has a truly encyclopedic command of the literature, analytical expertise, and a clear and engrossing prose style. The book captures one's interest quickly and never becomes slow or pedantic. American Organist The Dawning of American Keyboard Music covers the subject very completely and it will be a standard reference tool for those who love early American music. American Music Teacher This work concerns the rapid growth of keyboard composition in the United States from its beginnings in the 1760s until 1830. Nearly all of the more artistic compositions are described, focusing on those available in moderns editions and reprints; for the rest, there are over 200 examples from music extant only in their original sheet-music copies. The first part of the book is organized by genre, with chapters on the sonata, the rondo, variations, the medley, and battle music. Later chapters are devoted to organ music and to a detailed account of English and American pianoforte tutors, including the varying realizations of ornament signs. The work's formal chapter treats the Bohemian immigrant Anthony Philip Heinrich (1781-1861), whose avant garde compositions are still incomprehensible to many people. The volume concludes with a bibliography of literature on the subject and music editions and with indexes of names, titles, and subjects. The specialized focus of this account supplements the more general histories of early American music. Citations are made to the standard bibliographies of early printed music; complete bibliographical descriptions, including library locations, are furnished for the rest. This volume will appeal to historians of American music and keyborad music and to keyboard performers.

Developed by the superstar pianist Lang Lang and channelling his passion for piano and music education, The Lang Lang Piano Method reflects the way he would like kids today to learn piano. This is a fun, modern and easy piano method ideal for complete beginners from age 5 upwards. The five progressive books in the series provide a unique and imaginative way for kids to learn the piano with a cartoon superhero Lang Lang. The Lang Lang Piano Method Level 1 introduces complete beginners to different five-finger positions, note reading and moving around the keyboard. Fun, imaginative pieces develop the left and right hands equally right from the start, and supporting audio features exclusive performances by Lang Lang of the concert pieces. Musicianship is developed through theory pages and listening to exclusive performances by Lang Lang of piano classics for children. "I've written The Lang Lang Piano Method to inspire today's kids with my passion for the piano." Lang Lang

Off the Record is a revealing exploration of piano performing practices of the high Romantic era. Author and well-known keyboard player Neal Peres Da Costa bases his investigation on a range of early sound recordings (acoustic, piano roll and electric) that capture a generation of highly-esteemed pianists trained as far back as the mid-nineteenth-century. Placing general practices of late nineteenth-century piano performance alongside evidence of the stylistic idiosyncrasies of legendary pianists such as Carl Reinecke (1824-1910), Theodor Leschetizky (1830-1915), Camille Saint-Saens (1838-1921) and Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), he examines prevalent techniques of the time--dislocation, unnotated arpeggiation, rhythmic alteration, tempo fluctuation--and unfolds the background and lineage of significant performer/pedagogues. Throughout, Peres Da Costa demonstrates that these early recordings do not simply capture the idiosyncrasies of aging musicians as has been commonly asserted, but in fact represent a range of established expressive practices of a lost age.
An extensive collection of these fascinating and sometimes rare professional recordings of the Romantic age masters are available on a companion web site, and in addition, Peres Da Costa, himself a renowned period keyboardist, illustrates points made throughout the book with his own playing. Of essential value to student and professional pianists, historical musicologists of 19th and early 20th century performance practice, and also to the general music aficionado audience, Off the Record is an indispensable resource for scholarly research, performance inspiration, and listening enjoyment."