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We Have a Family of Yamaha Pianos this month

September 3, 2018 By Julian Leave a Comment

Hello everyone,

This post  is featuring our Yamaha pianos from smallest to the largest. These are all stunning instruments which will make a superb addition to your home. Two are quite compact, two are U1 pianos and the largest we have in stock is the U2 which also benefits from having the excellent Bolan silent system fitted.

The first to show you is only 104cm tall and was built in 1979. It might be a small piano, but it feels every bit a Yamaha, the superb action makes it feel great to play and it has a lovely sweet tone. We offer all our pianos a warranty and this one is no exception coming with a 5 year warranty. This piano will be a wonderful addition to a family home and everyone can enjoy playing this brilliant instrument.

The next piano to show you is a little taller, 108cm and a fair bit newer, it was built in 2009. This piano was in a family home but hasn’t been used a great deal and happily feels like a new piano to play. It of course has that lovely action however, this one has a more mellow sound and is gentler in character. This could well be your perfect piano, a very helpful piano for beginners and capable of supporting those through their grade 8.

Now we move up a gear. There’s an MC10 built 1989 and a U1 built in 1982. They are taller, standing at 121cm tall and are much more mature instruments. In many ways for most people, they are all the piano that one needs, they are that good. These two are very similar, the main differences being cosmetic, the MC10 loses a few luxuries of the long central hinge from the top lid, loses the lock and the cheeks on the case is a little thinner. They both have larger soundboards and longer strings greatly benefiting the quality and variety of sounds these beautiful pianos can produce.

And finally my favourite. It’s the U2 which is a rare site in the UK and a really lovely piano. This particular piano is even more rare as it has been fitted with the fantastic Bolan silent system. It is a superb tool allowing you to play through the headphones and no one else will what you are playing. It is even possible to play with different sounds and to have a metronome ticking to keep everything in time. It is a wonderful instrument to play, I have really enjoyed doing my practice on this piano, beautiful sound and feels superb to play.

If any of these instruments are of interest to you, feel free to get in touch.

Thank you for reading.

Filed Under: Blog, Featured, More Refurbished Pianos, Silent, Used, Yamaha

Pianolobby goes to Frankfurt

April 16, 2018 By Julian Leave a Comment

Hello Everyone,

The purpose of this post is just to tell you about a fun few days in Frankfurt at the Musik Messe. It is a show for the music industry to show all its products. There was musical instruments of every kind imaginable, sheet music, recording equipment, teaching materials, the list is seemingly endless. There were performances, shows, lectures, it is a place where people get together to make new contacts and see what new trends are out there.

I have to say that is was a great experience and learned a great deal and have ideas to help improve what Pianolobby can do to help you with your musical life as well.

The focus for me was things piano related. We came across the genio silent system. It is something that can be retro fitted to pianos turning it into a digital piano as well as still using the piano as a normal acoustic instrument. There were 2 models which seem most appropriate and they will start to appear on some of our instruments. As you can see from the image it is a very discrete piece of kit and surprisingly inexpensive too!

This silent system is attached to a brand of piano we hadn’t come across before. We spent a long time with these instruments and came away very impressed at their performance. They are superb student pianos but also very capable to be playing sophisticated music.

 

 

 

We found pianos with unusual finishes. Some had a rougher finishes, some where you could feel the grain of the wood. There painted pianos as well. We found a purple Yamaha U1 and we are looking into stocking pianos that have different finishes. Perhaps not purple, but why not?

 

 

We attended lectures, encountered slightly dubious brand designs, and saw weird and wonderful instruments                                                                    as well as really beautiful pianos! 

Filed Under: Blog, More New Pianos, More Refurbished Pianos, Silent, Tips, Used

Memorizing Music. Tips on reliable recall.

January 1, 2018 By Julian Leave a Comment

Hello everyone,

Happy New Year. I hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas.

In my role as pianist, the playing work I have enjoyed the most is as chamber musician collaborating with other musicians and singers. As a student at music college I did learn much of the core solo piano repertoire, but I have to say that it wasn’t for me the most enjoyable part of music making. Don’t get me wrong, the piano repertoire is the most amazing body of works and learning Bach Partitas, Beethoven sonatas, Brahms Intermezzi Chopin Nocturnes etc is a real privilege. The challenges of working with others for me was and remains more exciting.

Having said that I have given piano recitals which have been wonderful challenges. What has sparked this blog? I have been asked to give a piano recital in late 2018 and already I am thinking of my programme and also thinking of strategies regarding memorizing my pieces.

This aspect of piano playing is I have to confess is my weak point. It does seem to be when it comes to discussions about memorization and whether musicians ought to perform from memory or not, pianists are often at the centre of the debate. I’m not sure whether it is more difficult for pianists or not, but it is something I do find a little challenging. Is it down to quality of practice, regularity of learning and performing pieces from memory or are there other factors at play? It seems that there are factors affecting performances that may work against pianists.

Most discussion on memorization focuses more on exploring various methods of how to memorize rather than on the retrieval process. What affects recall?

From what I have been reading recently, we have better recall of information if we are tested on that material in the same environment where it was learned. It seems as though recalling information is more difficult in a different environment, but it is unclear what elements of the environment matter.

One problem facing pianists is that they always end up performing on instruments that are not their own beloved and very familiar pianos. Of course pianos all have 88 keys and set in the same pattern, however the touch and sound can be really very different. Studies have shown that practicing on one piano, and performing on a different piano does increase the likelihood of memory slips, even in the same environment.

To get around this could be to perhaps practice in as many places as possible and especially for pianists, run through the programme on other pianos and to different groups of friends and family.

So far I have focused on recall but how to get all those thousands of notes in the memory in the first place? Well, here’s a list which I hope will be of some help.

  1. Quite simply, practice the music so that the piece is thoroughly known. It’s only possible to memorize what has been learnt.
  2. Knowing the phrasing will give you a better understanding of the music which will then be easier to divide up for memorizing.
  3. Keep the length of each portion being worked on at a manageable length, depending on how well your memory works.
  4. Pick out a phrase, play several times and then try to play eyes closed. This is a fun challenge and helps to really focus on physical as well as aural memory.
  5. Then look at the music to find what went wrong, then try again eyes closed. Keep repeating until reliability has been achieved.
  6. Once memorized do continue to look at the music from time to time, it will help avoid mistakes creeping in.
  7. Move on to another chunk and repeat the process. Do also recap on the previous chunk and then link them together and play several times in a row.
  8. It may also help to start with the last phrase at the end of a piece and work back towards the beginning phrase by phrase.
  9. Sing the music you’re trying to memorize.
  10. Think through the music you’re playing away from the piano.

There many more dozens of tips and practice techniques I could suggest for memorizing music  but I hope that this little list is of help and interest to you to get started. Now off to the piano and get learning!

Best wishes and happy playing.

Filed Under: Blog, Tips

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