Tag Archives: piano solo

scott joplin piano solo elite syncopations live great performance

Scott Joplin Piano Solo – Elite Syncopations Live – Great Performance

post, , , , , , , , , , ,

Hans Joerg Fink performs Scott Joplin’s “Elite Syncopations”. Fink is a marvelous performer, giving this Joplin piece a very lively and precise treatment. It’s a very amusing video, as his son enthusiastically runs and dances around the room, while his dad plays the keyboard without distraction.

Scott Joplin (1867/1868? – 1917) was an African-American composer and pianist. Joplin garnered fame for his many ragtime compositions, being known as “The King of Ragtime”. His career was brief, composing 44 original ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas. He is best known for his the “Maple Leaf Rag” which served as a model for other composers composing classic rags.

Joplin was a serious and ambitious student and took piano lessons after school. He had several teachers, receiving most of his music education from Julius Weiss, a German-Jewish music professor who immigrated to the United States from Germany. Weiss was greatly impressed with Joplin’s musical prowess and after noting his families financial distress, decided to teach him without charge, also helping his mother acquire a used piano. Joplin took lessons from Weiss from ages 11 to 16.

Weiss also taught Joplin to appreciate music not just as art, but as entertainment. This was instrumental in Joplin developing an excellent grasp of how to compose music that was commercially viable. Joplin never forgot Weiss’s tremendous contribution and years later, after achieving considerable fame as a composer, he sent his former teacher money to help him in his elder years.

Video Valentina Lisitsa Piano Solo Rachmaninoff Live Concert

post, , , , , , , ,

Here is a splendid video of Valentina Lisitsa playing the Rachmaninoff Prelude in G minor Opus 23 No. 5. in Seoul, South Korea.

Valentina Lisitsa was born in Kiev, Ukraine in 1973. She began piano lessons at the early age of three. At the age of four, she performed her first piano recital. Some of her favorite composers include Rachmaninoff, Liszt, Chopin, and Beethoven. Her technical mastery of the keyboard is evident in this recording. In the very competitive world of classical piano performance, Valentina Lisitsa has used social media to her great advantage. She is one of the most viewed pianists on YouTube. Lisitsa has performed throughout the world, including concerts at Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall, and Avery Fisher Hall. She has recorded six CDs. In 1991, she moved to the United States to persue her career, and currently resides in North Carolina.

more about Valentina Lisitsa

Video – Ben Folds Plays Piano Rock Solo Live Concert

post, , , , , , , , ,

This video shows Ben Folds playing a flashy piano solo improvisation during one of his live concerts.

Benjamin Scott “Ben” Folds is a popular American piano and keyboard player, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He was the band leader of the alternative rock group Ben Folds Five from 1995-2000. Since then, he has pursued a solo artist career. He has toured worldwide and appeared onstage with William Shatner, Regina Spektor and “Weird Al” Yankovic. He has worked on several film projects including “Over the Hedge” and “Hoodwinked!”

As a child, Ben Folds began playing piano at the age of 9. He took piano lessons for several years. He learned to play by ear and began writing his own songs. Folds attended the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami on a percussion scholarship. During his studies, he spent much time working on piano technique. “I spent maybe six months just running scales with a metronome like a freak,” Folds said. He dropped out with one credit to go before graduating.

Some of Ben Folds recordings:
Ben Folds Five (1995)
Whatever and Ever Amen (1997)
Naked Baby Photos (1998)
Fear of Pop: Volume 1 (1998)
The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner (1999)
Rockin’ the Suburbs (2001)
Ben Folds Live (2002)
Songs for Silverman (2005)
Supersunnyspeedgraphic, the LP (2006)
Way to Normal (2008)
Lonely Avenue (2010)
The Best Imitation of Myself: A Retrospective (2011)
Fifty-Five Vault (2011)

more about Ben Folds

Video – Keith Jarrett Piano Solo – Danny Boy – Tokyo 2002

post, , , , , , , , ,

Here is a video of Keith Jarrett playing a piano solo of Danny Boy, originally known as Londonderry Air. This performance is from a live concert in Tokyo, Japan in 2002. Londonderry Air is an old English song that has been modernized in recent decades. It is a simple song, but Jarrett creates a deeper and more emotional performance by using many chord substitutions.

Keith Jarrett is known for his mastery of the piano keyboard. His expressive and beautiful piano playing is also deepened by his remarkable improvisations skills and superb melodic and chord variations. Keith Jarrett began playing piano before he was three years old. By the age of five, he was already taking piano lessons. Jarrett is known for his classical recordings and many jazz and blues performances as both solo and trio player. Jarrett’s remarkable music talent is unmatched today by any other pianist in the jazz and blues idiom.

more on Keith Jarrett

piano solo sweet georgia brown oscar peterson piano lessons portland

Video – Amazing Piano Solo Sweet Georgia Brown in Oscar Peterson Style

post, , , , , , , , ,

Here is an amazing piano solo of “Sweet Georgia Brown” played by Gyuri Villas. This piano style is very much like Oscar Peterson, and includes some nice Art Tatum elements.

This is a high level example of piano mastery by a very good player. Learning to play Jazz can be challenging. At my piano studio, here in Portland, students taking piano lessons or keyboard lessons who are interested in learning improvisation can get a good start by learning Blues Improvisation. Blues is a much simpler and easier style to learn than Jazz and includes many of the same basic concepts of jazz. I’ve taught Blues Piano to many students who are just starting out. It’s great fun, very exciting, and fairly easy to learn.