Getting Ready to Perform
September 14, 2016
Bill Hilton – Using your Piano’s Sustain Pedal
August 7, 2014
In this video tutorial I look at how to use your piano’s sustain pedal (sometimes, wrongly, called the “loud pedal”).
You can use the sustain pedal both to help smooth out your playing and for some interesting effects. However, it’s really important that you don’t over use the pedal, or you risk your piano playing sounding messy and even discordant. In general, it’s a good idea to release and re-push the sustain pedal between chord changes to prevent dissonances carrying over into the changed harmony.
You can also use pedal to sustain complex or “jumpy” melodies, but, again, it’s important to make sure you don’t overuse it.
Using the sustain pedal is one of the areas where it’s really important to listen to your piano playing while you practice – because playing the piano is relatively mechanical, it’s easy to “switch off” and not really play close attention to the sound you’re making.
The sustain pedal also highlights the differences between different types of piano, and between digital pianos and acoustic ones. Again, it’s all about listening to yourself and the instrument you’re playing and using the pedal accordingly.
Master Class – Phil Woods – Performance
January 23, 2014
ArtistsHouseMusic·2,356 videos
In this clip from http://www.artistshousemusic.org – Phil Woods is an American jazz alto saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer. He has performed with greats like Dizzie Gillespie, Quincy Jones, Buddy Rich, and Thelonius Monk, and has won several Grammys as well as dozens of Down Beat Readers’ and Critics’ Polls.
Philadelphia Orchestra – Musicians perform on flight
September 26, 2013
When a group from The Philadelphia Orchestra found itself delayed on the tarmac for three hours waiting for their flight from Beijing to Macao as part of the 2013 Residency & Fortieth Anniversary Tour of China, a quartet of musicians decided to provide a “pop up” performance for the passengers.
Juliette Kang, violin
Daniel Han, violin
Che-Hung Chen, viola
Yumi Kendall, cello
