The past year has seen many changes to the way we interact with our students, the most significant being the need to adapt to teaching online. Anyone who has tried teaching online with only their smartphone or tablet has learned very quickly that it’s absolutely necessary to supplement their teaching studio with the best...
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Best Cirque du Soleil Sheet Music for Piano
From 2002 to 2005, I spent three years in Las Vegas as the keyboardist and MIDI programmer for the Cirque du Soleil production “O” at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino. It had been a dream of mine for many year to perform with Cirque du Soleil, and I left a Broadway national tour to...
Continue readingBest Holiday Gifts for Musicians in 2020
With the holiday times upon us, many of us are searching for that perfect gift for the musicians and music teachers in our lives. Many of us have also grown tired of seeing the same cliche piano keyboard ties and musical coffee mugs. In this post, we’ll show some of the more unique gifts...
Continue readingHow Do I Learn Music Production?
So you’ve made the decision to purchase Apple’s Logic Pro, Avid’s Pro Tools, or Ableton Live. But now you need to learn how to use it. You might be asking yourself the question “now that I own a DAW, how do I learn music production?” In this post, we’ll explore a few options to...
Continue readingBest Ways to Learn Music Notation Software
Becoming proficient in using music notation software can sometimes be a daunting task. As a longtime Sibelius user, when I open up a file in Finale, I’m completely lost. Fortunately, there are many great resources available for learning how to us music notation software. In this post, we’ll explore some options for learning how...
Continue readingThe Best Places to Buy Sheet Music Online
In these days of social distancing, it can be difficult to find places to buy sheet music, and even many online dealers don’t keep large inventory in stock. In many cases, the best available options are either big box music stores or online dealers of digital scores which can be downloaded. In this post...
Continue readingTen Essential Recordings for Learning Jazz Piano
So you’ve decided that you want to start learning how to play jazz piano, but everyone says that you need to start listening in order to learn. The only issue is that perhaps you’re not sure where to turn. If you have no experience playing jazz, you might not know exactly where to look...
Continue readingAirturn Bluetooth Pedal Review
For those who have been using iPads and other tablets to display their music scores for practicing or live performance, the issue of how to turn pages has long been a consideration. While some prefer to turn pages manually by double tapping the page within the ForScore app, most choose to use a Bluetooth...
Continue readingHow to Start Learning Jazz Piano
As someone who has been playing jazz piano for many years, I admit that it’s hard to articulate how to start learning jazz piano. Hopefully this post will take some of the mystery out of the process. Listen, Listen More, and Then Listen Some More The key to how to start learning to play...
Continue readingHow to Send Computer Audio Over Skype or Zoom
In this post, we’ll explore some best practices for how to send computer audio over Skype or Zoom. We’ll explore alternatives for using the computer’s built-in microphone for picking up the acoustic piano, and we’ll look at how to route internal computer audio properly for better quality. To say that these past several months...
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