Remember Praan?

I've already commented how much I like the Garry Schyman piece Praan, composed for the Where The Hell Is Matt? 2008 dancing video.

Now I find out there's free piano sheet music for this inspirational piece of music. Wow.

I have time to devote to my piano hobby, right? Right?

Digital Piano

I bought my digital piano last night. It's in my bedroom now as I speak.

I'm fairly happy with it, although I've noticed that I need to hit the higher keys harder to hear them over the bass notes. On a real piano, you don't have to press them as hard because the natural frequency of the notes will allow them to be heard over the lower-frequency bass notes. (The same reason you don't need as many sopranos as you do altos/baritones/basses) So there's something Yamaha can improve on (unless they already have that feature in an upgraded -i.e. more expensive- line of keyboards). The other glaring "feature" is in the sustain pedal - you have to press the sustain pedal for however long you want the sustain to last. On a real piano, the sustain will continue for a short time after you release the pedal; it sounds "soft". The keyboard sounds "hard".

However, it does appear to be a suitable substitute for my upright until I can get a real place of my own (condo, or dare I hope, house?) so I can move my piano here. I was told by the sales guy that you don't get bigger bang for your buck than the Yamaha YPG-625.

I also noticed that I really suck at piano now. This is what I get for not having something to practice on consistently for over 5 years. I feel really hurt that I didn't pay more attention during my piano lessons back in the day. (I started piano when I was 4, and stopped "real" private lessons when I was 9 and moved to Utah.) That was a bit of shooting-myself-in-the-foot. I'm not sure if I had the potential to be great at piano, and while I can read sheet music, I'm not fluent at it. That would be a sexy skill to have.

I remember this girl who was in my choir class in high school. She was our accompanist, my age, and she could read sheets like there was nothing to it. I hope she went on to study music in college.

I do have a lot of sheet music (and just purchased a lot of new sheet music), so I won't be starved for something intellectually and creatively stimulating. I ended up having to buy books for the Rachmaninoff, Chopin, and Mozart pieces I want to learn, so I guess that gives me an additional reason to learn the other pieces. I ended up buying more pop pieces than I intended, but James Blunt's "You're Beautiful" and "Goodbye My Lover" sound incredible as piano pieces, even if you don't like the guy.

With this digital piano, I can start recording some of my playing (when I get back into practice and feel comfortable recording!). I've thought about posting some of that out on YouTube. My digital camera can record video, so I thought that cutting my own videos, and adding music (or even mixing covers of my favorite pop pieces) would be something creative and fun to do.

The Day Has Come When I Drool Over A Digital Piano

My current "thing I just gotta have right this second" is this Yamaha YPG-625 Digital Grand Piano. I'm saving up for it.

I saw the keyboard when I was browsing my local Guitar Center, and really enjoyed playing what little snippets of pieces I remember on it. The keys feel "right" to me, which is, to me, the must-have feature on a digital piano.

I remember when digital pianos started to become the big fad around 6 or 7 years ago (maybe even before that), and these sales people would expect you to justify paying between $2,000 and $5,000 for a digital piano. To me, there is nothing that can replicate the experience of playing a real, wood & steel piano wire piano. I would get so disgusted with those salespeople because they didn't understand that; they would try to sell you the idea that a digital piano was better than a "real" piano because you wouldn't have to ever tune it, and that people couldn't tell by sound which was a real piano and which was a digital.

Right now it's not logically feasible for me to move my Samick upright from my parents' home to my apartment. That's part of the reason I want to buy this Yamaha. I've been out of practice so long and some days when I get home from work I just want to sit down and play something.

Here is a list of what I eventually want to be able to play (some of the music I can play with the sheet music, other pieces are new to me):

• Mozart's Sonata No. 11 in A Major (KV 331) - I'd like to eventually play all three parts.
• Mozart's Turkish March
• Rachmaninoff's Prelude Op. 23 No. 5 - my old piano instructor had me learn the first part of this, under the title "The District Attorney"
• Chopin's Nocturne in C Sharp Minor (posthumous) - if I could get this to sound like pearls I can give up piano playing
• Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata; I know how to play the first part, with the sheet music. I want to get better.
• Beethoven's Fur Elise - I can play the first part of this from memory
• Beethoven's Rage Over A Lost Penny
• Several of Bach's Minuets
• Shubert's Military March

And some pop pieces:

• In Dreams (From Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation Theme (you won't believe how long it took me to find the sheet music for this)

I used to like playing more pop, and less classical, but I must be getting older. Or have a greater appreciation for truer gems.