Piano Fun & More!

Piano Fun & More!

Below are some hilarious and light-hearted videos that are sure to make you smile. Click on the links and watch the fun times around the piano!

The Virtual Piano! This site is exactly what it sounds like: a piano keyboard that allows you to use your mouse to hit individual notes, or learn the proper chord formations in all 12 keys. For those of us who have left our piano-lesson days behind by a few decades, it is a useful tool for a refresher course. For those who never had a chance to learn, now’s your chance!

Nora the Cat – This is not a trick taught to Nora. She began sitting at the piano at about one-year-old. She’s almost four now. She plays only when the mood strikes her.

Piano Stairs – Here’s a video illustrating that the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better is by making it fun to do. It’s called the fun theory. If the piano can do this for people taking the stairs, imagine what it can do for you!

Charming Older Couple Duet at the Mayo Clinic – Fran & Marlo Cowan (married 62 years) playing an impromptu recital together in the atrium of the Mayo Clinic. He turned 90 in February. The song is Old Grey Bonnet

Fozzie and Rowlf play piano – Rowlf and Fozzie play a piano together on the Muppet Show.

Rowlf – Rowlf plays a minuet by Beethoven on the Muppet Show.

Foot Piano – Big piano performance at FAO Schwartz in New York City.

Rachmaninov had big hands – a very “unique” performance of the Rachmaninov’s famous Prelude in C# minor.

People and Pianos

Emily Bear, the next Mozart? – 6-year old Emily Bear has wowed audiences from the White House to her own house. Playing the piano since age 3, Emily also composes her own music. Has WGN-TV discovered the next Mozart?

What Music Means to Me - celebrates the value of music in education and in the quality of life. Inspiring and moving stories from people for whom music has profoundly changed their lives.

Mike Huckabee on Art & Music Education: “The dumbest mistake we’ve made in this country in the last generation is cutting music & arts programs from our education system . . . ” Mr. Huckabee describes music and arts education as essential to preparing creative and competitive students.

Why Music Matters – Jack Stamp, professor of music at Indiana University, articulates exactly why music education is so important and why it belongs in our schools. This message is important for all musicians – accomplished or aspiring!

Lewis Warren, 12 year old piano sensation, brings music to homeless people in Dallas, Texas.

Marian McParland’s Piano Jazz Set I: 30 years ago, English jazz pianist, Marian McPartland set foot in Manhattan’s Baldwin Piano Showroom to record her first Piano Jazz program. Read about that historic time and hear a concert in celebration of NPR Piano Jazz programming.

Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz Set II: Piano Jazz 30th-anniversary celebration at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola at Jazz at Lincoln Center, held April 14, 2009. Charles Osgood, host.

Say What? Musicians Hear Better? – Musical training can improve your hearing, according to several studies presented in Chicago at Neuroscience 2009, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. Read more . . .

World renowned pianist stirs emotions behind bars - Pianist who has played concert halls the world over takes time out to perform at the Jessup women’s prison.