Nuneaton Music Lessons - John Stephenson

Version 3 of Nuneaton Music Lesson's website went live today. Version 1 was live from 2006 and Version 2 from 2011.

nuneatonmusiclessons.co.uk

How exciting!

Bryce & Mickle play Star Wars for John Williams! | 7/11/2016 With the high part played by 13 yr. old trumpeter, Bryce Hayashi, and the lower flugelhorn part played by Michael Miller ("Mickle"), the master himself, John...

Some recent Theory Examination Results: Grade 5 – Narjit Gill (88%) and Grade 1 – James Ford (99%) and Nikita Harlamovs (94%). Good marks!

Congratulations to Dasol Kim who gained 142 out of 150 marks in her recent Grade 1 Piano Examination. Well done!

A new Page was created on the website today, featuring arrangements of popular pieces for Keyboard Players. There is an information section at the bottom of each page to help the performer learn quickly and a glossary and “How to” videos will be put on soon. Four pieces were added today, with dozens more expected to complement them by the summer.

Keyboard Arrangements - Nuneaton Music Lessons Piano lessons in Nuneaton.

Happy Thursday Music – not Friday this week! Today we’re looking at my favourite Christmas No.1. It occurred twice – in 1975 and 1991 – “Bohemian Rhapsody.” From Queen’s 1975 “A Night at the Opera” album, there have been many covers made of it. This perhaps shows the brilliance of its concept and ex*****on. It is the third most bought single of all time in the UK (after Elton John and Band Aid).

This FB page was set up on 24th May 2013. There has been a Happy Friday Music video every week since, with often there being more than one video in each posting. Probably that equates to around 170 videos that have been brought to your attention, discussed or briefly commented on. Quite a few other Postings that didn’t include videos on a Friday have been made too.

Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody (Official Video) This weekend marks the 40th Anniversary of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. With over 6.5 million copies sold worldwide to date, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is one of the world’...

Happy Friday Music! Today we are concentrating on No.1s from the 2010s and land at 2011: “Wherever you are” by The Military Wives with Gareth Malone. Beginning in 2010, there are now 67 choirs in the network. Though Gareth (British, of Irish descent, 1975- ) helped to give major public coverage and support, it was the wives of two Scots Guards who actually instigated the Choir idea in Yorkshire.

Gareth began his television work in 2007. He has brought together a large number of people to form quite a few different types of choir, working in an assortment of genres too. His latest venture (September to October this year) was to encourage choirs that are proficient in a ca****la.

“Wherever you are” was written by Paul Mealor. It sold more than 556,000 copies during Christmas week – more than the rest of the Top12 combined!

Wherever You Are (Military Wives with Gareth Malone) Official Video Order Stronger Together, the new album from the Military Wives out November 5th 2012: Amazon: http://bit.ly/STogether HMV: http://bit.ly/STogetherHMV Play: h...

Happy Friday Music! The ’90s was the decade when the Spice Girls dominated the Christmas No.1 slot, with ’96, ’97 and ’98 having their seasonal offering. Now we’ve reached the ’00s, the UK Chart at Christmas is dominated by The X Factor, with the winners reaching the top in ’05, ’06, ’07 and ’08. Joe McElderry (the ’09 winner) was No.2 that year at Christmas, but got to No.1 a week later.

In 2004 it had been twenty years since the original Band Aid song “Do they know it’s Christmas?” Band Aid 20 got to No.1 with a new rendition of the same song. Paul McCartney (English, 1942- ) and Paul Hewson (Irish, 1960- ) were the only two singers to have been on both the original and 20 versions. The song was recorded in London, though Dido and Robbie Williams had to record their bits in Melbourne and Los Angeles. There was also a Band Aid II in 1989 and Band Aid 30 in 2014.

Do They Know It's Christmas? | MTV UK

Happy Friday Music! Two years ago we looked at “Christmas No.2s” in the month of December. In 2014 we explored my favourite “Christmas No.1s” from the 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s. (You can still scroll back down this page to see which songs I picked!) This year we shall continue through time to our present decade.

The 1990s had some excellent artists writing and performing, with a few getting to No.1. We’re looking at 1992 today. “The Bodyguard” was a big box office success for Whitney Houston (American, 1963-2012) and Kevin Costner (American, 1955- ). For December, January and some of February “I will always love you” was No.1 – this ten week stretch is the longest run at No.1 in the UK by a solo female artist.

“I have nothing” was another popular song from the film too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxYw0XPEoKE


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDqqm_gTPjc

The song was written by Dolly Parton (American, 1946- ) in 1973. The above link shows her singing it in 1974. There is less obvious drama than the Whitney cover, but perhaps the meaning of the words is greater?

Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You Whitney Houston's official music video for 'I Will Always Love You'. Click to listen to Whitney Houston on Spotify: http://smarturl.it/WhitneyHSpotify?IQid=W...

Happy Friday Music! Today sees the last time for our brief look at Piano Sonatas and we turn our attention to a lesser-known Russian composer: Nikolai Karlovich Medtner (1879-1951). He was a friend of Rachmaninoff and wrote fourteen Sonatas for the Piano. In the 1940s he lived for quite a while in Birmingham with the wonderful pianist Edna Iles (1905-2003, she played in many concert halls around the world). The video showcases his 12th Sonata, which has four Movements. It is entitled “Romantica” and was completed near the end of 1930.

Boris Berezovsky (Russian, 1969- ) has made many many recordings of solo piano music and a few concerti.

Boris Berezovsky plays Medtner - Piano Sonata No.12 "Romantica" (live, 2012) Nikolai Medtner (1880-1951) - Piano Sonata No.12 in B-flat minor "Romantica", op.53 No.1 Boris Berezovsky, piano Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory, 29 Novemb...

Happy Friday Music! Frédéric Chopin (Polish, 1810-1849) only wrote three Piano Sonatas, spending a great deal of time writing miniatures such as Waltzes, Nocturnes, Mazurkas, Polonaises and Preludes. The Second Sonata in B flat Minor, Op. 35, was written mostly in 1839 and it has four movements. The very famous third movement, “The Funeral March”, was composed in 1837. You may remember that a few weeks ago we heard Beethoven’s Piano Sonata in Ab Major, which also had four movements with a Funeral March as one of those movements. In fact, this 12th Sonata was the only one of Beethoven’s Sonatas that Chopin played in public.

In the main video we can watch Yuja Wang (Chinese, 1987- ) play the whole Sonata. She is a fairly young pianist but has great technique and ability. She has played in many concert halls around the world, with and without an orchestra. Her website has a lot of information about her.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYG-Q-TlC8E

For comparison, here we have Vladimir Horowitz (Russian-American, 1903-1989) playing the same Sonata in The White House. Jimmy Carter can be seen several times, so it must been recorded 1976-1980. He was one of the greatest pianists ever.

The differences in interpretation between the two performers aren’t so great, but it is good to listen to and study great pianists from different eras and nationalities so as to help your own musical progress and thoughts.

Yuja Wang: Frédéric Chopin - Piano Sonata No. 2 in B minor, Op. 35 (Verbier Festival 2009) Verbier Festival, 1. August 2009 Yuja Wang - piano Frédéric Chopin - Piano Sonata No. 2 in B minor, Op. 35 0:00 I. Grave – Doppio movimento 8:07 II. Scherzo ...

Happy Friday Music! Franz Joseph Haydn (Austrian, 1732-1809) came from a fairly musical family. He knew Mozart and taught Beethoven. He was a great composer of string quartets and symphonies, though did write in other forms such as oratorios and masses etc. He also wrote 51 piano sonatas, most of which were written early in his career. When Anthony van Hoboken catalogued over 750 of Haydn’s works, he arranged them in categories, rather than chronologically as many composers’ opuses are. The Piano Sonatas are in Category XVI.

The A flat Major Sonata (XVI.46) was written 1767-70. It takes the normal Classical idea of three movements (fast-slow-fast), with the middle movement being in D flat Major.

Ivo Pogorelich (Croatian, 1958- ) probably made this recording in the 1980s. He is sometimes controversial in the way he interprets pieces.

Ivo Pogorelich - Haydn - Piano Sonata No 31 in A-flat major, Hob XVI-46 Franz Joseph Haydn Piano Sonata No 31 in A-flat major, Hob XVI-46 1 Allegro moderato 2 Adagio 3 Finale. Presto Ivo Pogorelich, piano