La Mia Casa Music Studio

It's not easy. He's got the resolute belief that he can do it despite all odds.

Music playing/performances allow you to showcase through beautiful sounds that you are a victor in your personal circumstances.

Let's play music, come what may.

"The human spirit is unstoppable" ❤ The Piano — Stream now on ABC iview or Sundays at 7.30pm on ABC TV: https://ab.co/ThePiano

The 3rd Students' Recital - Sunshine, Music and Rain Concert III, was a success!

Thank you for all who were involved. See you next year, for the fourth one!

A sneak peak into what a music student's life is like

i BARELY survived this day at Juilliard 🎵... #shorts

Selamat Hari Raya to our Muslim students and their families!

Has the piano always been popular?

The pianoforte was born in the 1690s.

Bartolomeo Cristofori built it in Italy, probably thinking:

“This is it. This will change music forever”.

It didn’t.

Harpsichords still ruled: loud, bright, and fashionable.
Clavichords had their place too: quiet, expressive but a bit fragile.

And the pianoforte?

It was complicated, expensive and not quite strong enough yet.

The sound was interesting: soft when you wanted, loud when needed.
But it lacked the power to impress a big audience.

So, for a while, it just… existed.
A good idea waiting for its moment.

Then composers got curious.
First a handful: Scarlatti, Clementi.

But then came Mozart.

He saw the potential. Started writing for it. Playing it.
His music still had that harpsichord feel, but the piano was getting noticed.

Haydn joined in.

And then Beethoven arrived.

He didn’t just play the piano.. he attacked it. Pushed it harder than anyone before.
Too hard, actually.

Early pianos weren’t built for that level of intensity. He kept breaking them.

Piano makers had to step up: stronger frames, better strings, more keys, more sound.

By the early 1800s, the pianoforte had fully evolved. Bigger, bolder, more powerful.

And suddenly, it was everywhere.
The instrument of the century. No more background music. This was serious.

Chopin emphasised its subtleties. Liszt pushed its technical boundaries. Schumann explored its emotional depth.

Every middleclass family wanted one in their home.
If you were an upperclass young woman, you HAD to learn it. Not for fun, but to prove you were "accomplished."

The harpsichord? It went from essential to antique in a matter of decades.

Then the world changed and the piano changed with it. Ragtime. Jazz. Blues. Swing. It adapted to everything.

Classical composers still loved it: Debussy, Rachmaninov, Gershwin..
but now there were also bar pianists, jazz legends, and rock ‘n’ roll rebels playing it.

It became electric. It became digital. Synthesisers were invented but the piano stayed the piano.
Concert halls, jazz clubs, pop studios, people’s living rooms.. it never left.

Not bad for an invention that spent its first few decades getting ignored.

What about Bach?

Ah, Bach. The man was NOT a piano enthusiast.

By the time Cristofori invented the pianoforte, Bach was already a big deal.

He wrote for the harpsichord, the clavichord, and the organ.. basically anything with keys except the pianoforte.

Why?

Early pianos weren’t up to his standards.

He tried one around 1730, a German made version by Gottfried Silbermann.
He wasn’t impressed.
Thought the high notes were weak, the action too heavy.
In short: “Not for me, thanks”.

Silbermann, probably frustrated, went back to work. Years later, he improved the design.

Bach gave it another chance. This time, he approved. He even helped promote it.

But did he write specifically for the piano?
Not really.

His keyboard music was mostly for harpsichord and clavichord, though people today play it on the piano all the time.

So, while Bach technically lived during the piano’s early years, he wasn’t part of its rise to fame.

That was left to Mozart, Beethoven, and the composers who followed.

Still, if you play “The Well-Tempered Clavier”, you can’t help but wonder..
maybe, just maybe, Bach would have loved the modern instrument.



📸Yamaha from Markson Pianos