Musical Design of the Week (35)

I was incredibly excited when I saw this!!!

New Yorkers conduct Orchestra on the street

New Yorkers got the chance to conduct an orchestra on a street corner, see what happens.

I think it's a great way to get people interested in classical music. Maybe we should do this more often!

Musical Design of the Week (34)

Imaginative Street Art

Musical Design of the Week (33)

Clever logo design

Musical Design of the Week (32)

Hmmm..... ok....

Musical Design of the Week (31)

Piano-hunting in China

Hello all! I just got back from a two week trip in China. I go there (specifically Guangzhou, or Canton) maybe once or twice a year, and as many of you pianists out there will understand (or other instrumentalists who can't travel with their own instruments due to impracticalities), practising in a foreign country can be a frustrating prospect, but something you need to sort out. There are the following options:

1. You go to a decent music store and hire a practise room. 

2. If you're staying there for a substantial period of time you can rent an instrument. 

3. You buy your instrument.

Now 'option 1' has always been my go-to... but it was pretty frustrating. Not all cities are 'well-equipped' with decent music stores, and even if those music stores are decent enough, it does not mean their practise rooms reflect their good reputation. Countries, like China, that experience hot tropical climates have terrible luck with tuning - pianos can go out of tune very easily, so even good quality pianos in music shops were painful to play on... and listen to! 

After many years of hiring a practise room in a store, I had had enough. Travelling to the music store took up a lot of time, and it wasn't guaranteed that I could go everyday. The visits to Guangzhou were starting to affect my progress over the holiday periods when I usually get most of my work done, so, before my visit this summer, I decided to buy a decent piano.

The thought of trekking around Guangzhou city in the exhausting sticky heat, visiting piano store after piano store felt very daunting. It was, in my opinion, the pianist's equivalent to speed-dating, except the match you're looking for is a piano, not a human-being, so at least the piano you want won't reject you. 

Surprisingly, it didn't take too long for me to find a very good upright piano for my home in China. After only one day, I had found two suitable pianos out of the 30 or so I had tried out. One Yamaha and one Kawai. A few things you should know is, apart from finding a piano you love, you should also consider the customer service of the piano store. I visited around 6 stores, and when I asked them about the aftercare they provided, such as guarantee etc., many of them gave me different prices for tuning, and a lot of their '2-year guarantees' had too many disclaimers, so watch out! I was lucky enough to find the perfect upright for me, that in my opinion belonged to one of the most professional stores in the city. They provided great aftercare, the tuning prices and their tuners were very satisfactory, and their guarantee covered literally everything.

Me with the Yamaha YA131CS I chose

Delivery speeds in China are scarily fast. The piano got delivered to my house the next morning! Also, it was only then that I discovered the Chinese have a solution for the high humidity levels that cause tuning problems for pianos - they install a pipe like device, that emits heat to combat the humidity levels. All you do is place it on the bottom half cover, and you plug it in! Here's a picture below of them installing it.

So that's my story. Of course, the tale of how I found my piano in London is an even better one... maybe I'll tell that another time. If any of you have stories about finding your piano, or have any questions, feel free to comment below!

Frank Ocean posts 4'33" on his Tumblr

Frank Ocean posted a video of 4'33" on his Tumblr page. I respect this man even more now. For someone famous in pop culture to refer to a more 'unfamiliar' genre like contemporary classical music, is a great thing. I hope his fans will ask questions, and be curious about this work, and the genre as a whole.

Awesome Ligeti Fanfares arrangement

Mmmmm I love Ligeti, but what I love more are interesting arrangements that completely change the way you hear the original work, or, make it better. Of course, I would never dare say this arrangement made it 'better', but it definitely changed my perspective of the work. This arrangement/performance is by someone who coincidentally went to the same school as me. I can't believe something as 'simple' as adding drums made such a difference... gently turning Ligeti from avant-garde to something resembling free jazz.

Anyway check this out. It'll blow your mind.

Piano: Erika Dohi
Drums: Austin Walker 

More about the 'Seaboard'

Following on from my post about the 'Seaboard' (--> see here), the company recently uploaded a video of someone playing Prokofiev (incidentally I know this someone...), to really show how it would sound.

Now, I'm still on the fence about this new piece of technology. I don't think we can really view it as a piano, or a more evolved version of a digital piano, because it's completely crossed the line of being just just that. In my opinion it's a completely new instrument. The sound is.... an acquired taste. I'm not a huge fan to be honest, but I think if you listen to it, not comparing it to the piano, it might be sound better.

As a composer, not just a pianist, I am open-minded about the sound, because I'm sure it will be very useful in the future for composers requiring the broad range and versatility of the piano, coupled with new technology.

Take a look: