Piano is the key to chilling out
Joe tries out his new piano in Melbourne.
Which you may find strange considering Joe plays and studies the violin. Last week was Adobe week where I was introduced to actually using Garage Band as part of great add-on Apple learning day – a truly amazing piece of software which I have only every appreciated from a distance. Jim Hayden took us through a mini-masterclass that removed my reluctance to engage with the software. He spoke about the famous “play any song with 4 chords” – which not being a musician was a revelation. We then proceeded to use the smart chords feature of garage band to create our own little song with two instruments. I saved it and emailed to Helen I was so impressed with myself and I now am convinced that with a simple lesson plan you could have anyone create a nice sounding piece of music on Garage Band.
I include a link to the manuals for Garage Band plus some lessons –
What we got for Joe is the Casio Celviano AP 250 digital piano.
Joe finished rowing and met me at Frankston where we picked up the piano and then managed to squeeze the boxes into the car before having lunch and returning home to construct it. The sound it makes is wonderful (except when I play it).
As Joe can play the violin, making the transition to piano is not too hard although Joe says learning the chords for the left hand is a little challenging.
His cousin, Stefan who is studying music (piano) at Melbourne University’s Music Conservatory is in another league. I had a chance last week to listen to him practise on one of the grand pianos located in the basement of this famous building.
Here is a quick Spark Video slideshow I put together about the event.
