PIANO ROCKS THE HOUSE ON TV AND ‘NET YET AGAIN

Posted on Jul 8, 2011 in News & Events, Piano Blog | 0 comments

We really don’t know what we’re going to do now that “The Voice” has finished for the season until starting back up again with its second season in winter. Piano was front and center yet again during the awesome finale show where the duets between the four finalists and their coaches actually stole the show.

But, wait! Never fear…Just when we thought the 15 minutes of fame for the piano in arts-related reality show-land were coming to end, the piano showed up more creatively than ever on “So You Think You Can Dance” on last week’s show.

Let’s start with last week’s “The Voice” finale. Always one to make a statement, Beverly McClellan chose to feature the piano during her original song performance because as she said, it was the first instrument she learned to play so it has a special place for her.We actually thought the original song written for her, “Love Sick”, was not one of the strongest in the bunch, but she did with it what she could, using the beautiful glossy black Roland baby grand as more of a memorable prop than as a musical instrument. She sat down very briefly and played one little phrase, but with characteristic Beverly aplomb, after standing in front of the piano for quite a while she eventually got up on top of it lying down full length. Her mentor, Christina Aguilera, loved it, especially noting the original twist her use of the piano gave to her performance. You can catch Beverly’s performance here, or on YouTube.

Finalist front-runner Dia Frampton also returned back to the Roland baby grand this week to accompany her original song, “Inventing Shadows”. In a much more fashion-forward full-length red dress, Dia also made due with a song that didn’t seem to showcase her talent to the extent of the other songs she’s chosen for herself. But it was another great advertisement for piano, especially with many multi-angle camera zooms swooping around the Roland name on the piano repeatedly. You can also see Dia’s performance here,  or on YouTube.

Another world away on “So You Think You Can Dance”, the piano surprised us by showing up in yellow upright form as the major centerpiece for a contemporary dance choreographed by Dee Casbary for popular duo, Sa

sha Mallory and Alexander Fost.Dancing with props is always hard, but it was incredible to see how extensively the piano was incorporated into the routine, and not just for a moment or in one-dimensional ways. The dancers danced on the piano bench, on the keys, across the top and – yes

– even climbed inside it! The performance was a little literal in its approach, not leaving much to the audience’s imagination; choreographer, Dee Casbary, explained that the keys of the piano were meant to represent the keys to Alexander’s character’s heart. But it was cool to see what the piano cou

ld do as the “third dancer” in the piece. You can see Sasha and Alexander’s

performance online.  Choose the episode that aired on June 29.

The Legacy of Gil-Scott Heron

Posted on Jul 3, 2011 in Piano Blog | 1 comment

EVER HEARD OF GIL-SCOTT HERON? PROBABLY NOT, BUT HIS LEGACY LIVES ON AS ONE OF THE FIRST HIP-HOP ARTISTS BEFORE HIP-HOP HAD A NAME

It’s really fascinating to study top Twitter trends to keep a finger on the pulse of what captures people’s attention. In the midst of Bieber-mania, Federer-mania, Gaga-mania and The Voice-mania, imagine our surprise seeing a name we’d never heard – Gil-Scott Heron – trending #5 in the Twitter Top 10 for the week of May 27 – June 2.

Who’s Gil-Scott Heron?, you say. We asked ourselves the same question and discovered more about this fascinating man who just happened to play the piano, among many other things. (more…)

‘THE VOICE’ DOES IT AGAIN WITH PIANO AS ONE OF THE STARS

Posted on Jun 24, 2011 in News & Events, Piano Blog | 0 comments

Well, NBC’s “The Voice” has done it again this week. This show is doing for piano what “Dancing with the Stars” has done for dance.

Tuesday’s show was one of the best yet as the four teams were narrowed down to two super-strong singers, each on the way to next week’s final. Two of the strongest and most dynamic performers, Nakia and Beverly McClellan, followed Dia Frampton’s lead from last week by including piano work in their numbers. We imagine that these performances by such cool and talented people should be sending both kids and adults by the droves into piano lessons and piano camps at places like Houston Piano Company!

Nakia was the first performer of the evening to tickle the ivories on a cool black Roland, which was prominently featured on camera. As Nakia’s mentor, Cee Lo delivered again with the surprising song choice of Adam Lambert’s “What Do You Want From Me”. You could practically hear Nakia saying in his head, “Dude, you have got to be kidding me!!!”, but he was a good sport and went along for the ride. And, of course, he ended up making it totally his own. You can check out his performance on NBC’s online The Voice website. You can also see it on YouTube!

Beverly tickled the ivories as well on a more traditional mahogany grand piano (the camera never showed us the make) with an entertaining and completely Beverly rendition of B.B. King’s classic, “The Thrill is Gone”. You can see her performance on the NBC website, or on YouTube.

What was really cool about both performances was that Nakia and Beverly did their own versions of Dia’s section of no-playing the piano. Nakia and Beverly have similar vibes in that both of them give the impression that they are totally and completely themselves when they sing. They put it all out on the floor and invite you into their world. And what is really bizarre is that these two people who are about as far as can be imagined from the stereotypical Hollywood celebrity singer mold are totally compelling, totally magnetic and totally radiating crowd appeal.

Nakia, with his slight lisp and less-than-athletic physique, is one of the consistently sexiest performers on the show. Beverly, with her studs, tattoos and bald head that might make her scary-looking in a dark alley, gushes enthusiasm, youthfulness and pure joy that are totally infectious. You get the sense when she sings that it’s like you’re sitting in her living room or in her shower as she’s just belting out music she can’t contain inside herself for one more minute.

Nakia working the crowd after leaving the piano

About a third of the way through his performance, Nakia stood up, kicked his piano bench away so it flew across the stage, stalked across the stage and made the crowd his own. Also about a third of the way through her performance, Beverly stood up, grabbed a mike and started moving across the entire stage in her usual performance of abandon and exuberance. The result of both was irresistible, and it wouldn’t have been at all the same if both of them hadn’t started in such controlled stillness in front of the piano. Their skill and body quietness at the piano provided the contrast to really let them explode onto the stage and into the hearts of the crowd.

Beverly’s exuberant self just after getting up from the piano

And as if two awesome piano-based performances weren’t enough, at the end of the show, Carson Daly acknowledged the show’s musicians, which included a slow pan across the stage showing not one, but two Roland Fantom G8 pianos clearly visible.

If you’re lucky enough to live in the Houston area, you can go check out what it’s like to play a Roland and other pianos at Houston Piano Company.

DIA FRAMPTON BURNS THE NET WAVES WITH THE PIANO

Posted on Jun 17, 2011 in News & Events, Piano Blog | 0 comments

Did you catch Dia Frampton on NBC’s vocal competition show, “The Voice”? If not, you missed something special. You can still see a recording of her live performance online (Look under the Quarter Finals, Round 1 link on the right side of the page). To just hear the purity of her voice without the distraction of video, check her out on YouTube!

“The Voice” is NBC’s answer to “American Idol” with Carson Daly bringing a little cool-while-slightly-geeky-but-not-cheesy vibe as NBC’s emcee version of Ryan Seacrest. “The Voice” claims that it only focuses on the singer’s voice, and here’s how it did this in the first rounds:

• Auditions happened ahead of time.
• The show started with those who had made it through auditions singing “blind” for 4 mentors. How? The 4 superstar mentors sat in chairs faced AWAY from the singer. As they listened to the singer, if they liked what they heard, they pressed a button which rotated the chair and the mentor to face the singer with a lit-up sign saying, “I want you”. If more than one mentor turned their chair around, the singer got to choose who they wanted to work with.
• Each mentor selected 8 singers. The following week, they paired their 8 up with each other to sing a duet-duel of the mentor’s choice. At the end of the duet, the mentor had to choose the winner. This whittled each of the mentors’ teams down to 4.
• At this point, the singers started singing live and America started to vote. America’s vote identifies one singer who is “safe”. Then the mentor has to choose 1 other singer who is safe and moves onto the next round along with America’s choice, while sending 2 others home.
• Just as an FYI, the 4 mentors are Country Music Association Male Vocalist of the Year, Blake Shelton; hip hop and soul icon, Cee Lo Green; pop megastar, Christina Aguilera and Maroon 5 front man, Adam Levine.

Quiet Dia Frampton started surprising people right off the bat when she chose Blake Shelton as her mentor since she has sort of a Jewel-folk vibe going on.

So what made Dia’s performance last week so special? Many things, but it was the piano that made all the difference! Let’s consider the other major reason before we turn to the significance of the piano:

23-year-old half-Korean, half-Dutch Dia is not the snappiest dresser on the show. She has so far shown up in extremely conservative clothes that don’t really reflect her youthful, fresh spirit. So imagine the surprise when she chose to sing Kanye West’s “Heartless” for her first live performance. While Dia is quite pretty, she is self-admittedly shy, and she hadn’t really stood out prior to her first live performance. Because of this, it seemed like she might be headed home pretty early because she just seemed to lack the chops and presence of some of the other impressive singers on the program like Beverly McClellan, Vicci Martinez and Nakia.

To help her break through her shy demeanor, her mentor Blake asked her if she could play “Heartless” on the piano. She said she could, and he explained that he thought that would give her a distraction and a comfort zone to help her come out of her shell more so she could connect with the audience.

Well, did she ever. She sat at that piano in an innocent white dress with a big black bow and did a rendition of “Heartless” that Cee Lo said was better than Kanye’s original version. And the downloads of the piece off iTunes pretty much told the story before results show that Dia would be voted one of America’s favorites.

In a brilliant move, Dia took her hands off the piano for a stretch of the song and simply sang a capella, letting her incredible and moving voice ring out and rock the house.

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