Intermediate Piano and Keyboard Method (Win/Mac)

by emedia

Product Features

• Play pieces by famous composers in a broad range of musical styles
• Comprehensive music curriculum with 150+ lessons
• Conventional scales, chord progressions, and finger techniques
• Learn the blues form, scales, and patterns needed to improvise
• Video demonstrations of techniques and practical advice

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000EUDADA
• Item model number: EK09051
• Date first available at Amazon.com: May 5, 2006
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,905 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #49 in Software > Video & Music > Software > Instruction

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

This CD-ROM is a comprehensive musical experience. It teaches you to improve your playing, gain control of the keyboard, and develop your musicianship. You'll learn to play pieces by famous composers in a broad range of musical styles, from Baroque to the present. You will also develop your musical creativity by learning how to improvise. Vadim Ghin, M.A., who has taught at the renowned Juilliard School of Music, guides you with video demonstrations of techniques and practical advice that will elevate your playing to a new standard. Alongside conventional scales, chord progressions, and finger techniques, you will learn the blues form, scales, and patterns needed to create your own improvisations and songs.

Features:

• Over 150 lessons offer a comprehensive curriculum that will give the intermediate piano player the skills needed to take their playing to the next level. Beginning with intervals and expanded hand positions, the lessons progress through building dexterity, advanced rhythms and transitions, interpretive expression marks and voicing, and finally to blues, improvisation based on the blues, and the piano in ensemble.
• Song highlighting and looping: Highlight an entire page, or just a portion of a song, and loop it for playback at whatever speed you are comfortable playing. Selected loops are now introduced with the MIDI tick count-off, so there’s enough time to get your hands back to the keyboard to play along. Thus you can follow along regardless of what section of the piece you’re working on.
• Full motion video: Professional piano instructor Vadim Ghin, M.A., guides you with over 50 full-motion videos demonstrating techniques. Many of the videos include split-screen displays with close-ups for a clearer perspective.
• Animated keyboard: Displays color-coded fingerings as the music plays. It allows you to see exactly how to play the song on a keyboard as you hear the music. Music tracking highlights the notes being played on the screen, making it simple to follow along.
• Multi-track recorded audio: high-quality multi-track recorded audio is included for every song and exercise.
• Variable-speed MIDI: Slows down the audio to any tempo, while the animated keyboard shows song fingering as the music plays. You can play along and learn at the pace best suited to your skill level!
  MIDI playback options let you select left or right hand only, or a tick metronome track to play along with.
• Orchestral accompaniment: selected pieces include orchestral accompaniment and even a jazz band to play along with.
• Interactive feedback: For selected exercises, when using an electronic MIDI-compatible keyboard, you can get specific feedback on note and rhythm mistakes. Clicking on an individual feedback balloon brings up a keyboard showing you exactly what mistake was made and what should have been played. Also, an overall percentage score summarizes how well you did on the exercise.
• Reviews and ear training: interactive review and ear-training screens help reinforce new concepts and develop your ear.
• Digital metronome: Allows you to set your own tempo and work on your speed, rhythm, and timing. Provides both visual cue and/or audio tick. Full range of tempi, from largo to presto.
• Digital recorder: Record and play yourself back! This feature allows you to compare your recordings to the instructor's version, fine tune your skills, and share your recordings with friends and family.
• Over 50 songs including:
  • Ecossaise -- Beethoven
  • Hungarian Rhapsody -- Liszt
  • Swan Lake -- Tchaikovsky
  • The Sorcerer’s Apprentice -- Dukas
  • Fourth Ballade -- Chopin
  • St. Louis Blues -- W. C. Handy
  • The Schoolhouse Blues -- Irving Berlin
  • Third Piano Concerto -- Rachmaninoff
  • Twenty-First Piano Concerto -- Mozart
  • Jelly Roll Blues -- "Jelly Roll" Morton

Product Description

You'll learn to play pieces by famous composers in a broad range of musical styles, from Baroque to the present. You will also develop your musical creativity by learning how to improvise. Vadim Ghin, M.A., who has taught at the renowned Juilliard School of Music, guides you with video demonstrations of techniques and practical advice that will elevate your playing to a new standard.Over 150 lessonsA comprehensive curriculum will give the intermediate piano player the skills needed to take their playing to the next level. Beginning with intervals and expanded hand positions, the lessons progress through building dexterity, advanced rhythms and transitions, interpretive expression marks and voicing, and finally to blues, improvisation based on the blues, and the piano in ensemble.Song highlighting and looping: Highlight an entire page, or just a portion of a song, and loop it for playback at whatever speed you are comfortable playing. Selected loops are now introduced with the MIDI tick count-off, so there's enough time to get your hands back to the keyboard to play along. So you can follow along regardless of what section of the piece you're working on.Full Motion Video: Professional piano instructor Vadim Ghin, M.A., guides you with over 50 full-motion videos demonstrating techniques. Many of the videos include split-screen displays with close-ups for a clearer perspective.Animated Keyboard: Displays color-coded fingerings as the music plays. It allows you to see exactly how to play the song on a keyboard as you hear the music. Music tracking highlights the notes being played on the screen, making it simple to follow along.Multitrack recorded audio: High-quality multitrack recorded audio is included for every song and exercise.Variable-Speed MIDI: Slows down the audio to any tempo, while the Animated Keyboard shows song fingering as the music plays. You can play along and learn at the pace best suited to your skill level! MIDI playback options let you select left o

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Convenient way to improve your piano skills, January 9, 2009

By 

W. Emshoff (Ft Worth, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Intermediate Piano and Keyboard Method (Win/Mac) (CD-ROM)

I recently bought this after reading the review at [...].

Despite a few technical glitches, I found this software met my modest goals, and I covered a lot of new material.

As an intermediate-level player that hadn't played in years, I wanted something to help me improve my skills in a more structured way than trying to find appropriate sheet music on my own, but without the financial and time commitment of private lessons.

First, if using software rather than paper sheet music, you need a digital piano with a MIDI interface to your PC, with the piano keyboard set in front of your PC's monitor. I'm using a Casio PX-120 an an Xmidi 1X1 USB interface.

Interesting aside: when I placed my keyboard on my metal stand, I got a horrifying sound when I hit D# - apparently the stand's resonant frequency, a problem solved with a bit of self-adhesive felt.

The Good:

For each piece or selection thereof, you can hear what the piece is supposed to sound like.

For some exercises, you can get automated feedback on how you played, with the errors tagged on the score, e.g. a missed or wrong note hit, or note held too long.

For other exercises, you can play along to a recorded ensemble.

Along with the music, audio clips are provided with interesting background trivia on the composers and their music but I'd rather read these than listen.

The not so good (are you listening emedia?):

There's not a good way to print a score as there is with online Scorch sheet music.

You cannot expand the window to see a whole page of music at once.

It's possible to lock the program up by trying to set various while audio is being played.

I found the metronome far too loud, with no obvious way to adjust its volume. I wound up just using the metronome built into my keyboard.

I had to keep the CD in my PC to use all the features.

The table of contents is too coarse, only allowing you to jump to the top of each section, rather than to a particular lesson or piece.

The "Animated keyboard" which displayed by default is a worthless waste of screen space for an Intermediate player. Fortunately, you can turn it off.

5.0 out of 5 stars The best and fast way to improve your piano skill from Beginner, May 19, 2011

By 

Ken (ca, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Intermediate Piano and Keyboard Method (Win/Mac) (CD-ROM)

The best and fast way to improve your piano skill from Beginner.

I finished some basic piano lessons and books, and even Garageband, and then I am looking for something more challenging, then I found this one at Amazon. I purchased a copy from a internet seller.

I installed it in my iMac. it works perfectly.

I wish I can play like a 50% Richard Cladman or 50% of Lang Lang SOOON. lol