The blog for the downloadable sheet music site Great Scores

Our Latest Musings...

Interrupted by Nokia Ringtone? Make it part of the performance!

April 27th, 2012 by Lincoln
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Hi Everyone

Slovakian viola player Lukas Kmit reacted cooly when a mobile phone interrupted his recital at the Orthodox Synagogue in Presov, in Slovakia.

Rather than losing his temper, Kmit adapted the notorious Nokia phone theme that had interrupted his performance, much to the delight of his audience.

Piano Tuning – What You Need To Know

March 8th, 2012 by Lincoln
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Hi Everyone

As piano sheet music is our best-seller, we thought we’d take a look at the issue of piano tuning, and why it is important.

If it’s only my young children who play, why would I need to have my piano tuned regularly?

As we grow older we are more able to articulate our likes and dislikes. This is not always the case in music, wether you are a proficient musician or not. Explaining why exactly something doesn’t sound right musically is very hard. It can be a very abstract and sensuous thing.

When studying piano and in particular elementary level piano, intervals such as fourths and fifths are commonly used. These are very pure and open sounding intervals giving a pleasant sensation. When a piano is tuned well, these intervals form the basis for a clear and pleasing sound over all. Once it goes out of tune the sound becomes muddy and these intervals are heard and felt less clearly, and are much less focussed.

Young children are very sensitive to sound, and in many ways are effected by it more than adults. When it comes to an untuned piano, a child may not only be unable to articulate this, but you are risking the chance he/she will become less engaged and lose interest in playing the piano altogether. By keeping your piano tuned on a regular basis you are helping your child remain focussed and to create a sound that is both pleasing for them and for yourself.

So how often should you have it tuned? The minimum would be once a year, though another good rule of thumb is twice a year, when the seasons change from cold to hot and back again. Pianos are made of very natural materials – wood, felt, leather and metal, so they expand and contract with change in temperature and also dampness. If you live in a very dry climate, it may be worth looking keeping the inside of your piano humid enough, if you live in a very damp climate, you most certainly would not want to add any extra humidity.

Avoid placing your piano against outside walls, and especially avoid placing your piano in front or near a radiator, as this will dry out the wood an make it crack.

Thanks to Dov Waterman for the extra insights into piano tuning. If you are looking for North London Piano Tuner, then please click here.

Star Wars Cello Battle

February 20th, 2012 by Lincoln
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Hi Everyone

Just wanted to share a cool little music video with you.

The people from Pianoguys put this version of The Imperial March from Star Wars together, by multitracking several electric cellos -- great fun to watch:

The video also features some other Star Wars themes, such as The Main Theme

Welcome To Our New Website

January 23rd, 2012 by Lincoln
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Hi everyone

Your new website look went live towards the end of 2011, and we just wanted to give you a little guide as to the new features we have introduced.

Login is now at the top right hand corner.

We have also added some new social media buttons.

The Google +1 button tells google that you like our site, so if you have a google account, and are logged in, please click on this – we’d really appreciate it. :-) .

The facebook button allows you to like our site if you have a facebook account. We’d be thrilled if you clicked on this (as it helps us with our overall ranking).

If you want to share our homepage with your friends on facebook, then you can do that with this button:

If you want to follow our twitter feed then click on this button on our homepage:

The youtube button takes you to our youtube page.

We have also introduced some great new features on the song pages. If you really like a particular song you can now share this across facebook, twitter, via email or other social media with this button:

Lastly you can now leave your customer feedback on any songs and arrangements by clicking on the comments tab (no spam, please!). We would love to hear your comments on all our pieces, so feel free to comment as often as you want.

Hope you enjoy the new site, and feel free to send us your feedback.

Lincoln Jaeger