Have you heard of Philip Wesley?  You need to hear of him.  Better yet, you need to not just hear OF him, but hear him!

From his website:

With a piano style somewhere between David Lanz and Jim Brickman, Philip Wesley brings solace and a spiritual depth to the music world with his tender romantic playing.

Philip Wesley’s music is soothing and completely gorgeous.  But it’s more than just soothing.  Rich and full, it grabs you right from the first few notes!  You want to listen, not just play it as background music.

What’s even better is that, in addition to purchasing one of his CDs, you can also buy the sheet music to his beautiful pieces!  Are you the same as me?  I love to listen to gorgeous piano music, but I itch to play it on the keys myself!  So I love an artist who will share sheet music!

Stop by www.philipwesley.com to preview his audio recordings AND sheet music!

My husband and I got to go along with my sister-in-law and niece to a Jon Schmidt concert last weekend.

Have you heard of Jon Schmidt?

He is a Utah favorite, so I’ve heard about him ever since I’ve lived here.  If you haven’t had the opportunity of hearing Jon Schmidt, you really should look him up.  His music is beautiful and thrilling, “the sort of music that stops you dead and demands that you listen,” according to one fan.

His concert was so much fun because he is wildly energetic with the piano!  He pounded keys and slammed his feet on the pedals with an intensity that alarmed me!  I was just waiting for the piano to fall apart, but, of course, it never did.  He played upside down, standing up, and (occasionally) sitting down.  He used his arms and his head on the keys.  Really!

Also performing with him was Steve Nelson, a cellist/percussionist with a great sense of humor!  Here they are together performing a beautiful arrangement of Taylor Swift’s Love Story (a song which is usually gag inducing for me, but here it’s lovely) and Coldplay’s Viva la Vida.

The highlight of the concert for me was actually a teaser.  He performed a few minutes of a piece he’s still working on called “Rock”maninoff.  It’s Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in C# minor all rocked out, with an accompanying electric guitar!  Fabulous, and I’m definitely buying his CD when that song comes out.

In addition to performing, Schmidt also sells sheet music (which is wildly fun to play!).  He even has some free MP3 and sheet music downloads at www.jonschmidt.com.

One of my students found the sheet music to Gary Jules and Michael Andrews’ Mad World at www.thepianocian.com.  I’ve only done a little browsing at the site, but it looks like there is a lot of great free pop sheet music!  Go check it out!

I am teaching a 5 year old who is still learning to read.  We use “My First Piano Adventures for the Young Beginner” by Nancy and Randall Faber.  It’s a great introduction to piano for that age group.  In the beginning, several characters are introduced as piano friends.  They then show up on each page to teach new concepts.  It’s very easy for my student to learn this way.  Plus, the pictures are fun and colorful.  And bonus: there’s a fun CD to go along with the book.  Each new concept has a fun (and sometimes silly) song to listen to on the CD.  The book also strongly encourages exploration and discovery of the piano, which I really like.  It helps my student be creative.

What books do you like to use for your young beginners?

Do you ever have those lessons where you feel you aren’t able to cover everything needed? For me, sight reading seems to always take a back seat on these types of days.

I have been using Schaum’s Fingerpower books for quick sight reading during lessons. Each piece is short and simple, so not only is it a good way to fit sight reading into an already full lesson, it also gives my students a much needed boost when they realize they can do a good job on sight reading!

I found some good websites for free sheet music as I searched for all the songs the bride wants me to play at her reception/luncheon. FYI: searching for free sheet music is NOT fun. Every site seems to promise free sheet music, but when you arrive, you have to pay a membership fee or something like that. Or the really promising site turns out to be just a site of links to other sheet music sites you must then sift through. There are a gazillion links to sheet music sites everywhere, and here are the ones I found after hours of sifting. Mental note: Build up my pop music repertoire so I don’t have to do this again.

My Piano is a blog that has oodles of pop music, arranged alphabetically.  That little alphabetic detail, my friend, is pure joy.  You would think that would be the most obvious way to arrange such a site, but let me tell you…it’s not obvious to everyone.

Free Piano Music is one of those pages that has a list of links to sheet music sites.  It was the best page of it’s kind that I ran into.

Piano Sheet Music is a blog that is updated frequently with new lists of pop songs.  I couldn’t find a search box, so it made it a little difficult to find specific songs, but if you’re in the mood for browsing, there’s a great selection.

Virtual Sheet Music has oodles of classical sheet music.  You have to pay for most of it, but there is a lot of free stuff too.

My search was mostly focused on pop music this time around.  Do you know of any great pop and/or classical free sheet music sites?