The Playground

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Holiday Reading List

Whether you’re looking for a new book to read or a present for someone this holiday season, we’ve compiled a list of books for you! Some we have read and some are on our own ‘to read’ lists! If you’ve got any recommendations please leave…

This Dream of You – Diana Krall [Album Review]

Think of the word “jazz” and chances are you’ll picture something like a smoky bar with a small group of guys hunched intensely over their instruments. Or perhaps a concert hall with an ensemble of tuxedo-clad men swinging through Tin Pan Alley standards. What you…

Have you met Diana Krall?

I’m sure if you’ve even stuck your toe into the pool of modern Jazz, you’ve heard of Diana Krall! The Canadian jazz pianist, songwriter & singer, known for her contralto vocals, she has sold more than 6 million albums in the US and over 15…

Mr Bojangles – Story (and Study) of a Song

Jerry Jeff Walker, who passed away recently at the age of 78, is remembered as one of the artists who brought country music out of the backwoods and into the mainstream. He was very prolific but he will always be remembered for one song: Mr…

Robert Relly

My Story with the Blues [Robert Relly]

Intro: Music of the last hundred years would sound completely different without the Blues. You may have a certain picture in your mind when you think of blues music, but you may not realise how diverse the genre actually is, and how it has seeped…

Have you met Hazel Scott?

Hazel Scott was a Trinidadian-born jazz and classical pianist, singer, and actor. She was a critically acclaimed performing artist and an outspoken critic of racial discrimination and segregation. Scott was a child musical prodigy, receiving scholarships to study at the Juilliard School when she was…

Martinville

A 5 second history of…. Sound Recordings

The first sound recording was reportedly captured in Paris by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville in 1860, nearly two decades before Alexander Graham Bell’s first telephone call (1876) or Thomas Edison’s phonograph (1877), Scott recorded the sound on his ‘Phonautograph’. The Phonautograph was made to study…

instrument

Choosing an Instrument – How to Pick your Piano

Did you know that piano sales have increased this year!! The New York Times reported a resurgence in ‘at home music making’ with sales of digital pianos increasing by 30% and acoustic pianos increasing in the used market! Which begs the question … should you…

martha argerich

Have you met Martha Argerich?

Born June 5, 1941 Martha Argerich is an Argentine-Swiss classical concert pianist. She made her concert debut at the age of 8 and is considered to be one of the greatest pianists of the recorded era!!

 

 Here’s a video of her playing her signature…

‘Meera’ – More Than Just A Building

For a lot of music teachers, ‘studio’ is simply a clearing in a living room or spare room, and that can be a wonderful, comfortable, welcoming place to play and learn. But for one of our Simply Music teaching community have grander ideas, like a…