Resources – Jacobs Summer Piano Academy

Classical Music Directories and Databases

http://musicalics.com/en
Information about more than 26,000 composers and their compositions, compiled by Dutch computer engineer and musician Jos Smeets with data compiled mainly by himself and Jean-Paul Giraudet. Includes a Music Atlas places compiled by Ed Tervooren and a birth/death date index (just plug in a date and you can find out what famous musicians were born or died on that date).

http://www.classical.net/music/
Information on composers, timelines, lists of works of many composers, recordings, articles, reviews; large database.

https://classiccat.net
Index of 7000 free Classical music downloads on the internet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_classical_music_composers_by_era
List of classical composers by era, with a link to information about each composer.

https://libguides.lib.msu.edu/c.php?g=96743&p=622547
List of foundations and other organizations which support musicians through grants.

http://www.nafme.org/
Site of the National Association for Music Education. Under the “For Students” tab there is a section on “Scholarship Resources for Music Students.”

http://www.angelfire.com/ab/day/almsearch.html
“Classicalmanac”: What was going on in classical music history each day of the year.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_musical_terminology
Dictionary of musical terms commonly encountered in classical piano scores.

https://datadragon.com/day/
“This Day in Music History” with past events, composers’ birthdays, searchable index.

http://www.hyperhistory.com/online_n2/History_n2/a.html
Online world history charts.

http://www.classicalarchives.com/newca/#!/
Information on composers by name/period, releases of new recordings, playlists, interviews with musicians. Some info. is free. Access to recordings and music performances requires subscription.

http://www.musicgraphicsgalore.net/
Free music clipart, icons, other graphic images.

https://bachtrack.com/
Listings of concerts and festivals worldwide; reviews of concerts, opera, ballet; articles and classical music news.

http://www.classical-music.com
BBC Music Magazine’s online listings of classical music concerts worldwide.

http://ww1.classicalmusicdb.com
Piano repertoire, graded by level of difficulty. levels of difficulty.
For more databases listing pieces by difficulty, see: http://www.pianosyllabus.com/default.php

Mainly for teachers: http://www.pianoworld.com/Uploads/files/Graded_Pieces_Sorted_By_Difficulty.PDF
http://www.gradedpianorepertoire.com/

http://imslp.org/
Free public domain editions of 555.000 classical scores.

http://www.pianostreet.com
Fine Swedish website for classical pianists and teachers founded by Henrik and Johan Sandback. Piano forum, piano blog and a small amt. of piano sheet music are free. With subscription you can download clean urtext scores of much of the standard performance repertoire created by Pianostreet, as well as older editions that are in the public domain.

http://people.wku.edu/charles.smith/music/
The Classical Music Navigator: useful biographical information on 444 classical composers organized alphabetically and geographically, a basic list of their significant works, a Glossary of Musical Terms and an Index of Forms and Styles of Music.

Hone Your Skills

http://www.abrsm.org/
Site of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, the leading music examining board; they test over 600,000 students and teachers each year.

http://brenthugh.com/piano/piano-practice.html
Brent Hugh’s piano practice home page; lots of excellent practice advice here.

http://composecreate.com/students/wendys-piano-studio/teaching-resources/ear-training/
Free ear-training, rhythm and theory worksheets, manuscript paper templates you can print out, problem-solving worksheet, practice record, etc. Some rhythm and music books you have to purchase.

http://www.download3k.com/Games/Other-games/Download-Music-Memory.html
Free drills to improve your aural memory.

http://www.metronimo.com/uk/download.htm
Free downloadable music games (demo is free, the more complete software program you must buy).

https://www.musical-u.com/apps/
Ear-training apps (checklist is free; access to most levels requires a monthly or annual subscription).

https://www.musical-u.com/learn/ear-training-site-profile-good-ear-com/
Exercises for drilling intervals, chords, scales, cadences, jazz chords, note location (movable do).

http://musictheory.net/lessons
Free music theory lessons, exercises, drills and other tools.

http://muted.io
Interactive music theory tools and visual reference pages. Check out their reference for all major/minor scales, or their interactive circle of fifths chart!

http://www.ossmann.com/bigears/
Big Ears, online ear training drills.

https://www.pedaplus.com/
Free notes and interval drills, beginning to advanced. Index to the Piano Pedagogy Forum for teachers.
For a modest fee, you can download Rhythm Lab from their app store.

https://www.playgroundequipment.com/a-playground-for-music-and-education-theory/
A music theory guide that covers fundamental concepts that range from the basics (staff and clefs, note duration, measures and time signature, etc) to scales and key signatures, chords, and chord progressions.

https://seatup.com/blog/piano-playing-resources/
A collection of resources on how to learn to play the piano, build chords, sight-read, develop good practice habits, etc.

https://www.teoria.com/index.php
Online theory training, especially interval, chord, and cadence construction.

https://www.theaterseatstore.com/blog/musical-glossary-kids
Musical glossary for kids, to solidify your knowledge of commonly seen musical terms.

https://www.wristbandexpress.com/content/hand-wrist-finger-positioning-guide-piano-players/
Resources on proper hand, wrist, and finger position, as well as free sheet music.

Libraries and Archives

http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/
You can see images of the great treasures of the British Museum on this site.

http://classicalrchives.com/newca/#!/notableComposers
Information on 18,000+ composers and their works.

http://www.loc.gov/
The great Library of Congress.

https://www.louvre.fr/
The famous Musée du Louvre in Paris; history of the museum, virtual tour, close-ups of some of its treasures.

https://libraries.indiana.edu/music
IU’s respected Cook Music Library. Home page has lots of info. on how to find online music resources.

http://www.nypl.org
The famous New York Public Library; its holdings contain many interesting music items.

https://www.nypl.org/about/divisions/rodgers-and-hammerstein-archives-recorded-sound
The Rogers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound.

http://www.lib.umd.edu/ipam
The International Piano Archives at the University of Maryland, curated by Donald Manildi. Fabulous collection of recordings of great pianists of past eras, books, scores, archival papers of many great pianists.

http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/overview.html
Photos of many remarkable paintings (1848-1914) from the Musee d’Orsay.

https://www.worldcat.org/
WorldCat is a huge online catalogue that lists the holdings of 72,000 libraries around the world. You can search for a score or music book, and it will tell you which libraries possess it and whether they are willing to send it to your local library so you can borrow it briefly through inter-library loan.

http://skdesigns.com/internet/music/organizations/
An extensive collection of music resources on the internet.

http://staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/en
The site of the famous Berlin Staatsbibliothek, which holds the largest music collection in Germany and the Mendelssohn Archive. Overview of their collections of scores, composers’ autograph manuscripts and letters, books, recordings, etc.

https://www.brussels.info/museum-musical-instruments/
The Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) in Brussels, which houses over 8,000 musical instruments from all eras. Visitors receive headphones which allow them to hear music played on a particular instrument when they stand beside it. Very cool.

Performance History

The Art of Piano (Ideale Audience, IMG, NVC Arts)
DVD – Amazing original film footage of Paderewski, Cortot, Backhaus, Gilels, Hofmann, Horowitz, Michelangeli, Arrau and other greats.
VHS is apparently better than DVD, which is out of sync. Available at Amazon.com

https://www.onlinepianist.com/op-blog/300-years-of-the-piano-how-did-it-all-begin/
Here you can hear what the first real piano, invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori, sounds like.

http://www.ptg.org/Scripts/4Disapi.dll/4DCGI/cms/review.html?Action=CMS_Document&DocID=109&MenuKey=Menu9 and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano
History of the piano.

http://www.essential-humanities.net/art-overview/western-music-timeline/
Timeline of western classical music.

http://pianowizard.www2.50megs.com/
Biographies of some of the greatest pianists of the past century; also contain odd things such as an analysis of recordings and a list of the 172 recordings of Rachmaninoff’s 3^rd Concerto that the author possesses as well as the 19 recordings he’s still looking for.

https://carnegiehall.org/
The official page of Carnegie Hall.

http://naxos.com/education/brief/history.asp
History of the various music periods. Extensive list of classical music composers.

https://www.music-world.org/
Music timeline, time lines of musical instruments, musical forms and styles, top 50 composers.

Musical Wellness

http://www.alexandercenter.com/
Insider’s guide to Alexander Technique, with links to many related sites.

http://www.alexandercenter.com/pa/musicjonesii.html
Alexander Technique for musicians.

http://www.alexandertechnique.com/
Complete guide to the Alexander Technique, who is helped by it, where to find teachers in your area.

http://rsi.unl.edu/music.html
Extensive information on injuries of musicians (overuse syndrome, repetitive stress, tendonitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, etc.) and preventative measures. Compiled by Paul Marxhausen.

https://www.feldenkraisresources.com/
Feldenkrais resources: background information, training programs, workshops and classes.

http://www.freeingthecagedbird.com/
Barbara Lister-Sink: methods, intensive training sessions, how to order the video for pianists.

http://www.pianomap.com/
Discusses pianists’ injuries, movement re-training, injury prevention.

http://www.pilates-studio.com/
The Pilates method: history of the method, locating a certified teacher in your area, teacher certification programs.

Music News, Music Journals and Associations

info@francesclarkcenter.org
Frances Clark Center publishes Piano magazine, holds the annual National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy, runs the New School for Music Study in Princeton N.J., and offers some webinars free and others with a subscription to the magazine. Also see: http://www.keyboardpedagogy.org

http://mtna.org/MTNA/Home/MTNA/Default.aspx?hkey=91963004-fbe4-4711-a192-b6293aedc31c
MTNA offers competitions (state, regional, national levels), publishes the American Music Teacher magazine, and holds an interesting national conference every year.

http://www.rhinegold.co.uk/rhinegold-publishing/magazines/international-piano/
Site of International Piano, a slick magazine with a European and world focus.

http://www.classicalworks.com/his.pages/timeline.html
Music history timeline, portrait gallery, glossary of musical terms and more.

http://newsletter@musicalamerica.com
Musical America publishes guides to performing artists, new job postings, and a free guide to (mostly) free streams of great orchestras, opera houses, symphonies, etc.

https://www.music-world.org/
Timelines of musical instruments, music history, musical forms and styles.

Online Music and Record Stores

http://www.amazon.com
Loads of CDs, DVDs, music books. Be sure to check out “New and used” section (top right corner of pages) for the best prices.

http://www.arioso.fr
Arioso (Paris). For hard-to-find French editions, Konemann urtexts, reasonable classical CDs (3-5 Euros).

http://www.arsantiqua.com/3/index.shtm
One of the largest online classical vinyl (used) record store; offers very rare recordings.

http://www.primamusic.com/
Online music store with extensive stock of piano music. Absorbed the whole stock of Patti Music some years ago. Increasing discount levels depending on total amount of yearly purchases.

http://www.sheetmusicplus.com
360,000 print and digital music books in stock.

http://grothmusic.com/topic.aspx?name=eble
Growth Music/Eble Music online store. Has a reputation for going the extra mile to locate hard-to-find scores.

For Your Listening Pleasure

http://indianapublicmedia.org/radio/
WFIU— IU’s great twin-channel public radio station with a host of terrific music and news programs. You can hear it right over the computer from wherever you are, or tune into 103.7 (1) or 101.9 (2) if local. Check out “Exploring Music” with Bill McGlaughlin, NPR’s “Performance Today”, “From the Top” and “All Things Considered”; “Chicago Symphony” and “New York Philharmonic”, “Chamber Music from Lincoln Center”; “BBC World News”.

http://www.medici.tv/#/home/
Very large online collection of classical music. Broadcasts more than 100 live concerts from around the world each year
and has an extensive video library. Access by subscription per month or per year.

http://bachvereniging.nl/en/allofbach
The Netherlands Bach Society releases high-quality recordings of the works
of Bach every Tuesday and Thursday in full HD.

http://metopera.org/user-information/nightly-met-opera-streams/
Every day while the Met is closed, a different encore presentation of the opera company’s Live in HD will be available for free streaming on the Met website. Each performance is available from 7:30pm EDT until 3:30pm the following day. Includes complete performances from the past 14 years.

http://bbc.com
BBC classical music channel online. You can hear the BBC Proms and other interesting programs on Radio 3 in Concert.

http://digitalconcerthall.com/en/home
The Berlin Philharmonic Digital Concert Hall is open, and streaming past concerts of the Philharmonic to all, for free. One can search concerts by composer, piece, soloist or conductor.

http://www.classicalarchives.com/main/
Listen to classical music selections. However for access to the full 23,000 files you must subscribe: $79/year.

http://classicalwebcast.com
Lists many live broadcast classical radio stations on the web.

http://www.fromthetop.org
Site of the radio show devoted to the world of promising young classical musicians. Information for students, parents, teachers.

http://www.classical.net/music/links/musradio.html
Links to classic radio stations (many of them NPR stations) and classical internet broadcasters across the U.S.

http://www.classical.net/music/links/musradio.html
A documentary on pianist Yuja Wang.

Music Software

http://freemusictech.weebly.com/
Free music technology resources including free notation programs, free audio recording/editing software.

http://homoecumenicus.com/music_theory_musicology.htm
Music Theory and Musicology resources, music research databases, info. on musical instruments from around the world, classical music MIDI, etc.

http://www.mozart.co.uk/
Mozart music notation software. You can download a free evaluation copy that has the basic features but must buy the full “Virtuoso” Edition.

http://www.finalemusic.com/notepad/index.asp
Free introductory notation software.

http://lilypond.org/web/switch/advantages.html
Lilypond, music typesetting program that runs on Windows, MacOSx, Linux or FreeBSD among other systems. You can learn to typeset music with the online tutorial; automated formatting, and takes ASCII input.

http://www.pianoeducation.org/pnosoftr.html
Reviews, both brief and in-depth, of piano music and software: shareware, teaching software, theory, music appreciation and composition software and studio management software.

http://www.factmag.com/2016/10/18/best-free-vst-plugin-daw-music-production-software/
List ten free VSTs and DAWs for making your own tracks.

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-music-software.htm#Quick_Selection_Guide
Nice list of free audio editing and music notation software, software to cut, splice or merge audio files, etc.

Pianos

http://www.fazioli-piano.com/en
Interesting info. on the sound features, technology and manufacture of the prestigious hand-made Italian Fazioli pianos

http://www.frederickcollection.org/recordings.html
Frederick Historic Piano Collection – see and hear pianos from Mozart’s time to Debussy’s. The collection is located at the Historical Piano Study Center, Ashburnham MA. Seventeen period instruments are in playing condition; many more await restoration.

https://www.khm.at/en/visit/collections/collection-of-historic-musical-instruments/
The Collection of Historical Instruments in Vienna, Austria. Info. and photos of historical keyboard instruments.

http://www.mim.be/en
Site of the famous Musical Instruments Museum in Brussels, Belgium. Houses over 8,000 instruments.

https://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-met/collection-areas/musical-instruments
Site of the Music Dept. of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which has a collection of ca. 5,000 musical instruments from around the world.

https://www.musicindustryhowto.com/how-to-clean-a-piano-fingerprints/
How to clean a piano and get rid of fingerprints on the keys.

https://pianoreport.com/
Explains the difference between the various types of digital pianos and keyboards. Offers information about the best digital piano brands, as well as up-to-date reviews of the top 10 digital pianos/keyboards at various price points.

http://www.ptg.org/
The Piano Page, site of the Piano Technicians’ Guild. Heaps of information about the piano, useful links, photos.

http://www.rennerusa.com/
For those fascinated by the craft of piano construction; features virtual-action model of working parts.

http://www.steinway.com/
Learn about instrument care and things to take note of when selecting a piano, take a virtual tour of the factory, check out the newest models, buy Steinway swag.

http://www.uk-piano.org/history/history.html
British site with loads of information on piano history, articles on famous makes like Broadwood, virtual tour of a piano factory, a forum where you can “ask an expert” where to find information on your piano (free).

For Piano Teacher-Performers

http://fairuse.stanford.edu/
Overview of copyright and fair use laws, links to key sites

http://www.bulletproofmusician.com/how-to-eliminate-memory-slips/
Good article on playing from memory.

https://www.musictheory.net/exercises
Free theory drills and ear training exercises, chord and analysis calculators, staff paper generator, tempo tapper, etc.), One has to pay for the enhanced offline version. The older Classic Edition offers theory lessons, aural and keyboard trainers and various utilities. Comes in seven languages.

http://keyboardpedagogy.org/pianopedagogyforum
Back issues of the Piano Pedagogy Forum, now available on the Frances Clark Center website.

http://www.pianoeducation.org/
Site of the West Mesa Music Teachers Association, has over 1000 pages of information: audition room, composer list and FAQs, as well as articles on aspects of teaching.

http://mpa.org/all-publishers/
MPA directory of music publishers, both domestic and foreign.

http://www.myfunpianostudio.com/piano-teachers-playground/piano-teacher-resources/
Free theory/ear training exercises, articles on teaching (e,g, group lessons, improvisation, business aspects) and on student motivation. Geared toward teachers of beginning and elem. level students.

https://keystoimagination.com/
Games, books, tapes and many other teaching supplements; also a reference section for help in music theory/history and group piano teaching.

http://www.nyphilkids.org/
The game room of the New York Philharmonic. Loads of fun games introducing composers, musical instruments, composition skills, regular and young people’s concerts featuring the New York Philharmonic. Certain parts require Adobe Flash.

http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php
Lively Piano World acoustic and digital piano forums covering choosing a piano, upcoming music events, teaching strategies, etc.

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