Goodbye Valentine - 131 bpm - Music to Study to

March 6, 2014

I was out walking in LA's San Fernando Valley and this image was arresting enough to make me blow my target pace - it was the 27th of February and my heart just broke.

I haven't touched the piano since the beginning of the year, I had promised myself I would publish God Knows before I started working on something new, so - this is the first session back. I'm playing with an old theme, all 7's and 9's and very simple but kinda cool.

Visually I finally get to play with my LIFX bulb - I saw it on Kickstarter last year and thought it might be perfect. I'm playing with a click at 131 bpm but the light is reacting to the piano in the room - it's not quite where it needs to be yet but I think it's encouraging.

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Video from the Weekend

October 24, 2011

With the arrival of the new iPhone 4S, video suddenly becomes a lot easier. I'll be working out things like lighting, candles, mailchimp T-shirts etc over the next few months, the audio track on this is a little low but you should get the idea. Also not quite sure why YouTube insists on sticking me upside down for the still - odd!

I like the rallentando into a perfect 6 count while I take a drink..awesome!

You can listen to the full track below - hell - you can even download it here ;-)

[audio:oct-21-magix.mp3| titles= Friday Oct 21 2011 Video Development|artists=music2work2 ]

Piano Music Improves Sense of Balance

May 19, 2011

Clearly this doesn't work if you're listening to the piano after work in the pub, but a report in the Archives of Internal Medicine shows that if you're getting on in years this might just be what you need to stay on your feet.

Dalcroze Eurhythmics

Sure, this may sound like a sweeter version of an 80's pop group, but it is actually a form of music and movement education. Developed a century ago by the Swiss composer Emile Jaques-Dalcroze, it is a way of using your body to gain a fuller understanding and deeper meaning of musical expression. It sounds a little weird but actually makes a huge amount of sense and you naturally do it anyway when you're tapping your toes or waving your hand to the beat. If you want to learn more there's a great write up and explanation on the Dalcroze Society of America website.

Back to the research

The study, conducted by Dr. Andrea Trombetti included 134 adults over the age of 65 who were at an increased risk of falling. Over a 6 month period the study group performed a series of multitask exercises that challenged the body's balance control system, these included walking in time to piano music and responding to changes in the music's rhythm. The study found that not only did those in the study group have fewer falls than the control group, they also increased their walking speed and stride length.

Music to Walk to

I think this is brilliant and is just one more piece of information that supports the idea of music being good for you. If you would like to try this out with some piano music I would recommend you try out the Solo Piano Playlist. You can stream the music directly from the site or become a member and download the tracks to your iPod.

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Here's one of my favorite piano pieces - written for a very brave lady who survived cancer: