What happens when you mix an accomplished Writer/Director, a gifted Composer/Pianist, and Youtube? You get Player Piano - a sensational duo made up of Tom Grey and Sonya Belousova. Together these two artists create music videos that put a classical spin on popular songs and soundtrack themes. Their YouTube channel has over 100,000 subscribers and well over 5,000,000 views. I had the chance to talk with them about their success, music, and the production of their music videos.
Together Tom Grey and Sonya Belousova make up Player Piano, could you tell us how this all got started?
Tom: It began a few years ago when I was the head producer for comic book legend Stan Lee's (Marvel) YouTube Channel: World of Heroes. I was looking for a new show
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Is Player Piano something that you focus on full-time?
Tom: It certainly feels like full-time as my role extends far beyond directing content. I'm also raising money, dealing with taxes/insurance, hiring crew, editing, marketing, etc. So yes, at the moment I spend a huge amount of my time on it, but it isn't a big enough operation that I can dedicate myself fully to it. My other muse is my writing. Currently I'm working on finishing up a middle-grade fantasy adventure novel.
Sonya: Yes and no. A lot of my time is dedicated to Player Piano, especially when we’re in process of releasing videos. A lot of arrangements I write are technically quite challenging and therefore require some time to both write and learn them. Moreover, I like reimagining the concept of the original composition since simply transcribing the music for a different instrument or set of instruments doesn’t appeal to me. Whenever writing a Player Piano arrangement I have to fully dedicate myself to it as there’re a lot of deadlines to be met (recording, mixing, shooting,
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Most seem to be video game themed. Is this because people want to hear that type of music or do you have a particular interest in it?
Tom: Yes and no. I know I certainly have an interest in video game themes as I grew up in the 8-bit generation and there is a great deal of nostalgia associated with those themes. But in reality most of the themes we've done are based off of movies and TV. At the moment it feels like we focus on videogames because we just released the 8-bit themes album. That particular album was a perk that we offered our supporters during a crowdfund campaign that we wrapped up in January. But going forward, it will be a healthy mix of all kinds of music.
Sonya: So far we have released two albums. The first one was a compilation of various arrangements of Film/TV scores like Doctor Who and Ghost Waltz (main title of Stepford Wives), Anime scores like Akira, classical pieces like Montagues and Capulets from Romeo and Juliet by Sergey Prokofiev, popular songs like Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen and video games like Street Fighter and Tetris. As Tom mentioned, our second 8-bit Themes Piano Album was in fact a perk we offered during our indiegogo campaign. Tom is a huge fan of video games. I belong more to the Film/TV world. However, I had a blast arranging all those 8-bit video game songs for the album. Overall, we’re trying not to focus on any particular genre but to stay as diverse
It 's now run by the father-son team of Bill and Kurt, who inherited it from William 's son and Bill 's father, Floyd.
International, Inc., in January 2002 after Dave Thomas, 69, passed away from cancer. In the words
The few music films I enjoy by Goldsmith is Planet of the Apes, the Star Trek series and Looney Tunes: Back in Action. In Planet of the Apes he did an amazing job with the piano giving it much sound effects. This movie is one of the most memorable movie moments in the history of cinema because of Jerry Goldsmith's ground breaking musical contribution. Goldsmith's musical piece focuses on the drama that the apes experienced in modern day America, with both Zia and Cornelius getting a delicate melody all to themselves. Planet of the Apes later became a sequel.
In Player Piano, everything is controlled by machines and computers and depends on productivity. The managers and engineers only create new programs for more productive production. Even the rates of production and consumption are calculated by a computer (EPICAC), which is seated in the large Carlsbad cavern system. The EPICAC computer even determines the people's careers and in this way their whole lives. It gives intelligence tests to everyone, and on the basis of their results it sorts people into two categories - suitable for university entering exams and suitable for 'work'. The university studies allow their graduates to become managers, engineers, writers or public relation workers. You may become a writer only if
together in 2009 when his videos captured the interest of a manager who then contacted him and helped
Studying the various aspects of this class, has awakened my senses to the beautiful sounds of each instrument; therefore, it was difficult to choose one. Nevertheless, I chose the piano for the simple reason that it is an instrument that my son and I both enjoy playing.
Cindy Hageman holds a Bachelor of Music in Piano Pedagogy from the University of North Texas, a Master of Music in Piano Performance and Piano Pedagogy from the University of Oklahoma, and post-graduate work towards a Ph.D. in Music Theory at the University of North Texas.
The majority of the music is orchestral-based with electronic elements, as well as dark ambient, electro rock (These tracks
I love music and I have dedicated a lot of my time to what I love. I have been in the Children’s Chorus of Crane (CCC), played piano, and been in the Clarkson Golden Knotes a cappella group. From all of these musical experiences, I learned to become a better musician. I learned that the benefit of producing music outweighs the time and dedication I must put into it. I have experienced the satisfaction of performing music for other’s enjoyment. These are talents I will be able to take with me forever.
I am normally struck by the meaning of a song, the lyrics and how they are delivered. Yet when I met David Knight, a soloist who focuses entirely on his skills playing acoustic guitar, I was able to learn why musicians are so drawn to the instrumental aspect of their work.
Most of the history takes place during the years of the Regency that the popularity of the Piano and the Harpsichord instruments intersect, they both have seen their time in the spotlight. Many of the more affluent homes during this period had both keyboard instruments, nowadays you mostly see a Piano instead. But though they are somewhat similar in appearance, they are very different in terms of their construction, their touch and feel when being played, and the quality and volume of the sounds which they can produce.
Roine Stolt adds: "It is not aiming at being new Yes music; just new music, modern and classical, rock and ethno, tribal and orchestrated, grooving and floating. Hopefully in the true spirit of "progressive" - leaning forward, surprising and also comforting with familiar run-arounds. We've been "inventing" as we go along - Jon is an endless source of new ideas. We've been bouncing ideas back and forth for months and as a result there are probably dozens of versions of these songs. It's been a very interesting and rewarding time and the result is just insanely detailed."
George uses a more uptempo type music to portray the positive aspects of the movie and then when the negative serie of events come in he switches to a more pessimistic style music. George does this to really change the mood and pull everything together in the scene. They music is a key part of making a scene seem better or worse than it would’ve been if the music would have been eliminated from the scenario. An example of this is when Paul and his family are listening to the radio and hear that the President’s plane has been shot down they start playing a really dark and horror styled music to make the moment of despair seem more understandable. George does just the opposite at the end of the movie, again, when Paul and Tatiana were looking for Tatiana’s nieces he use a joyful, soft song with a kids choir when they finally found them to illuminate the delightfulness of the scene. George uses different different songs and music choices to really pull in the whole scenario but to also help put true emotion into it.
Even though it is in Japanese, you can feel this sensational feeling. “Never in my life did I thought of ‘oh hey let's listen to some classical music’ but this anime opened a new taste in music in me and I'm grateful for that” (myanimelist). Listening to the music in this anime has also changed my taste of music. The opening of the anime gives a really good invite to why you should watch this anime. To get viewers to watch an anime, the anime usually plays a good song with pictures of what you will see in the anime. The soundtracks set the mood of what the viewer will see within the anime. While watching the openings with the soundtracks in it, you can see all the characters and what you will also see within the anime. The ending of the anime shows the closing of the anime and has a soundtrack. Both the openings and endings can be considered as music videos. The genre of both the opening and endings is Japanese pop. The openings and endings reflect the anime. Within the anime, the instruments that are mostly played are the piano and violin. Kousei Arima plays the piano while Kaori plays the violin. Also, in this anime, the producers include classical music like Frédéric Chopin and Beethoven. I recommend watching this anime due to the soundtracks you will enjoy listening to. Looking at the amazing plotline and soundtrack comes the captivating animations of the
The beautiful sound of piano music has captured the hearts of people since the early eighteenth century. Since then, many musicians have dedicated their lives to this instrument. Some players even play piano so well that it may seem that this instrument is easy to play. However, to be able to play the piano well isn’t easy; it takes a lot of skill. To become a good piano player, one must love music very much, have good finger techniques, and body flexibility.