Intermediate level software/book recommendations

[danielsanderson]

Hi all -

I've been having a great time with the book and disk that came with the Clavinova 207. The recordings on the disk are great for listening as well as instruction. It's surprisingly satisfying to stumble through the right hand of a moderately difficult piece while the piano follows me with the left hand. I especially like that the book and disk include pieces spanning many levels of difficulty, some of which I can reasonably attempt and others to which I can aspire.

I'm looking for other book/disk combinations with arrangements of comparable difficulty and quality. Does anyone have any to recommend? It's difficult to tell the intended audience of some of the books available on the web, and my local dealer only has introductory level materials. I'd prefer pieces with canonical arrangements and their intended key signatures to easy-play arrangements and transpositions.

Also, is there any Clavinova-compatible software that provides a full orchestral accompaniment for the major classical piano + orchestra works?

I'm aware of free sources of MIDIs, and so far I've had mixed success finding quality sheet music to match MIDIs I've been playing with (often leaving me to simply load the MIDI into a score program and print it out). I guess I'm hoping to find more commercial packages of a similar quality to the book and disk that came with the piano.

Any software recommendations in general? Any must-haves that really show off the piano? A lot of it is awfully expensive, and while I'm sure some of it is worth it, it seems risky to order some without a recommendation.

Thanks, all!
-- Dan

[Midi Magic]

Hi Dan


Yamaha do a collection of books with floppy that go from begingers to advanced.

They are in a series called DISK ORCHESTRA COLLECTION and EUROPEAN DISK ORCHESTRA.

The first series had about 70 titles in the collection but most are now out of print. There are 44 titles is the European collection.
Again most out of print.

Where are you from?

[danielsanderson]

Seattle, WA, USA. I just ordered "Classical Masterpieces" from YamahaMusicSoft.com, which claims to be of the "Advanced" level. Four pieces, including Brandenburg No. 5, which I've been looking forward to dinking around with ever since I got the piano (and had some fun with a public domain MIDI I found). If it's too difficult for me (and Brandenburg 5 certainly is), it'll still be fun, and either way I'll have a good gauge of what their levels are. Too bad there doesn't seem to be a good way to search by level of difficulty.

YamahaMusicSoft's "Clavisoft - You Are the Artist - DOC" section appears to be all E-Z play and Disney songs. Is there another section of their store with more advanced material? Do other stores have better catalogs?

Do Yamaha or Hal Leonard distribute printed catalogs of their Clavinova titles?

Thanks!
-- Dan

[Midi Magic]

Hi Dan

Email me direct @ magic_midi@hotmail.com

I wll send you my list of DOC with their levels.
They do 4 Jazz disks which are at Advanced level.

Do Yamaha or Hal Leonard distribute printed catalogs of their Clavinova titles?

They should do, but as I said most are out of stock now. All of the DOC disks are in the ESEQ format and Yamaha seem to be concetrating on Midi files.

Any way I have all of the DOC and about half of the EDO. I have these as ESEQ and Midi.

Midi Magic

[Dionz]

I'm a new owner of a cvp-205.

In the package, I have a diskette + music sheet book for the 50 classical songs for piano.

Should the musical sheets book for the built-in songs (120 songs) also come in the package? Yes, the scores are available in the LCD display, but... paper hardcopy is still very helpful as well...

(couldn't find it in the box)

[Midi Magic]

Hi Dionz

Not as far as I know. I certainly didn't get a book for the Demo Songs. Like you, all I got was the book and disk with 50 songs in.

You may (but I don't think so) be able to copy the demo songs to disk. Then you could print them out using a PC.

Yamaha has NEVER EVER let you get at the Demo songs in the past, so I wouldn't get your hopes up.

It may even be possible to send them out via midi, then use the PC to record them. Again Yamaha tends not to let you do this because of (c).

Midi Magic

[Dionz]

Originally posted by Midi Magic


...
Yamaha has NEVER EVER let you get at the Demo songs in the past, so I wouldn't get your hopes up.
...

Midi Magic


I own a yamaha keyboard (PSR260). It came with 100 demo songs + the music sheet book for 94 of those demo songs.
That's why I was hoping the same thing with the cvp (which is 15 times more expensive than my keyboard...) :rolleyes:

However, I will try that copy+paste/save-to-diskette technique later today...

[Midi Magic]

Hi

When I say Demo songs I mean the ones built into the keyboard.
ie the songs on the keyboards ROM. Not songs that come on a disk.

Midi Magic

[Dionz]

Yes, Midi Magic, I heard you.

I was responding to your remark that :

>> "Yamaha has NEVER EVER let you get at the Demo songs in the past..."

when I said that my previous yamaha portable keyboard (PSR260) came with 100 built-in demo songs (in the ROM) + a music book featuring the partitions of those demo songs. There was no disk coming with this PSR. Then, it must be one of the few Yamaha instruments that come with a book for the demo songs (?). Refer to PSR260 page (http://www.yamahapkclub.com/english/products/portato/psr260/p260.htm)

and I conclude that now the cvp-205 comes with:
- disk of 50 classical songs + book
- 120 built-in demo songs + no book

Dion

p.s. pardonnez-moi pour mon anglais

[yvonnemarjanb]

Here in Europe I got the demo songs paper book as well as the floppy disc. I also have a 207.
regards.

[Dionz]

Originally posted by yvonnemarjanb
Here in Europe I got the demo songs paper book as well as the floppy disc. I also have a 207.
regards.

are we talking about the paper book + diskette for the demo songs (built-in)? where are you located in europe?

i called my dealer and Yamaha France, and they both confirmed that there is no paper book + diskette for the demo songs.