Piano Triets

https://pianoraag.wordpress.com/piano-triets-resources - information originally published on the Severnside Composers Alliance website.

New book! Rāga Jogiya Kalingra “Aroma of Saffron” (Christmas 2019)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1650187777 Published Christmas 2019 The word rāga literally means ‘to colour’, and from that also ‘to induce passion’ or ‘emotion’. The musical term rāga refers to a performance, within the melodic and structural conventions of Indian classical music, that evokes a particular emotion. Rāga Jogiya Kalingra “Aroma of Saffron” evokes a mood of wonder: It…

Bollywood piano music

I am asked every so often if I have any Indian pop music for piano. I usually say no. But finally I thought I'd do one, through SMP's arrangement scheme, and it's been fun. So, here is my new piano arrangement of hit Bollywood song https://youtu.be/C7DGBbc5Hhg Kisi Se Pyar Ho Jaye - available to buy exclusively…

Raags on demand…

[Spring 2020 Update - these two ragas/raags are now included in the second edition of Indian Ragas for Piano Made Easy] After requests for some specific raags, I've done two more easy piano adaptations - Raag Malhar and Raag Chayanat - done in the format of the ‘easy’ book (“Indian Raags for Piano Made Easy”), ie:…

Review (July 2018) by Fiona Lau – Music Teacher Magazine

New, nice review - by Fiona Lau (in Music Teacher Magazine - available to buy from https://pocketmags.com/music-teacher-magazine/july-2018) - of my "Indian Raags for Piano Made Easy" book. "I can see this book being extremely useful to: those who teach world music and would value a keyboard approach to it; classical pianists wanting a wonderfully approachable…

Piano music inspired by the Chinese pipa

New - Pipa Dreams in Imperial Garden (April 2018) for solo piano, is an attempt to capture something of the essence of the Chinese lute. The pipa is a strummed and plucked, pear-shaped instrument, with four strings (typically tuned A D E A), characteristically using frequent fast tremolo with all of the right fingers repeatedly plucking…

The creative process behind the Indian raag compositions for piano

https://serenademagazine.com/series/music-education/how-to-play-indian-sitar-raags-on-a-piano/  Published 10 April 2018 Composer John Pitts explains the creative process behind the Indian raag compositions for piano solo in his new book “How to Play Indian Sitar Raags on a Piano” So, please indulge me with this imaginary scenario:1) A sitar player in India who also happens to love European classical music. He…

The intense pleasure of improvising Indian raags on a piano

http://www.delacreatividadalpiano.com/2017/11/the-intense-pleasure-of-improvising.html An article first appearing on Agustín Manuel Martinez's blog 1 November 2017. Many of the readers of Agustin’s blog will have first-hand experience of the great joy of playing the piano. Those who improvise, or who play around with little musical ideas of their own, or who compose, or who play around with blues or…

Revelling in the moment

An article first published here: https://pianodao.com/2017/08/17/revelling-in-the-moment As a pianist, I’ve always loved the actual sound of the piano. It is a very personal instrument. I’m not knocking the usefulness of an electric keyboard, but for me nothing beats the responsiveness and the intimate resonance of a real piano, with the unstruck strings reverberating in sympathy with the played keys. Intimate, because the physical sound is at its most absorbing up close and personal.

The story of the book

An article about the story behind the book, originally published here: https://crosseyedpianist.com/2017/01/07/piano-raags/ In this guest post, John explains how his fascination with Indian raags began, leading eventually to his new book….. My fascination in Indian raags (also spelled raga/rag) was sparked back in 1994-95 during a gap year in Pakistan before going on to study…