As of September 2018 you can now buy individual books from Amazon (How to Play Indian Sitar Raags on a Piano UK / USA, Indian Raags for Piano Made EasyUK / USA) or order direct from this website the individual books (cheaper) or both books together (cheaper still!) right here:
Clicking “Buy Now” will take you to Paypal where you can order your copies, pay with a card (or with your paypal account) and put in postal address options etc. You’ll also receive an email receipt.
Delivery times can vary, but usually within the EU/USA/UK/Canada your order should arrive within 1-2 weeks. Deliveries to elsewhere in the world typically take 2-4 weeks.
Both books together: How to Play Indian Sitar Raags on a Piano (2016) & Indian Raags for Piano Made Easy (2018)
Indian Raags for Piano Made Easy DIGITAL EDITION – with Studio Licence for teachers
Your pdf will be emailed to you within one working day and you can then view it, save it and print it. Your download will have a watermark at the top of each page that will specify your name. As a teacher, your Studio Licence entitles you to print and share copies with YOUR OWN pupils only.
A collection of seven piano duets and triets, with an international theme. Written between 1995 and 2015 for performers in UK, France and Denmark. They have the connecting thread of each being inspired by music of a different country. Four of the pieces have roots in traditional music – Indonesian gamelan, North Indian sitar raags, African balaphon ensembles, and British folksong – and the other three were inspired by German organ music (J.S.Bach), American minimalism and Spanish waltz (although it doesn’t sound like it!). Between them, they have been performed in festivals, concerts and international piano duo competitions in UK, Spain, France, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Estonia, Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, Australia and USA. Most of the pieces are cheerful, vibrantly rhythmic and highly energetic, as well as requiring considerable dexterity. Changes for 20 nifty fingers (duet) Passacaglia (duet) Raag Gezellig (duet) Joyful Balaphony (duet) Glittering Gamelan (duet) Are You Going? (triet) Experiencing High Volumes (triet) 2016 Edition.
Pipa Dreams in Imperial Garden (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 a single string. It also uses much dramatic vibrato and wide portamento – sadly unavailable to us pianists. But, like the piano, the pipa is a very expressive instrument, and this piano piece aims to capture some of its distinctive gestures and idiosyncrasies. 6-7 minutes. Advanced.
A collection of 7 Airs & Fantasias for solo piano, composed between 1992 and 2007. The 7 airs are essentially melody-dominated, and the 7 fantasias are pieces in free form with a minimalistic use of repeated and rotating patterns. [79 pages]. Available on CD – https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_1EMIPM08
TOCCATA for piano is a tour de force of driving energy, based on a few simple cells of musical material explored and developed over a ten minute period: technically demanding, mentally strenuous, the music’s energy is regulated until the final release in the last section, where use is made of the entire range of the keyboard, all the thematic fragments converge, and uninterrupted momentum is achieved. Toccata is a concert show-piece for accomplished players (grade 8 and beyond). [29 pages]
Composed for the Kiev Piano Duo (Oleksandra Zaytseva & Dmytro Tavanets) for the Kiev “Chamber Music Session” Festival 2012. Designed as a companion piece for Bartok’s famous Sonata for 2 pianos and percussion. It is a virtuosic piece, lasting c.16 minutes, inspired by British folksong, and includes adaptations of the Dargason jig and the reel Mary Mack, and starts with an attempt to capture some of the ornamented and decorated melody lines typical of Scottish bagpipes. Fully revised 2016.
Scene from Gaelic Faram (Jig in Kiev) is a 6-minute, note-filled, virtuosic piece inspired by British folksong, and includes adaptations of the Dargason jig and the reel Mary Mack, and starts with an attempt to capture some of the ornamented and decorated melody lines typical of Scottish bagpipes. The full 16-minute piece Gaelic Faram (Jig in Kiev) for 2 pianos and 2 percussionists was composed for the Kiev Piano Duo (Oleksandra Zaytseva and Dmytro Tavanets) for the Kiev “Chamber Music Session” Festival 2012. This new arrangement of a 6-minute scene from it, just for 2 pianos, was made in 2016 for the Australian Piano Duo (Vicky Yang & Maggie Chen).
“An Autumn Evening” is a tranquil, relaxing, minimalistic piece in three movements for piano players of an intermediate standard (approximately grades 5-6). Easy listening. [25 pages] 1. Leaves Blowing Around the Park 2. Light Filtering Through the Trees at Dusk 3. Ripples in the Fountain
“A Winter Night” is a tranquil, relaxing, minimalistic piece in three movements for piano players of an intermediate standard (approximately grades 4-5). Easy listening. [15 pages] 1. First Hints of Snow in the Meadow 2. Icy Pond 3. Melting Stream
Two pieces for 2 or 3 pianists at one piano. ARE YOU GOING? for 3 pianists is a fast, complex, layered, polyphonic romp based on the folk-melody Scarborough Fair, pulled around in various time-warps – mesmerising to watch and rewarding to play. CHANGES is for piano duet, a minimalistic counting duel, with sections in both 14 and 15 quavers per bar, building to a climactic and impressive-to-behold finish. Great fun to get your and your friends’ fingers round! (Standard grade 8+). [19 pages]
Two piano quartets (violin, viola, cello & piano) by British composer John Pitts. “Piano Quartet” (12 minutes) was the winning piece in the 2003 Philharmonia Orchestra Martin Musical Scholarship Fund Composition Competition at the Royal Festival Hall in London, and first performed by the Fidelio Piano Quartet. “Typhoid” (5 minutes) was shortlisted by the Society for the Promotion of New Music, and first performed by the Contemporary Consort at The Warehouse, London. The viola part can be replaced by a clarinet – separate clarinet part included. [Violin, Viola/Clarinet, Cello & Piano]
