How to play music box dancer on piano

Music Box Dancer Tutorial | PIanote Free Online Piano Lessons

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Music Box Dancer is one of those classic songs you know as soon as you hear it. It’s an instrumental earworm that you’ll be humming for days, and we’ve got a short and sweet arrangement to teach you, step-by-step.

This is a more intermediate song to learn, but if you take your time and practice with proper technique– you will be amazed at what you can accomplish.

Download the full score here.

Your History Lesson 👩🏼‍🏫

Written and recorded by Canadian musician Frank Mills, Music Box Dancer was an international hit in the late Seventies featuring an arpeggiated piano melody made to sound like, well, a music box! 🩰

The song was originally recorded in 1974, but it wasn’t initially a hit. Years later in 1978, Frank’s label released a different song of his as a single, with “Music Box Dancer” on the B-side. The single was sent to easy-listening stations, but one copy was mistakenly sent to a pop station. The program director played the track and could not figure out why it had been sent to his station, so he played the B-side to see if the record label had been mistakenly marked. He liked “Music Box Dancer” and added it to his radio playlist.

In only a few weeks it was the #1 song on the station and its popularity spread rapidly from there, ultimately reaching #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. It was Frank Mill’s only top 40 pop hit.
[read more at wikipedia]

🤔🤔 That’s Interesting: A few notes are missing in the repeated introduction of the main melody. This could not be corrected, as Mills did not have the money to record another take!

Getting Started

Today we’re playing in the key of C (All the white keys!), but don’t let that fool you- there is a lot going on here. It may seem intimidating, but don’t hesitate to give it a try if you are a beginner who understands the basics of reading music!

Let’s check it out.

Follow along on the video, and If it looks a little complicated to start– don’t worry. I’ll walk you through the melody, and how it’s essentially chords broken up into repeating patterns (arpeggios), so you might be able to wrap your head around it a little easier.

🎹📝 Take note: If you see a symbol like this, know that you are supposed to one octave higher than what is written on the page. This just keeps the two sides of the Grand Staff from getting tangled up in each other and makes things much easier to read on the page.

Extra tip! Your piano can’t adjust to your playing position, but your bench can! It may sound like simple advice, but sliding your bench to center yourself on what your playing will make performing a lot easier.

Watch for Patterns

Music is built on patterns! As you play through songs you’ll notice repeating melodies and chord progressions. Songs can be broken down into these repeating sections and will be more manageable to learn. Watch for these patterns in your sheet music to simplify your sight-reading:

🎹📝 Take note: Once you reach the end of the first 12 bars, loop back to the beginning and play through a second time, but be ready to skip to the second ending, making a jump from measure 11 to measure 13.

Tips and Tricks

Because of the higher-placed bass notes in the song, you will have to share the space between your left and right hands. I’ll show you where each finger fits along the way, but keep in mind the treble clef instructs your right hand and the bass clef handles your right.

Work through this song in small sections and you’ll find it eventually all comes together. Take time with each part. Go slowly. Go slower! If you start at a pace you can manage and work up your speed it is going to set up your muscle memory for success and you’ll be playing like a pro in no time!

One More Thing!

The rolling chords in Music Box Dancer are the signature hooks of the song and they are so fun to play. Feel free to skip this part of the song if you think it’s above your skill level, but don’t be afraid to give it a try, because it is very rewarding and easy enough to wrap your head around once you see it’s just playing through a chord quickly instead of playing it in a block.

For those signature rolls in Music Box Dancer, the first one is the F Major chord in its second inversion:

C F A C

Set your hand up with the right shape and roll it over the keys quickly from left to right, finishing on the high ‘C’ note. The same goes for the G7 chord (or any chord you might want to apply this to). The G7 roll goes like this:

G B D G

It’s simple in theory but it will take some practice to get right. Once you’ve got it mastered though, that’s one extra flourish you can add to your playing, and apply to whatever you see fit in your musical explorations. 🙌

Practice Makes Progress

Now that you’ve got all the skills you need to learn, play, and perform Music Box Dancer, it’s just a matter of taking the time to apply that knowledge with your best practicing technique. Be patient, practice with purpose, and don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone!

Enjoy your time and the piano, and happy practicing

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Lisa Witt has been teaching piano for 19 years and in that time has helped hundreds of students learn to play the songs they love. Lisa received classical piano training through the Royal Conservatory of Music, but she has since embraced popular music and playing by ear in order to accompany herself and others.

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5 ancient musical devices from the collections of Russian museums. From small boxes to gramophones

Publications in the Museums section

In the 19th century, music boxes were considered a luxury item in the home and a sign of the refined taste of its owners. They were made in the form of caskets, miniature musical instruments. Later, other devices appeared - symphonies and gramophones. With the help of the Artefact multimedia guide, learn about ancient musical devices in Russian museum collections: click on "points of interest", read interesting facts and listen to audio guides.

The Artefact augmented reality application can be used in the museum itself: just download the exhibition and point the camera at the exhibit. And in the material of the portal "Culture.RF" - a little about the history of these jukeboxes.

Swiss music box

The Nevyansk State Historical and Architectural Museum has a box made in 1908 in Switzerland. It was in this country that the first musical boxes in Europe began to be made. At 179In the 6th year, the Genevan watchmaker Antoine Favre designed a metal comb on which, with the help of cloves, a short melody could be played. At first, it was inserted into watches and perfume bottles - then elegant containers with perfume were hidden in figurines that were opened using mechanisms. Then the design was complicated and began to be placed in separate boxes - this is how music boxes appeared. In 1815, the first factory for their production was opened in Switzerland, and caskets were delivered from this country, including to Russia.

The mechanism of the box from the Nevyansk Museum is made of special steel — the comb tongues emit a thin ringing with a crystal tint. The box made of dark wood is covered with floral ornaments, and musical instruments are depicted on the lid. It can still be started today, the handle is located on the right side of the case. From above, through the glass, you can observe the movement of the main shaft with teeth. The music box can play six different tunes in a row.

Music box "Royal"

The box from the collection of the Children's Art Gallery of Samara is made in the shape of a piano. It was made in the Swiss company Jobin Music in the middle of the 19th century. This factory is still in operation today.

The device can play multiple songs. When one ends, the main shaft shifts and the next motive sounds. The timbre of caskets depends not only on the material of the shaft and comb, but also on the wood from which the body is made. To amplify the sound, its walls must be thin.

In the design of the museum box, the Swiss craftsmen used a complex decoration method - the marquetry technique. This is a special type of mosaic, when a pattern is laid out from different types of wood. Thin plates were glued to the base, sanded and covered with a small layer of varnish. Decorate the box and elements of bone and fabric.

Symphony

in the children's picture in the children's picture. also the jukebox of the 19th century, the symphony. It was made at the Symphonion firm, which belonged to a major merchant and industrialist, Johann Philipp Müller.

Music boxes were called symphonies, in which a metal disk with teeth was installed instead of a shaft. It rotated over a comb with tongues of different lengths. Unlike a box with a fixed shaft, the discs could be changed so the device could play other pieces of music.

The first symphony was invented by the German Paul Lohmann in the 1880s. Soon these musical devices became popular: they were ordered to houses, cafes, taverns and barber shops. The covers of the symphonies were decorated with paintings, mosaics and engravings.

Music box

In the 19th century, manufacturers of musical devices often went to the trick. In order not to pay patent royalties, they slightly changed the appearance of the product and gave it a different name. For example, a symphony was called both a musical box and a melody.

The Children's Art Gallery of Samara has such a music box, it was assembled at the factory of Johann Philipp Müller. The mechanism is started using the handle on the right side of the case. A flat drawer slides out at the back - removable disks with music were stored in it. The lid of the case was decorated with wooden mosaics: a bouquet of flowers was laid out using the marquetry technique, from thin veneer of different colors and textures.

The Symphony did not last long on the music device market. He could not reproduce his voice, so at the beginning of the 20th century he was supplanted by the gramophone - a device that played records.

Gramophone

In the Museum of the family of Emperor Nicholas II in Tobolsk you can see an old Thorens gramophone. The imperial family was exiled to this city in 1917. For some time they were allowed to use luxury items, so this gramophone was sent from Tsarskoye Selo to the exiled Romanovs.

Gramophones first appeared in Switzerland. Since 1883, the mechanic Herman Thorens has been making music boxes and watches, and since 1903 he began to produce devices that could reproduce not only melodies, but also the voice of a person. Soon his gramophones were recognized as one of the best in Europe.

The case is made of lacquered wood, and inside the box there is a spring motor. It sets in motion a special vertical shaft, on which the plate is attached. For such a device, they were made from natural resin - shellac. An audio track was scratched on the surface with a special tool.