CHAT

Friday, September 28

Consider this extended jazz rendition of the Flintstone's theme.

Asian Afternoon - several tunes popular in Asia played by Dorothy


Asian Afternoon

1. Ballad for Adelaide
2. AriRang
3. Butterfly Song
4. Springtime in Northern Country
5. Green Island
6. Promise in the Wind
7. Steven's Song

To be added... Love Story, Ballad for Adelaide... --editors note.

Thursday, September 27

We're available!

Email us at rick_potvin@yahoo.com or phone 602 371 0094~

September Stylings


September Stylings  5 

Piano and Vocals by By Dorothy Motto
A playlist of 5 songs with about 14 minute runtime. No backtracks.

Embraceable You
A Gershwin tune played by Dorothy.

Meditation
This is a beautiful Latin song. Dorothy plays this using the "Orchestration Style". She uses an authentic digital tenor sax with symphony strings for the melody instruments. 

The Summer Wind
Frank Sinatra made this song famous. Dorothy plays it with an Orchestra Style using a tenor saxaphone and symphonic strings for melody instruments and she adds her vocals to this piece. 

Fly Me to the Moon
Another song made famous by Sinatra, Dorothy plays the piano in a Liberace style then adds the orchestra, a vocal, and finally a piano solo verse. 

You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You
Both Sinatra and Dean Martin made this famous. Dorothy plays it with a Virtual Orchestra on the Technics Piano and adds her vocals. 


Rick and Dorothy at the Golden Buddha

About this blog

We'll keep our clients updated here.

Events, Socials, Corporate functions, Retirement communities, Christmas, Duelling Pianos and Singalong.

Events, Socials, Corporate functions, Retirement communities, Christmas, Duelling Pianos and Singalongs... to be written.

Music Memory Playlist starting with Phantom of the Opera

phantom memories Embracable You fly me to the moon satin doll more serrento italy speak softly love 001 dor 2 Our Day Will Come rick - fire and rain - taylor.mov NADIA'S THEME my faveorite things -rick route 66 rick - moondance.mov rick moon river for dor - besame mucho - dor - tonight we love.mov dor technics1 strangers in the night Dorothy Motto Meditation rick pianoman dor malegana' b

Sights, Sounds and Memories of the Golden Buddha Gig 2007-2012

To be written... but for now, a few links.

[Menu and Homepage]

[Yelp Restaurant Reviews including many positive piano comments]

[Google restaurant phoenix piano-- results get us as first hit]

About Our Repertoire and Piano Style

Both of us can play a wide variety of styles and can take requests. Dorothy's repertoire extends over the whole of the 20th century popular music scene and Rick likes the 1970's a lot.

We most often take turns keeping the piano music going all evening. Occasionally, if we have a second piano we can play duelling pianos. We have a number of popular standard vocals as well.

We do singalongs for birthdays, retirement communities and Christmas.




About Rick Potvin and Dorothy Motto.

Hello and welcome to our self introduction.

We're best known, recently, for our 7-nights a week piano playing at the Golden Buddha restaurant at the Chinese Cultural Center for 6 years, since 2007. That establishment closed on August 20, 2012. We scouted around Phoenix for new piano playing venues and found George and Sons in Ancala where we played for 6 months through the summer of 2013. In coming weeks, we're booked for private parties in Fountain Hills and Scottsdale. Our availability is variable so call us for a date-check if you're interested in having us play at your venue.

Before Golden Buddha, we we both involved in teaching from our private home based studios and playing at a few other restuarants-- Joyful in Scottsdale and the now closed Shangri La in Chandler.

Previous to that we sold pianos and organs for Fletcher Music and Shroeders Organ and Piano. Rick began with Shroeders in 1993 and Dorothy, with the same company in 1976. When Shroeder's closed for good in 2002, we teamed up and began teaching and playing out as a team.


Contact

Email rick_potvin@yahoo.com

Phone 602 371 0094

Location - N. Central Phoenix in Sunnyslope near the I-51 exit at Northern.

We can reach Sun City in the north valley as well as Sun Lakes in the south valley in less than 1 hr so we can travel the greater Phoenix area. If you do not have a piano, we have a portable professional grade piano. Minimum booking time is 2 hours. Call for rates please. Thank you!

Ask about our Chinese and Asian music repertoire!

We're always updating our Youtube Channel. Here are some current tunes on a playlist we're working on for an upcoming gig at Seasons 52 Restaurant (Summer 2014).


[Direct link to the front page of our Youtube Channel





Youtube test for autoplay embed with no related video and play once

Sample sets you can enjoy right now!

Sample sets you can enjoy right now!

"Musical Memories" (1 hr.)



 Rick and Dorothy at Golden Buddha (40 min)

 Dorothy on Piano Orchestra (17 min.)

Wednesday, September 26

Playlist of 24 songs.... possible use in demo for 1:15

Moon River vocal/piano by Rick-- 2 versions in a playlist.

September Stylings 5


September Stylings  5 

Piano and Vocals by By Dorothy Motto
A playlist of 5 songs with about 14 minute runtime. No backtracks.

Embraceable You
A Gershwin tune played by Dorothy.

Meditation
This is a beautiful Latin song. Dorothy plays this using the "Orchestration Style". She uses an authentic digital tenor sax with symphony strings for the melody instruments. 

The Summer Wind
Frank Sinatra made this song famous. Dorothy plays it with an Orchestra Style using a tenor saxaphone and symphonic strings for melody instruments and she adds her vocals to this piece. 

Fly Me to the Moon
Another song made famous by Sinatra, Dorothy plays the piano in a Liberace style then adds the orchestra, a vocal, and finally a piano solo verse. 

You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You
Both Sinatra and Dean Martin made this famous. Dorothy plays it with a Virtual Orchestra on the Technics Piano and adds her vocals. 


       



Tuesday, September 25

Monday, September 17

Me doing Desperado, a bit desperate on the high notes, vocally.



Enter my full discussion lecture about Desperado HERE



I tried this tonight after seeing it joked about on a Sinefeld episode. It's a pretty cool song. And it's pretty easy in terms of chord changes. I have to do the whole thing though and that'll take some work.

 
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Responses


Send in the Clowns


                         


SEND IN THE CLOWNS playlist.

September 17 2012 at 5:57 AM
Rick  




 Piano versions with vocals - PLAYLIST

Responses








Sunday, September 16

Saturday, September 15

Bridge over troubled water, Simon and Garfunkel... 1981 in New York.

Consider the electric piano in the background.


BRIDGE OVER TROUBled water

September 15 2012 at 6:53 AM
Rick55  


Consider the various approaches to re-creating this song for yourself on your piano or keyboard... or simply by singing along, especially with today's free online kareoke's. Numerous approaches to any song  are interesting in their own way. My favorite interest is to chart the chord progressions in Roman numerals. In the coming hours and day, the lesson will zero in on that aspect. [Enter Discussion Forum

 
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Responses

Friday, September 14

HAPPY HOUR... Irish Pub singalong...


Traditional piano lessons here at PianoLessonsEtc are certainly part of my system... but consider the Etc. part very carefully... Today, Etc. is an Irish Pub singalong. [PLAYLIST of 12 VIDEOS.... to play tonight... ] ASK ME about piano lessons for IRISH SONGS!





IRISH PUB SINGALONG Discussion-- Learn how to play and sing Irish tunes on your piano.

September 14 2012 at 12:22 PM
Rick55  







 
   Respond to this message   
Responses







vi - IV - II - vi // I - II7 -- I - II7 - I - II7 - I II7 ---->What song is this?

Try these chord changes first... and see if you can recognize the song... or... simply familiarize yourself with the sound and feel of the chord changes... THEN go listen to the song... [here]

Print one page out... and take these to the piano or keyboard.

vi - IV - II - vi  

I - II7 -- I - II7 - I - II7 - I - II7

Wedding songs... in a youtube playlist for piano students.

[Wedding Playlist] This is just to get started... there are 29 songs here...some are suitable for piano.

Tuesday, September 11

St. Louis Blues Playlist -- 38 videos - for your "learning enjoyment" this morning.

Sing along to Alexander's Ragtime Band - now added to our repertoire for your Senior residence function!

Irving Berlin's 1918 composition, Alexander's Ragtime Band, was performed by many in the 20th century. Obviously it's not as popular as it once was... but it's astonishing to see it presented in a variety of ways by 20th Century performers, now immortalized on YouTube. The last link is a Kareoke singalong. [Recommended Videos pre-selected for you]

Blues lessons sold on the internet look good!

There are a lot of online piano lesson marketers-- including me! -- but there are only a limited number of them that I've looked at closely enough to be able to recommend them. The course called Blues for Piano and Keyboard by PlayPianoToday.com looks good to me although I haven't ordered it. The course consists of 92 lessons either downloaded or via CD's mailed to you. Each lesson is 19.95. Presumably this course would take at least 92 weeks to master, which is reasonable in my view. I'm not a paid endorser. There are free samples... and here's a good one. [Free lesson video... and discussion]

Monday, September 10

The Rick 'n Dorothy Piano Show - Continuous background for restaurants.


Looking for live, non-invasive piano music for your restarant, hotel lobby or private function? 
Rick and Dorothy play hundreds of tunes on the piano at very competitive rates in the Phoenix area. 
Call (602) 371-0094 or email rick_potvin@yahoo.com.

Enjoy about a half hour of piano stylings by Rick and Dorothy  right now on this Youtube Playlist!
             

Our Repertoire Includes....

Frank Sinatra, George Gerswin and Cole Porter Songs. 
Standards from the 1930's, 40's and 50's. 
Broadway Shows like.... Phantom of the Opera, Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, Music Man, Fiddler on the Roof, Chicago, Oklahoma, South Pacific, The King and I, and Kismet.
Romantic songs, Love songs, Latin, Yanni  and Jim Brickman songs. 
Dean Martin, Tony Bennett, Johnny Mathis, Barbara Steisand and Celine Dion songs.... 
Burt Bacharach, Beatles, Barry Manilo, Scott Joplin Ragtimes, Classical songs.... 
Italian songs, Chinese, Big Band, and Elvis Presley songs.....
1950's, 60's, 70's and 80's, Soft Rock, Beach Boys, Buddy Holly, Fats Domino songs.... 
Jerry Lee Lewis's Great Balls of Fire, A Whole Lotta Shakin, Boogie Woogie, Bumble Boogie, Tommy Dorsey's Boogie, Niel Diamond's Sweet Caroline, Song Sung Blue, Crackin Rosie, Carol King, James Taylor Songs like You've Got a Friend, Fire and Rain, Billy Joel, Elton John, Rock Songs, and Sing Along songs with sing along books. 





Tuesday, September 4

Patricia It's Patricia is a GREAT teaching song-- this post for PianoEtc.Teachers

I could not find a piano version of this on the YOUtube so here's the next best thing... on a Hammond organ. The Latin rythm and the simple main verse melody of this makes it feasible to use this in a classroom with many students playing at the same time. The bridge is more complicated to play with essential fingering but the class leader/teacher can do it easily enough while the beginner students wait for the easy part again, having a lot of fun. I used to do this at Schroeder's and Fletcher Music. [Discussion, sheet music and lesson assignments]

Sunday, September 2

How and why to listen to Beethoven Piano Sonatas...

In the world of piano playing, the Beethoven Sonatas have been marginalized in favor of Duelling Pianos rock with audience participation. The silly duelling piano philosophy is that the audience must act goofy to have fun. Why isn't intelligent and active listening considered audience participation? It IS, in fact. How to listen to a Beethoven sonata is to be aware of the adventure of what's occurring and how it makes you feel-- and of wondering what will happen next-- as if watching a movie or tv show. Why listen? I believe its therapeutic and at the same time-- raises the intellect in a certain area of the brain, making the mind bigger and more complex, ready for other tasks that are big and complex. So here's a 10 minute sonata, after which you can enter the discussion and possibly fine an easy piano version...



[Lesson Ideas, discussion, sheet music, critiques, youtubes and more] No log in needed. Some moderation. Family oriented.

Don't Stop Believing - Journey