Calling all Piano Lovers!

For all of us piano players out there, we are all aware of the grueling Bach Prelude & Fugues, or the ever repetitive Czerny exercises. These, of course, are not bad pieces as they are absolutely crucial for your development in the fundamental skills of piano, but every once in a while, we all need to take a break from these pieces and play something more “interesting” – pieces that will save us from the foreboding apprehension that we experience each day prior to the dreaded piano practice.

For me, this saviour appeared in the form of a YouTube piano artist by the name of Kyle Landry. Kyle creates his own arrangements for various anime, movies, video games, and even Disney music. Here are a few samples of his music:

A rendition of Go the Distance from the movie Hercules. A smooth transition from the soft, peaceful, quiet motivation in the beginning to the much more powerful and exciting ending. Inspirational music for getting your homework done.

Gotta Catch em All! Need I say more, the title of the song itself is the embodiment of awesomeness.

Can you feel the Love Tonight. Let the sounds of the piano take you back to your childhood as Kyle captures the romantic and soft atomsphere of the song without sacraficing the excitement by utilizing a freedom of tempo and expressiveness (Rubato) throughout the song.

Finally, for my personal favourite: Naruto Medley Special! A combination of three of the greatest pieces from the anime Naruto.

The best part of all of the pieces presented above is that the sheet music for all of them are downloadable for free on his website, kylelandry.com. These pieces are not only beautiful to listen to, but are also quite difficult to learn; hence, creating enough of a challenge that it will inspire you to practice it every day along with the other pieces that you practice daily. These pieces have become the most enjoyable part of my daily piano practice sessoins as each of these pieces takes many days of practice to master, and once you do master them, you can play these songs almost anywhere in public.

I have only touched upon a few of the hundreds of songs that Kyle has on his channel, and I highly encourage any piano lovers or even music lovers in general to check out his channel on YouTube. I promise you that you won’t want to leave his website until you have heard every single one of his renditions.