Fall is in the air, and the colors of the trees have never been so spectacular.  I do not know what it is this year, but the colors seems to be more vibrant and varied.  Perhaps it is all the rain this year, (we just had 3 more inches, sorry west coast folks!), or perhaps the temperatures are just right.  Linda took some great photos on her drive to her Yoga class a few days ago, and they are some of the best fall pictures I have seen in quite a while.

The gardens are put to bed, the hoses are in the barn, and I have been doing a general fall cleanup of the property.  We have not seen the geese gathering yet, I think that happens a little later and foretells the colder weather.  The weather has still been mild lately.

Now on to music news.  Last weekend Linda and I went to New York so I could play in an awards concert at Carnegie Hall.  It was a great experience, and.....my album "Coming Home" won Best Overall Album of the Year for Enlightened Piano Radio.  This was quite an honor.  I also was able to meet many of my fellow pianists that are spotlighted on the EPR web broadcast.  New York was quite an experience for us as we are used to the peace and quiet of country living, and New York is the complete opposite of that.  Needless to say we were quite overwhelmed, but stimulated at the same time.  What constant input!  Thousands of people, tall building, cars, sirens, shops, and noise. Totally dizzying. We are glad to be home with the award. We followed that experience with a house concert the next day. From Carnegie Hall to the Maroney living room. An equally entertaining afternoon at a completely different pace!

There will be two house concerts next month here at my home in south central Pennsylvania.  They will feature fellow pianist David Hicken, a really wonderful artist.  The first concert will be on December 5th at 7 pm, the second concert is December 6th at 2 pm.  If you have never been to a house concert, you will really enjoy the experience.  You can sit up close and personal, only a few feet away from the piano, and listen to the stories about how the composition came about.  Plus, the food is usually excellent as well as the company (partly pot luck and byob).  Seating is limited, if you are interested, email me at gregmaroney@yahoo.com for directions and reservations.


Sheet music is an ongoing project.  I have started transcribing the CD "Lake Song" and have about 5 songs done.  Anne Collins and I have also been collaborating and making simplified arrangements of many of my songs.  She is way ahead of me, I have to catch up by putting her arrangements for 20 songs onto paper.  She is quite the arranging machine!  We have compiled 10 of the most popular simplified songs into a single pdf file. Sheet music is available here.  Many thanks to Anne for her endless energy and enthusiasm!

That is most of the news for now, as always I appreciate your time and support, it means the world to me.

Take care

Greg Maroney

Well, there is a lot going on with my music!   Despite the distraction of the beautiful weather outside, I have been busy taking my music in a new direction.   One that has been a long time coming.   Now that I think back, it really has been headed in this direction for quite some time, but now I have the proper tools and time to really start composing to my hearts inner voice.   I will explain....

I recently was able to purchase a newly rebuilt Steinway D piano from Pianoworks in Atlanta (a 9 concert grand).  It is the most beautiful piano I have ever played, very deep resonate bass, mellow tenor and a singing treble.  It is very inspiring to play, I almost feel like I need to learn how to play the piano all over again!  This piano, coupled with two Earthworks microphones, produces a wonderful recording. My compositions have also changed.  Rather then compose structured songs, I have been improvising longer, quieter, songs with an emphasis on beauty and serenity.  I already have about 15 songs recorded and mastered, and I am listening to them as I write this letter.  The piano just sings, yet lets you go "Ahhh" and relax.  My plan is to release a series of these songs over several CDs.  If anyone would like a sample of the new material, email me and I would be glad to send you a song.

Now, on to concerts.  I will be playing in an Enlightened Piano Radio awards concert at Carnegie Hall on October 24th at 1 pm.  My album "Coming Home" is up for best album of the year for this radio station, and I have been invited to perform in the concert.  I am looking forward to playing at Carnegie Hall!  What a treat.  The day after, Sunday October 25th, Michael Dulin and I will host a house concert here at my home outside of Dover, Pennsylvania.  Reservations are required and I will give directions on confirmation of your reservation.  Seating is limited, as this is just our home.  You will be able to hear the new Steinway.  

I am working on the sheet music for the CD "Lake Song" and have 2 pieces done, working on the third.  My goal is to transcribe all the songs and make a spiral bound book to match the rest of the song books.  The individual songs are available right after I finish them, but the song book itself probably will not be available until spring.

That about wraps it up for now, and as always, thanks so much for your support of my music!
Greg Maroney

Lake Song

Hello my friends,

I am very happy to say that we have completed the work on the new CD "Lake Song" and it is available from my website, iTunes, CDBaby and soon Amazon. It has been a year in the making, from composing the songs, polishing them for recording, recording, mastering, graphic design and production. A lot goes into getting the music into a format that people can enjoy! I think it is some of my best work, and I am happy with how it turned out. It is available here: www.gregmaroney.com.

Summer is in full swing, and I have been busy with the vegetable garden, helping my wife Linda with her flower gardens, and taking on projects that have been lurking in the background for some time. Over the last few months I have been slowly redoing our dog yard fence (containing about 1/2 an acre), sinking new 4x4 posts, getting them straight and strong in the dirt, and restringing the fencing. Thanks goodness for gloves. We also had several trees die over last winter, so there is some tractor and chainsaw work to be done. I am not sure what it was about the last winter’s weather, but it was really hard on a lot of our trees. Fortunately, the tractor makes short work of removing the stumps, though it still takes time to dig up stumps and return dirt to the hole. This has been a great year for berries, we have harvested tons of strawberries and the raspberries are just about ready for picking. It is so delicious eating them right from the vine.

In other music news, a quest I have been on for many years has finally been completed. I have found and purchased a new piano, my perfect piano, that will inspire more music. I will not say what it is until it is cozy in my living room, but it should be a very inspirational instrument. I will have to learn new microphone techniques for recording it, but it will be a lot of fun discovering its speaking voice and how to bring out the inner beauty of the instrument. Stay tuned.......

As for upcoming concerts, I am one of the nominees for the 2015 Enlightened Piano Radio, and will perform at Carnegie Hall in New York on Saturday, October 24th. Tickets will go on sale in July, so stay tuned. This will be a fantastic concert, and lots of fun for me as a performer. My CD Coming Home is up for Best Album of the Year. Wish me luck! Michael Dulin and I will perform a house concert the next day, Sunday October 25th at 2 pm at our home in York, Pennsylvania. If you are interested in attending, email me for reservations and directions.

Now is the time I ask for your help. Audience participation, if you will. I know that I have many supporters. I have heard wonderful things said about my music and the many ways it has effected lives and for that I am grateful. What I ask now is that you take a moment to make these public. Please go to Amazon, iTunes, CDBaby, or wherever you hear/play/ purchase my music and leave a review. If you have more than one CD, feel free to review them all! Some of these reviews may be used on my website as my wife updates it.

That is most of the news for now, thank you for your support of my music!

Greg Maroney
www.gregmaroney.com

Hearts and Hands

Hello my music friends!

First, I would like to thank each of you for your continued support.  It means the world to me and it would be very difficult, if not impossible, for me to continue producing music without it.  Each of you has contributed in some way to the creation of my music, so I hope you find it rewarding to know that you have participated in this endeavor. Thank you.

Here in south central Pennsylvania, it is still cold but the days are getting longer and the sun is brighter.  Sadly, that has not translated into warmer temperatures. My wife and I are both getting spring fever. However anxious I am to get outside, there's still 4 inches of snow on the ground and the temperature is only 24 degrees.  I realize that is a paltry amount of snow compared to many areas, but it still makes it difficult to till and prepare the garden for tomato, squash and other vegetable plants. My wife just said today that she thinks she is composed of plant material, more light equals more energy. 

I have several music projects in the works, as always.  I am working with a piano teacher in Virginia on a long overdue project. Anne is taking some of my sheet music and reworking them into more accessible scores.  So far we have Breathe, The Reluctant Ballerina and Sanctuary Medley completed.  She is really doing a nice job, and I think they sound great.  The “Simplified Pieces Trio” is available as this month’s special on my website now.

I am preparing for (read lots of practicing), and getting excited about, the upcoming tour with Michael Dulin in the Pacific Northwest in April. We have named it the "Hearts and Hands" tour.  Below is a list of dates and places. The website for tickets and information is available here, or check out the concert page on my website.

Tour dates: 

4/9 - Gig Harbor, WA (w/ guest artist Rhonda Mackert) 

4/10 - Daniels Hall, Seattle, WA 

4/11 - Deer Park, WA (w/ guest artist Lynn Yew Evers) 

4/12 - Spokane, WA: Colbert Presbyterian Church, 

4/15 - Portland, OR: Classic Pianos 

4/16 - Eugene, OR: Emerald Community Fellowship (w/ guest artist Neil Patton) 

4/18 - Florence, OR

And finally, I would like to solicit your help!  Enlightened Piano Radio is hosting their annual awards ceremony at Carnegie Hall this year on October 23, 2015.
If you could please take a minute and vote for my album "Coming Home" under the category "Best Solo Piano Album" or "Album of the Year", that would be great. To do that, send an email to cathyroakes@hotmail.com with "EPR Nominations" in the subject line. Then simply leave your nomination in the message area.  I know that is a lot to do, but it would be pretty cool to play at Carnegie Hall!  

Well, that about wraps up all the news for now, thanks again for your continued support.

Greg Maroney

www.gregmaroney.com

Winter is here and thoughts turn to . . . moss & stone?

Hello my Friends,

 

It has been a while since I last sat at the computer and wrote my thoughts down.  Not for lack of activity, but really because the musical projects I have been working on were not complete enough to start talking about.  I have had many "irons in the fire" so to speak, but now I am ready to start talking about them.  (Plus, winter is here and it is too cold and icy to be distracted by the outside for very long at one time!).

 

The first great thing to happen is I have a new digital keyboard, a Kawai MP11.  It is gorgeous, plays just like a grand piano and produces some fantastic instrumental sounds. Digital sampling of the piano sound has come a long way over the last few years.  In the past I have been a "purest", thinking that an acoustic grand was the only instrument to record on, and I still think that is correct for a solo piano CD.  But the digital piano sound has evolved over the past few years into a very rich, deep and "real" sound.  Often, you cannot tell the difference between digital and real instruments with some of the brass and string sounds, and the piano is becoming very close to the real thing. Consequently I have been making some videos using music recorded on the digital keyboard with original photographs or video.  Since my wife sometimes has trouble falling asleep, I decided to start with soothing music and photos.  I also took a video of a nearby beautiful waterfall.  The video is almost one hour long, and is great for relaxing while reading a book, or falling asleep to (no musical background on this video as of now). The video is on my YouTube Channel, please take a look and subscribe to the channel or "like" the video if you are so inclined.  The see the videos, click here.

I have also been busy transcribing some of the older songs into sheet music (I know, I am always working on sheet music).  I have almost completed the CD "Harmony Grove", I have just one song left. There are quite a few new transcriptions from my other CDs.  We have compiled the 10 most popular songs into one file, so you can get your favorite sheetmusic all together in one pdf file for a reduced price.  This Favorites compilation book is the special for this month, and available here.  

 

My colleague and piano teacher Anne Collins has been working with me to produce a few “easy” arrangements of some of my more popular songs.  Breathe is almost complete, and I think it sounds great but is much easier to play then the original arrangement.  I look forward to a whole book of easy arrangements.

 

The new solo piano CD is coming along nicely.  I have most of the songs composed (and yes, I will record it on my Yamaha concert grand).  I really like how the songs have turned out and think they show a steady progression in my musical growth.  All that practice should amount to something!  I don't have a title for it yet, but some of the songs are named, and a few are already recorded.  I just need to finish composing the last few songs, tune the piano and I should be set to record them soon.  

 

Well, that is most of the music news to date; I hope you stay warm during the coming winter months. Take heart in the fact that the shortest day is already behind us, so nothing but increased sunlight from here on out!

 

Take care,

 

Greg Maroney

Greg Maroney ~ Solo Piano Music

				Greg Maroney ~ Solo Piano Music Welcome to my world I have been asked many times what inspires me, where does the music come from, what drives me to create. Simple. Nature.
				View on www.gregmaroney.com	Preview by Yahoo

 

Fall is in the air

Well, summer was wonderful, but it is over. The leaves on the trees here in south central Pennsylvania have started to turn beautiful colors of red, orange and brown. I have been putting the garden to bed, pulling up the spent tomato plants, mulching other plants to help them over winter and planting cool weather crops. We had a wonderful harvest of egg plant, butternut squash, tomatoes, zucchini, crookneck, okra, raspberries and strawberries, to name a few of the delicious vegetables we had. Today I even ate a Paw Paw fruit from our tree. It tasted like sweet banana custard, delicious! I have also been riding my mountain bike as much as I can. My friends and I had great fun riding in a nearby state park as well as the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania. Both are beautiful places to ride with great trails.

Things have been busy musically as well. One of the best accomplishments over this summer was finishing the complete transcription of the new CD, "Coming Home". The book is a very close note for note transcription (as close as I can get it), and the graphics are sharp and wonderful, thanks to my lovely wife, Linda. It is now available on the website www.gregmaroney.com. I am still composing songs for the next CD, and have about 6 songs done. I think this time I will record them in groups of 3 or 4 songs, rather then wait to do the whole CD at once. Recording 12 to 14 songs over 3 or 4 days can be taxing on the ol' memory banks, so I may try it this new way. That is the advantage of recording on my own piano in my own studio rather than having to rent studio time.

I still have plans to travel with Michael Dulin to Birmingham and the surrounding area this December for a brief concert tour, and we are putting the finishing touches on the Pacific Northwest tour in April 2015. I will also be at a music conference in Anaheim, California in late January. If anyone in the area would like to host a house concert or knows of an intimate performance venue, please contact me. This will be January 23rd, 24th and 25th.

Lastly, we are going to offer a private "special" sale on one item per month. This offer is only for the people who receive this email. This month it will be the Christmas Song Book and CD (yes, it is coming and it is time to start practicing). Click the following link to get to the sale page on the website (you have to use this link, it is not available from the home page of the website): "Special Sale".

Thank you all for your support, it helps me make more music!

Greg Maroney

Thanks for Listening

Hello my music friends,

Well, summer is in full swing, and I love being outdoors. My wife and I are enjoying biking, kayaking, and gardening. We have finished up a lot of outside projects and are now maintaining the gardens. We redesigned and built a new entry way so my father-in-law, who is 90 years old, does not have to walk up or down any steps. We also built a new patio from the ground up. We excavated the dirt, my wife built the walls and then we worked together installing and leveling the pavers. It was back breaking work and we had to be careful not to smash our fingers! I suppose construction and piano are not the most compatible occupations, but you do what you have to do, right?

Musically, I have also been busy. I had a lot of work done on my piano, going beyond tuning, extra voicing, and getting rid of some buzzing overtones, so it is sounding better than ever. This has made it easier to prepare for the coming benefit concert in Gettysburg at 2 pm on August 17th, as well as the house concert here at our home on August 16th. Michael Dulin will be sharing the performance stage with me for both performances. Tickets are available here. All proceeds go to the Adams County Library System, raising money to increase their capacity. The venue is located at the Lutheran Theological Seminary Chapel at 147 Seminary Ridge, Gettysburg, Pa. It is a gorgeous bulding with great acoustics, and the piano is a Yamaha C7, so it should be a great concert.

Michael and I are working on 2 concert tours, one in the late fall to the deep south and one in April 2015 to Seattle , Spokane , Portland and surrounding areas. More details to come on these concerts.

We will also host a house concert here at our home in south central Pennsylvania on September 14th at 2 pm. Reservations are required, as seating is limited. Contact me if you are interested. The house concerts are a blast, seating is close to the piano, and I talk about the songs and how they were composed. Cookies are always enjoyed during the break.

I have been busy transcribing all the songs from the latest album "Coming Home", and have only 4 more to go. It is a labor of love, and takes time and concentration, two things I run short of sometimes. But, slowly but surely, I am getting them on paper.

For those of you who may be interested in the business side of music, it is a fast changing environment. Difficult in some ways, but rewarding in others. iTunes is beginning to fade into the distance. People are streaming music more and more and not buying mp3s. Why buy it if you can just stream it on Spotify or Pandora? Pandora does pay a small royalty "per spin" for any song that is played but it takes millions of spins to make any money with them. So please, if you have the opportunity to create a Greg Maroney station on your favorite streaming source, please do, it helps a lot!


I've had several fans email to ask why my CDs are different prices on different sites, especially Amazon, where the whole solo piano genre went up to $20 a CD recently. Just so you know, the artists are not the ones that decide the pricing, that is determined by the selling site and then they take a percentage of the sale, 55% in the case of Amazon. So all I can say in response is, go directly to the artists' websites to support your favorite musicians.

Well ...that’s most of the music news for now. I hope to see some of you at the house concerts and in Gettysburg next month.

Thanks for listening,

Greg Maroney
www.gregmaroney.com