Piano music is littered with ornaments and decorative devices, like trills, turns, and so on. Sometimes they're abbreviations, saving composers time, and sometimes they're easier to read than if they were written out in full. But I've written them out in my second "turns" exercise to help you understand exactly what turns are and why you play them the way you do on the piano.

We all know how versatile the piano is, as a solo instrument, accompanying another solo instrument or with a full orchestra. But have you ever seen a whole bunch of pianos playing together? That's exactly what the Oakton Six Piano Ensemble does.

Based at the Oakton Community College in Des Plaines, Illinois, they perform all kinds of music from classical to ragtime, jazz to pop. If you ever get the chance, try to catch them in concert. There's nothing like the sound of that many pianos all playing at once!

I had an interesting question in my Piano Forum the other day. The person wanted to know if it was OK to play chords with the left hand. She'd learned to read treble clef music some years back and had just taken up the keyboard -- but the bass clef notes were causing problems.

This is a common concern among people who learn a melody instrument, such as clarinet or recorder, say. Then, when they attempt to learn piano or keyboard, they suddenly find there are a whole new bunch of notes to cope with. If that sounds like you, you can find out some easy ways for dealing with chords and/or bass clef notes on the site nearby.

Got a related question yourself? Then why not stop by the forum (link on the left) and ask?

Who's your favorite composer?

I get asked that question a lot as soon as people find out I'm a musician. But I can never give a simple answer. There's so much good piano music out there, from Bach to Bacharach, that it's hard to decide. But why choose? Why not become a composer yourself? Find out how to write your OWN piano music using my Harmonize A Tune technique.

Hungarian born pianist Andras Schiff is taking his time. He's performing the complete 32 piano sonatas of Beethoven at Carnegie Hall -- in a series of concerts spread over a number of years!

Now a British citizen, Mr. Schiff is better known for his interpretations of J.S. Bach, Schubert and Schumann. However, he has given a series of lecture-recitals on Beethoven at London's Wigmore Hall.

With a timetable spread so far apart, it may be difficult to make sense of Mr. Schiff's concept or what he's trying to achieve. But one thing's for sure -- he's always worth listening to. If you'd like to hear him play, log on to carnegiehall.org for times and tickets.

Piano music is full of ornaments, whether in the form of trills, mordents, figured basses, and so on. In many cases they're simply musical abbreviations to save composers time writing things out. That's certainly the case when it comes to "turns."

You might remember that Mozart's famous "Turkish March" melody is based on a turn that's actually written out. Here's the first of two exercises to help you master playing turns on the piano.

All the creative minds do it. An easy way to come up with something new is to base it on something that already exists. Take the tune from Scott Joplin's ragtime classic "The Entertainer" for instance. Using the first 4 notes of the melody, you can compose your own unique ragtime tune. I've written a little How To guide to show you exactly how it's done.

New York composer Andrew Shapiro is taking piano music to the masses in a whole new way. He's performing every Sunday throughout the year at the Ground Zero McDonald's in downtown Manhattan. You can also hear him perform this week from Thursday to Saturday at the McDonald's in Kensington High Street, London. Read more about Mr. Shapiro in this profile from the New York Times.

Sounds like a song, doesn't it? But it's simply two ways of playing notes on the piano. One is staccato, those detached notes with the dots above them. The other is legato, usually indicated by a curved line or slur. Find out more about the perfect way to play using both of these technical skills in my Staccato-Legato exercise.

Don't let anyone tell you that playing the piano isn't fun. There's a whole new generation of performers showing just how much fun it can be! Take the incredible Lang Lang, for instance. He's at home playing a Rachmaninoff piano concerto in one of the world's great concert halls, appearing on YouTube, and on Sesame Street. He even duetted with Herbie Hancock during the recent Grammy Awards broadcast. With someone like Lang leading the way, the piano's set to have a long, unpredictable and entertaining future.