Cupid Blindfolded is the companion sheet music book for Michael Whalen’s 2019 solo piano album by the same name. All ten pieces from the album are included and were transcribed by Donovan Johnson. The cover of the book indicates that this music is for “beginner/intermediate,” but while the music is not difficult, it is most definitely not for beginners who are just starting to read music and learning about timing. Most of the ten pieces are very ambient, so it is the pianist’s expression and grace that makes this music come alive - not just playing the notes. That said, this is a very pleasurable book to play through. Most of the pieces are relatively short and none are in complicated key signatures (see below).

There will be videos available on YouTube.com of Michael Whalen playing the whole album as it was recorded, which makes it easy to see how he played each piece - very helpful to pianists learning to play the music!

To the best of my knowledge, Cupid Blindfolded is only available as a PDF download from SheetMusicPlus.com. Because of this, there are a couple of things to watch out for. First, each piece has its own pages numbered, but there are no page numbers for the book overall. (i.e. “Cupid Blindfolded” starts on the third page of the book, but is numbered page 1-4. “All Of My Heart And Soul” is also numbered 1-4.) This is only an issue if you print the book. If you download it to an iPad, no problem. The other potential problem for those who print the book is that there are no titles on other than the title page of each song, so if you drop the book or pages fall off the printer, it will be a puzzle to put them back into the correct order. (I mention this because it has happened to me plenty of times!!!) This would not be an issue at all with a printed book, but it can be with a download. Other than that, the scores are clear and well-spaced. Most of the music is very free and fluid, so there are no metronome markings. Dynamics and expression are clear. Slow, ambient and very relaxing, this is a very lovely book and I recommend to pianists at an intermediate level and above!

The titles, the key(s) they are in and the number of pages are:

Cupid Blindfolded - Key of C (0 sharps and flats) - 4 pages
All Of My Heart And Soul - Key of G (1 sharp) - 4 pages
Reflection Of My Affection - Key of Am (0 sharps or flats) - 4 pages
Sunrise In The Desert - Key of D (2 sharps) - 4 pages
The Muse - Key of Em (1 sharp) - 5 pages
At The Touch Of A Lover - Key of F#m (3 sharps) - 2 pages
Standing In The Rain - Key of Dm (1 flat) - 6 pages
Serendipity - Key of D (2 sharps) - 6 pages
Isle Of Skye - Key of Cm (3 flats) - 5 1/2 pages
City of Lights - Key of C#m (4 sharps) - 4 pages