WE MADE IT!!!! The end of this project is finally here and it has been a struggle to complete but it has been fun to learn something that I didn’t think I would be able to do. This most recent song started out rocky for sure when I tried to label the sheet music myself and ended up learning a completely wrong song (yes, the sheet music on the blog is wrong.) But even with the difficulty and slight setbacks I was still able to finish the song by this week.
I am very proud of how far I’ve come these past twelve weeks and I have definitely exceeded my beginning goal and expectations. After this project I do still hope to continue learning the piano just for fun. It was a great learning experience and I’m really glad I did it.
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Week 11, only one more week left! This week I was able to make a lot more progress than I thought. I ended up being able to play all the lines and kind of connect them. This is huge progress compared to last week when I could barely play the first two lines. There also a new timing problem i’m having to deal with, a quarter note with a dot beside it. This gets one and a half beats as opposed to just one, this comes in the middle of a half note and an eighth note which makes the timing very difficult and I don’t think it sounds as good as it could. With this being said I am still very proud of the progress I have made and hopefully will end this project next week with a finished song!! Check back next week for week 12 the end of the project!
Wooo made it to week 10!! We only have two weeks left of this project which now means crunch time. I started working on a new song this week, What Shall We Do With The Drunken Sailor?. This song is quite a bit more difficult than the other ones I have worked on and my goal is to finish it by week twelve and have a video up. That is going to be a very difficult goal for me as I could not make it through the first two lines this week like I am usually able too. But thankfully though the song only has 4 lines. This song involves me having to move and play both hands at the same time. It also requires me to move into another octave and back down quickly. This is hard because I still don’t have the greatest feel of where all the keys are and having to move both hands without having time to sit there and think about it is proving to be a real struggle. I was able to play the first line pretty consistently but the second line on the other hand I made it through maybe one time. Then trying to connect them both together was definitely a no go. This song is definitely going to be a challenge but I am going to try really hard to finish it by the end of the project. Use the buttons below to get to the sheet music and don’t forget to check back for week 11!!
Welcome back to Week 9!! This week was quite eventful in the progress of my project, I was able to start and finish both songs in one night. The first one Sur la pont d´Avignon which is french folk music ended up being a lot easier than I thought it would be. I did have to cross over some of my fingers and play up another octave. These were difficult but it was an easy song to learn it on, which is good because these are very important skills I will need for future songs. The next song was much longer and in ways harder. It required me to use both hands but also to play notes in succession that were not right beside each other. For example there was a lot of G to E to C, or F to D. I haven’t had to do much of that in any other songs so there was a bit of a struggle. On the brightside I was able to do it and to my surprise i’m getting a much better feel for which keys the notes are on and not having to look consciously at my fingers all the time. This allows me to look up the notes most of the time so the song is not as choppy. With that being said I do still have to write the letters on my sheet music for each note to be able to play them at all. At the beginning of the project I was going to try to play without having these letters on there. Then I talked to my grandpa, who said since I had never played an instrument before, and never dealt with sheet music, this was an unrealistic goal. I hope to continue to play the piano and later on start to learn to read the sheet music itself, but unfortunately for the timeline of this project it was just unreasonable. Both of these however are now my favorite songs to play because they actually sound like real songs and not me just hitting the notes in the right order to make sounds.
I also have already picked out my next song. I am going to learn to play What Shall We Do With The Drunken Sailor? This song is quite a bit harder and will definitely take me to or maybe even past the end of this project. It requires both hands, crossing over, and moving octaves frequently. That's what he have to look forward to next week! Look below at the buttons for videos and sheet music of the songs I just learned, and come back next week for Week 10!! We made it to week 8!!! This week was filled with lots of accomplishments. I was able to finish and video my last song and choose a next one and try to run through it. Although my timing was still pretty rough the songs definitely sounded better than it has in the past weeks. I’m very proud of finishing this song because it was very hard and long in my opinion. The video is finally up on youtube and you can get to it using the button below.
I have also chosen new songs for the rest of the weeks. I don’t think I will have time to learn a whole longer, and harder song by the end of the project. So I found some shorter ones that focus on new skills to learn. I’m just going to try and learn as many of them as possible and get them up onto youtube before the end of the project date. The first two songs i’m going to learn is Sur la pont d’Avignon or in English On the Bridge of Avignon and Bobby Shaftoe. They’re each difficult in a different way and I hope to have sheet music and a video up of one of them as soon as next week!! Welcome back!! Hope everyone had a good week off or spring break. Coming right back into the song after a week off did not go well. So I decided to warm up with Ode to Joy which I can usually play very well, it took me about four tries to even make it through the song. At this point I was extremely mad and frustrated. So I took a break and went and got some food before I started again. This was a good idea because it gave me time to cool off and come back with a clear head ready to go. After my break, things began to move along much smoother. I made it all the way through ¨Spring” which was of course rocky but at least I made it. Then I began to improve off of this basis, I would play through the whole song no matter what and just take the mess ups as they came. This worked really well, major problem areas became minor and by the end of my practice I could make it through the whole song with only a couple minor mistakes.
This is a major improvement from where I was at before spring break and i’m very happy with the progress of the song thus far. Due to these improvement I still expect to have the video for this song up by next week!! I still have yet to choose my next song to round out the project with but I am starting to narrow them down. I should be able to post it next week along with the video because I hope to begin working on it the week after (week 9). Come back next week for a new video and to find out what my next song will be!! Welcome back to week six of my project piano. This week was extremely frustrating and made me very angry. I made it through all of the song but it did not sound pleasant. I listened to me play it versus my grandpa playing and I sound choppy and out of tune. My timing issue is definitely the main source of the problem but I cannot seem to get it down. Once I have to move my right hand over to have my fourth finger on the G note it all goes downhill real quick. I know it will just take a lot of practice to get there but with this practice comes extreme frustration.
I still hope to have a video up in the next two weeks but at this rate it could be a little longer. Going into this project I really expected learning an instrument would be similar to playing a sport. Maybe i’m just more athletic than musically inclined but in my opinion learning to play an instrument is way harder. For example I tried to pick up basketball a few years ago and played for North Davie Middle School. It was fun and although I made a lot of mistakes it was easy to bounce back from them and there was no real effect. Learning to play the piano however is wayyyyyy different. If I make a mistake, it for one sounds awful and is very obvious but it also is very difficult to go back and fix without completely butchering another part in the song. I am still deciding on another song and I like I said am hoping to stay on track and have a video up in the next two weeks, come back and check it out!! Welcome back to week 5, almost halfway through this project!! This week there is not really much news to share. I was able to complete the third line in the song well with the fourth line decently but it is still a work in progress. This means I am sticking to my schedule pretty well but I am continuing to have the same problems. I still struggle with my timing and playing two notes at the same time. It is slowly but surely getting better each week through practice but is still extremely frustrating to me.
As I said I am pretty well on schedule this week and don’t expect any major setbacks. With this being said I should be done with this song and hope to get a video up by week seven. This means I will have another four or five weeks to attempt a new song. I am starting to, with the help of my grandpa, pick out final song. I need his help because I want to find one with a difficulty as close to this song as possible so I will have time to finish it on week twelve. Check back for more progress next week! Welcome back to another blog post!! This one is for week four and everything is coming along relatively well. This song definitely got off to a rocky start but it is getting better slowly but surely. I now am able to make it through the first line with minimal if any mess ups. I also made it through the second line this week which I was happily surprised about. My biggest issue is still the playing two hands at one time which is harder in certain parts of the song than it is others. In some parts such as the beginning of line one it isn´t to bad because you play one hand then the other and there a kind of break or half note in between to give you time to adjust. Other parts however you have to play two notes at the same time with different hands. This doesn't sound too hard but when your in the middle of a song and your timing is off, you can definitely hear it and it is not a pleasant sound.
Timing is the other huge problem I am having on this song in particular. In Ode to Joy I was able to learn the quarter note and that it got one beat, as well the eighth note and that it got half a beat. In Ode to Joy these were the only notes used and it was all quarter notes except two eighth notes which made it easy to just get a steady beat and go with it. In this new song there are whole notes(that get 4 beats), half notes(that get 2 beats), quarter notes and eighth notes all mixed in so I don’t have a steady beat to go off of. This becomes a big problem when I need to play a whole note with my left hand the entire time while I play four different notes with my right. This timing issue is something I believe I can overcome with lots of practice and perseverance. Thanks for checking back in with the blog post this week, hope you enjoy. This week I am moving along at a good steady pace. I picked out a new song to learn called ¨´Spring’ from the Four Seasons”. This song is not much harder to learn then the ¨Ode to Joy” but I have to use two hands as opposed to one. This means I have to focus on more than one hand or section of the piano which requires a lot more concentration. Not only do I have to use two hands but middle C is played by both thumbs which means I have to look at the staffs and know which hand needs to play it at which time. This song also requires me to pick up my hand and move it to play certain notes, this becomes a problem when I have to move my hand back and get my fingers to the correct keys they were originally on.
These just sound like minor things but to a beginner piano player they are causing me major setbacks. On my first song in one week I was able to play the first two lines and connect them together. This song however in one week I can only decently play the first line and it was an hour and a half struggle to even get that. I believe this song will stay to schedule a lot better than the other one and will still take me about four to six weeks to finish and connect well. Thanks for coming back this week!! To see the sheet music click the button below. |
Photo used under Creative Commons from djordjemiladinovich