Category: Music

This is my final blog post on my journey learning how to play the piano!

Looking back to the beginning of this semester to now, I feel quite satisfied with the progress that I have made. That being said, I also feel that given recent life circumstances with COVID-19, I wish I was able to give myself more time in practicing. I would have thought that having to stay at home all day would give me that extra time I need, but that definitely wasn’t the case!

The stress of having family being away and others having severe coronavirus symptoms, preparing for my own family to have food, etc., I had to realize that my school obligations had to  go on the back burner temporarily in order to stay sane and healthy during this crazy time.  I was feeling extremely anxious and stressed out and thought that piano actually may help with this, which once I was able to find time for it did!

Although I did not learn both hands together perfectly, I did make quite a bit of progress on the right hand and feel comfortable with submitting this assignment in knowing that I gave it my best effort. Once my school assignments are completed, I will definitely have more free time and will continue learning this song and probably other songs!

Through this experience, I have learned that practicing is very important and that learning a new instrument is difficult! I do feel that being able to play piano is very beneficial for teachers and I would like to continue learning so that I can use it in my future classroom.

Thank you Anita (music teacher) for all your support throughout this class and encouraging us to incorporate music into our personal lives, but also our future classrooms!

Here is the link to my video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqbOiejoCJE&feature=youtu.be

Note: filmed by a child so I apologize for the shakiness!

I am still continuing to learn Let it Be and still finding it difficult, but better! My mom who knows how to play piano is currently away right now, as she had to go visit my 98-year-old grandma. I don’t know when she will be back, but definitely feeling less prepared with this piece than my previous pieces due to the support I received from her with those. This has made me realize how useful music teachers can be!

I think pushing past initial frustrations is very important when learning a new instrument. It is really easy to be faced with something difficult and put it aside. I think experiencing this firsthand, probably gives all of us learning new instruments an insight as to how children might be feeling with learning something new!

I have done some research online to find out what people say about how to successfully learn an instrument on your own and here are some of the tips that I have been applying to my learning journey:

1. Regular practice as a habit in your daily routine: I have probably talked about this one before, but I do think it is the most important aspect of learning anything new.
2. Select simple pieces of music: the first two songs that I chose were quite simple and I found it easier to stay motivated to learn them. I knew that Let it Be was going to be more difficult, but I wanted to give myself a bit of a challenge so regardless I am feeling good about the song I am learning.
3. Practice slowly: I find that by practicing harder parts over and over again slowly that I have more success when I play the song from start to end.
4. Warming up hands: as mentioned in my previous blog post, I am continuing to practice my other pieces and I feel that this helps me warm up.

These tips are small, but I find that even knowing I have a few things I am keeping up on constantly helps me succeed overall.

I have been working on the Let It Be song on the piano and have been finding it quite difficult. I have been finding it easiest to follow along with a Youtube video and practice only the right hand, but feel like I am going to need to practice quite a bit more before trying to do both hands together. That being said, I also am happy with the progress that I have made just after practicing a few times (I could barely keep up with the YouTube video before).

I also have been practicing the pieces that I have already learned (Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Ode to Joy), as I find it nice to switch things up a bit. It can get somewhat boring practicing the same piece over and over again.

Next week I am going to try and play both hands together for certain parts. By then I will have had a few more days of practicing on the right hand only.

I am thankful that I have a piano at home, as I know that a lot of people have limited access to their instruments. Setting aside time at a specific time of day is something that I find useful and keeps me on track.

My music growth plan timeline has been quite manageable for me to follow, which also alleviates some of the stress of learning a new instrument. With regards to Ode to Joy, I found that the bars are quite similar throughout the song, so that has also been helpful! Even though I have completed my goals of learning Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Ode to Joy I will continue to play these pieces, as it is nice to have a variety of things to practice, not just one song.

The next song that I will be focusing on learning is Let it Be by The Beatles. This song seems like it will be more challenging than the other two I have already learned.  With that in mind, I gave myself more time (February 27 – March 27) to complete this song, as I was accounting for that. I will follow the same process for learning the other songs, which was learning the right hand first and then the right and then allow myself time to practice playing both hands together. I am overall very happy with my progress with learning the piano and am excited to try and learn my new song!

Piano Progress Videos:

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Ode to Joy

Note: I found it much harder to play when recording the video. I would play the song almost perfectly and then as soon as I had it recorded I would make mistakes where I normally wouldn’t have! I’m sure others experienced something similar.

I have began learning Ode to Joy by Beethoven and found it harder than Twinkle Twinkle, but with the help of this Youtube tutorial and my mom (she knows how to play piano) I feel happy with my progress so far! Some things that I find confusing when looking at music is understanding where on the key board your hands are supposed to be placed. Meaning, if the music says to play “E” I struggle to understand what “E” the music is referring to on the piano. Thankfully with online resources and my mom’s help I was able to start to understand more about this. I also find playing both hands together very difficult. I am a bit of perfectionist, so not being able to play the song with it going smoothly and each note connected to the note before (I believe this term is called legato) is difficult. That being said, I know that as I continue to practice I will improve.

I mentioned time management in my last post and I would still say that finding the proper amount of time to practice can be difficult. I have tired to not stress about this learning process too much because I don’t think the purpose of this assignment is to make anyone feel stressed, so instead I have accepted that some days I won’t have time to practice (or go to the gym or do other things that are important to me) and when I do have time I try and maximize my practicing by removing any distractions or setting a timer, etc. I will continue to work on finalizing the Ode to Joy piece and look forward to starting my new piece!

As part of my music course, I am required to learn an instrument! The instrument that I chose is piano. I use to play piano very briefly when I was younger, but lost interest as I got older. I grew up in a very musical house (all my siblings were required to get their grade 8 piano…not me for some reason), so I do feel that music is a very important part of life! I do wish now as an adult I had kept up with piano or some other sort of musical instrument,  but even as an adult learning piano now I still find it difficult to stay motivated.

The first song that I want to learn is Twinkle Twinkle, as I feel it is pretty simple and a classic! I downloaded a music sheet online and have been trying to practice every 1-2 days, as per my music growth plan. I have been feeling pretty confident in my ability to play it on the piano, although I have been finding it tricky putting both hands together and making it sound half decent. I know that as I keep practicing I will get better at this. I have definitely learned that practice is key when trying to learn a new instrument (like most things in life!) and I feel that out of all the assignments I have in my courses, I look forward to spending my time on this the most!

Overall, I feel pretty on track with my musical growth plan timeline and goals. I have learned how to play Twinkle Twinkle (still needs some practicing with both hands) and I have allowed myself enough time to start learning the bars of Ode to Joy. I have noticed improvement on knowing where keys on the piano are and being able to read the notes on my music sheet. I also have found it helpful that the fingering is listed on my music sheet for quick reference.