After completing all of the necessary recordings and completing the presentation, I can confidently say that I'm happy with the outcome of the project altogether. In the beginning, the only knowledge I had was how to read music in the bass clef. I didn't know what note was bound what key and I had some very serious difficulty reading the treble clef. Within the first week I had made it farther than I did for my entire genius hour project last year when I attempted to learn guitar (I still intend on trying again someday).
I only had a few lessons, six(ish) scattered throughout the project due to a lot of scheduling conflicts and typical high school distractions (relationships, video games, homework (often prioritized in that exact order)). They each held important lessons that helped me along the way especially in the beginning when everything moved at light speed. I'm happy with the outcome after twelve weeks of a moderate amount of practicing, some actual lessons, lots of YouTube videos (and way too many parenthesis).
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After finally being to get together with Matthew Daniel to start planning for the final presentation, we have a loose idea of what we want to do and will need to further elaborate on everything we will cover. Right now we still need to put together a presentation that will likely include videos, hopefully figure out how to perform something in class during the presentation which may prove difficult, and we still have more to plan. If we do a live performance, we agreed that we would play the Super Mario Theme. we have a very limited window to learn it but it's simple enough that it should be doable. If we can't do a live performance, we can just record a video of us playing it next time we get together to finalize the project.
As far as progress and practice goes, I've come to a standstill but i am comfortable with the progress i have made. I did not achieve my original goal of playing Vienna by Billy Joel but I never came across the sheet music for it and did not want to try and learn something so complex from a YouTube video. I have achieved many of my other original goals such as becoming comfortable with the treble clef. One day along the duration of the project while practicing, it just clicked. I memorized two mnemonics that made getting comfortable a much quicker process. After our next meeting, I hope me and Matthew will be able to record the Super Mario Theme or figure out a way to do a live performance. We also need to figure out how to split up our projects enough so that they seem independent while still being close enough together to have a flowing group presentation. I continue to find myself practicing less and less over time. This is in part due to circumstance and a lack of available time for lessons but mostly a lack of effort and time management. Most things that seem like extra work or things that could be put off until they're due are seeming like less of a priority. This unfortunately includes the genius hour project.
This may be the first full week I have gone without sitting down to practice prior to writing this post. I haven't forgotten any key lessons I've learned or even any of the songs I've played in the past several weeks. I am still however hitting somewhat of a wall with scheduling and prioritizing the project. Hence why this is the first post in two weeks even though I told myself I would push myself to do two posts per week to make up for already lost progress. I can honestly say that I'm disappointed with myself. I don't want this project to turn out like my last one. I need to make more progress and at least be able to perform When the Saints Go Marching In. All of my other pieces that I have recorded are in good enough shape to perform although I still have yet to upload the videos from a few weeks ago. I will make sure to do this before the end of the project. These past few days have consisted of practicing the few new selected songs and reviewing what I went over on Monday's lesson. Among these selected songs that I have been practicing are Kumbaya, Happy Birthday, Blow the Man Down, and a few others that I visited briefly. I came across The London Bridge and it took me all of two minutes to learn how to play along with a few others towards the start of another beginner's book.
The few exercises i mentioned in a previous post are called Hanon exercises and they involve ascending and descending the keys in certain chromatic orders in order to familiarize the player with the feeling of making such movements in an actual piece. This proved to be very useful to me when playing Kumbaya because it had me move my hand positions much more than I was used to. The next major piece that I want to become comfortable with and potentially present is When the Saints Go Marching In. Not only is it not terribly difficult, but it is split into two identifiable halves that could be easily split into a duet for Matthew Daniel and I to play. It is also the first piece I have played with sharps and flats. Despite my increasingly busy schedule, I was finally able to have a lesson last Monday after having practiced for past several weeks. It was definitely a checkpoint because I was finally able to demonstrate all of the progress I had made without having a lesson. We found several new pieces and exercises that are not too difficult for current experience level. Among these are When The Saints Come Marching In and several technique exercises named after a man that I cannot currently remember the name of. I will mention them in future posts after practicing them. They will likely make it into the presentation as well.
As far as plans for the presentation go, I still intend on performing a duet with Matthew Daniel so we will need to schedule a few sessions on weekends to decide what we will play and how we plan to present. Along with the lesson plan, my grandmother, as usual, asked me again to consider doing a duet with her for the church sometime in the future. Currently, the project is in what I would call the recovery stages. I'm beginning to reform the weekly lessons and was able to record more than half of the pieces that I've been meaning to complete for the past several weeks. I will upload them soon. I noticed while switching between all of the pieces I made recordings for today that I was becoming much more well adapted to the treble clef. I believe this is due to the mnemonics "FACE in the space" and "Every Good Boy Does Fine on the line". This newfound ease of identifying notes has sped up the process of learning new pieces exponentially.
I've noticed lately that I have been able to memorize almost every single piece I've played even though I have little to no prior experience with piano. I think this is due to the fact that I've been in the practice of memorizing and playing music on the trombone for so many years. There is somewhat of what may be a natural ability that makes memorization easier. I need to start working on the more advanced pieces that I hope to be able to play by the end of the project and I don't think using videos is the best way to go about it. I need to find paper copies of Vienna by Billy Joel or When I Was Your Man by Bruno Mars. I have tried to play them each from watching videos on YouTube but the outcome just isn't as good as the pieces I read on paper. This may be the first week where I have truly made no significant progress other than one piece I attempted to learn on YouTube which hardly took any effort. It was a very diluted version of the Dragonborn Theme from Skyrim. Many of the pieces out of the book that I have played in the past have become memorized and no longer offer any challenge. I just still need to find the time to record myself playing them.
I still haven been able to schedule a lesson this week which is usually when I learn more about music fundamentals and become more comfortable with more difficult pieces. I can only get so far through practice without some more professional instruction. Every day is getting busier with swim practice and trying to manage other things throughout the week. I still have some free time to stay familiar with the keys on most weeknights. I need to start considering if I want to integrate a duet between me and my grandmother into the project. It would be for a church service on a Sunday with me playing the trombone. It wouldn't be directly related to me learning the piano but I would still get some exposure to my grandmother playing her part of the duet. Swim season has started which, as I predicted, is my biggest hindrance to a healthy practice schedule. It has gotten in the way of weekly lessons more than anything. I've had to move the time of the lesson to 6:30 as opposed to 4:30 which is a bit more of a difficult start time. However with the keyboard in my room, the ease of access to practicing makes me want to do it more. I've been flying through my practice books and will only occasionally get stuck on a piece. My most recently played piece that I've only looked at for two days is Allouette and I intend on recording myself playing this piece for the final project. I still need to make recording of other pieces that I have passed of from weeks ago.
I'm generally happy with my progress but scheduling conflicts are seriously getting in the way of lessons and I'm exhausted every day after swimming, sometimes resulting in a lack of motivation to practice. Matthew Daniel and I are thinking of doing a duet for the final presentation so we both will have to start looking at pieces that we could do. My practice schedule has improved immensely since I have moved the keyboard into my room. It makes much easier and convenient to practice when laying around at home, procrastinating my other homework. Reading new music is becoming much easier although I still have to reference a treble clef graph from time to time when I don't remember a note but it is rare. I will begin making more recordings of pieces within the practice book and hopefully a few others outside that I have been working on by referencing YouTube videos.
During my lessons, my grandmother always asks me if I would like to do a duet with her during a church service at some point on Sunday morning and I'm considering integrating that into the Genius Hour Project. I would be playing trombone as opposed to piano but it still lies on the subject of learning new music and I'm sure I would still be able to observe and learn bits and pieces of the piano part for whatever piece we try to play. Recently, in the past several weeks, there have been some schedule conflicts on Monday nights and not many other opportunities to re-schedule a lesson within the same week so two of the lessons have been missed. This conflict however, has not hindered my progress much. My practice schedule is much healthier as I can take a break from homework or video games and play the keyboard in my room whenever I want. On a good day I may practice for up to an hour and I usually at least sit down and play through one of my practice book pieces once a day. Recently, I have been looking more on YouTube for things to play than in any of my practice books which is more entertaining and gives me more of a desire to actually practice. Being able to play pieces I recognize makes it more enjoyable because I already know the rhythm and there is often some sentimental value when you have listened to the song for a long time. I also still have some issues with reading the treble clef. I find myself reading it as bass clef more often than actually playing the notes correctly. The notes on the keys are more clear to me now though.
Among the pieces I have found recently that seem playable in the near future are Africa by Toto, Hotel California by The Eagles, Cake by the Ocean by DNCE, and many others. Easy piano pieces are not difficult to find. I can almost play Lean On ME by Bill Withers perfectly, I just find it difficult to sing over the chords. Due to schedule conflicts, I was not able to go to my weekly lesson on Monday so I will be making it up today on Wednesday. I fear that with swim season starting up in the few weeks, I will not have enough time to practice as much with every week night being busy. |
Why This?I hope to expand my knowledge of music by learning to play a much more complicates instrument than the Trombone. |