My Last Blog

Sorry it has been so long since my last post, but things have been crazy! Plus, I have been practicing the same song pretty incessantly for the recital tomorrow. The one thing I struggled with is the foot pedal (which is definitely an issue for most beginners).

Miraculously, I think I have got it! As soon as you told me to pick the pedal up on the downbeat, I was confused. But then when I thought about it and tried to execute it more, it just came to me. I wouldn't say that it is necessarily ingrained in me yet (I still really have to think about it), but I am definitely better. I know that putting the pedal down on the downbeat, which is instinctual, is wrong, so I am making progress!

My song is "Almost Lover" by A Fine Frenzy. I practiced it for you a couple of times, and I am excited to be playing a song I truly love. I wanted to learn piano so I could play popular songs that I enjoy, and I am glad that this class gave me the basics to start doing so. Thanks for everything!

Piano!

I am deciding upon what song to play for May 7th. I feel that Greensleeves is too easy to play and that Amazing Grace is too difficult. However, May 7th is still a week away and I might be able to learn Amazing Grace by then. However, it currently looks like the piece I will play is He's Got the Whole World in His Hands.

April 16

Just a quick note, I will be a little late for tonight's class.

I have started working on Greensleeves. I am having trouble with timing the use of the footpedal (most notably the "overlapping pedal"). I have the notes down, but I am still working on the song. I am considering different songs to do for the final test, but I am still up in the air.

The reading of music is going better, however the addition of flats adds to the difficulty (mostly the left hand). This will come easier with further practicing.

I am adjusting easily enough to the new chords that are being introduced. They are a lot of fun, especially with the jazz. Speaking of jazz, I have readdressed, "Why am I Blue?" by adding a jazzier feel to the piece.

See you tonight!!!

My Own Keyboard!

So my birthday is this weekend, and I decided to ask my parents for a keyboard for it. I have really been enjoying learning the piano, and want to continue improving instead of stopping when this semester is over. Also, I want more opportunities to practice other than in the piano lab. So luckily, my birthday present came early while I was home for Easter! I have brought it back with me and now will be able to practice much more.

Obviously I took advantage of this new gift right away. I have been working on the song "Almost Lover" by A Fine Frenzy. It is mostly just chords so it is not too difficult, but it goes all across the keyboard. I have been practicing it very diligently and plan to sing on top of it. I have even began to memorize it, so then I can watch my hands to make sure they are in the right positions instead of reading the music. It is getting more and more like second nature.

The hardest part is the beginning. It involves really stretching my hand out and using four fingers which I find very challenging and sometimes painful. Will my hand get used to it and stop hurting? Or am I doing something wrong? I do think I can get it by the recital. I even started trying another song that is way more challenging because it involves complicated eighth notes on both hands.

I still need to work on reading the bass clef better!

4/9/09

Hola!

Just thinking about this Thursday- a bunch of people told me they were not going to be here, and I'm just trying to figure out a condensed schedule for those people who will still be here. Can you please post a message ASAP listing what times you are available on Thursday? I can be at Marist anytime from 5-9. After you send me your availability I'll let you know what time your lesson will be. If I won't see you, have a good break!

Laura

April Fools... Kinda

I have been starting to really enjoy the piano recently. I find that learning songs is becoming much easier. However, I am having trouble playing a song at a consistent tempo. This can be seen especially while i'm playing the Can Can. 

I am feeling that it is easier to switch fingers now by sweeping my pointer finger to the left of my thumb when coming down the keyboard. But, I am encountering difficulty when attempting to move my middle finger to the same position. This will get better with time. 

Currently, I am working on "Why Am I Blue" I am enjoying the style and tempo of Blues much more than some of the other styles that we have played thus far.  I have been skipping around the  book and trying different songs, but I have not found anything that interests me yet for our final piece.

Scarborough Fair

I have chosen 'Scarborough Fair' as my recital song. I am a big fan of Simon and Garfunkel, and am familiar with this song, but still find it challenging. I practiced this one song for a very long time (probably an entire hour), and found that the repetition was very helpful. I was really struggling at the beginning with some rhythms and frequent hand placement changes. But once I kept going, it became more natural. I am still stumbling over some parts, but definitely feel like it was a good start.

I also believe going over this song so many times helped me with reading other music better. When I moved back to where I had left off in the book, I was able to remember where my hands belonged for certain notes better by referring back to where they were for Scarborough Fair. My sight reading is getting better, and I feel a little more confident. I know I still have a long way to go, but feel this week was definitely a turning point for me.

2/26/09

Just a quick note reminding you that there's no class tomorrow. Let me know if you have any questions about your practicing. Enjoy your week, and I'll see you in April!

First blog after spring break- Hooray!

Still working on Hanon. Fingertips hurt. Speed is increasing though.

Midterm Week

So this has been a fun week! I have been working on crossing my fingers on the songs and working on the jazz chord transitions. I am finding the idea of switching the melody on both hands more difficult that playing the melody with one hand and a changing chord on the others. 

I have also been working on stretching my hand an octave. I feel like I have reading both keys down to a science now. Also, I am working on switching my hands to work with the flats and sharps on the scale. 

I am working on the Amazing Aerobics of Hanon! 

See you tonight!

Funny Story...

So I don't know if you have all heard about the mini-disaster in the piano lab by now, but I was the sole witness. I was in there practicing when all of a sudden I hear dripping water. I can't understand where it might be coming from, but then I turn around and see it coming out pretty quickly from the ceiling over the wooden piano. I make sure to get out of there, and in the nick of time- because then that piece of ceiling fell! So I wonder if that room in functionable right now, because it seemed like the pipe burst...

Before I was so dramatically interrupted, I was working on songs where I had to move my hand across the piano a lot. I am still finding this pretty tricky just because remembering which finger has to play which note, especially on my left hand, is a challenge. I know this will become easier with time, but is definitely something I need to work on. I wish I had a keyboard at home to practice on over spring break, but unfortunately I do not, so I will probably be a little rusty when I get back.

It's Been Awhile

Sorry that it's been a little while, I have been crazy busy.

In any event, I have still been progressing through the book. I found it really tricky to do different rhythms on both hands so I wound up skipping the songs where I had to do that. I was able to manage to work on the songs where I am moving my hands across the keyboard. I was challenged by remembering exactly where my hands had to go but was able to figure it out.

Also, moving my fingers underneath when doing scales was something new to work on, but luckily in my sight reading class I was taught how to do that so it wasn't so bad. I am going to try and work on preparing my finger ahead of time to move so I do it quicker. Moving triads were also something new that I actually kind of liked.

Now I am going to move onto blues music, which I started a little, but want to work more on that because it seems fun.

Week 5

I am progressing well through the book. An update on last week, I feel that my pinky and ring fingers are strengthening and that I am able to play for longer periods of time. I am using the method shown in class for strengthening the fingers. 

Reading both clefs simultaneously is also becoming easier. I had difficulty initially reading both at the same time and I became use to the numbers representing the notes, however, with the finger numbers switching keys, it makes my old approach incorrect and now I am truly learning the notes. I am to page 95 in the book (Lullaby). 

I have been learning what a melodic third is and how to hit an octave with the same hand. 

On a side note, I will try to contact you but I won't be at tomorrow night's class. I will attempt to email you. See you next week

hooray post!

finally found my book again. It was being used as a coaster (not by me), so i sat down with it. I got to around page 58 i think. Finding difficulty controlling both hands, but thats nothing new. I'm through the E scale now, i think that makes six i can do... C G F D A E. Anyway, happy playing to all!

Week 4 work

I am going to be doing this in two parts, the first today, and the next later this week. 

I am finding the transition to using both hands with finger positions changing to be a bit more difficult (song: Blow the Man Down!), but it is coming along. I first practiced one hand, then the second. The moving up the keyboard is become slightly more fluent

I have been improving on the strength in my pinky and ring fingers. 

Woo!

Wow, I missed a lot of posts! Well, here we go.

I hope that what you've been writing about has been at least mostly solved. Let's talk today about what your goals are and what issues you've been having, since I somehow missed checking your blog!

Week 3

So I am slowly but steadily plugging through the book. It is definitely getting much more challenging now so I think I won't be going through as much in the future. I have no trouble with the new rhythms because I know how to read music.

I am finding it hard to switch hand positions because I am still not too strong on reading between clefs. That definitely will be my goal for the week- to try and be more confident with that. With treble clef, it is not a matter of not knowing the notes, but knowing which ones correspond to which fingers, and obviously the same but more severely for my left hand. The middle C position isn't too bad.

The Hanon aerobics are really tricky at first! I think I understand the first one pretty well, but the second one is really hard to do both hands at the same time. Once I got to the aerobic sixths, I was very scared, so that is where I stopped for now. Next week will definitely be challenging and slow.

I'm not having so much trouble anymore skipping fingers in my scales. C-G-F are solid. D is coming along. I think I'm going to try moving to A soon. The book is starting to challenge me a bit- reading fast between clefs has never come easy, and I'm starting to have to do it now. That's my main focus for the week- reading effectively when i switch between staffs.

First Week Feb

This is a bit late:(

This past week i've been working a lot on the transition of fingers for the different chords. 

I have been trying to work on finger strength, which is taking a bit more time than I expected. I am having difficulty moving the ring finger separate of the pinky. I will keep working on this.

I am also reading the notes out loud to make it easier to read the music during songs. This is instead of looking at the numbers that tell you which finger to use. 

First Post

First post, because I am a terrible student.

Still working on C,D,F, and G scales. I have a tendency to skip my pointer finger on my right hand while ascending, and my pointer finger on my left hand descending. It mostly happens when I have to roll my thumb under to finish the last half of the scale.

I -> IV -> V -> I is coming along. Still just plugging through the book.

Week 2

This week I moved on to working on the G position. This wasn't too difficult, except checking to make sure my right hand wouldn't get one note lower than it was supposed to. Then I tried playing some sharps which I found pretty difficult. I am not sure which finger I should really be using to play the sharps.

The other thing I was struggling with was the D7 chord for the right hand. I wasn't having too much trouble with it on the left hand, but for some reason on the right it was more awkward. I wasn't sure if it would be better to move my hand up towards the black keys like Professor DeNitto showed us last week.

Finally, I definitely still need to practice reading in bass clef, but I made sure to go over a page where I could write the notes in and I think I am getting the hang of it, but it is still pretty rough.

Liz's First Week

So I have had no previous piano experience, except learning scales in my sight reading class. But I have always wanted to learn and I can read music (mostly just treble clef). So the thing I am struggling with the most is getting used to reading bass clef as well as treble, especially having to read both at the same time.

The other thing I find pretty tricky is the chords in general, because I am not used to reading more than one note at a time, either. I need to work on that.

But despite those things, I think I am getting the hang of feeling more comfortable with playing overall. I will make sure to work on improving my pinkie's strength :)

Helllllo

This is my first post. This week I began working on the C major chord and the G 7 chord.
-Andy

Thanks!

Thanks for inviting me to your blog!  Happy practicing and blogging!