Blog Post: two

I continued to practice reading music although I am by no means an expert. I decided to move on and start learning to play the piano. The first thing I did was put post-its on the keys to help me remember which keys are specific notes. Then I decided to play around with the keys. I learned where middle C was and proceeded to learn a song. The first song I learned was Row row row your boat. This song uses the notes C, D, E, F and G. It was difficult to play at first, but once I practiced more and got used to how my fingers should move it became easier. The second song I learned was Twinkle twinkle little star. Twinkle twinkle little star uses six notes C, D, E, F, G and A. For both songs, I had to practice often and was not able to play them by simply reading the music. I am a kinaesthetic learner so I rely more on my fingers movement to learn. I found Twinkle twinkle little star surprisingly easy after learning Row row row your boat. I also learned the Dreidel song, which I found the most challenging of the pieces. The new note in the song I learned was B. It took a while to learn the Dreidel song, but it helped that I knew the rhythm and how it was supposed to sound as I struggled through it. Once I finally mastered it I felt very accomplished, which is one of the benefits of learning an instrument.

Blog Post One:

Playing the piano has proven more challenging then I originally thought. However, the bumps in the road are all part of the process of learning a new instrument. Now I realize I will not be able to learn to play using both hands. This is okay because I said I simply wanted to try, which I did. I also tried to learn how to read bass clef however I was confused between the two clefs. I decided it was more productive to learn one clef well then two poorly. Therefore my inquiry project path changed. I started off learning treble clef. I learnt the acronyms FACE and Every Good Boy Does Fine. Surprisingly, I did not remember much from playing the clarinet in middle school so I had to relearn most skills. I filled out worksheets and read piano theory books. The pitch and rhythm practice worksheets given out in class were very useful. Some dynamics I learned to indicate playing quiet are pp/pianissimo which stands for play “very soft”, p/piano stands for play “soft” and mp/ mezzo-piano means play “moderately soft”. The dynamics that indicate playing louder are mf/mezzo-forte which stands for play “moderately loud”, f/forte means play “loud” and ff/fortissimo means play “very loud”. I also learned what crescendo and diminuendo mean. Diminuendo is Latin for diminishing and indicates volume must gradually decrease. Crescendo is a gradual increase in volume. The worksheets I completed helped me learn the length of notes. I know a whole note lasts for the whole bar, and a half note takes up half the measure. I also learned a quarter note is one beat. Rests are intervals of silence. Whole rests hang and half rests look like a hat. Then there are quarter rests which symbolize a quarter of silence in a measure.