Learn to play the piano

Lately it’s been every other day, instead of each day like I should.

Not sure why that is, but maybe I’m just getting discouraged by my lack of any forward progress over the last several weeks. Anything more than one note at a time on a staff makes me pause while I try to figure out the notes.

I hate saying this, but learning the piano isn’t as fun for me anymore. I’ll give it a couple more months, and if at that time I still feel the same way, I’ll cancel my lessons.

No new songs this time since the previous set of songs were still giving me trouble. The extra week helped out I think, since I’ve gained a little confidence in playing the songs (Still not proper “Allegro” speed, but my teacher noticed an improvement in playing).

The lesson ended with my receiving of another new song book. It’s Alfred’s Basic Adult Piano Course “Christmas Hits” Level 1. Despite the name, the songs inside are at a slightly increased level of difficulty (About where I am now, but a little easier to allow for a “play and enjoy” feeling).

And as an added bonus that book will help me prepare for candy cane season (since hurricane season is ending soon).

It’s all a matter of looking for familiar patterns or chords repeating themselves. Or so I’m realizing after hearing my teacher play one of the lesson songs for me to practice.

Although at first I’m making my own modifications to the fast-paced songs, by pretending that “Allegro” is a typo of “A-Largo”, and play it as slow as possible.

Speaking of slow, I’m making slower than normal progress in my lesson books (songs seem to be getting a little harder now), but slow is better than zero.

Looking forward to my next lesson tomorrow. I have a feeling one of the new assigned songs will be “House of the Rising Sun”.

Fortunately there was a 5 hour gap between my blood donation in the morning and my piano lesson later that afternoon.

During the lesson when I was attempting a new song, and played it a little (very) wrong, my teacher joked and said “Maybe they took too much blood from you”. I laughed. I’ll gladly use any excuse to cover a poor playing attempt.

So now I’m officially starting Alfred’s Adult Basic Piano Book 2 (currently at “Roman Holiday”, the fourth song), and from what I see inside, Book 2’s difficulty curve seems to be much smoother than Book 1’s nightmarish progress “brick walls”.

As a bonus, I received another book to practice from, alongside the Alfred’s books. The new book is Bastien’s “First Sonatinas”. My teacher played a portion of the first song, and I liked the sound of it. It had a Mozart-style sound to it, almost.

Time for me to stop pushing keys on this computer keyboard, and go push those musical keys.

And my right arm might not be up to the task I think, because I donated blood earlier this morning (My index finger is bandaged up from the pricking, and the mid-arm from where the big needle was inserted).

At least I can use that as an excuse when I play the wrong note, or play the right hand’s staff too notes too quietly.

But if all goes not too badly, I might be able to begin level 2 of the lesson book today.

(Very carefully) crossing my fingers.

The lesson began with the usual reviewing of songs played, and I didn’t do as badly as I thought. I did forewarn my teacher about that one certain measure of a song (that I might not play it well), but she said it was good (although I ignored all dynamic markings in the song. That seems to be my trademark).

And then, it was time to attempt the final song in the lesson book (“Amazing Grace”). This song has everything in it: Chords, sharps, flats, arpeggios, triplets, overlapping pedal, everything including the kitchen sink. I struggled through playing it, but not too badly since I did practice it earlier.

And then I began worrying, “Will there be anything easier than this in book 2?”. My teacher gave me a sneak peek at book 2, and to my relief, there’s a couple of “review” songs, offering a reduced difficulty to start the new book with (I’m thankful).

So now I have two weeks until my next lesson (4 each month, and today was my fourth), giving me plenty of time to study and practice.

And I am not ready for it. Not at all.

My teacher’s going to review my progress on the assigned songs from last week, and while I think I have improved upon playing the songs a little, there’s still one particular measure of one song that gives me problems.

I’ll do some intensive practicing tonight and tomorrow morning.

4 pages seperate me from the final page of the book, which is a certificate saying I’ve graduated to the next lesson book (No I haven’t yet).

Those are 4 very evil, diabolical pages, consisting of the last two songs in the book: The Entertainer, and Amazing Grace.

At my lesson on last Friday, I managed to play “Raisins and Almonds” decently, and then moved on to “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands”, which looked frightening at first (2 entire pages of notes), but it’s actually just the same portion repeated 3 times (just transposed each time).

But then, my teacher had me try the following song. None other than The Entertainer (simplified version, thankfully). I tried the right hand part, and managed that. But the timing of the hands-together was quite a challenge.

Working on it little by little, and I’m very grateful that Scott Joplin indicated this song’s tempo as “Not Fast”. I can certainly play it at that tempo.

4 more songs left in my current lesson book, then I graduate to the next book (Probably by the start of next month).

Lately there were some songs/lessons that started out being almost too difficult, making me think “I’ll never be able to do this properly”. But after some practice and perserverance, things slowly began to “click”. A good feeling.

And something funny after my lesson last week. As I exited the studio, I met one of the other adult piano students who was waiting outside. She asked me what page I was on, and I hesitated, thinking “Maybe I shouldn’t say”. But immediately, the teacher said I’m near the end of the book. The other student jokingly said to me “You’re not allowed to be that far in the book yet”. At times, I don’t think I am either (especially during my pitiful first attempts at some songs).

Maybe when I reach the end of lesson book 2, I can consider this goal “done”, or maybe not. I’ll wait and see.

It’s surprising how even the more tricky lessons and songs become a little easier to play after just spending time practicing them.

My newest thing to work on so far is building confidence while playing new songs. I have a tendency to play rather quietly then, concentrating more on making sure to play the correct notes (ignoring all dynamic markings and symbols in the process).

As I practice, hopefully I’ll get more confident while sitting in front of the piano, and play it, instead of it playing me.