Finished Product!!

Didn't quite accomplish all my goals, but very proud of what I have to show!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_i0TwEnmyw&list=UUOBjspVFpkwQjsf3x6QCZyw

Here is the link to my video!

My Piano Fingers are Growing

The past week has been nothing but practice, practice, and more practice! While I have seen huge improvement with my rhythm and ability to play not only my right hand but my left as well, ( a huge accomplishment for me )  I've noticed how anxious I get if I mess up or pause for too long. I attempted recording part of my playing on my phone, and at times I felt just as nervous as I would have felt if I were playing in front a class full of my peers. The ultimate goal now is to not only master the music, but master my ability to maintain confidence and keep my cool performing for the class.

Progress is being made! Although nervous, I am very excited to show everyone what I've learned and how much I've grown as a pianist and as a musician in general.

Things are going great!

So about a week ago I asked my mentor (aka my mother) to help me with some of the notes and keys. She took one look at the sheet music and told me that it was one of the most complicated pieces she'd ever seen. We attempted to tackle the insane amount of notes but, according to my mother, the key that this particular sheet music was in was way too difficult for someone of my skill level.

So naturally I began to stress like it was finals week and all my binders had caught on fire.

However, my mom who is a part time superhero came to the rescue. She found another set of sheet music in a much more simpler key that is SO much easier for me to play. I've already gone through and gotten most of the first page down. There is definitely a change in the sound and complexity of the piece but overall its the same and much much easier to read and play. 

Also, this sheet music has already excluded Jay Z's part of the song, so that's one less thing I have to worry about. 

This weekend I am down in Statesboro for Southern's open house (hail southern!), so I'm not sure how much work I'll be able to put in this weekend. I am really looking forward to Thanksgiving break coming up, not just because it's an entire week off from school and I can finally start decorating the house for Christmas, but it'll allow me so much time to dedicate just to this project. I'm really looking forward to seeing the progress I make between then and now. 

Friday, October 17, 2014

I've been making small progress, but progress nonetheless. Over the long weekend, I sat down and began to dissect the chorus. It doesn't seem too difficult yet. I am however taking baby steps and learning the song part by part one hand at a time. I also briefly looked over the verses and to my advantage, it looks as if most of the notes repeat themselves in the same sequence, so once I get one part down, I've got more than just that one part of the song done.
Something that I've really been contemplating is Jay Z's part in the song. I know they're the dynamic duo when they're together, but if we're being completely honest, Queen B's spotlight is so much brighter than that of her husband. Because of this, I'm contemplating how and if I should remove his part. Drunk in love is a pretty long song and I don't think cutting out on verse would take away from my overall performance. Also, I'm pretty sure most people are only concerned with the parts of the song B sings.
The only problem with this is I'm not entirely sure how to take away notes without throwing off the whole melody of the song. I don't want to just stop out of nowhere and be like "surprise I'm done, now clap for me because this took an entire semester to accomplish" but I don't know how to omit verses from songs and pick up afterwards without it sounding choppy and awkward. I would ask my mentor, but my mom is not a skilled musician. She just loves playing piano and is blessed with an incredible talent. There may be more experienced musicians in my community, however. There are people at church that I could ask for advice, and I'm sure there are even some people here that could help. I've never really talked to the music teachers here, but I guess it wouldn't hurt to see if they had any advice.

October 10, 2014

This past week, I have mainly been focusing on listening to the music and feeling the rhythm of the song and getting the beat down in my head and practicing the count. For someone who's only real musical experience is karaoke, I'm used to having a guide for the tempo of the song. It's gonna be completely different having to keep track of how fast or slow the song goes.

I've thought about getting one of those things that a lot of piano players have that sounds like a clock and helps keep the beat. Pendulum? Chronometer? 

Metronome! (Might have been a good idea to google that before typing out my thoughts verbatim. That's the whole point of a blog though, right?)

I'm really looking to make big progress during this three day weekend (shout out to Columbus, thanks for giving us the day off and discovering the Americas. You're the real MVP.) Having an entire extra day off will really let me be able to focus on just my 20% time project. The only downside to this is that even though, I have the day off Monday, it's a teacher work day which means my mentor (aka my mother) will have to be at work. 

My main goals for this weekend:

- go through the sheet music and look for the notes I recognize 

-refresh my memory of keys and chords on the piano (there will be lots of hot cross buns and chopsticks played over the weekend)

As soon as I have gotten that down, I'll be ready to really start taking on the piece as whole, learning bit by bit and perfecting as I go along, until I get the whole thing down.

My main goals for the following week:

-master the chorus of the song (if i master the chorus, I've mastered at least half of the song already!)

*This is just a note to self, and an easy way to get to this link. If you'd like to take a look, this is one of the websites I'm using to become a better pianist :-)

www.wikihow.com/Place-Your-Fingers-Properly-on-Piano-Keys

October 3, 2014

I presented to the class today (finally!) and now that I am finally caught up with everything, it will be easier for me to blog more often and dedicate more time to my 20% time.

I have been listening to the acoustic version of "Drunk in Love" to better hear the music and not be so distracted by Beyonce's fabulous voice.

I have also began to study the sheet music, and as complicated as it looks, I'm excited to see my progress.

Friday, September 26, 2014

I've been meaning to post, but my 20% time has been put on hold due to me being sick. However, I have been able to find the "Drunk in Love" sheet music for free! It's six pages, so I've got a lot of work to do before December.

My original approach to playing was to go through the sheet music and write the letter of the note that corresponds with the sheet music and basically memorize the order of the notes. This is how I learned to play songs like "River Flows in You" and "Therapy". Eventually, it became like muscle memory to me because I would practice the same verses over and over again until I got it perfect. My fingers would automatically know where to go and I wasn't really reading and interpreting the sheet music. For me personally, this is the easiest way to get a song on the piano, but that's not what I'm trying to accomplish.

I want to be able to recognize notes on sheet music and on the piano itself without having a reference. I want to be able to sit, see the sheet music and play like a professional. I know that this is not the case for this project. I will have been practicing the same piece for a couple of months so naturally, there will be some memorization and muscle memory that comes into play but my overall goal is to gain a better understanding of how to read music.

Being a perfectionist, it's gonna be difficult for me to accept the fact that when I perform for my peers at the end of the semester that this might not be as good as I want it to be. I might not flow, or I might have to mark certain notes on my sheets to remember certain keys. This project is not based on being perfect, it's to show improvement. Improvement doesn't have to be 0 to 100, improvement can be 0 to 75.

I have spoken with my mentor about helping me learn how to play piano. My mom will be my mentor, she has been playing piano for a very long time and even though she does not play as frequently anymore, she still knows enough of the basics to be an adequate teacher for me. Having my mom as a mentor will be very beneficial because if I have a question, I don't have to call her or email her. She's right there for me. Also, since my mom is a teacher, she will know how to teach me piano skills in a way that will make learning easy for me.

Thursday, August 28, 2014

I've decided that for my 20% project I am going to learn to play the piano, and to show what I've learned, I'm going to focus on mastering one song in particular. My first instinct was to find something by Frank Sinatra or find the sheet music for 'La Vie En Rose'. But after considering that I will be pitching my idea and playing this song in front of my peers, I decided to go with something that would give me a little more "street cred." That is why I will learning to play "Drunk in Love" buy Beyonce and Jay Z on the piano. I haven't actually began to look for sheet music yet, but I am watching tutorial videos on youtube. I am also studying the keys on the piano and how to correctly place my hands and fingers. I am really looking forward to seeing what I'm capable of and hopefully, by December, I will be able to wow my fellow classmates with my Beyonce-piano-playing skills.