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.