Check out these blogs!

For week two, I have posted on Kara M.'s blog, Sun K.'s blog, and Ian W.'s blog.

For week three, I have posted on Anne R.'s blog, Sun K.'s blog, and Julia K.'s blog.

For week four, I have posted on Kara M.'s blog, Jessica S.'s blog, and Anne R.'s blog.

For week five, I have posted on Kara M.'s blog, Jessica S.'s blog, and Sun K.'s blog.

For week six, I have posted on Julia K.'s blog, Anne R.'s blog, and Becca H.'s blog.

Introduction Notes

Piano is a lot harder than I thought it would be. I thought it would be fairly easy for me since I have been playing viola since I was about eight years old. But piano is an entirely different way of thinking than viola. When you play viola, you kind of think "outward", for lack of a better word, in order to place your fingers. However, when you play piano, you think horizontally. After experimenting a bit and practicing some simple scales, I realized that piano is very different from viola. Not only is the clef and the way of thinking different, but the fingerings are also different. For example, in the scales book I am using to learn to play piano, it has the notes numbered with which fingers I should use to play the notes most effectively (numbers 1-5). When you play viola, there are also fingerings, but they represent different fingers than the numbers on the piano. The number 1 for a piano note represents the thumb, while the number 1 for viola represents the index finger. I have played viola so much that when I see the numbers representing fingerings, I unconsciously use the viola finger and not the piano finger.  This is causing my brain to be very confused while playing the piano scales.

In addition to learning the basics about playing the piano (like which finger plays which note, etc.), I hope to be able to play Fur Elise by Beethoven by the end of the project. Originally, I wanted to learn how to play Moonlight Sonata, which is my favorite classical music piece, but after looking over the music, I decided it was much too difficult and long for a beginning pianist like myself. Hopefully, the skills I learn from this project will eventually help me be able to play Moonlight Sonata in the future!

For the first week of this project, I will practice scales and fingerings. For the second, third, and fourth weeks, I will learn three songs each week from the learn to play piano book that I have. Each song will be more difficult as I progress through the book. For the fifth and sixth weeks, I will focus solely on learning Fur Elise, which will be my end product. I will also be practicing a little bit of Fur Elise each week so I am not crammed in learning to play an entire song in just two weeks.

So far, I have read A LOT of different music that I was thinking about playing for my final product. Reviewing this music also helped me to get familiar with general piano music, and familiarize myself with the clefs, the notes, etc. I have also read some learn to play piano books and tried to complete some of the lessons to play the simple song for that lesson. These readings have helped me to get a basic idea of piano music.

Overall, I am really enjoying this project so far, and I cannot wait to continue and watch myself progress as a piano player!

Here are the citations for the two music books I have started looking at and playing:
D'Auberge, Alfred. The Alfred D'Auberge Piano Course. N.Y.: I. E. New York] : Capri Music :[c19., n.d. Print.
Schirmer, G. Schirmer's Library of Musical Classics: Preparatory Exercises. Vol. 434. N.Y.: n.p., 1922. Print.