When thinking of an idea for my learning project, my mind instantly went to playing piano. I love music and being able to play my own music is something I have always loved doing, but for years have not had the time to actually sit down and do it. I even went as far as to download an app on my phone called “Simply Piano,” but have not even opened it. I have also bought sheet music that sits in my piano bench having never been played.
I have a bit of background knowledge of piano, as I took lessons as a child, it has been over twenty years since I have played, so at this point I am starting back at square one. Reading music was something I never really learned to do as I always played by ear, so this will also be a big part of my learning journey.
My plan for my project is to start simple with labeling the keys on my keyboard,
(apparently I also need to dust it off) and then begin to learn the names of the notes on sheet music.
Once I get more comfortable with reading music, I will start to play simple songs and then work my way up to a more complicated song. I will start with the basics and work my way up to playing one of my favourite songs “I See Fire” by Ed Sheeran. My end goal of this project is to be able to play music I enjoy and have something fun to do in my spare time.
Now that I have all of the materials I need organized and ready to go I can start working on my learning. My plan for this week is to open up my app and get to know my keyboard. I will use the app as my guide, and we will see where it goes from there!
Hi Amber,
How exciting! I love the piano! I too took piano lessons as a child and every now and then I go through phases where I learn new songs for about a week until my life gets busy again! I couldn’t decide if I wanted to reteach myself some things on piano or play guitar for my project but I decided to go with guitar as it is more of a challenging instrument for me to play! Learning sheet music can be challenging! Often times when I wanted to learn a song but had trouble reading some of the sheet music I would skip a step and google a youtube video on how to play the song! Reading sheet music is a great skill to have as a teacher if you were to use music in some of your lessons as well. I know quite a bit of the basic in reading sheet music so if you needed a “critical friend” to help I would be happy too as I have a few tricks in memorizing the notes. However, I don’t want to take this learning experience away from you! I am excited to see your progress throughout the semester as the piano is definitely an instrument I am passionate about!
Good luck!
Noelle
I love that you are learning to play guitar that sounds like it would be a lot of fun. If you do have tips for memorizing notes I would love to hear them!
Hi Amber! I think it’s awesome that you are learning how to play the piano. Great idea on labelling your keyboard, I’m sure that will be a lot of help! Hopefully your memorization is going well so far, can’t wait to hear more next week!
Hi Amber! What a great skill to learn! I played when I was younger but quickly lost interest. I use to be able to play with both hands but have lost that skill over the years. Also love the Ed Sheeran song, one of my faves to dance too! What app are you planning to use to help you out? Best of luck!
I found an app called Simply Piano that I plan on trying out!