Category: Learning project

I can’t believe I am on week seven of my learning project, the final week!

While working on my learning project I was able to explore different types of medias, things like the Simply Piano app, Instagram, Canva, podcasts, YouTube, and simply searching for information using google. It was interesting getting to learn through the use of technology. I believe this project has helped me a lot not only as a learning but also as an educator. I now feel a lot more confident in exploring different technologies and medias that would enhance the classroom learning experience for students. Testing out new ways of doing things is no longer a daunting task, it’s more of an adventure. An adventure that I will take alongside the many students I will be lucky enough to teach in my career.

Here is a quick recap of my journey through learning piano:

Week One: Learning Piano

• My starting point and my plan
• Getting organized
• Using the app Simply Piano
• Labeling my keyboard

Week Two: Ode to Joy

• Exploring my app
• Learning the first keys
• Playing by ear
• Playing “Ode to Joy”

Week Three: Reading Music

• Learning mnemonics
• Reading sheet music
• Exploring YouTube
• Playing “Beauty and the Beast”

Week Four: Exploring Canva

• Exploring canva.com
• Documenting my learning
• Starting “I See Fire” by Ed Sheeran

Week Five: Podcasts

• Listening to Podcasts
• Learning practice tips
• Learning scales
• Playing “I See Fire” by Ed Sheeran

Week Six: Instagram

• Exploring Instagram
• Finger control and strengthening exercises
• Staying out of rabbit holes

Reflection of the Learning Process

Overall the learning process was something I found quite enjoyable. Not only did a learn a bit about how to play the piano, I also learned more about myself as a learner, about different learning and teaching strategies, and how peer support can make such a big difference in the experience. It’s hard to teach yourself something and to learn on your own, but through my blog posts and the comments I was receiving I felt like I had this whole group of people cheering me on. As a teacher we need to remember this and cheer on students with their learning, and help them to support their peers as well.

Looking back at the learning tools I had found, some I really liked, while others not so much. Podcasts are still not my favourite, and though I did enjoy using Instagram it was also very distracting and easy to get off track. The app worked really well, but at times was way to structured and became really repetitive and almost boring making it hard to focus. I think one of the more helpful tools I used was when I used Canva to document my learning. It was great keeping track of what I was doing, and I was also able to go back and review things as well. I ended up using both the power point and in the end, I even tried out the video editor. Both tools were very helpful for my learning.

I am very excited to use these tools in my future classrooms to help my teaching strategies, and to help students to explore and learn.

To finish things off here is my most recent Version of “I See Fire”

As you can here I haven’t made it past the first page in the song though my technique and sound have started to improve. My goal is to continue practicing and learn the entire song, along with learning other songs.

Thank-you for following my progress of my learning project I hope you have gained some valuable information about online learning tools, and maybe you were even inspired to start a project of your own!

I have an Instagram account and have used it for yoga tips, among other things, so I thought why not look for piano tips here as well?

I began my search and found so many interesting videos. There were a lot of different quotes, memes, tips, and even exercises to further your learning. Instagram Piano <-here you can find some of the posts I found when I was searching.

Some things I found helpful:

• Finger strengthening exercises
• Learning how to control your thumb
• The best way to practice scales
• Finger control exercises
• Speed exercises

I found one Instgrammer that I found particularly helpful and had a lot of good videos called, Piano with Jonny.

I tried many different exercises, some that I found to be enjoyable and others that seemed like more of a chore. Now that I have a few favourites I can incorporate them into my practice routine.

Overall I thought Instagram was a helpful tool for the learning experience I was aiming for. The only thing I found difficult when it came to this app, was falling down rabbit holes. It was a lot of fun watching peoples videos, and I loved hearing the different songs, but this really took me off tack of my learning. This is just something one needs to be wary about when using a social media platform as a learning tool.

I am continuing to work on my song “I See Fire,” and have managed to speed up my timing to get closer to that of the actual song. Next week I will post a video of my progress so stay tuned!

This week marks week five of my learning journey. I decided to try exploring podcasts to help me learn piano. I also got a really good start on playing “I See Fire” by Ed Sheeran.

I am pretty new to podcasts so I had a bit of trouble finding good ones, but here are some that I found and what I think of them.

First is “Learn Piano: A Personal Practice” by Cynthia Ali. Below is the link to her podcast.

“Learning Piano: A Personal Practice”

What I learned:

• Setting up my space
• The importance of scales
• The best time to practice
• Creating a “wish list” of songs to learn

I found this podcast had some helpful tips, but it was not my favourite. It was very monotone and really hard to stay focused while listening to it. The episodes were short which did help a bit, but still not an easy listen for me personally.

Another podcast I found was called “Keys to Music Learning” by Krista Jabro and Hannah Mayo.

“Keys to Music Learning”

What I Learned:

• What are Tonal and Rhythm Patterns?
• Why are Tonal and Rhythm Patterns Important?
• Reading and Writing
• Building Listening and performance vocabulary

This podcast was a much more engaging listen. The problem I had with this one is it was very technical and was a bit over my abilities and understanding.

The last podcast I listened to was called “The Piano Superhuman Podcast” by Zach Evans.

The Piano Superhuman Podcast

What I Learned:

• Learning Piano as an Adult
• Motivation on Piano
• Importance of Technique, Recording Yourself, and Slowing Down
• “Scientific Practicing”

This podcast was interesting, easy to listen to, and at my level of learning. I really enjoyed the scientific method as a way to learn to play a song. Dividing the music into sections, taking it slow and then speeding it up once comfortable. Once learning all of the sections of a song you add them together to play the entire song.

Though I did find some helpful tips using these podcasts they are definitely not my preferred way of learning.

Here is my progress of “I See Fire” by Ed Sheeran. I am currently using the “scientific method” strategy to help me learn the song. This is the first section of the song that I have learned. I am almost to the point of speeding things up on this one! Hopefully by next week.

This week we have been tasked with trying out a new app or tool. The tool I chose to experiment with is called “Canva.”

canva.com

Canva is a web based tool, it has many different templates you can create such as slideshows, videos, resumes, logos, flyers and more. I decided to try out the presentation tool and create a presentation as a way to document the progress of my learning project.

The program seems very user friendly, it is easy to navigate, the basic program is free to use, and it even has a guide when you first open it. After entering the site, it prompts you to create an account, after this you are ready to start creating. To create a presentation getting started is simple. After clicking on the presentation icon it opens a blank presentation, on the side it gives you options of premade templates and layouts available for you to use.

Below is a quick walkthrough of some of the features you can use while making a presentation.

Making lessons using the presentation tool would be a great time saver, it is so simple and fast to use. Anything you need to add to your lesson such as images, audio, and videos can easily be added. This tool could be used to substitute programs like Microsoft powerpoint. I found it to be easier to use and a lot more user friendly than powerpoint. It would enhance the planning experience for the teacher as well as the learning experience for the student.

I started using the presentation as a way to track my progress for my learning project. Each slide represents what I have worked on for the week and includes images and videos of my progress. This week I managed to practice everyday for at least ten minutes, and I have also started to work on the song “I See Fire,” by Ed Sheeran.

Next week I will post a video of my progress of “I See Fire,” stay tuned!

This week I wanted to dive right in to reading music, as memory is not my strongest skill, this was an interesting week. The online source I chose is youtube. Thinking back to when I took piano lessons as a child I remember using the mnemonics FACE and Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge to remember the notes on sheet music. While searching through youtube I found this video, the mnemonics in it were very similar to the ones I had previously used and found this to be helpful.

This video was easy to follow and had a lot of helpful information in it. I now needed to put this knowledge to practice.

This week I chose a new song to practice, “Beauty and the Beast.” The progress is slow, but it almost sounds recognizable! Even though I know the song really well, it has been a hard one to learn. I am still finding reading music to be really hard, I can do it, but not fast enough to keep up with the tempo of the songs I am attempting to play. In the video below you can really tell how much a struggle to read music fast enough to get the tempo in the song.

As much as I wanted to practice everyday this week life just got in the way and it did not happen. My goal for next week is to practice once a day for at least ten minutes. I figure starting with a smaller amount of time is more manageable and I should be able to fit in ten minutes each day. I plan to continue practicing “Beauty and the Beast,” and start to learn “I see Fire,” by Ed Sheeran.

I am excited to start this song as I am a huge Ed Sheeran fan and love “The Hobbit.” Wish me luck!

This week I started using the piano app I installed on my phone called “Simply Piano.” The app is actually pretty cool, I just open it up and put it as close to my keyboard speaker as I can and then play away! The app guides you along introducing you to each of the notes one at a time and has you play them. The app is able to listen to you play and can help you along as you go. So far it has guided me through proper posture at the piano as well as the first five notes starting at middle C.

As for reading sheet music I do not believe I have made a lot of progress. I have played a couple songs so far using the app to guide me, but all of the songs have been songs that I already know. This means I have gone back to playing by ear. Which I guess does not have to be seen as a bad thing, but makes it hard to learn new songs by reading sheet music. This week I will be searching youtube to find more resources to help me with reading sheet music. Anyone have any tips or tricks to share with me?

This week I learned to play “Ode to Joy”, listen to it on my youtube channel here:

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!