This week has been a struggle with playing the song “Piano Man” by Billy Joel. I dedicated this week to playing just the left handed chords but I feel like my hands are too small to be able to stretch them out to play the large chords. It makes it tough to play with the video and follow along while I’m trying to find the notes with my hands. While practicing the left handed chords, I slowed down the video to 0.25x speed to really get a grasp on the hand placements and timing of it all. I watched a video on tips on how to stretch my hands while I am playing piano. I was able to gain knowledge and put to practice the tips I learned from the video to help me with playing “Piano Man”.
I also dedicated this week to understanding the different volume levels that I have to use while playing the piano. I found a blog that gave me a whole run down of the symbols that are used to indicate different volumes, what they mean and how they should be played. This blog was very helpful and organized. I noticed that most of “Piano Man” is mezzo piano (mp), which means “medium-soft”. That makes sense because the verses or “Piano Man” are sort of quiet while the chorus is loud and proud.
This week, I have been able to learn all the chords that are played with the left hand. I have now learned how to play both chords with my left hand and right hand. Now, I need to learn how to put them together!
Next week, I plan to dedicate my time to learning the beginning of the song. I know that this will be the trickiest part to learn but I am more than eager to learn it because I know the outcome will sound so good!
Hello Kenzie!
It’s great to hear that you are able to play the chords with your left and right hand. I learned that doing easy/beginner piano warm ups help me significantly before I play the song I am learning myself on the piano.
Good luck!
-Elyse Woodard
Hi Kenzie!
Great post this week, seems like you are learning quite a bit! My grandma used to teach piano lessons but I was not too fond of it when I was younger because she was such a good piano player and I would get so frustrated with not know it!! WE have a piano at home and one day I do want to learn more!
Good luck on your journey!
I think that it’s amazing that you have chosen to play an instrument! It is incredibly difficult to learn how to play one with an in-person mentor let alone doing it all by yourself. I also feel you with the small-hands-struggle, so I hope that it gets easier for you to overcome that obstacle as you practice. Good luck!
This is awesome! I love Billy Joel so I am glad to see you picked one of his songs, let alone Piano Man. I played piano for quite some time and I can tell you it is difficult to control both hands at once right off the start, but with time and practice it will be no issue. The best thing I can recommend is doing short practices each day instead of once-a-week long practices. Hope to hear what it sounds like soon!!