Monthly Archives: September 2022

Piano Got HARDER!!

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This week was frustrating! As I stated last week, I was playing songs such as Mary Had a Little Lamb and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, but this week I think I became a little too ambitious. This week I played the song “All of Me” by John Legend. At first glance, I thought that this song would be more at my level because it was more difficult, but I felt that it was something I could play. Well, it was definitely more difficult! The song had four flats in it! I had to work my brain far harder than I did last week to remember the notes, the flats, and how to properly move my fingers. I have the video of me playing linked below, and honestly hearing it back is so rewarding because I can hear major progress in my playing!

I used time-lapse on my phone to document my learning. I have never used time-lapse before, but I am glad I did this week. A time-lapse option is included in the iPhone camera, and it takes a picture every few minutes. I think that this is a very helpful tool to use in the classroom to document the progress of something that is constantly changing. An example could include growing a plant in class. The plant wouldn’t look very different to the naked eye from day to day because the students will always be looking at it, but if there was a time-lapse of the plant the students could see the months of growth within a few moments.  I think that because the students can see the process of the plant growing through the time-lapse this tool would be in the redefinition area. Because of the time-lapse, students can see the plant’s growth, flowers bloom, fruit appears, and leaves die. They can see the life cycle of the plant and they might not notice the significant change if not for the time-lapse.

When I made the time-lapse on my phone, I was able to see my progress. The only problem with the time-lapse is that I couldn’t hear my progress. This makes lots of sense because a time-lapse is just multiple images that make a video. When I finished practicing, I was very frustrated with myself, and I felt like I wasn’t getting anywhere but when I watched my time-lapse back, I saw that I put a whole lot of work in, and I was proud of myself!  I don’t think I would use this tool again to document my progress in piano, mainly because it is important to be able to hear the piano. However, I think that the time lapse would be a lot of sense in situations that do not require sound.

The other internet tool I used today was an app called “MuseScore”. This app has piano sheet music, but it also plays the music with you. I also found the app helpful because it included the words with music. When I played the note, I would sing the corresponding lyric (not very well may I add). This helped me because I could hear if a note was off depending on where I was in the song. There were some issues with this app. First and foremost, the app has in-app purchases, and as seen in the video below they pop up at inopportune times. If you paid for the subscription, you wouldn’t have the apps.

This is the sheet music from MuseScore

Thanks for reading, you’re a gem ?

We Love Labeling

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Hi everyone!

I played the piano this week! I grabbed some sticky notes, and I headed downstairs where we keep the pianos. When I sat down, I found a picture of all the 88 keys on the piano labeled with their corresponding letters.

https://enthu.com/blog/piano/how-to-label-piano-keys/

After I wrote down all the notes, a friend of mine told me that I should learn how to do the C major scale. At first, I was very confused because I thought the scales were simply just moving up the keys A,B,C,D,E,F,G but then I found the video linked here, showing the fingers you are meant to use for each note. I ended up putting sticky notes on each of my fingers to remind me which one was meant to play with which note. The specific finger placement is something that I didn’t think about, however, it makes sense that when one if I play the notes with the proper fingers now it will be easier to play more difficult songs down the line. Although it took some time for my fingers to become comfortable moving in this way, once I got the hang of it, I was off to the races.  Here are some images of my progress

My labeled piano keys!

The orange is different because that is “middle C”

I even chose to play a few songs, if you want to check out my first try at the piano video it is linked here.

Thanks for reading, you’re a gem ?

 

Get to Know Me!

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Hi everyone! My name is Meghan Wright, I come from Estevan Saskatchewan, which is part of the unsurrendered land of Treaty 4. I am in my 3rd year of the Education program, and I am so excited for pre-internship to start! I think that it is important to mention in every introduction that I love reality tv, especially the Bachelor franchise, the sneak peek for the finale episode of the bachelorette is linked here. In case you don’t believe my pure commitment to this television masterpiece, The photo below is of my google doc where my sister and take notes on the episodes!

I think online classes have made me less scared of blogging. Whether it be a forum post or communicating over discord, covid helped us learn how to communicate in many different ways! However, I am extremely glad that lots of my classes are back in person. I am living in residence and I love the opportunity to spend time with my friends!

I have a few social media platforms, but this class will be my first time using Twitter. I am hesitant to create my blog on edusites because I do not know the platform and it’s tools, but I am excited to learn. If you would have asked me this summer, I would say I considered myself technologically literate, but I must say that these new sites have me feeling a bit overwhelmed.

Starting anew

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For this assignment, I decided to take up the great opportunity to learn piano. I live in residence, and we have pianos that are available for the residents to play. I took piano lessons for a few months when I was about 6 years old, so it is sufficient to say that after 15 years, I do not remember anything. I am most excited to gain the skill to play songs that everyone knows. When I was in high school one of my basketball teammates sat down at a piano and started to play “A Thousand Miles” by Vanessa Carlton and my team just sang along with her.

It was a really cool experience to see how a simple piano could bring our team together. I love that idea of just sitting down and playing music that makes everyone happy!

We have a few pianos in my residence, but I plan to use the one that is actually tuned! The only other materials I plan to use for my first week are some sticky notes. I don’t know any of the keys on the piano so I plan on putting sticky notes on the keys, so I know what notes I am being asked to play.