After sitting down for several hours over the course of the week at the piano I became easily frustrated. Piano was always something that I wanted to do so badly, but got easily frustrated when I tried to practice. Throughout week 4 and into week 5 all of this frustration came back and made me not want to play anymore. 

I am not where I want to be with my piano playing, and I found I have been mostly focusing on note reading. Although I have been watching several videos explaining how to read notes, and how they relate to piano keys, reading music and paying at the same time is a whole different ball game.

I began reflecting on this frustration and how my learning process can change to better meet my needs. I have been so focused on being able to play long elaborate pieces, that I have lost the enjoyment and that was something I needed to find again. 

I have been enjoying learning piano online as I have been able to watch several videos, with different perspectives, to help solidify my knowledge. However one aspect I have found particularly hard is the inability to ask questions, or further clarify with the instructors in the videos. I often found myself confused of a section, and when looking for answers elsewhere I easily gave up as I was never able to find the direct answer to my question. This definitely impacted the frustration I felt.

This week I decided I needed to take a step back and find my enjoyment in learning piano. Although I want to be able to play amazing pieces I know I am not at that point yet. Instead of getting 10 steps ahead of myself ,  I needed to take a few steps back and really practice and enjoy my new ability to read notes. 

On my Iphone this week,  I downloaded two apps, Virtuoso, and Piano Academy to help with my online piano learning. 

Virtuoso did not seem to be to helpful however I really enjoyed playing around with Piano Academy. The free version of this app offered some tutorials as well as songs to play on the app to practice note reading. 

The Piano Academy app really helped me gain confidence as I was able to put my note reading to test a little more in-depth. Although the notes are labelled on the app, it allowed me to see where notes are placed on the staff, as well as helped me to practice moving between notes. Although it was a very simple way to practice note reading, and piano playing together it was definitely an enjoyable aspect that took away from the frustration I was feeling. 

I took this screen record of the Piano Academy app:

After a nice refreshing week of continuing my piano learning I have decided that I want to focus more on enjoying putting music to the piano, and be less focused on the complexity of the pieces I play.