Last week I practiced writing notes with the hopes that it will make it easier to read notes. I mentioned in my last blog post, I was able to read most of the notes for the song Happy Birthday. This week I wanted to take the sheet music to the piano and practice playing, starting with Happy Birthday  as I already  had reviewed the notes. Hoping this meant it would go smoothly.

Before I began playing I watched a quick 9 and a half minute video to show which key represented each note. As I watched the video I sat at my piano and labelled the piano keys with sticky notes. I don’t remember a lot from playing piano as a kid, but I do remember my teacher doing something similar to assist in learning to read music. 

The video talked about using mnemonics to help with memorizing notes. This is a strategy that I defiantly think will help me, but also something to keep in mind in the classroom. Sometimes memorization can be easier when there is something to trigger the information, like a mnemonic. The video uses the saying “ every good boy does fine” to remember the line note order E, G, B, D F. This can be transferred into the classroom in any subject area that requires memorization, and can allow creativity as students create their own mnemonics.

After I labelled my piano notes I attempted to play the Happy Birthday a few times. Although it wasn’t horrible I was not happy with how it sounded. I resulted to my old beginner piano books my mom had kept stored away.

After a few hours of practicing the same simple songs, I set a goal to challenge myself to a more difficult song next week.

This week I started looking at sheet music, and familiarizing myself with the main concept of reading sheet music. A fellow classmate , Celine, gave me the advice to check out a website with sheet music. I found lots of great music on this site that gave me motivation to practice my note reading and writing. Celine also mentioned that writing sheet music helps to familiarize yourself with the notes seen. I took her advice and printed 20 pieces of blank sheet music. I found a few videos explaining sheet music, and some basic techniques to reading and drawing music. I started with just drawing notes on the sheets I had printed. The lines however were WAY to small and it was extremely frustrating.

I resulted to flipping the page over and drawing my own lines. I practiced drawing notes up and down the scale. Although it looks easy, I found it difficult to make my notes perfect and they often were not circle. I referred to a site https://takelessons.com/blog/reading-piano-notes/ with an article How to Read Sheet Music in 5 Easy Steps which guided me as I labelled the notes I had drawn. 

After I practiced drawing and labelling my own notes a few times, I printed off a sheet from the site I started this week’s journey on and began labeling the notes. It was a breeze at first but I came across some notes that I had never seen before and totally stumped me. Although I was able to read most of the Happy Birthday song I haven’t tried to play it. That will be next week’s journey. 

I have always loved the piano. When I was younger I took lessons, however, at a young age, the want to be able to play piano was not the same as wanting to practice for. I was pulled out of lessons and the piano I begged my parents for began collecting dust. Everyone once in a while we would have a visitor who would play it, and every time I wished I was able to.

I thought this learning project would be a great time to pick up where I left off and learn to play some songs. As I sat down on the piano bench I quickly realized I remembered next to nothing and found a beginner piano lesson video on YouTube.

 As I watched this extremely helpful video I soon decided that not only did I want to play I wanted to learn how to read music as well. I continued to watch the second video and found them both very informative, and gave me a great positive start on my learning.

As I continue to learn I hope to lean on other online resources, including free places to get sheet music, and other videos explaining the piano playing process.