It has been a tough week. I am feeling frustrated because all of my past efforts to grow as a musician in the past aren’t transcending over to my piano journey.
I have found strategies to further develop my note reading strengths, but there are so many challenges on top of just decoding the notes! Taking all of my short-comings into consideration, I have categorized them into five groupings. These categorizations have allowed me to compartmentalize my small issues and not look at them as a whole (therefore, less overwhelming) :
- Note recognition
- Paying tribute to the tempo of the music
- The act of translating notes to finger placement
- Correct fingering – landing on the intended finger
- Emotion of the music – what I can personally take with me/ give to others
As much as learning how to play the piano has belittled me, it has also placed me in the position of a student who has to start from scratch. It has been very interesting to hear the conversations among my peers, and as we discuss our limitations I wonder if it’s resonating that this assignment is in itself a learning lesson. Sometimes when I am in student mode, I find gaps/ a lack of scaffolding in the lesson plan I have set up for myself. Other weeks, such as my first week, I have found my criteria extremely dry and have had to bounce back to teacher mode thinking,
“Where is the zone of proximal development? I thought I had created a lesson plan to make the student fulfilled!”
And when the ‘student’ is yourself, and you’re letting yourself down… you take it personally.
So, here I am filling the position of two individuals; the teacher and the student. As I bounce between these roles I am obligated to reflect on:
- What is working for me as a teacher or a student
- The mindset I may have to change as a teacher or as a student
I have been working towards reading a full piece of music this week called Gigue. The timing is 6/8 and I have been counting myself in:
1 2 3 4 5 6 – 1 2 3 4 5 6 – …
with the first and fourth beat emphasized. The timing of this piece had many repetitions of dotted half notes on the last of each measure. Therefore in 6/8 time, I play these as their full two counts, plus a half count of its value (equal to three). Reading the notes and not getting lost, while placing my hands on the correct keys (let alone my fingers) has been my most current challenge.
Please feel free to check out my midterm video below! Enjoy!
Gigue by Samuel Arnold
