As October comes to an end and I reflect back on my musical journey
so far, as we have reached the halfway mark of the semester, I am happy with where I am and how far I have come since the beginning September. For my midterm review as laid out in my “Musicianship Goal”, I have finished learning “The Boogie” and have actually added another song which required me to read and play off of sheet music. The second song I decided to practice and learn for the midterm review is actually the American national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner”. I have always thought it was a beautiful song/anthem and love the way it plays on the piano.
I have definitely
used my ‘assets’ to help me reach my goals for the midterm review. My mother has kindly spent a few evenings helping me learn the end of “The Boogie” and it is something we both have enjoyed. Although I have to admit, we tend to get a bit distracted and carried away…and a 15-30 minute practice session usually turns into an hour or more of us laughing away as we play and sing along to old songs, sitting next to each other on the same piano bench (which does not work as well as it once did as I have grown quite a bit!). As for liabilities I have found that I actually have not procrastinated from playing the piano and practicing…it is something I actually find myself gravitating towards instead of doing my other assignments!
Midterm Review “The Boogie”
Below I have 3 videos for my midterm review of “The Boogie”. The first one is a complete video of the song and the following two videos are the right and left hand played separately.
Midterm Review “The Star-Spangled Banner”
My second song that I decided to add to my midterm review is the American national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner. Below is the full video of the song. I would like to continue working on this song for my final review as I still need to get the rhythm down and there are certain parts of it where I don’t keep the rhythm as I am stalling to focus on the notes.
A few things I’ve Found Helpful…
- The piano keyboard at the back of our class text book! I found this helpful when I was just getting started to find keys and help with finger placement. It has also been helpful for completing my music literacy quiz.
- “The Brown Scale Book” is a book from when I was younger and playing the piano more consistently. I have found it very helpful in getting my fingers moving and working together, simultaneously.
- My mother (featured image for the blog post!). My mother has helped and supported me immensely as has my father (morally!).
