Original Goal
My original goal, taken from my Musicianship Goal Outline, which I created at the beginning of the semester.
“My goal is to improve my piano skills and learn to read music again. I played as a young girl for several years but dropped it in my early teens. Since then I have discovered I cannot really read the notes anymore and would like to relearn and get back into it.”
Reflecting back on the goal I set for myself in the early fall (September) I have accomplished what I set out to do. I can now read the notes on the sheet music and find the correlating finger placement on the piano keys. I can distinguish the sharps and flats and play pieces of music that incorporate them.
Assessment Tools
Below are the assessment tools which I chose for myself at the beginning of the semester.
1. Correct rhythm
2. Correct tempo
3. No stopping the song to go back and correct the tempo (this has been an issue and something I struggle with in the past…when I make an error instead of continuing the song, I halt and try to do it correctly-which causes the piece to sound very broken.
Keeping up with tempo and using correct rhythm are two things which I am still working on. Sometimes when I am playing a piece I find difficult when I make a mistake to continue the song rather than stop completely and try to play it correctly. I am getting better at it-that is playing the song start to finish without constantly halting to correct my errors. This was something my piano teacher always harped me on as a young girl. However, I find it easier now that I am older and have more patience and coordination to continue the song and not get frustrated with myself!
Recommendations
My professor, Anita, has kindly given me advice and recommendations to help improve my finger placement and ability to play stronger cords.
1) ensure that the first knuckle (nearest your nail) of your fingers help keep your finger stay curved, rather than buckling. At the same time, keep playing the piano with the pads of your fingers, not the tips.
2) When you play two notes harmonically in the right hand (e.g., Star-Spangled Banner where there are a lot of harmonic intervals 6 notes apart), move your right elbow away from your body horizontally just a couple of inches. That shift in gravity will enable your pinky to play louder. It plays the melody line so it is important to give this weak finger a bit of an advantage.
While practicing my song/s for my term-end assessment, I took this advice into consideration and practiced using the pads of my fingers, while keeping my fingers bent and not “buckled”. Reaching out with my entire elbow/arm instead of just pivoting my arm in the direction of the key I need to play has been very helpful as Anita point in creating stronger cords. This is particularly important I’ve noticed in my right hand as I broke my pinky finger quite badly when I was a teenager and it has never fully regained it’s strength.
Added Songs for Term End
I have decided to add two extra songs to my final blog post, which will come next week. In my last post I explained that I had changed my final goal from playing “House of The Rising Sun” to “Oh Christmas Tree”. On my next blog post I will also upload the songs “Blue Moon” and “Moon River”. I am still working on Moon River and plan to do so over the Christmas holidays, so it is a bit of a work in progress!
