A Very First Lesson

   Oh heyyy! So, on Monday, February 8th, 2011, I had my very first lesson with Mrs. Miller. I was actually a little nervous because I didn't want to mess anything up. It turned out okay, I got a new assignment notebook where she'll be recording my homework assignments and what I should be practicing. She's told me A LOT about what I need to do to help myself learn how to read sheet music. She gave me lots of tips!

• don't listen to a piece before you look at the sheet music, instead, try to imagine how the piece would sound just by the notes you see on the score
• don't look down at your hands
• know your intervals [third, fourth, fifth] based on the number of keys difference; this is really good for learning how to read sheet music because it helps me picture the key/where it is
• count out-loud to get the right rhythm! [apparently I have a lot of issues with this....]
• remember the volume that the piece should be!
• practice!

   I kind of feel like she assigned me a lot to do, but maybe not? I started practice, and it went okay, but I'm definitely not through it all yet. Maybe like 1/5 of all the pages she assigned. The problem is that I went through the first couple of pages pretty fast too, so I'm probably going to have to practice for an hour or more in the future.