Video :)

Due to technical difficulties, the video took FOREVER to upload, so I won't have time to write about it just yet, but will do :)


  ALRIGHTYY THEN. So I've definitely learned the rest of the song. At this point right now though, the second part is still veryyyy shaky. At the end I kept trying to play from memory and hit all the wrong notes several times. I would've re-recorded, but my camera was running low on batteries. However, the beginning of this video (in contrast to my first video), was pretty smooth I would say. A lot more "fluidity" resulted after my practicing, and although I would say the piece still sounds quite choppy, it's probably not hard to fix as long as I keep at it, practicing and such. The tempo of the piece is a lot closer to the actual (if not the actual) tempo that the song was supposed to be. I noticed from comparing back to my last video that I went a lot slower there. However, also unlike the last video, I'm not slowing down too much when I make mistakes. Maybe this was just my being in a rush to finish the recording, but when I messed up, I didn't slow down for my corrections, only tried attacking the piece at the same tempo over and over again. Slow down and take the approach. That's definitely something I want to ALWAYS remember to do. 

Reflection && New Goals (explicitly stated) -- 5 for the week

  I think I've done pretty well this week. I know in the past couple of weeks, it seems as if I did nothing, but I definitely did work, it's just not as much as I have done now or before the entire "thing". I know there was that little (or is it big?) bump along the way, but I think I'm moving past it alright. As part of my "new plan to keep track of my progress and to make sure that I'm progressing", here are my goals both in general and for the week:

GOALS

1. Make goals for the week every Sunday.
2. Upload a video once very weekend (I only have access to recording during weekends).
3. Learn the rest of Pachelbel Canon in D.
4. Try to make ^ sound more fluid/pretty.
5. Ask Julianna (sister) to critique.

Out of these five goals, I think 1, 2, and 5 are going to be more difficult than the other two, and they are the ones where I'd be stepping out of my comfort zone the most. This is because for 1 and 2, I'd be making another commitment, which I always knew would be an obstacle, and for 5, I'd be asking someone younger to "teach" me. 

Hmm something new....

   Okay, so hopefully this works... I went and took a video of myself with an iPhone and uploaded it to 4shared. I didn't realize I could just upload it through Blogger, but too late I guess. I just posted the embed code into the Edit HTML section and messed around with the <br> break lines and other HTML stuff I learned from when I was in middle school and I was playing around online with coding and layouts and such. Anyways, here's how far I've gotten with Canon in D Major. This song went a lot smoother than Fireflies (not my playing, but the process of me trying to play). Ahhhahaha it's so embarrassing. [Is this stepping out of my comfort zone? I think so!] It definitely doesn't sound anywhere as good as the other youtube version by the tiny child, but... oh well. Don't laugh. Or mock. Or whatever else, comforting words won't help either.

   If you saw the video, you would've noticed that I made a super big obvious mistake at the end before I stopped recording. I also probably made several mistakes prior to the end, but yeah... that's how far I am this week. I think this is how I'm going to keep track of my progress. I'm going to try and upload a video every weekend to show how far I've gotten with my playing, and to show what I'm playing. I think it's a very good "doing" demonstration. As far as this song goes, I'm still kinda bad at moving from one position to the other, and everything sounds chunky, so that's something I'm hoping to fix with practice. I'm not even finished learning the piece yet (I think the beginning was the easier part), so next week, I'll be moving further along there too... yepp.

OH AND I ALMOST FORGOT! Sometime next week, I'll be asking my little sister to comment on my playing and to tell me what I'm doing wrong and where I'm doing wrong, as Mrs. Miller had instructed I do during our last lesson for the purpose that the mistakes that I don't see get pointed out.

A Stir Away From (Fire)Flies

   Is this a step into or out of my comfort zone? Either way, I think this is good, the fact that I opened one of my old books to a song I've never really played and stopped on this one. I think I've always thought this song was really pretty, but it's definitely, DEFINITELY, SLOW. Previously, as in years before, I lovedd fast songs because they were easier to learn the rhythm to, and they were easier to play (maybe?), or at least in my opinion. I didn't want to learn this song for that reason. Anyways, I decided to attack it this week, and it's been going on pretty well :) OH I've been rambling for this entire time and I haven't even mentioned the title of this song yet. It's Pachelbel Canon in D Major. Since the sheet music is sometime I have physically, I can't link to it here, but there's a youtube version of this song in D Major here: Canon in D Major (by the looks of his hands, this person looks like he/she's under the age of 10....)

   Yeahhh, and the version to which I linked above is a lot more... fancy/emphasized than the version I have. Mine is A LOT simpler, and probably sounds a lot worse....