Sunday's Reflection && new goals

For: last Sunday
Last week's goals said:

1. Ask Julianna to critique.
2. Look through all past journal posts and REMEMBER WHAT YOU SAID YOU'D UPDATE (speaking to me)
3. Try to journal as soon as things happen, if possible (ie. right after a mentor meeting or right after practice)
4. Use this week as a last week for Canon in D, practicing and "perfecting" (? possibly ?)
5.  Brainstorm a bit more about end project ideas.
6. Research on history of the piano.
7. Contact Yuangting Li, a Chinese girl at IHS who gives piano lessons, for some help in trying to work on Fireflies?

   Yepp, I finally did it. On Saturday, I asked Julianna to sit down with me for a bit while I played. It was definitely awkward because for me, it was weird having someone younger act as a teacher, and for her, it was weird being the "older sibling" or the "more experienced" one. My sister commented on my fluidity and also told me that I was speeding up a lot in certain areas where I shouldn't have been. At first I had a lot of trouble pulling words from her, but soon it worked out okay. According to Julianna, I had to look at my fingers a lot more than the music, which could be an issue as I'm not supposed to focus on my fingers, but the notes on the sheet. She also told me that my fingering was also wrong in the last section, but that wasn't too big of a deal. This was actually a funny story because my little sister could not make herself 'critique' me until I offered her a bribe (Reese's cups, yumm). 
   In terms of my other goals, I am slightly lacking, as can been seen in the recent couple of days, so I will be extending this goal period for a while to fulfill these goals, (especially 2,3,5,6). I did get to contact Yuanting and will post a short interview at some point in time!

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. 

Mentor Meeting & Response on Ideas for End of the Year

(semi posting this like a week later, but the date's set to when it's supposed to be so that my journal entries are in order as they're supposed to be)
   So like I've stated in my last mentor meeting blog, I've still been having trouble coming back online. But anyways, in my mentor meeting today, Ms. Lord congratulated me on sort of finding my way, and stepping out of my comfort zone (a lot)? Similar to my last mentor meeting post, I seem to be still having lack of motivation in coming online onto my blog. Scraps of paper keep piling up somewhere around the house when I write notes down for my journal, but I'm really having trouble coming back here to update. Maybe it's the end of the year or maybe it's cause spring break/AP week's coming, but it's definitely an issue. Which brings up the next point I need to make. What am I planning for my end of the year presentation? The end is coming by really fast and no joke, it might crash into me, so where am I headed? Ms. Lord says it's a good time to start thinking now. And I have, a little bit, or at least in the thirty minutes...
   I guess I'm still not quite sure on exactly yet, but I think for my presentation, what I could be (possibly) showing are (oh my gosh really?) my progress videos, if they turn out okay and I do enough [maybe just the first and last?] and perhaps teach the class a little something that they would be able to play on their own?

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. 

Fireflies

   I just wanted to say how impossible this song was. ASFHGSJKHGSGHL this song is IMPOSSIBLE to play. Each of the notes take at least a minute for me to figure out and make sure that I'm on the right note since the key jumps from white keys to black keys, and I forget how the melody of the song actually goes sometimes, so then I get lost and have to start over when I'm trying to piece out the song from what I've already played. I literally spent an entire hour doing this, and then later when I came back to the piece, there was absolutely not improvement at all, or at least not enough improvement for me to stay. The version from which I am learning is thirteen pages long (four lines per page, with only one line on the last page). Right now, I can't get past the fourth page without getting mad at myself for not being able to play it right. I've worked with this song so slowly that I think I've grown to hate it and like it at the same time. Even more, these mixed emotions have been making me really frustrated. I'll be really excited and inspired to play piano, and then I'll leave dejected and upset by the fact that I recognize that I can't play it correctly. Honestly, now that I'm writing this, I feel really ashamed that I gave up, but I'll probably continue to do so even without noticing it.

The Search part 2

   So there's some really old research that I've kinda just left there that I did like wayy back a while ago. I figured I'd put it here since I forgot what I really aiming for in this post.

How to Read Sheet Music

   Tadaaa... so yeah, these were sorta things I learned when I was younger that Mrs. Miller didn't really want me to use, but when I couldn't remember anything, I would be coming back to this and thinking:

"Every Good Boy Does Fine"

"FACE"

"Good Boys Do Fine Always"

"All Cows Eat Grass"

    This link also had some good tips, most of which had already been covered verbally to me by Mrs. Miller.

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ANYWAYS. My ORIGINAL intention was to share this:

zeldaxlove64's cover - FIREFLIES by OWL CITY

Isn't it pretty? I totally envy her, both her playing ability and her voice. It's really amazing, and definitely inspirational. Each time I hear her play, I just imagine myself doing it as well. After listening to this, I actually went and sat down to practice "Fireflies".

   I really think this song itself is really pretty. It's one of my favorite songs ever, here's the original. 
I've actually been listening to this song when I'm trying to go to sleep. It's on my nighttime playlist, along with a couple of other songs that are also by Owl City. Owl City = Adam Young, who is super talented and who writes, sings, and plays all of his music. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owl_City)

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   I think after working in this project, I've lost sight of my clear goal. I mean I knew what I'm aiming for overall, but it's the little things that I forget, it's the exact words that I said before and the exact thoughts I had when I said them. This is probably why a lot of people's goals change as time progresses because as they work, they always progress a destination, and sometimes that destination is different from their original goal. Anyways, I do sort of remember mentioning about researching the correlation between music and mood, and that's probably why links relating to this topic are plastered all over my initial bibliography. This one website says that it has actually been tested that music improves mood. A study was conducted for college students that had results that showed that music, regardless of what type (whether it's country or rock), improved the afterward moods of the students who listened to it. The students kept diaries and worked with a psychology teacher to determine that they got positive emotions after exposure to music. (http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/news/20031022/music-improves-mood)

   [Reflection on this?] I feel like this means that I'll definitely be depending on music in college. I mean I am listening to it a lot even now too. At least once a day (definitely as I go to sleep), I listen to music. I wanted to listen to piano music to study whether or not piano music especially has an effect on one's mood, but I got realllyyyyy bored after the first couple of days. However, I think this study that was done helps me think positively, because I sorta am conscious that I am in a better mood after listening to music, and I want myself to always be in better moods.

Comments on "Disrupting My Comfort Zone" + BIG REFLECTION?

  Brian Grazer, huh? Well, I think that he's a pretty great person for challenging himself and continuing to challenge himself. I think he's overcome some great feats and he definitely speaks some words of wisdom.

 "If you're not growing, you're dying."

   I think his enthusiasm towards "disrupting [his] comfort zone" is really great. It would be pretty awesome to adopt that outlook of his, but things are easier said than done. I do think that I have disrupted my comfort zone, but definitely not a lot. However, I think that not a lot of disruption is acceptable for me. I don't think my project asks that I get out of my comfort zone a lot. Actually, I think it helps me if I stay in my comfort zone. Perhaps in another situation, but the "comfort zone disruption" isn't something I'm aiming towards in this project.... or is that just what I think?

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On the board it prompts:

What are...

...3 ways I've stepped out of my comfort zone?

I feel like my decision on actually taking lessons is definitely an example of my stepping out of my comfort zone. This would be... the third piano teacher I've had, and I've had other music instructors for other instruments in the past as well. I don't know why, but I absolutely detest having piano lessons. Somehow or another, I always feel like I would disappoint the teacher and it would make me feel extremely uncomfortable before my lessons. Another way that' I've stepped out of my comfort zone could perhaps include when I played for some friends at school when they came by to visit me in one of the practice rooms.  I was super self-conscious because the friends for which I was playing were all really good at piano. This actually reminds me, I should journal more of my practicing experiences because it shows more "doing". I guess a third way I've stepped out of my comfort zone would be when I asked my middle sister to watch me play piano and point of if I was doing anything wrong because that's what Mrs. Miller had suggested I do before ended lessons. She said that this would help me make sure that I was playing correctly. I was reluctant to do so because it's kinda odd to have a little girl tell you you're doing things wrong... but it's for the best :)

...4 ways my project has changed thus far?

Honestly, I don't think my project has changed a lot. Or perhaps I just haven't noticed it yet? Though, everything's taking a really long time and I've already forgotten the deadlines I've set for myself at the beginning of this period. This reminds me, I should go and read my first entries.  What's with the music and emotions thing? The idea seems really odd to me now... xD 

...3 things I wish I'd done differently in working on my project so far?

I definitely think I should have come with a better plan on the research portion. I have NO research plan. All I do is randomly find things and stick them into a bookmark folder on my browser and that's it. Hm... I also think I should've considered how I would be managing with a teacher and/or working independently a lot earlier. Everything seems messy because I had no idea where to go. Another thing I wish I'd done differently was find a more interesting specific topic to research, a more interesting micro-research focus.

...5 things I've learned about my field of interest, myself, and working with others?

My field of interest? Why, there's a lot of people devoted to it and my sisters really love it. I like piano, but I definitely don't have the same passion as some other students that my teacher has. Myself? I'm a very indecisive person and I let a lot of different things affect me... I guess that means I'm sensitive? Or something... IDK. (There I go again with the 'I don't know' 's). Working with others? Sometimes what others have in mind for me is not exactly the same as my own ideas, even though we may not be having trouble working together. 

Just a note...

  SO... a lot has been going on in my life lately. Aside from just the regular loads of  homework and projects and online courses and such, I've also been having some issues, some relating to family, that have been interfering with my entire life. There have been some really sudden changes this past week that might seem like they came out of nowhere. First, although I had originally planned to try to work towards an ending in my piano lessons, last Monday, I realized that I had to start Track, which is everyday after school until 6pm. Mrs. Miller has no other times available for me and I can't miss Track practice once every week, so I talked to Mrs. Miller and we came to the agreement that I would be stopping classes for now. I still have two other classes that I've paid for that I could come in and take in the future when we both have time (something could be worked out). Mrs. Miller is allowing me to keep the piano books that I've been using because I could always return them to her through my sister Julianna. Another thing is the Saturday morning class. I was originally hoping to make it to the class and to play the Black Swan and Hamster Chase, but I started Track on Wednesday, and practice is every day of the week except Sundays. This means that I have to be there for practice on Saturday mornings as well, and the time, unfortunately, overlaps the hours of the Saturday class. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to figure everything out, but as of now, everything seems to be in a mess. I really hope everything will work out. I don't think I've progressed very much this past week, and I've been sorta skimping on the piano practice because I've been going straight to Cornell to do my homework everyday after Track practice (I don't have a ride home until about 10pm). This makes it so that I have trouble getting in all my practice time. Ahhhh everything's crazyyy.

Reflection on the 1st Week in March

   For the dates February 27th to March 5th, my focuses for the week were on recognizing notes on the staff and learning to pedal. I've been practiced at school twice (due to absence/classes, I only had 2 classes free during 7th period), so I wasn't able to progress too much on pedaling. For note recognition, I've drawn tons of diagrams on the back of my progress journal and found random pieces of songs I would never play that I wrote down the notes for (ie. marked ABCDEFG above each note).

Lesson & A List of Recommended Pieces

FOR:  Friday, February 25th, 2011

   I forgot to practice today, but I did make up for it on Saturday... just saying.

   Something else I forgot was the fact that Mrs. Miller said I could pick out a piece to learn now! Anything, anything at all! Should I try Fantasie Impromptu? I mean just listen to it, it's crazy beautiful... 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvm2ZsRv3C8

...but also crazy impossible? I mean some of the really hard pieces that I've already learned how to play (by ear/memorizing fingerings) are Beethoven's Fur Elise, Brahms' Hungarian Dance, and Mozart's Turkish March. But those were by memorization, which is by far, much easier than reading sheet music.

Here's something I found on Google that I thought might be useful in the future...
a list of recommended classical pieces!

  Andd... also I kind of made a list for modern songs even though in one of the other posts, I said I wouldn't make one. I only have one title on my list right now, and that's Owl City's Fireflies. 

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Amm7Do0ySkU

   The piano version is really really pretty sounding. If two days, I'll probably just pick something off this list instead of going with the first song I hear on the radio (most likely this song?). 

Day Dreaming && When the Saints Go Marching In

FOR: Monday, February 21st, 2011

   Today was my third lesson!

   For the past week, I've been working on this one repertoire piece called "Day Dreaming" by Dolly E. Kessner. I've been having such trouble with it because it's a very... awkward(?) piece. There are seven beats per measure, unlike your standard/average four beats per measure. And especially since the number of beats are odd instead of even, it is very difficult (or at least for me) to keep up with the rhythm of the piece while exercising all other areas (volume, tempo, notes, etc.) This was one of the major pieces I worked on during my lesson with Mrs. Miller today. Since my metronome doesn't have seven beat per measure, she suggested that if I still had trouble, it's best to put the metronome on one beat per measure and just count. My trouble was that I wanted to make the number of beats even, and I kept leaving an extra rest at the end of each measure. When I finally got the beats right during my lesson today, I got the notes wrong... however, after my lesson, I came home and practiced this piece for half an hour more and now I think I've got it down (:

   One of the other songs I worked on during my lesson today was "When the Saints Go Marching In" [page 61 of the Progressive Class Piano book]. This is a version edited by Elmer Heerema [author of Progressive Class Piano]. When I had first started learning piano, years earlier, I had learned a different version of this song, so I kept getting the notes wrong because my hands remember the piece differently. Mrs. Miller says that this is how one learns to memorize a piece, because you practice it enough that your fingers remember how to move, your muscle remember how to react. And since this was one of my favorite easy songs to play back then, I kept making mistakes in attacking the piece. Of course, with enough time, the piece came out perfect!

   Something interesting I began to look up was the history of this song, "When the Saints Go Marching In". Although this might not be the best source from which to reference, I looked this song up on Google, and found it on Wikipedia. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_the_Saints_Go_Marching_In

   Wikipedia gives a rather good overall background on this song. This was traditionally meant for accompaniment to a funeral march, a "jazz funeral" to be specific. I was looking for an original version of this song, and according to Wikipedia, the original was copyrighted by Oliver Virgil Stamps. I kinda got bored after that and stopped reading the rest...

A Mentor Message

[I've been on vacation so I haven't updated for two weeks, but I have everything down! :)]

FOR: Wednesday, February 16th, 2011


    My first mentor meeting was supposed to be on the 14th of Monday, but I accidentally missed Ms. Lord when I went by. That was a bad start to the week... but fortunately, I was able to reschedule and meet with Ms. Lord today, the Wednesday after.

   In our first mentor meeting, we discussed the plans for future mentor meetings. I didn't really know what the specific jobs of a mentor were, but I found out today that they vary depending on the mentor and student. Here's some notes for future mentor meetings (technically speaking to myself here):

• If your mentor isn't there and the room door is open, he/she will most likely return shortly and/or is nearby. Stay and wait a while, or leave a note on the door and come back in a couple of minutes. 
• The mentor isn't supposed to go after you to make sure you make the meeting. At least that's not what most mentors do. It is your job to reschedule and/or plan accordingly.
• YOU tell your mentor what you want them to do. Do you want them to reflect on your progress? To question you? To listen to you? To be someone that you can ask questions?
• Bring questions for yourself and plan to discuss them with your mentor. 

"So as you read..."

"...try to read ahead - see the entire measure (or phrase) at a glance - not one note at a time."

   Second lesson today! I was a bit unprepared for it because the first part of the day was kind of rough for me as I had two tests in my two most challenging classes (ap physics c and calculus bc). But anyways, I sight-read some of the pieces I had practiced during the past week for Mrs. Miller, and somehow, all of them turned out horrible, or at least it seemed to have from my perspective... I mean maybe I was just nervous, or maybe that's just how it's supposed to turn out, but I was HORRIBLE. It seemed as if I had never played the pieces before and I was struggling so much to get each of the notes right. I had to keep restarting and I forgot the rhythm and when to play piano or when to play forte. It was actually quite embarrassing, I felt like a turtle on its back. I'm pretty sure Mrs. Miller was disappointed, but... I don't know...
   I got a lot of new suggestions/tips though, like if I'm making mistakes, I'm going too fast, or if I'm having trouble with playing with my hands together, try just the left hand part first.
   A key thing I was told was that I speed up WAY TOO MUCH, and that makes it difficult because I'll get the notes wrong just from being hasty.
   Anyways, this time, instead of just half a page of comments for the day that she recorded in my progress book, I got a whole page. That's probably bad... more work this week I guess, but I definitely need it.

Repertoire && Taylor Swift

   I remember when Mrs. Miller first said this word, and I had no idea what it meant. When I looked it up, it said that it means "[a] list of dramas, operas, parts, pieces, etc., which a company, actor, singer or the like, is prepared to perform [or a]ll the works of a particular kind considered collectively".

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_a_repertoire#ixzz1DuLW5LyU

   I was assigned four repertoire pieces to play. Some of them are actually kind of hard. I spent half an hour just learning the notes and the rhythm to the first one. I guess maybe I need to spend more time on that? Yes, that's good.
   Anyways, my piano practicing hasn't been very well received by my parents. My dad usually enjoys listening to us practice, but he doesn't think I'm playing piano when I practice the repertoire pieces, because I mess up so much that it doesn't sound like anything. Aside from repertoire, I also have several rhythm drills that I have to do. It's like a score of beats that you tap to or something... so at the dinner table, I'll be like, tapping away, and my entire family just looks at me as if I'm from another country. Haha.
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   I've been sorta looking through current songs for ones I like that I could learn to play, and I realized that I like so many so them that I don't know how I'm going to be able to just choose one. Being indecisive as I am, does that mean a new challenge? I mean, I stumbled onto my little sister's albums of Taylor Swift, and I think most, if not all of them, would work for a piano cover. Plus, they all seem fairly simple to learn as well, so I don't know... they're really easy to get stuck in my head.

An Update On Practicing

   I was really hoping this wouldn't happen as early as it did, but I guess it couldn't be helped. I knew I was going to run into this problem...
   I was REALLY good with practicing on the first two days. Right after I got home from school on the first three days, I practiced for half an hour each time. From the log book Mrs. Miller gave me, I did all the reading sections from pages 15 to 31. But somehow on Thursday, I just decided it was okay to practice at a different time, to practice after dinner or something. Or something... well that something became not practicing at all. Even worse, I didn't practice on Friday either. I guess I didn't realize that the fact I had to work right after school, and didn't plan ahead.
    The good thing is that on Saturday, I "made-up" all my missing practicing by practicing for two hours straight. Only, that's actually bad because I wasn't supposed to do that, I wasn't supposed to cram practicing all into one block of time. It's only the beginning and I've already broken sequence. But what else can I do about it? I mean, at least now I'll be prepared for next week because I'll be bringing my books to school and practicing on the pianos in the practice rooms during 7th in the Performing Arts Center. Hopefully nothing like this happens again...

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.