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.

The Search

TBU

FOUND! Sheet music for Fireflies by Owl City - this is the newest and best version that I have found and am deciding to use.

LINK

Key signature - Major

   So right now, the keys I have learned are (corresponding to the sharp notes indicated in the chart below) C, G, D, A, and E. I have also learned F major, which has one flat on B.

(the following was printscreened from Wikipedia: Key signature - scales with sharps)

Before My Mentor Meeting

   Mentor meeting today 7th period! I've kind of been contemplating whether or not I should continue taking piano lessons from Mrs. Miller because to learn fingerings, it can basically be taught in one lesson... but Mrs. Miller's also teaching me about keys and such so... I don't know...
  This is just a little note to myself for things I want to bring up and talk about today with Ms. Lord:

• Future plans... Am I going in the wrong direction? A new direction?
• Do I have to have recitals?
• Am I going at the right pace?
• Should I start learning pieces on my own?
• Should I continue piano lessons with Mrs. Miller?
• Should I tell Mrs. Miller about my blog?

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...

Youtube Artists

FOR: Friday, February 18th, 2011


   I've been on the hunt for the "perfect" modern song to learn, and so far I still have no luck. There are a lot of "good" pieces, but nothing "perfect" yet. What I do is go on youtube and search "piano cover". Sometimes, if I just type the beginning to something, the top searched/most popular choices will show up in a little auto-fill choice thingy. I don't want to put down anything specific yet because I know that if I do, I'll probably just limit myself to the ones I've recorded down in the end.
   During my research, I found many many inspiring youtube artists. The channel of one of the most amazing artists I've found is here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/zeldaxlove64

  She's so good that I feel intimidated... haha. I mean, it may just be that she has an amazing voice, but her piano is also exceptional in my opinion. 

   Anyways, from my youtube hunt, I honestly think that, since so many songs sound amazing on the piano, I might just go with the first song I hear on the radio one day. Although I still have to get this approved by Mrs. Miller, I'm really excited to start this! 

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.