Week Two:

Week one of playing the piano has gone very well! I finished the first book: Piano Adventures: Primer Level, and today I just started looking at the second book. The first book taught the notes on the piano and where to place your fingers. Once I learned all the notes I worked on trying to improve my speed. As I expected, I had a bit of a hard time recognizing the notes on bass clef, but I eventually memorized them. The songs in the first book are quite simple- thank goodness! However, I had a fun time learning them.  

I downloaded an app that can record sounds; below I put a song from the Beginner book called “Grandmother”: The second book is much harder than the first, and is what I would call a huge leap. All the sudden the songs are about five times as long, they have sharp notes and chords that have three notes at one time. The first book did not have these things, so I was a bit surprised when I saw them with no introduction in the second. Anyway, the first song in it is the Star Spangled Banner (though probably a watered down version). This is what I will be working on the next few days. I put a short clip it below:

At first I thought I would practice piano every other day, but I have realized that I am at such a beginning level, if I don't practice for a day I will end up forgetting every thing I learned. This week I will have to make sure I play every single day, even if it is only for about fifteen minutes. I am so glad I have gotten as far as I have, but I will be very happy when I get to some more exiting songs!