Week 4:

This week of piano, I am continuing to learn some new music and just become an overall better player. I learned some new pentascales, some new techniques, and as I go through the book each song is getting a bit more advanced and therefore more interesting.

So far, I learned the D, A, E, C, G, and F major pentascales. Pentascales are basically a set of notes: each one of them is named after the first note of the scale.  For more in depth information on that you can refer to my last blog. With each scale I learn, I also learn a song that is in that key (another name for playing in a certain scale). This week I learned the major D, A, and E pentascales. For each scale, there is one note that is sharp, so I have to hit the black key for that note. For example: In a D major scale every F is sharp. Soon I will hopefully be playing some songs in minor keys. It is hard to explain what the difference between a minor and a major scale is so I will just let you hear the difference. It is pretty apparent. Here is the difference between d major and d minor:

Also, I have had a bit of a revelation, or rather I'm starting to understand what my brother- who's played the piano for five years- said. He told me that "Its not so much about playing the notes that correspond with those on the page, but reading the spaces in between them". When he said this to me I basically dismissed it as a stupid idea (After all why should I listen to him about how to play the piano?) Now that I am starting to get the hang of it though, I realize that I am actually doing this. I first find what the starting notes are, then I just look between the lines to see how many spaces there are. Then I use my finger that is that many spaces away. Like if I  had used my thumb and the next note was three spaces away, I would use my ring finger. 

I've also been practicing switching into different keys while I am playing. It is different from what I am used to because I have to move my whole hand into a different position. This is the song that I have been working on that focuses on switching between keys; it is called Royal Procession:

Well, that's about all I have to say. I had a pretty good week, learned a lot and I am happy with how far I have come so far!