*little note to self*

When the left hand plays a broken chord/arpeggio, play the last note extra softly, and if they are more than 3 notes of a chord played in succession, play the last few notes with that extra soft touch. Can't come up with a solid concept or theory behind this yet, just have to go by feel.

Yiruma's Destiny of Love Album!

If you don't already have a copy, but loved Love Hurts, the song I've been talking about in my recent posts, I'd recommend you get the album the song was from -- Destiny of Love. You can grab a copy by clicking on the link below.^^ I got the album recently and I really liked a few of the songs in there, especially Mika's Song, The Last Song and of course, Love Hurts:) Wonder if all his albums  are this good...there were piano pieces, orchestrated tracks and his singing! Never knew Yiruma sang!!! And he does it really well too!

Sigh, I must have sounded like a moron in that last line, lol...there's so much in music I don't know...how exciting:D

Anyways, that's all for this post. Have a think about the album, yeah? That Mika's Song is still stuck in my head...argh...

BTW, love the orchestrated version of Mika's Song...can cry listening to it.T_T

Yiruma's Love Hurts Videos!^^

Here's the piano tutorial I'm using to learn Love Hurts, along with the original performed by Yriuma himself...as I've promised, LOL:D





*Please purchase the CD or find somewhere to buy this track online, if that's all that you want. I've only posted this video here to give you a rough listen. Honestly, if I were able to find a way to get and upload the official sample piece here, I would. *sighs* If you like the song, GO GET IT! SUPPORT YIRUMA! LOL=D No but seriously...don't rip him off^^

Think I've been listening to the original way too much. Kept trying to play it the way it was recorded, the spots where it was soft, the accented notes and all...with no success, of course. Even so, I just can't seem to allow myself to play the song any other way...it'd just seem like I'm not doing the song justice, argh...

My ability, or lack of ability is really getting in the way...lol.

Also, I've seen quite a few videos of pianist playing this song at home. Most of them sound really mechanical and some seem to go too fast. There are only one or two I've seen that expressed the emotions in the song well. Man, I wish I xould do that in my video for this song.

The sad thing is, so many viewers praised those mechanical performances of the song. I mean, it's great they are able to master it well enough to play it through without mistakes, but it all just didn't seem "awesome-worthy":(

Having said that, I'm pretty sure mine won't be either. *sighs*

Minor Epiphany

Okay well, I was practising what I knew of the song the first time today, after listening to a few of Yiruma's songs (didn't know he sang, lol) , experimenting with dynamics along the way, when I realised how Yiruma has been making his playing sound so smooth.

Backing up a little, I've been wondering how other pianists were able to play songs that sounded so smooth, even over single notes that sounded so plain and obtrusive when I played them. It only hit me later, that they always played the single notes softer than the rest of the piece, making it work "behind the scene", rather than having it stick out like a sore thumb, which meant the fact that the single notes were well, single and not exactly rich-sounding because they were meant to be a part of a richer set of notes, rather than a stand-alone, asking attention!^^

Told you it was a minor epiphany, LOL:D Wanted to tell a friend about it and just went on with life but couldn't find a musically inclined one at the moment, so thought I'd just mention it here;)

Hardest Song So Far...

Still trying to learn Yiruma's Love Hurts...

It has been days and I'm still not done with the tutorial. Usually by now I'd have memorised the song and be trying to play it with minimal mistakes...but Love Hurts is taking me ages. At the beginning, I was learning/memorising 10 seconds of song per day! LOL...but things sped up a bit, till yesterday, where it slowed down drastically. Had hit hard parts in the song...

Well I know it sounds like I'm complaining but I'm really not:D It's such a nice song and unlike the others songs, I'm still not sick of it yet, despite having played and butchered it over 100 times. It's amazing how Yiruma was able to make such a beautiful song out of such simple chords...*sighs* By the way, if you have heard the song and think it's fairly simple, well...unless you have big hands or long fingers, you're gonna have to do a fair bit of stretching, not to mention jumping around the piano. Even so, it's a refreshing piece to master after having learnt mostly block chords in songs recently. If you're a beginner and want a challenge, well...knock yourself out with this:D

It's just a fascinating piece to learn and to listen:) I'll post the tutorial and the full song here soon.

Oh one other thing, in case you're wondering, Love Hurts only lasts for about 2 mins and 14 sec. Not long at all...

New Stuff

Well, finally managed to gt my hands on the Rocket Piano package I ordered, geez...and no thanks to their support team, they haven't replied to either of my emails. Ah well, managed to find my way around things and got the stuff they promised.

On first glance, the stuff seemed great. I'll be exploring more of it in the next few days, so look out for my review on the Rocket Piano course!:) I'll probably start with the beginners' book first.

Have also been looking for more songs to learn. The past few attempts were of songs I wasn't exactly crazy over, so didn't find myself pushing it, argh...BUT, heard a song yesterday and fell for it seconds into the intro:D

It was Yiruma's Love Hurts.

Yeah yeah, I'm behind on things and that ain't exactly a new song, I think, but the pain expressed in just the first few seconds made such a impact on me that I just had to learn to play it!^^ Anyways, I'm actually taking a break from practising the song at the moment - yep, found a place to learn it less than an hour ago and have been going at it.

Should probably be getting back now...later;)

Well then...

Purchased the Rocket Piano package the other day, but entered the wrong email, so had to send them an email asking for an adjustment to the order. Moronic old me...it has been days and I'm still waiting for a response from them...sighs.

Meanwhile, have been learning My Memory from Winter Sonata on and off since the day I placed the Rocket Piano order. Managed to get the intro down, now am onto the first verse, which is oddly hard...Have never spent this much time on the first part of a song before, LOL.

Also, I've been really bored recently, so I've decided to pu into words, all the musical theory I've learnt so far, onto a page on this blog. Not sure how it'll go, but we shall see...

Singing has been going okay - haven't started a blog for that yet...not that eager to do that anymore, seeing as how sick I get listening to recordings of my singing...*shudders*

Short Break...

Been doing lotsa little bits of piano stuff here and there, though nothing really substantial. Think I've had enough fun just learning songs, lol...I'm gonna start on my technical skill training, whatever that is.

Think I'll go back for piano classes too.

Am gonna teaching 3 beginners piano real soon, so am excited about that. Not too sure if I'm qualified enough or not though:( Well, at least they are beginners, so there should be some stuff I know that they don't, LOL..as sad as that sounds...

I've other commitments coming up as well, which means I can no longer be as crazy over the piano as before. Ah well...maybe after I get those other stuff done.

Have started doing little vocal and breathing exercises as well, and had just joined a free singing lesson program as well, so I'm really excited about that that:D

Anyways, see you all around!