Had my sixth lesson with the new piano teacher two days ago. Things went okay, though he did give me tons of work to do -- I'm starting to wonder how people with jobs actually find the time for practice, and how they manage to advance so quickly...
One of the things I learnt that day, was how artistic music is, or at least that's how my teacher teaches it.
Yeah, it does sound obvious, but till now, I still haven't learnt many chords or very much theory at all. All he does is make me listen to the notes I play, and find my way around an improvisation from there. He also taught me not to count beats, nor to transpose by memorising the scales, like what most classical music teachers make their students do. He advised that I feel the beat -- feel the groove of songs, know the rhythm, and go from there -- though he did make me play with a metronome to train up my timing, but past that, he told me never to count, just feel. As for transposition, he believes that once a person were to attain mastery over the piano keys, they wouldn't have to calculate how they should transpose, they just d, by ear...if that makes sense. It does actually, I just can't find a better way of expressing it in words at the moment, seeing as I'm writing this at four in the morning, LOL., sorry about that.
It's weird, but somehow, finding the groove of songs never seemed like a big problem to me, unless I get nervous and doubt myself...I wonder if it's 'cause of my sight that makes things like these a little more natural for me.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Remembering Why
Too often we get so caught up in our emotions we forget why we were doing what we were doing. The past week has been but an unproductive one. Fear, self-pity and general lethargy has left me in a crippling "stale" state.
Earlier today though, I did one of those things I do every now and then when I get to involved with myself -- looking up on introversion on the web. I guess it always comforts me to know that there are others out there who face similar difficulties as I do. One thing led to another, and I found myself on an Amazon product page of an introvert self-help book, and this blog:
Lynn Harrison
More specifically, the post that the link above took you.
Lynn Harrison is a introverted singer-songwriter, which is something I'd like to be, but am too scared to think about. That post drew me on to reading more of her blog, and I guess her love for songwriting got to me.
Her words reminded me of how much fulfillment I used to get from writing lyrics, though I didn't really go too far with it -- reminded me of the original reason for me wanting to learn music in the first place -- to be able to write melodies for my lyrics. I've convinced myself I sucked at songwriting so much that I've stopped writing and have forgotten about it. All I do now is music...feels incomplete somehow...
Thank you Lynn Harrison, for both inspiring me to start writing again, and for bringing me one step closer to overcoming stage fright, however distant that first day of performance may be.^^ I know it's really unlikely for you to be reading this, but it has to be said nevertheless.
By the way, I've heard some of her songs, and they always sound so wholesome and calming...here is one of her songs she performed live.
You should be able to find the studio version, along with the rest of her songs from her website you'll find in her blog. I really love this song, and I hope you do too.
Earlier today though, I did one of those things I do every now and then when I get to involved with myself -- looking up on introversion on the web. I guess it always comforts me to know that there are others out there who face similar difficulties as I do. One thing led to another, and I found myself on an Amazon product page of an introvert self-help book, and this blog:
Lynn Harrison
More specifically, the post that the link above took you.
Lynn Harrison is a introverted singer-songwriter, which is something I'd like to be, but am too scared to think about. That post drew me on to reading more of her blog, and I guess her love for songwriting got to me.
Her words reminded me of how much fulfillment I used to get from writing lyrics, though I didn't really go too far with it -- reminded me of the original reason for me wanting to learn music in the first place -- to be able to write melodies for my lyrics. I've convinced myself I sucked at songwriting so much that I've stopped writing and have forgotten about it. All I do now is music...feels incomplete somehow...
Thank you Lynn Harrison, for both inspiring me to start writing again, and for bringing me one step closer to overcoming stage fright, however distant that first day of performance may be.^^ I know it's really unlikely for you to be reading this, but it has to be said nevertheless.
By the way, I've heard some of her songs, and they always sound so wholesome and calming...here is one of her songs she performed live.
You should be able to find the studio version, along with the rest of her songs from her website you'll find in her blog. I really love this song, and I hope you do too.
More updates!
It truly has been a long while since my last post and I apologise to both this blog, and anyone out there who I have kept waiting. Much has happened since my previous update, so let's dive straight into it!
1. Spent weeks on Yiruma's Love Hurts and conveniently used it as an audition piece for an interview for an audio engineering course, which went well, though I messed up so much 'cause I wasn't used to playing the acoustic piano. Academic results weren't good enough for me to enter the ourse though.
2. Continued practising the song while trying to record it on video.
3. Decided to resume my piano lessons and got a new teacher, which is just awesome. He focused on technique and hearing, which meant I had to stop my trying to record Love Hurts, since I had so many other piano issues I had to work on.
4. I'll be having my sixth lesson with him tomorrow, and have been trying to transcribe a piece of his playing as best I can -- that's part of my homework for the past week...
That's for my piano playing adventure.
I had also started guitar and vocal lessons not long after that. Yeah, I'm getting myself quite immersed into music now, which is fantastic! Things haven't always been slippery smooth though, but I still enjoy music enough;)
1. Spent weeks on Yiruma's Love Hurts and conveniently used it as an audition piece for an interview for an audio engineering course, which went well, though I messed up so much 'cause I wasn't used to playing the acoustic piano. Academic results weren't good enough for me to enter the ourse though.
2. Continued practising the song while trying to record it on video.
3. Decided to resume my piano lessons and got a new teacher, which is just awesome. He focused on technique and hearing, which meant I had to stop my trying to record Love Hurts, since I had so many other piano issues I had to work on.
4. I'll be having my sixth lesson with him tomorrow, and have been trying to transcribe a piece of his playing as best I can -- that's part of my homework for the past week...
That's for my piano playing adventure.
I had also started guitar and vocal lessons not long after that. Yeah, I'm getting myself quite immersed into music now, which is fantastic! Things haven't always been slippery smooth though, but I still enjoy music enough;)
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