It truly has been too long since the last post! Had completely forgotten about this blog, much less the posts that once held the essence of my thoughts and emotions as passed through my mind, into the data realm.
Was reading through what few posts there are on this blog, and you know what?
I believe the phrase "much has changed" is far more justified here, then it was when used in an earlier post. Good grief.
Anyways, it has been years since I really had a piano teacher. I did take lessons from a different school some months back, but stopped for a spectrum of reasons.
My piano skills have stagnated somewhat, since a year or two ago, and improvement has come in tiny spurts, because believe it or not I am now a music teacher, ha, which unfortunately means I have little to no time for practise, sigh. But as a teacher, I have much to say to the green pianist who started this blog, with the many uncertainties and questions he had expressed on this blog. I have answers for him now! There is far more clarity as to why my former piano teachers taught me the things he did, and I much more understand the workings of music, theory, technique, and all that mumbo jumbo that confounded me so many years ago.
Despite my progress though, I am still as blind as ever, even more so now in fact. But oh well, what's one to do with a degenerative condition?
Live life to the fullest dear diary...live life to its utter fullest...
Wednesday, September 6, 2017
Friday, March 11, 2011
Listen...Feel...
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.
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.
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;)
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
*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
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
Sunday, November 21, 2010
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*
*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*
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