100 Days Piano

Had a late night tonight but I managed to squeeze 15 minutes into a new song, from the book of Ghibli animation soundtracks. This song I'm not familiar with from Valley Of The Wind has a much easier pattern to recognise, and I find that I can sight read quite well one hand at a time. Yet I'm still dumbfounded as soon as I put both hands together. I'd have completely forgotten what I had just figured out with one hand and I had to read from scratch if I try to play with both hands. It's a struggle and at the same time an interesting realisation. Somehow it tells me that, if I treat my tactile information from both hands at once as something that's different from when my hands operate separately, then I'll be on the right track to improving my sight reading when I play with both hands. Our body coordination can be such funny and magical feelings. I see why typing on a computer keyboard is different from playing on a piano keyboard - you only ever hit one key a

I almost didn't want to upload it. It's that bad, but I have to. I want to make it nakedly obvious how difficult it is to be completely unfamiliar at something. and a reminder of how everyone starts out like me. Although next week I'll probably just go back to songs at my skill level. One cringy reminder of what it's like to be a beginner is more than enough for this project, I reckon. There is something particularly cringy and uncomfortable with the way I paused so often, like "get on with it already!" kind of discomfort as I watch myself. Perhaps this is what teachers mean about staying in the same tempo no matter how slow you play. An inconsistent tempo that doesn't mean anything is essence to agony. Now that my first week's progress is done, time to fall back to "The Joy Of First Classics" by Denes Agay so that I can at least make some satisfactory progress.

Only one day left before I video record my progress, and I realised how vast I have underestimated this song I've been practicing. I don't know how much time I've spent on practicing this today, but it must have been half an hour, going through the melody of both left hand and right hand, separately. I'm confident with the left hand melody, but right hand has a lot of long stretches and jumps. I'm also hopeless at reading the scores, so every note is a ten-second delay before I figured out where my hand goes next. I'm a lot better at memory, but I've heard it's pointless to memorise it if you don't develop a keen eye for the scores and be able to read the notes like a novel. At this stage I doubt how capable I can be to read notes like a novel, but it's also fair to say I have not read enough music to develop such keen eye. Whatever my struggle may be, the frustration of learning has no excuse to stop me from keeping up. I might practice a bi

Spent 10 minutes first thing after work on the left hand of the song. Listening to deep piano music on my way home from work helped brewing my motivation. Although it is unfortunate that SoundCloud has now succumbed to the interruptive ads selling their pro membership. They are not entirely to blame, perhaps. They need some way to sustain their hosting at least. Although to think that they are now owned by Spotify, leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Very confusing to try to read the score, while all along I had been identifying the notes with my emotions alone. Reading scores and listening are two completely different functions in my head that don't quite talk to each other. Maybe not yet. Then my tablet's low battery warning interrupted my flow. I probably could have gone a bit further, but the fear of the tablet's low battery, where I read my scores off of, urged me to wrap up soon.

Where has all the time gone? I came home, had a light dinner while messing with Minecraft, and it was already 9:30pm when I realised I have yet to touch the piano. I spent a few quick minutes messing with the same song as yesterday, this time putting a bit more faith in playing with both hands. However I was doing it by memory. I need to go back to the score and double check the left hand melody. It is more motivating for me to play with full flowing emotions, my hands and body gracefully moving with the melody, with not much care of technique and tempo. It helps when this is such an emotional song with an irregular tempo as well. Teachers out there will scream at me for doing everything that's wrong about learning the piano, but I have to find my own way to stay motivated. As with all things in my life.

Established stereotypes say most successful artists and musicians are drug users, for drugs pull the deepest, wildest ideas from the depths of their minds. My piano session tonight was under the influence of half can of beer that I couldn't finish because I was too full from dinner. Sure it's not much, but I have the Asian gene with lesser alcohol tolerance. It doesn't take much for me to be tipsy. On the other hand I feel oddly wonderful mashing at keys in this state of mind. I spent a good 10 minutes on this song - the menu theme song from the game .hack//GU. I remember how captivated I was when I first heard the melody, which was probably 10 years ago or so when the game first came out. I knew the game was new at the time, because my ex boyfriend was a loyal fan of the series and would not miss any new updates from them. Ever since I heard this song, I've been daydreaming about me playing it someday. It still captivates me 10 years later. I can't play this