Learning Piano

Welcome back everybody! It's been a minute since I've made time to write, but I'm not sweating it. I have been using my time for other things. One of those other things is practicing piano.

My History

See, when I was a child, I had a desire to learn piano (along with my middle sister), but I never put it into words. So my parents never put me into lessons. I had a bad experience with music early: in second grade I got into a choir, and in addition to being nervous about singing in front of people, they wanted me to dance, too. I participated in one concert, and said never again.

I had myself so convinced that I hated music that I got in some minor trouble in 6th grade. Our school at that time did a rotating "try out all the elective classes", and music was right before computers/typing. I cheered on the day the teacher said it was our last day, and she coldly replied "I hope you're cheering because you're excited for computers class, and not just to leave mine."

But hard feelings are hard to hold on to, and my early high school friends introduced me to Linkin Park and Evanescence, and those two bands rekindled my love of music. I eventually branched off to a lot of different types of music, but I love the sad sounds of minor pieces most of all.

In college, I tried to enroll in piano 1, because I had no clue where I would otherwise find a teacher and a piano. But they looked at my degree track (Computer Science and Math) and told me flatly that Piano 1 was for music majors. I suspect I dodged a bullet there.

More Recently

When I got out of college and got married, I finally mentioned to everyone that I would like to learn piano. My stepdad has a baby grand in his front room, and he has been super encouraging. However, I still didn't have a piano, and you can't learn most skills by doing them 1 day a week or less. Certainly not an instrument.

But when my grandmother went to a nursing home, her piano no longer had a home. It was a little Cable upright with cracked keys, and very little resistance, but it was my very own acoustic piano. My step-sister agreed to teach me (for free, out of the goodness of her heart), and found me a great book: the Faber Accelerated Piano Adventures for "older beginners". I was off to the races.

The different levels

Since then, I've mildly upgraded my piano to a taller (and much heavier) upright from Ellington that was manufactured in 1902. It's got ebony black keys, and I suspect it had ivory white keys, but they didn't last for 120 years, and got replaced by plastic. It's beautiful and occasionally frustrating, but it's mine.

I recently started level 3 of piano adventures, and I think I've figured out what determines the different levels. Level 1 is almost all C major (no accidental notes like sharps and flats). It also keeps within 5 fingers. You get a little bit of left hand stretching with the V7 chords, but the only sharp you see is the F# of G Major, and it's always called out. (i.e. the piece's key signature is C). Hands are mostly doing the same thing, or simple things (e.g. right hand is 4 quarter notes and left hand is a single whole note).

Level 2 expands in every direction. You learn some new five finger scales, and you get to the finger crossing of the full C, G (1 sharp), and F (1 flat) scales. You learn more hand independence, including playing some melody bits with your left hand. You get introduced to the eighth note, and it becomes a staple of many pieces after it. You get further out from middle C, and start seeing all the 8va and 15ma to tell you to play an octave or 2 above or below. You start playing larger intervals like 5ths and 6ths.

Level 3 introduces more advanced concepts, like triplets and ledger lines. You also see weirder time signatures, and start branching out to harder scales like the chromatic and D major ones. I'm just starting level 3, and the first song is the first I've seen with 2 notes on each hand simultaneously.

Still to go

I still have a long way to go, but I've seen steady progress over the 2 years I've been playing. I've learned a bunch of songs, and I can't wait to learn a bunch more. Piano is relaxing, something completely under my control. If I make a mistake, I can usually hear it, but my teacher will tell me if I miss it.

I don't have a point to this, just writing to write, and get back in the habit. If you've read this far, thanks for reading. See you next time.