Post 1.5: Slight Progress

     It's been a little while since my last blog post, and I felt the need share with my dedicated readers about all the progress I have made. I have been relentless on the keys, racking up a solid 4-5 hours over the past four days and have really seen myself become more comfortable on the piano. As of today I have concluded my 8th day of practice. Over the past week I have learned basic exercises, started learning how to read music and have even started learning riffs from songs. For example here is an exercise I recorded myself playing on Monday (5th day of practice) (this was the best possible place for the camera I could find):

     As you can see I still have some things to work on, but slowly I am getting more comfortable. Throughout this week I have been working on things such as playing with two hands, finger speed and most importantly finger independence.  Finger independence is essential to playing the piano. It is how well your fingers can play individual notes. The better you are at it, the more often you will play the right notes. For example this exercise focuses on it. As I continue to play more, these skills will begin to develop.

                                        

    As I am playing the piano, for my first week, I am also learning how to read music. I started with "Every Good Boy Does Fine", an acronym that around 99.9% of us have heard before. I then began to learn the more important things that I never knew before such as how to know which part of the piano the notes is played, and that piano music has multiple staffs per line. I have also learned that there are different kinds of notes and all of them require you to play faster or slower. Reading music is an essential skill and I am beginning to develop an understanding of it, but only with practice will I begin to truly get better. 

    Throughout this first week, I have sadly not become a piano grand master yet. Despite not learning all of the secrets to playing the piano, I have learned some pretty important things thus far that I believe will be important for the rest of my playing. Stay tuned for my next post where I will be showcasing my talents on two riffs I have begun learning. I will also be sharing more of my information of what I have learned so far and how my goals have shifted.