Whilst I have been playing piano sporadically for years, I had never really taken it seriously or focused on it much at all until very recently. I would mostly go to piano lessons, forget the progress and never practice. I would have musical ideas in my head which I wanted to play but could not because my skills were too weak. However this has completely flipped recently.

As of recent times, I have discovered a new love for the piano, and composition in general. This could be attributed to delving into jazz piano, which is very improv- oriented, or simply a recent anime, where the protagonist is a virtuosic piano protege, or even just playing with Akhil who adores the piano, which I find inspiring! It is also due to my amazing piano teacher, Dilup G , who has accomplished success of every level in the piano, being world renowned for his compositions, awards, discoveries and even creating a musical software, and it’s very inspiring.

I consider myself musical, but often struggles with translating that musicality to an instrument other than voice, so I am currently trying to expand my abilities. My main goals were to develop my own style, have a wide repertoire, be a confident improviser, and begin to compose my own songs. All of this will help me compose my own works without being limited by the weaknesses.

I am still not very confident in my piano abilities, but I recently had a change of path in my lessons, where rather than learning existing pieces, I am expanding my knowledge of chords and different rhythms to create my own chord progressions and songs, and then work on them. This is much more enjoyable for me because I am able to create something I am proud of. Whilst I am definitely not a highly technical or confident pianist, I love creating. I have also realised that because I love signing and composing, my goal is to be confident enough to accompany myself.  Following this my goal will be to translate these songs to a DAW which I have been setting up, using MIDI and an audio card to record. Producing brings a whole new set of challenges and skills which I will have to learn, but I am excited to continue this process and keep working towards my goals of producing original music. My goals are now to continue practicing the piano, creating, and eventually producing. Since I tend to have a lot of ideas, I want to make sure my creative process is also somewhat disciplined so that I end up with finished pieces rather than a bunch of incomplete ideas.

This connects to LO2 (Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process) and LO4 (Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences) because I am trying to develop new skills whilst also persevering to improve weaker areas within a larger goal.