Refamiliarizing myself with some keyboard practice

Around 5th grade, I had been very immersed in piano-playing, and my interest only grew when I was able to get a keyboard for myself. However, over the years, and becoming more academic-oriented caused my time playing to decrease by a lot. And after that, I played the keyboard only occasionally with certain songs that piqued my interest.

With the start of DP 1, there wasn’t too much time for me to practice songs very thoroughly. However, today I had the free time to get back into the groove by playing the keyboard for a few hours.

I first started off by playing a few songs from Disney movies, as they were the perfect pace for me to refamiliarize myself with the hand placements and the note readings. This is usually how I start off keyboard practice when it’s been a while since the last time that I played. Generally, I use YouTube tutorials for the songs I want to play – because I believe that they suit me more when playing and I follow the flow easier.

Later, I listened to the tutorial of the songs that I really wanted to play – 冬のはなし (Fuyu no Hanashi – A Winter Story) from the anime Given. This song had been stuck in my head for a few days, and I wanted to try it out on the keyboard. The chorus of this song was a bit fast-paced, so I knew it would be something that is challenging to an extent for me to do.

Although the prelude to the song was fairly easy for me to pick up on, it took me a while to properly learn the chorus. However, I think that after listening to the video for a while and repeating it on the keyboard for some time I had decent success.

By the end of my keyboard practice, I was able to play the entire song with only a few errors. While I do believe that my progress for this song was quite good, I still want to be able to get better; ways of doing this could be through practicing for some time every day.

Next time (after mastering A Winter Story) I think I would like to try and play Merry-Go-Round of Life by Joe Hisaishi from Howl’s Moving Castle. 

Learning objectives:

• LO1 – Identify strengths and areas for personal growth.
  • I believe that during these past couple of hours I was definitely able to reflect on what strengths and weaknesses I possess in the area of playing the keyboard. 
  • By playing songs that will take effort, I was able to easily hear which parts I remember how to play and what I should improve on for next time.
  • Furthermore, comparing this to the YouTube tutorial I had taken as a reference really helped put into perspective at what level my keyboard playing was at.

• LO2 – Challenge and skills 
  • By my choice of a song to play that will challenge me, I was able to undergo a lot of trial and error when playing – the notes were rather fast-paced at times which was very effective in refining my skills.
  • By challenging myself with these songs (especially 冬のはなし) I got to see myself grow as a keyboard player even in these short hours – as the consistent practice of certain parts allowed me to gain more control over my playing.