Beating It Into My Skull
*Hums Ode to Joy* Here we go. Yet another week of screaming at the piano. This week I devoted my time and efforts into learning the chords to "Ode to Joy." The D chord and the A7 chord were the two that I focused most of my attention on. As I showed in my previous blog, I color coded these keys to help me memorize them. I also have started to build on the G chord. The keys that make up the G chord are highlighted in green.
Progress
I then moved on to the third most common chord in the piece, the G chord. This chord gave me a bit of a headache. Let me explain. With the A7 and D chord, I could keep my thumb in the same position, simply moving my pointer, middle, and index finger in between. That in itself was a struggle that took practice to get down. The G chord requires me to move that thumb, which throws off my already established flow of playing. As you can see in this video, I am not flawless, and it takes longer than the rhythm of the song for me to switch between the chords. This shows that I'm learning, and slowly progressing my proficiency.
Second Half of Song
As you can see, I only played the first half of the melody/song. I did not play the other half because there are yet two more chords to learn. Both are played only once, but are essential to the harmony of the song. These chords are the B Major and B Flat chords. I have a longer period of time to work on this coming up. The next time I write, I hope to be able to play the full song of "Ode to Joy" at a slow pace, just like I did above.
It looks like you've made a ton of progress so far, good job! How do you plan on progressing from here? At what point do you decide that you have finished with a song? When you can play it from memory at full speed or what? Anyway, I'm impressed with your progress so far, good luck with future songs and such.
ReplyDeleteHello Tucker,
ReplyDeleteIt is pretty impressive that you have made this much progress, especially for someone who has no musical background whatsoever. That shows commitment and dedication. I do have a musical background, but I can relate to the struggle of playing the piano. I am pretty bad myself, for I lack the coordination to move my left hand independently from my right. One trick that I have learned over the years is to practice with both hands at the same time. This teaches you when to switch chords from the beginning, so you don't have to learn it later. Another thing I would recommend is that you learn to read music. Because you have never played, it is critical that you learn to read at the beginning so it is not a struggle later on in you career. It might be a headache, but it is worth it in the end.
Happy Playing!
I noticed that you were having trouble with the G chord. I've found that when I have trouble with something, the best way is to practice it over and over. So, practice transitioning into G chord quickly and you'll have it down by the end of the week. The same thing once you try B and B flat. I have to say you are going about it the right way, since it is best to focus on one hand at a time before putting them together. Good progress, and good luck with learning Ode to Joy.
ReplyDeleteWow! You've gotten a lot done piano wise! You got more done in these weeks than I did in two years of piano lessons, which is saying something. I might be able to play an Em if I tried very hard. Have you been working with sheet music at all? Or have you just been working with chords to start. I started with sheet music (but you see how far that got me). Good luck!
ReplyDelete