I decided on Amazing Grace because it looked enjoyable to play. And easy. And fun! Before playing the song, I looked at the written music. If I found a difficult section, I’d circle it. That usually helps. I also write the fingerings in, so when I start playing things go smoothly. After looking over the written music, I put my fingers to the piano to see what I could do. I suck at piano. Things didn’t go smoothly at all. Even after all that time spent looking at the music, it took me quite some time to get everything together. I played the right hand part first, drilled what I circled, and played the right part over again. I did the same sort of thing with the left part. Then I tried playing both right and left at the same time. I’m used to playing in one direction at a time, not two at once. Playing in two directions at the same time drives me crazy. Any way, me playing two hands at once was like two worlds colliding. It was a disaster of epic proportions. Regardless, I drilled the music until I got it down. After getting a good idea of the song, I applied dynamics until it sounded nice and pretty. I never want to hear this song again. Or do I? The end.

…Or is it? Here’s my late concert review! I went to the faculty showcase about a month ago. I’ll talk about my PMI’s performance. Unfortunately, I was unable to get a concert program so I have no way of knowing the name of the piece he played. Three weeks ago I asked the lady at the front desk for a copy of the program, but she just laughed. Anyway, Dr. Jones was amazing. Let me explain how his performance was relevant to the assignment. He had piano accompaniment! I’ll talk about Dr. Monson’s piano playing. Whenever I see her play, I can’t help but feel I’m seeing ancient sorcery at work. She puts her heart and soul into the piano. Her fingers glide, convulse, and dance over the keyboard. Her playing sounds heavenly as well. Far beyond my comprehension and skill level. She knows the damn piano, and she knows it well. I don’t. So I really can’t say much else. Their performance was fantastic. I’m glad that I managed to see and hear it.

Keyboarding 3 Midterm-Kyra Wagstaff

For my keyboarding 3 midterm, I decided I would tackle "Ring Dance" since it was the one song from the selection of pieces we could do that had an instant pull for me, what with it being upbeat and, in my opinion, a bit more exciting than the others. Who doesn't like bouncy, after all?

The way I conducted my practice of this piece was by first familiarizing myself with the right hand and then the left, taking it much slower than the tempo, and just hearing and feeling it in my fingers. After this, I combined hands, still taking the piece out of tempo, but, again, got a feel for what the piece sounded like when I played it and tried to pay close attention to the parts I found to be more challenging, whether it was fingerings or just playing the correct notes, then would repeat over and over the transitions as well as I could, speeding it up each time in an attempt to record it in my muscle memory.

Once I was able to play both hands together, I began taking it a faster tempo and just repeated this over and over again, continually going back and repeating the parts I stumbled over.

I feel the results of my playing this piece for the midterm went farely well, though I still believe I had better "run throughs," during my practice time and perhaps it was nerves that blocked a more fluent performance. However, I did enjoy learning the piece and definitely feel as though I have learned a somewhat more effiecient way to practice, though there can always be improvements, which of course, I'm willing and hoping to be able to pursue as the year goes by.
Not so shabby for the beginning, though.

Mid-term Self Evaluation-Heather Crow

For my Keyboarding Skills III mid-term, I was torn between doing “Waterlilies” and “Promenade”. Both had traits that attracted me to them, like the legato-like tempo in “Waterlilies” and the bouncy, playful rhythm in “Promenade”. I settled on “Promenade” and took it apart by doing the right hand first and practicing slowly so that my staccati and slurs would be properly placed. Then I practiced the left hand, also taking into consideration the slurs and the line I had to form in the bass. Once I successfully practiced each hand individually, I played with them together: first at a slow tempo and increasing to a comfortable tempo. I did encounter problems at the beginning when playing both hands simultaneously how I would go to C instead of D in the third measure. It was quite frustrating, so I isolated the first four bars with my right hand and then added the left in later.

I enjoyed learning this piece and preparing for the mid-term because it allowed me to use my learning process in learning a song. I pick up melodies quickly, so knowing what the piece was supposed to sound like helped me with error detection in the event I press an incorrect key. It also allowed me to bring everything I know in piano and present it well.

Self Evaluation, Isora

Self evaluation written assignment.
In preparing the pieces for the midterm, I took apart the piece by playing the hands separately, then together at a slower tempo to achieve correct rhythm. As my prepared piece was in a 7/4 tempo compound tempo, I had to feel the piece in different divisions. The quarter note is the same value in the measure, yet the musical feel is different between the hands. The marcato markings assisted in knowing where the strong beat is in the measures especially in the right hand. The piece is an ABA pattern so I knew if I played the A section correctly it was repeated at the end of the piece. The right hand also had repeated patterns so once I mastered a pattern it was repeated latter in the A section as well, which leads to some level of confidence building. The suggestion of watery indicates a legato line as possible.
Scales are so much fun to practice. One night when I couldn’t fall asleep, I thought about the fingering patterns, the left hand has for these scales just two patterns, and just G flat is the one left hand pattern and all the rest are the same other pattern. And doing the left hand pattern over and over so that there was muscle memory the scales became easier.
I know I have a long way to go in becoming proficient in keyboard skills, yet it is started with baby steps that develop with repetition.