Archive for 2014

Piano people that I enjoy

While I'm learning so much about pianos and totally making the effort to do so, I feel like you guys should know these people on YouTube that I like.


One of them is Iwillbot, he makes a lot of piano covers for popular songs and I think he does a great job doing so. The audio quality of his songs aren't the greatest, but hey; his videos are like years old so I can't blame him. Here's his channel and here's one of the songs that he's done down below. 


Another one is Ronald Jenkees, a pretty goofy guy but I think his music is really nice and upbeat. On his website he said that he didn't go to a music school, and was completely self-taught. I think that just goes to show that anybody can make/play music as long as they're devoted to it (please don't use me as an example of devoted). Here's Ronald's channel and here's my favorite song from him that he's played below.


That's it for now, see you on my next post. Or rather see you next month, since that's sort of what my formula is right now. 

20% Time Proposal

Oh, gosh. I haven't made a post in like a month. I do have an excuse, however. My school laptop had been working up lately so I went to get it fixed, which left me unable to do work related to my blog. Of course, some might argue that I could have continued doing my blog on my home computer.

Yeah I don't really have anything to argue against that. So I guess they're right..

..Anyways, here's my project proposal..

Oh yeah, and I'll be putting up some more posts shortly. I guess I have to, now that I don't have an excuse anymo- I mean I just can't believe I missed a whole month of learning the piano what a shame ahaahahaahahaa...

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20% Time Project Proposal


Name: Jisung Ko
Project Title: Learning the Piano
Project Start Date: November 7th, 2014
Project Completion Date: Undefined
Mentor’s Name: Insung Ko, Mrs. Browning, Mom
Brief Description: I will try to learn the piano over the course of these remaining months of the year, and hopefully further on from that.


Overview of Project Proposal


1) Project Objective:
My main objective of this goal is to try to learn to play the piano. That also includes learning some of the terminology, learning how to read sheet music, learning chords, and many more. Hopefully, at least by the end of the school year, I’ll be able to learn at least two songs that I can play fluently and well, through the use of reading sheet music and not by memory.


2) Project Rationale:
The main reason why I’m doing this is because I like to listen to music. Specifically, I like listening to piano music. If I were to play a song all by myself, whilst still enjoying the sounds of the piano as well, I think that would make me pretty happy. I’ve taken piano lessons when I was younger, but I never learned how to read sheet music. I always had my piano teacher leading me by the ear, and I never learned anything myself. Even now, I don’t remember anything that my piano teacher taught me.


3) Project Steps:
- Make the blog
- Post entries that have information on my progress
- Learn how to read sheet music, and tips on how to remember where the notes are
- Learn piano terminology
- Gradually learn piano songs that I want to learn
- Play

4) Timeline of Activities:

November 2014
- Make my blog, ‘Learning the Piano.’
- Learn how to read sheet music
- Make multiple posts following my progress
- Think about songs that I could play


December 2014
- Make multiple posts following my progress
- Begin reading sheet music
- Learn terminology and identify January 2015
- Begin playing sheet music
- Continue reading new songs I want to play
- Learn more terminology and identify
- Make multiple posts following my progress
- Post a video or two showing my progress

February 2015
- Continue playing piano
- Continue trying to learn new songs I want to play
- Learn terminology and identify
- Make multiple posts following my progress
- Post a video or two showing my progress

March 2015
- Continue playing piano
- Continue learning new songs
- Continue learning terminology
- Make multiple posts following progress
- Post a video or two showing progress

May 2015
- Continue playing piano
- Continue learning new songs
- Continue learning terminology
- Finish blog with final post + video

5) Available Human and Material Resources:
- My brother
- My mom
- Mrs. Browning
- Google
- YouTube
- My keyboard

6) Possible Road Blocks:
- I might procrastinate a lot
- My laptop might stop working in the middle of the project (it already sort of did
before; this is why I’m submitting this so late)
- Lack of motivation

7) Research Questions:
- What do I gain from learning how to play the piano?
- How can I improve?
- What kind of piano gives the best audio output? 
- What are some songs that incorporate piano music into them?
- What are some famous pianists in the world?

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Piano terms #1

          Hello! This is my second post. Today I started trying to learn where all of the notes are located, and some of the piano vocabulary as well. This is what I've learned so far.  

          There's this 'Grand Staff'. It contains both the 'Treble Clef' and 'Bass Clef'. The treble clef sign looks like a flamingo of some sort, and the bass clef looks like a side-ways frowning face. Just to make it easier though, the treble clef is on top of the grand staff and the bass clef is at the bottom. You use your right hand for the notes located on the treble clef, and you use your left hand for the notes located on the bass clef. The treble clef and bass clef are centered around the middle C key. You should also know about Leger Lines. Leger lines are used when notes are too high or too low for the staff. The middle C key has a leger line through it.

          There's this pattern of piano notes that you need to know. It's C, D, E, F, G, A, and B (these are the white keys). These repeat throughout the whole keyboard of the piano. There's also such a thing called 'sharps' and 'flats'(these are the black keys that jut out from the white keys). Sharps look like '#', and flats look like 'b'. Sharps are after a note, and flats are before a note. For example, there is C sharp, or C#. C# is the black key after the white key 'C'. However, it is also referred to as D flat, or Db, since it is also before the key of D. This goes for every key out there.

This picture is looking pretty 'sharp' if I do say so myself..
No? I'm sorry. Did that joke fall.. 'flat'?


Okay I'll stop. 

          In order to tell which note is which on the grand staff, you have to remember these patterns of letters for both the treble clef and the bass clef. For the treble clef, you have to remember this set of letters, or mnemonic; EGBDF. Some people, in order to remember the sequence easier, says it stands for 'Every Good Boy Does Fine', or 'Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge'. These letters represent the keys E, G, B, D, and F on the treble clef. These keys show up on the lines of the treble clef. The keys that show up on the spaces of the treble clef are F, A, C, and E. This one isn't very hard to remember, since it's pretty much already a word: face. 

          Like I said before, there are mnemonics for the bass clef as well. The mnemonic that shows on the lines of the bass clef is GBDFA. Some people says it stands for 'Good Boys Do Fine Always', but personally that seems too similar to the mnemonic already used for the treble clef, so I prefer 'Good Burritos Don't Fall Apart'. The mnemonic that shows on the spaces of the bass clef is ACEG. Some people says it stands for 'All Cows Eat Grass', which I have to agree with. 


A visual aid for those poor children who can't read.


Keeping all of this in mind, hopefully I'll be on the next step to learning how to read sheet music.

An Introduction

Hello! This is my first post. For my 20% Project, I'm going to try and learn how to play the piano. I did take piano lessons before, but I was only the age of 7 or so. Also, I didn't really learn anything because I never paid attention. This time, I actually want to learn how to read sheet music and play music. 


                                         

I want to be able to play the same song, but through sheet music, and better. I'll also try to learn some of the terminology as well. I want to play some other songs too, not only this one, but I want to play the Tetris theme first since it's the first song that I 'learned'. Wish me luck!

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