Archive for 2015

I mentioned this before but I'll be continuing my project. There's still a lot of things that I want to learn. In terms of updating the blog, I don't know. That seems like a lot of work, and you know me; I don't like work. In fact I've recorded a song like two weeks ago, and I can upload it any day now, but I still haven't uploaded it. Why? I dunno. Throughout the year, I learned piano, sure. But I didn't really enjoy the process all that much. It's really slow and I hate being slow; I want to learn songs quick and easily, and for piano I'm not that fast. So I stopped and I procrastinated. I'm trying to get better though. I enjoyed it, and I also hated it. But for certain, I can say that this project was fun.

        Despite the things I’ve said that might discourage you, I think this project was worth it. I learned how to play piano. I learned how to make music, and making music is very fun. However, I think you have to be devoted in order to play piano. When I say that, I mean that you should really consider putting in a lot of time when playing piano. When I was starting to play piano, I got really into it. But, as time went on, I became bored and I procrastinated. There were days where I’d be doing nothing, and I’d think to myself, “I should really play some piano…” and then that’s it. I wouldn’t actually play piano. It’s very easy to stop playing. But the piano is an instrument with unlimited musical potential, and you shouldn’t stop playing just because you don’t feel like it. It’s a lot easier said than done; I don’t even follow my own advice, but that’s what I think of piano.  

Uhh, yup. There's some stuff going on. I don't know what I'm supposed to type about. I'm a bit anxious, I guess. I also feel unprepared. I'm supposed to be presenting on what I learned during 20% time, but I only learned like two songs. Both songs are two minutes top each, too. Soo that's four minutes, and the total amount of the presentation is a whole entire class period. I don't know what to do. Maybe I can play arpeggios and then expect nobody to know what arpeggios are. That sounds like a good plan.

My speech is complete, so that's good too. I haven't started on my poster-board but I'm planning on doing that after I finish typing this update post. Which is right now! See you.

I really don't have anything else to say, but here's a picture of a man I drew

Hello! I'm sorry that I haven't been posting for a while. I'm still learning songs, don't worry; in fact, I've just learned a new one! Yes, after three months I finally learned a new song other than the Tetris theme. It's also just as short as the Tetris theme, too. Why did it take me so long? Long story short, I'm just a very lazy person and I'd rather do a lot more fun stuff than learn songs. I like piano--I'm not trying to say I don't--buuuuuut learning songs is really boring.

However, I'll be posting a new video shortly (at least I think I will) and I'm in the process of learning a new song right now. I'm like 35% done! I'll be posting a lot more during the summer, too, since I don't have school related stuff to worry about either. Another thing; I'll be continuing my 20% time for pretty much forever! I think piano is a pretty great instrument to play and I still have a lot of songs that I want to learn. I could always improve, so why not? After 20% time is officially over, I'll probably change my blog name (but I'm fairly sure nobody reads my blog anyways). I will see you on the next post.

I'm not sure if you do or not, but do you remember last time I said that I'll post a video depending on how motivated I am? Well, it turns out I'm not very motivated. At all, unfortunately. I guess I am posting videos in a way, though. I did actually learn the four chords though, so I might make a video on that. I'm learning a song right now too, but to be honest learning a piano song is really boring and uninteresting, so it's taking a really long time. That's my own fault, though.

Hey, it's my tenth post! I've decided to stop labeling my posts as '7th Post, 8th Post, etc.' because the title will go over the things that I'll be talking about. Instead of the title being incredibly vague and you going to another blog in exasperation, the title will clearly tell you what I'm going over in the post and THEN you will go to another blog because you're too busy to be bothered with it. With that being said, let's move on to what I'm going over today.

As you can see above, this is a sheet of music. However, you cannot see any key signatures. Why? I don't know; ask the person who made the music. Now, I'm not deliberately trying to berate (ooh, big words) the person who made this sheet, I'm just trying to point out what she did wrong... and what she did wrong was not include any key signatures. Now, it may not seem like a big deal, but it makes things a lot more convenient. Look at the notes. Pretty much all of them have either a sharp or a flat next to them. Wouldn't it make it easier, for both the player of the song and the writer of the song, to just include a key signature? The only thing that you have to do is to put a few naturals here and there that need to be placed, and that's it! If I'm confusing you with words such as "key signatures" and "naturals", then click here if you want to know what they mean. Or just scroll down if you're too lazy to be bothered with clicking.  Although, despite saying the stuff before, writing music is a very hard and boring thing to do, so I have to commend the person that made this. At least she tried, right?

Okay, so yes I sort of lied when I said in the last post that the next post would be a video. The NEXT post will be a video, I promise maybe.

Oh man! I've almost posted ten posts! The number ten is a two digit number, if you didn't know. Today, as I said in my last post, I'll be taking about pianissimo and staccato and a few other things as well.

This is... this is like a key signature but with sharps. The sharps replace every note in that bar with the sharp in place. For example, if there's a sharp on G, then there every G in that bar would be a G sharp. I hope I'm explaining this right.

This is a key signature with flats. Like the key signature with sharps, the key signature with flats replaces every note in that bar with the sharp in place. For example, if there's a flat on F, then every F in that bar would be a F flat.

This is a natural. It negates key signatures with sharps/flats. That means that the natural does not apply to the key signatures with sharps/flats. For example, let's say that a G sharp is in a key signature. That means that every G that is written on a bar is a G sharp. However, if there's a natural beside a certain G, then that G is just a G, not a G sharp.

This is a piano. No, not the piano that you'd think. A piano is a symbol that tells you, "Hey, make it a bit quieter, okay?" This is useful because sometimes you need to ensure a certain mood when you're playing the piano. If you're playing a real sad song, you want to be quiet. If you're banging on the keys and being all loud, then people wouldn't really get the impression that it's a sad song. If you play it all quiet-like, then most people would get the impression that it's a sad song. There's quieter versions of piano, too. There's pianissimo, which is very soft, and pianississimo, which is like barely touching the keys at all. Pianissimo is shown with two p's, and pianississimo is shown with three p's, but you'll rarely see pianississimo.

This is a forte. If you're wondering why it's so blurry, then I'm sorry; I don't know. It just seems to be the way it's rolling right now. A forte is the opposite of a piano; it tells you, "HEY MAKE IT LOUD ALRIGHT?!" This is useful if you're trying to be dramatic, or when you're playing a section that has a lot of action in it. It's similar to piano in the way that when shown with multiple "f's", it will be louder. There's fortissimo, which is like really loud, and there's fortississimo, which is pretty much trying to break your piano keys... You won't see fortississimo very often, though.

This is a crescendo. These guys tell you to gradually become louder and louder. I guess it creates suspense in a piece. The crescendo looks like a mountain sideways.

This is a decrescendo. These guys tell you to gradually become quieter and quieter. It does not create suspense in a piece. Well, maybe. I wouldn't know. I don't write piano songs. The decrescendo also looks like a mountain sideways, but instead of to the left it's to the right.

This is a staccato. This makes the note shorter than usual and peppy. I would use this note in a happy sounding song. Very jumpy and nice. Also I really like the name. Staccato, staccato, staccato. A staccato looks like a dot. I will be very disappointed in you if you don't know what a dot is.

This is a fermata. This pauses the note. You can pause the note as long as you want. I would say that this usually indicates the end of a song. A fermata looks like an eye-ball. Okay well that's what I learned for today. The next time I'll be posting a video, I think. I guess it depends on how motivated I am.

             Hi again. I learned about some more stuff so I thought I'd share my progress. Well, it's not like I just learned about it. It's more like, "I actually knew about this stuff a month ago but I was too lazy to make a post about it until now" kind of thing. So the thing I learned about today is a rest. Rests are symbols that tell you to wait a bit when you're playing a song. These things are important because, if we didn't have them, the song itself would look and sound rushed. Y'know, sometimes you just gotta be patient with things and sooner or later it will be worth it. It's sort of like life in a way. A wise man told me that once. Then he ran away because he was being arrested or something, I can't remember. Anyways, there's also different types of rests, so I'll tell you about them right now.

Okay so this is a whole rest. Just like the whole note, a whole rest lasts for four beats. If you don't know what a beat is then like I don't even care. Look at my past posts. Now, I know what you're thinking. "Yo, but that looks exactly like that rest below!" Okay, cool. I know. Just wait for a little bit, okay?

This is a half rest. Like the name implies, the half rest is half of a whole note, which is two beats. Now I know the half note and the whole note look alike, but I know how to distinguish them. The half rest sort of looks like a hat, and the whole rest is like a hole or something. Like.. half and hat! They sound similar and hats are upright. Whole and hole... because the whole note looks... like a hole or something... I didn't make this analogy, my music teacher in 3rd grade did. Blame her.

This is a quarter rest. It's a quarter of a whole note, so it is one beat long. That means that you have to wait one beat. It sort of looks like Harry Potter's lightning bolt scar. Blimey, 'Arry! sorry

This is an eighth rest. An eighth note is an eighth of a whole note. Wow, this is sounding pretty redundant. Well anyways it's pretty quick, so you only have to hesitate for a bit. I don't know what this is supposed to look like. Maybe a tree? Or a sapling?

Finally, a sixteenth rest. It's like really short. Again, there are shorter rests out there but I'll just be ending it at the sixteenth rest because I'm pretty sure you already get the idea. This looks like a crazy flute or something.

Okay so those are rests, and I only said 'like' sixteen times! Okay, now seventeen times. Next time I'll be talking about pianissimo and staccato and a bunch of Italian-sounding words. Dang, now I'm getting hungry. I want some Olive Garden.

Hi again! I have nothing of worth to say so you can just go now.

...still there?

Okay. I sort of want to explain my process of learning a piano song before a bit more thoroughly. First off, let's look at the sheet music I used.

Ah ha! I told you, didn't I? Well here it is. The audio quality isn't very good but I had to make do with what I had. Now, let's move on to some FAQ!

Q: How long did it take you to learn this song?
A: I started around Jan 9th, which is around four days ago.

Q: Wow, it seriously took four days?
A: Yup! I'm pretty proud of it.

Q: No, I mean like, four days? That's a pretty long time. Loser. LOL.
A: Hey, it's my first song, okay? I taught myself too, by the way. I'm sure I'll improve as I learn more songs.

Q: What was your learning process? 
A: Well, first I learned all of the notes on the treble clef since there was a lot more work to be done there. I played that individually until I got the hang of it. Then I did the same with the bass clef afterwards, since there's not a whole ton of work involved. I played both individually until I felt comfortable, and then slowly transitioned myself into playing both at once. It took a long time, and I messed up a lot too, but finally I found myself playing the song pretty well!

Q: How many takes did you have to have in order to record the video?
A: Many. There were a lot of distractions and I also messed up a lot. Like, a lot. I mean, the video itself isn't even that good, so you'd have to imagine how much worse it could have been. It definitely could have been better, I'd think.

Q: I agree.
A: This isn't a question.

Q: How come you're wearing the same shirt as your last video? Do you ever change clothes? Also you messed up a little bit at 0:31.
A: For your information, this is my favorite shirt. Also, you're being very observant of me... It's almost like I'm typing the questions!

Q: H-hahaha... yeah, weird, huh... *ahem* Well, uh, anyway, what song are you going to learn next?
A: I have a pretty clear idea on what it is, but I don't think I'll tell you. I'm certain that I'll learn and play it within this month, though.
EDIT: No way am I going to finish this song in a month, never mind. It's definitely going to take some time.

Here's the sheet music I used for the song and I hope to see you sometime soon.

Hi again. I went out of my way to learn about some more things, such as time signatures and different types of notes, so I thought I'd go ahead and share my progress.

First off are the time signatures. They look like this:

I wish I had something clever to say but I don't

As you can see above, there are a set of numbers right after the treble or bass clef. Time signatures let you know the rhythm of a song. That's good, since if they weren't there then you wouldn't be able to tell how fast or how slow a song should go. The top number tells you how many beats (the basic measurement of the piano) occur in a measure. The bottom number tells you how long the beats should be.

For instance, a 4 on the bottom would mean that a beat is a quarter note long. If it was a 2 on the bottom, it would mean that a beat is a half note long. The time signature 4/4 is commonly referred to as common time, since... well, it's pretty common. It's also shown as C, since there's a 'c' in common. Another time signature that is commonly used is 3/4 time. I mean, there are a lot more but the time signatures that I'm going to be using mostly contain 4/4 time and 3/4 time.. but wait, I mentioned quarter notes and half notes before. What are quarter notes and half notes?

This is a quarter note. A quarter note is a quarter of a whole note. It's like pretty short. If it was a dog it would be a chihuahua.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

This is a whole note. It's pretty long. If it was a dog it would be a reasonably big dog.




This is an eighth note. It's shorter than the quarter note, which was already pretty short. I'm gonna stop with the comparison to dogs since I don't know a lot of dog breeds, so just trust me when I say that this is a pretty short note.





And now we have a sixteenth note. This is shorter than both the quarter note AND the eight note! Wow! Now there are shorter notes out there but these are the notes that you'll see the most.          



This is a half note. As the name implies, it is a half of a whole note. If you're wondering why the half note is all the way done here, it's because my blog won't allow me to put it beneath the quarter note and let me put text next to it at the same time, which is really dumb. Now there's a gap where it used to be, too, and I can't fix that. Blogs are such a pain, aren't they?


That's pretty much it for now. I've been learning a song, and for the most part I've got it down. I'm pretty sure my next post will be me playing that song.