Hello and welcome to my first blog entry on my musical growth for EDCI 306A: Music in the Elementary Classroom. I have chosen to learn a couple of my favourite songs on the keyboard for my Personalized Music Learning assignment. I began this learning process by first selecting my instrument, the keyboard, and then selecting my songs. I chose the keyboard because I have one at my home and I am not particularly skilled at playing it yet. I bought an electric Casiotone CT-S200 keyboard a couple of years ago and resolved to learn the basics. I did not get very far in that time, however, and my practicing had stalled after about 6 months of purchasing the instrument.
For this assignment, I could have chosen the trumpet or the trombone, both of which I played in high school, or even the ukulele or the recorder, which are both taught in elementary schools today. I chose the keyboard partly to continue my own personal goal that I set and have yet to complete for myself two years ago, and also because the keyboard is still very applicable to the classroom setting and is portable meaning I can take it anywhere and use it any time.
Over the last two weeks, I have had to change my musical growth goals to accomodate my initial experiences with learning the keyboard. I originally selected three potential songs to learn: willow by Taylor Swift, Back to December by Taylor Swift, and Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want by The Smiths. I purchased the Kindle version of a beginner’s Taylor Swift song book that was recommended to me on a web forum, and I downloaded a free pdf of the Smiths song arranged by a pianist named Cory Gabel. I also consulted Ultimate Guitar website for each song’s chords to compare them to the sheet music which I had acquired. Initially the Taylor Swift songs seemed slightly too simplistic in their arrangements, so I found different ones that included a piano arrangement that didn’t simply play the vocal part on the right hand like the songbook’s arrangements does. I quickly realized, however, that all of the sheet music I now had – including Please, Please, Please… – was much too advanced for me.
A little bit discouraged, I looked back in my music folder and found a song that I had worked on for a very short amount of time before I stopped practicing the keyboard. The song is Trouble by Coldplay, which is a song I have wanted to learn on piano since I was in high school. The arrangement is very much within my skill range, so I chose to swap it out for the Smiths song. As for the Taylor Swift songs, I have decided to remove willow from the list and focus on learning the song book version of Back to December and potentially add in elements of the more complex arrangement to create a more robust song by the end of the assignment.
At this point in time, I am almost able to play through Trouble as it is written. I am still practicing certain chord changes and patterns, but I am feeling fairly confident about it so far. Specifically, I feel confident with my left hand changing from G to Em7 and Em to Bm and back to G, and from F to Am and back down to G, but am still struggling getting from Bm to F smoothly. With the right hand, I feel quite confident playing the same chords as the left while also keeping up with the melody. My trouble with both hands is with changing from G to A and then down into Em7 again for the chorus. It still feels very awkward, but I know that if I practice as I’ve planned then I will feel more confident soon.
For Back to December, I am feeling very confident with all of the chord changes, even though many are inverted. I am playing D to Bm to G and D to A to Bm, then D to F#m to G fairly regularly. And, since some of the chords are inverted, I only have to move one or two keys over at any given time to change chords. My main struggle with this song is being able to play the chords with my left hand and the melody with my right. I know that, if I follow the music, I will get there, but I am not there yet.
In my Musical Growth Plan, I stated that I would be able to play through the basic chords of the songs by February 5. I believe I have met this goal, which was Goal 1, as described above. Goal 2, to be completed by February 19 is to watch video tutorials and follow along with the songs as they play. I am able to follow along with the recorded songs at the intended speed with just playing the chords, but I have not sought out any tutorials yet. I will do this in the coming week and hopefully gain some more insight into how to better execute the chord changes that I have been struggling with.
