Now is the time to get started…

Amanda
Amanda
Jul 22, 2017 · 3 min read

So the house is empty, apart from me and the washing machine humming away in the background — my house with just me is a rare occurrence, let me tell you! I can hear the piano calling to me “come and do some tinkling on the ivories”.

So, ignoring the one hundred and one other much more pressing chores in desperate need of attention, I sit down and open the study book at Unit 1.

The first paragraph introduces a guide to practise, and it says little and often. Allegedly as we get older(!) it takes longer for our brains to cope with new tasks. Doing a little bit of practice every day will allow my brain and fingers to acquire this new skill.

The book also informs me to be prepared to play everything at a snail’s pace, until my fingers are ready to move on. So my youngest daughter playing ‘Chopsticks’ at full pelt is not what I should be aspiring to??

The first task is to play the middle C, (which is the note under the main stave, if you remember from the last blog!) I use my right-hand thumb to play middle C. So here I am counting up to four over and over again, depressing the C key on every number 1. So far so good I think, I could get the hang of this. But it does not take me long to get bored of playing just the one note and the cat does not look too impressed with the repetition.

Onto a new note D, this is played with my second finger on my right hand, and this key is conveniently situated next to the C, so I can now use two fingers. I get a bit confused when the exercise changes from D to C and then back again, this is a slightly bit advanced, but hey, no one is here to laugh at my attempts.

Over the page and I am now on a roll — onto the E and F workout, which a fingers three and four respectively. There is a sweet little drawing of two hands, left and right with numbers above the fingers to tell me the right fingers to use. I told you this book was right up my street, keeping it simple for the simpleton!

So far I have managed to play four notes and I have not tangled my fingers into knots yet, that calls for a bit of a celebration!

Another word has been introduced into my repertoire of musical terms, get you I hear you say! ‘Staccato’ is a little dot under or over a note which means the note needs to be played short and bouncy, bouncing my fingers off the keys to achieve a staccato effect.

This afternoon I have managed to play a number of very very short pieces of music and I am pretty pleased with myself.

Now looking forward to introducing my little finger into the mix and play notes with all my fingers!

Join me again for my next instalment of learning to play the piano for complete novice to Grade 1 without any formal tuition.

Catch up with my ramblings on:

Facebook @ShoutAboutSalisbury

Twitter @Shoutsalis

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