Glancing at this weblog right now you might perhaps be of the view that after a hard-days work, I do nothing else but run around the local park, run races and get excited about how some metric is lower than it was a few weeks back.
Whilst it’s true I’ve become quite carried away with running, it’s not all that I do when I down my keyboards and finish work. I decided at the end of last year that I’d like to learn something new: so much of my acquired knowledge in the last fifteen years has been refinements on computer science and IT. I was thirsty to be a student again. I wasn’t really feeling ready for the more academic challenge of learning a language, so decided to go with learning the Piano, which felt a big enough departure from my previous experience!
I’ve been very fortunate to have found an excellent teacher very close to home, so I can fit in my lessons during my weekday lunch break. After a month or two of lessons, and deciding I was going to stick at it, I took the plunge and got myself a proper weighted keyboard on which to practice, and it sits quite comfortably in my office.
As with running, it’s not always proved steady upward progress. There are plateaus of achievement which proved difficult to move beyond. Practice, practice, practice has been the main watchword here. As well as not being afraid to make mistakes in the lessons, and ask silly questions, my teacher patiently corrects them and gives great ideas and techniques to help through. As well as vital encouragement!
In the last couple of weeks though I’d been struggling to make progress with timing issues – keeping constant time and appropriate durations for notes has been a bit of struggle. But counting techniques, specific pieces, and more patience, I think I’ve started to make some headway. I’m also starting to find myself increasingly familiar with the written music, which I thought I’d struggle with at the outset.
I’ve some excellent pieces to practice: I’m using the first book in the ‘Classics to Moderns’ series, which are original arrangements rather than simplified pieces. I’m pleased to discover it’s also got some famous composers in there too – they didn’t just write dense eighth-grade music! Including the likes of Mozart and Haydn. I also quite like having a challenging piece to work on (deep-ends are great learning environments): Beethoven’s ‘Eccosaise’. It’s a fun piece I’m really quite enjoying.
So it’s all going quite well. But whilst my abilities may still be very basic, and the challenge ahead quite steep, it’s the journey itself that I’m enjoying: The half hour or so practice has become a great way to finish off the working day. Provided I’m not going for a run 
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September 26th, 2007 at 12:21 am
Try a Metronome and I bet your typing is improving or where you a trained typist?
Looking forward to blog with sound, your sound of course.
September 26th, 2007 at 8:26 am
I do have a metronome built in to my piano, but my timing problems are a bit more complicated than that (which I do find a bit distracting) Coordinating left and right, and ensuring I give the appropriate amount of time to the right notes (it sounds easier than it is), all make it a bit more difficult.
I’m not a trained typist (although I have done some computer based courses), but I can touch type in my own way: I don’t use rest-keys for a start (at least, the conventional ones
– but I certainly don’t look at the keyboard when I type. Not sure it’s improved much to be honest.