Hello everyone. Last night, I was browsing youtube with my little cousin Mckenna when I came across a clip from one of my favorite movies, 不能说的秘密 (Bu Neng Shuo De Mimi, The Secret). I started freaking out and told Mckenna (who is 9 years old) that she has to watch it with me, so we stayed up until midnight watching it. The movie was made in China and is spoken in Chinese so we got to watch it with subtitles. It's about this guy who goes to a music school to study piano and meets a mysterious girl and they fall in love but she has this secret and it's so crazy and aaahhhhhh. I watched it in my Chinese class last year, and about three minutes until the end of the movie, the bell rang for class to end. All of us were freaking out because the ending is so intense so no one got up and we watched it to the end. Mckenna really enjoyed it even though I had to explain a lot of it to her. I think everyone who reads this blog who loves piano, music, a good love story, crazy intense endings, Chinese people, or a good movie should watch it on youtube. You will LOVE it.
My piano teacher gave me sheet music for Mozart's Twinkle Twinkle Little Star with 12 variations. She told me to choose three to learn, so I've been listening to them on youtube to decide which ones to learn. It's so cool how each song is composed very differently from the others, yet they all have the same simple tune we all know in it. It's amazing.
So the reason for me telling you about these random youtube piano players is because I've been thinking about the piano lately. Actually a lot. I started playing the piano when I was either 7 or 8. I've been playing for half my life. So you'd think that I'd be pretty freaking good. But I'm not. I'm average, mediocre. I can play all the notes in songs that I play, but I mess up at least once per song and it doesn't sound musical. It's not pretty. It sounds like all of the right notes are being played, but it doesn't sound nice or smooth, it sounds choppy and unimpressive. I hate watching kids my age play amazing pieces flawlessly at piano concerts and sound amazing because it makes me feel like I'm a terrible piano player. Part of the reason that I'm not as good as I like is because I've had piano teacher problems since I moved to Farmington. Before I moved here, I had a couple piano teachers, but the last one I had was amazing. In the two years I had her, I improved so much, it's crazy. When I moved here, I got a piano teacher that I went to early in the morning every Thursday with my little sister. I hated going, she would turn on Mozart and make me sing along and she just wasn't really my cup of tea. I begged my mom to find another teacher, so she let me quit. For many months, I didn't have a piano teacher but I practiced every day and still tried to teach myself because I love to play. I finally got another teacher. She was good, except she would make me play stupid piano computer games that are way below my level (which my current piano teacher now makes my 8 year old sister play) and would run my lessons super late which is super annoying. She would spend most of the time trying to explain things that I didn't understand and she didn't let me do what I love most which is learning new, fun songs. She just talked half the lesson about theory. As important as theory is, that doesn't help me much because I have a very small attention span when it comes to theory. I soon quit her too. A few months later, I got a new piano teacher who my cousins actually take from. I loved her, she was so great and would let me learn new, fun pieces and I actually enjoyed going to my lessons. I did improve with her. However, sadly, she had to get surgery so she decided to cut back on students. So I no longer had her as a teacher. It was pretty upsetting. Finally, months later, I got another new teacher, Katherine Chipman. And she is amazing! She is majoring in piano at the University of Utah. I can't say I look forward to my lessons, but she really knows her stuff and is a good teacher and can actually help me succeed. So, I decided to take advantage. I was talking to her at my last lesson, asking her how good I'd have to be to major in piano (I don't plan on majoring, but I might want to minor in it), and she said I'd have to start practing the piano at least four hours every day. That's a lot. On a good day, I practice for an hour. I have a hard time practicing though because I hate practicing when my whole family is home because I feel like I'm disrupting them with my playing, so four hours would surely annoy them to death. I contemplated it a bit, but after watching 不能说的秘密 (the piano playing is incredible) and listening to Twinkle Twinkle, I've decided that I want to play like that. I don't want to be mediocre, I want to be amazing and have people love to listen to me and be amazed by my talent. I am average at sports and average at art, but I don't want to be average at music. I want this to be my thing. I want to be like my Great Grandma Veldron who used to accompany symphonies and who thought the piano was so important. I want to be able to play and master any piece I want. So, today I texted my piano teacher and said "I want to be amazing at the piano and I'm willing to work hard. Can you make me amazing?" So she texted me back and told me that she will teach me to handle any piece but I'll need to practice more classical music and technique exercises, be more consisten with practice and lessons (heh..), learn to perfect pieces, and piano would have to be the focus of my life and that she could get me ready to audition for an amazing teacher. YES. That's what I want. I'm gonna practice the piano 4 hours a day and not care if my family get annoyed because I want this really bad and I'm doing this for me because I love the piano and I love to be the best and I haven't been the best at anything in years which is saddening. I want to be better, I need to be better. Playing the piano is my favorite thing to do and I'm willing to do all of the yucky theory and technique and scales and classical music. I'm gonna see if I can get into my church and play the grand piano in the chapel because I hate my piano. The pedal sucks, it's off key, and it's a bit annoying to play on now that I'm getting better and I need a good piano.
So anyway, that's my long post about the piano and how it's going to be an even bigger part in my life for now on. I really hope I can get much better, I mean practing 4 hours a day and about 24-28 hours a week instead of maybe 4 hours a week should get me really far. I'm gonna be spending one whole day of my week just practicing. Wow. It will all be worth it in the end. I love the piano. :)
My piano teacher gave me sheet music for Mozart's Twinkle Twinkle Little Star with 12 variations. She told me to choose three to learn, so I've been listening to them on youtube to decide which ones to learn. It's so cool how each song is composed very differently from the others, yet they all have the same simple tune we all know in it. It's amazing.
So the reason for me telling you about these random youtube piano players is because I've been thinking about the piano lately. Actually a lot. I started playing the piano when I was either 7 or 8. I've been playing for half my life. So you'd think that I'd be pretty freaking good. But I'm not. I'm average, mediocre. I can play all the notes in songs that I play, but I mess up at least once per song and it doesn't sound musical. It's not pretty. It sounds like all of the right notes are being played, but it doesn't sound nice or smooth, it sounds choppy and unimpressive. I hate watching kids my age play amazing pieces flawlessly at piano concerts and sound amazing because it makes me feel like I'm a terrible piano player. Part of the reason that I'm not as good as I like is because I've had piano teacher problems since I moved to Farmington. Before I moved here, I had a couple piano teachers, but the last one I had was amazing. In the two years I had her, I improved so much, it's crazy. When I moved here, I got a piano teacher that I went to early in the morning every Thursday with my little sister. I hated going, she would turn on Mozart and make me sing along and she just wasn't really my cup of tea. I begged my mom to find another teacher, so she let me quit. For many months, I didn't have a piano teacher but I practiced every day and still tried to teach myself because I love to play. I finally got another teacher. She was good, except she would make me play stupid piano computer games that are way below my level (which my current piano teacher now makes my 8 year old sister play) and would run my lessons super late which is super annoying. She would spend most of the time trying to explain things that I didn't understand and she didn't let me do what I love most which is learning new, fun songs. She just talked half the lesson about theory. As important as theory is, that doesn't help me much because I have a very small attention span when it comes to theory. I soon quit her too. A few months later, I got a new piano teacher who my cousins actually take from. I loved her, she was so great and would let me learn new, fun pieces and I actually enjoyed going to my lessons. I did improve with her. However, sadly, she had to get surgery so she decided to cut back on students. So I no longer had her as a teacher. It was pretty upsetting. Finally, months later, I got another new teacher, Katherine Chipman. And she is amazing! She is majoring in piano at the University of Utah. I can't say I look forward to my lessons, but she really knows her stuff and is a good teacher and can actually help me succeed. So, I decided to take advantage. I was talking to her at my last lesson, asking her how good I'd have to be to major in piano (I don't plan on majoring, but I might want to minor in it), and she said I'd have to start practing the piano at least four hours every day. That's a lot. On a good day, I practice for an hour. I have a hard time practicing though because I hate practicing when my whole family is home because I feel like I'm disrupting them with my playing, so four hours would surely annoy them to death. I contemplated it a bit, but after watching 不能说的秘密 (the piano playing is incredible) and listening to Twinkle Twinkle, I've decided that I want to play like that. I don't want to be mediocre, I want to be amazing and have people love to listen to me and be amazed by my talent. I am average at sports and average at art, but I don't want to be average at music. I want this to be my thing. I want to be like my Great Grandma Veldron who used to accompany symphonies and who thought the piano was so important. I want to be able to play and master any piece I want. So, today I texted my piano teacher and said "I want to be amazing at the piano and I'm willing to work hard. Can you make me amazing?" So she texted me back and told me that she will teach me to handle any piece but I'll need to practice more classical music and technique exercises, be more consisten with practice and lessons (heh..), learn to perfect pieces, and piano would have to be the focus of my life and that she could get me ready to audition for an amazing teacher. YES. That's what I want. I'm gonna practice the piano 4 hours a day and not care if my family get annoyed because I want this really bad and I'm doing this for me because I love the piano and I love to be the best and I haven't been the best at anything in years which is saddening. I want to be better, I need to be better. Playing the piano is my favorite thing to do and I'm willing to do all of the yucky theory and technique and scales and classical music. I'm gonna see if I can get into my church and play the grand piano in the chapel because I hate my piano. The pedal sucks, it's off key, and it's a bit annoying to play on now that I'm getting better and I need a good piano.
So anyway, that's my long post about the piano and how it's going to be an even bigger part in my life for now on. I really hope I can get much better, I mean practing 4 hours a day and about 24-28 hours a week instead of maybe 4 hours a week should get me really far. I'm gonna be spending one whole day of my week just practicing. Wow. It will all be worth it in the end. I love the piano. :)
3 comments:
Sweet! Chris and I finally got a piano a few months back, and I play it all the time (and the best part--it's electric, so headphones :) I liked my piano teacher, but I always wondered what it would be like to take from somebody who was amazing. Good luck with practicing!
You can do it:)
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