Challenge: Learning to Play the Piano #1

Hello everyone, and welcome to my piano challenge.  I think the first thing to say here is that this is either going to go very well, or very, very badly!  Always trying to be the optimist, and firmly believing that we can accomplish anything we ‘choose’ to, I’m going to pick the first option.  Who knows?  It might even go very, very well...

Since January 1st, I’ve sat at the piano four times – I know...that’s not the ‘everyday’ practice I’d planned, but there’s always a lot going on at the beginning of the year, and I’ll get there.  I suspect that the more I learn, the more I’ll long to sit down and play and, therefore, the more I’ll improve.  At the moment it’s a massive uphill learning curve, because although I can play back a tune by ear (on the treble staff – with the right hand), and I used to play the recorder at primary school, that was thirty-five years ago (crikey!) and even then I had only limited sight reading knowledge, most of which I’ve forgotten.  Back to the drawing board, then...

At the moment, my ‘piano’ is actually a Yamaha PSR-GX76 keyboard, which has one fuzzy speaker and has seen better days!  However, my daughter has used it for the past couple of years while she’s been learning to play (she’s currently practising for her ABRSM Grade 4 piano exam), and she makes it sound pretty good.  I’ll just keep imagining it’s a Yamaha Clavinova while I practice, and perhaps one will appear!  To keep costs down, I’m going to try to teach myself and I’m using a book called Total Piano Tutor (The ultimate guide to learning and mastering the piano) by Terry Burrows (Carlton Books, 2002, London, ISBN: 1842225944) which I’ve had for a few years and which has a handy interactive tutorial CD.  Part one gives you the background to the piano, its history, how it works, and introduces great pianists, while part two guides you through a series of eight lessons with embedded music theory and sight-reading.  Part three is concerned with ‘Informal playing’ and we’ll get to that much later in the year!

So far, I’ve read part one, and am about half-way through ‘Lesson one: Getting to know the right hand’, trying to learn the notes on the treble staff and the correct fingering positions for the C Major scale – remembering to ‘tuck the thumb’ when ascending and ‘cross the fingers’ when descending.  I’m now learning to play a section of Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring by Johann Sebastian Bach, and although I can play the tune quite easily by ear, using the right fingers on the right keys takes some getting used to, as does trying to remember the notes and their position on the staff.  I guess repeated practice will get results, which means the more I show up for practice, the easier it will get and the better I will play!  What also seems important here is not trying to rush the process.  Each lesson needs to be learnt properly before moving on to the next, otherwise nothing will make sense, so I’m off to practice again.  I’ll be back here in two weeks for my next challenge report...which should be interesting!