Another week of my Major Learning Project has come and gone and I finally feel like I am getting somewhere. Instead of working on a variety of separate tasks, I focused on practicing “Part of your World“, the Little Mermaid song that I introduced last week. As I was practicing the song, I took into account all of the things I learned in my lesson with Danielle.

I focused on proper finger placement and reading the sheet music properly, both of which weren’t easy. I also added another goal this week- learning the chords of the song with the left hand. Even though it wasn’t an easy thing to do, with a lot of practice, it started to come more naturally. By the end of the week, I felt comfortable playing most of the chords while playing the melody with the right hand. I still feel like I can become even more fluent in playing the song, but I am proud of how far I have come in two weeks time.

If you want to see my progress with the song “Part of your World“, check out my recent video!

The Small Victories:

• Even if it looked like a struggle, it only took me a short time to learn the chords for Part of Your World.
• I spent a lot of time practicing this week, which helped me become more confident in my skills.
• I am becoming more comfortable with reading sheet music!

The Challenges:

• I am having difficulty remember the notes on the Bass Clef.
• I need more practice with the C minor and the B minor chord.
• It’s difficult to know the proper finger placement for new songs that I learn. I still need to refer to my piano-playing friends and Youtube videos for that part.

The Resources:

This week, I used these tools to help me learn:

• I used the same sheet music for Part of Your World.
• I practiced reading music notes with the Mad Minutes my classmate Daina suggested during her process of learning the clarinet.
• I used an online guide from the Music Teacher to help me learn the Bass Clef notes.

Goals for Next Week

• I will keep practicing the Bass Clef notes with the Mad Minutes I used this week.
• I am going to keep practicing the chords for the song that my classmate Brad and I are collaborating on. Who knew B minor 7 was so difficult?!
• I want to learn a Christmas song! I created another poll for you to help me choose.

Thanks for being a part of my piano process so far. I have learned a lot, but I still have a long way to go. However, I have realized that even if I haven’t reached a particular end goal yet, I am getting there, and that’s just where I need to be.

-Amanda