An alternative to the 10,000 hour rule #eci831 – hoping to boost confidence in those embarking on their learning project this week! https://t.co/hpSd2as5DT

— Brooke Alexander (@balexander31) October 8, 2019

We made it! Nine weeks of learning, struggling, progressing, succeeding, and growing. It’s hard to believe how challenging, yet rewarding, it was to focus on a learning project as an adult. Setting time aside each week to work on something that I wouldn’t normally have time for was an enriching experience. Who knew that learning and playing the piano would be so fulfilling for me. I am grateful for what I learned and gained through this Major Learning Project, along with the inspiration that my #eci831 classmates gave me along the way.

In order to look back on my experience, I made a video to document the process with clips from each week. Don’t forget to watch until the end so that you can see my final piano piece. You can also watch my whole piano project with my previous vlogs from my Youtube Playlist or you can click the links below to read my posts. In the meantime, take a look at my final vlog from my piano project!

• The Piano Project: A Noteworthy Journey (Introduction Post)
• Week 1: The Struggle was Real
• Week 2: Practice Makes (Almost) Perfect
• Week 3: Technology Trials
• Week 4: Reflection
• Week 5: Back at it!
• Week 6: Getting There…
• Week 7: Experience Fuels the End Result
• Week 8: Almost at the Finish Line
• Week 9: The Big Finale

In honour of my final post, I thought I would reflect back on my piano project journey with the victories and challenges and also look forward to my future goals.

The Small Victories:

• I learned the major and minor triad chords along with the major scales.
• I can read basic sheet music (mostly the treble clef) and play the notes I read.
• I know SO much more about iMovie, the video editing program, because I made vlogs each week.
• I learned Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Part of Your World, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.

• I was able to collaborate with Brad by playing the piano chords and adding vocals for I Want to Hold Your Hand. He made an awesome collaboration video for his final project!
• I made great connections with other piano players who taught me a lot about the instrument.
• I loved learning piano because it was a creative outlet for me!

The Challenges:

• It was challenging to set time aside each week to learn the instrument when life gets busy.
• It took a lot of time to not only learn my piano goals, but also edit videos each week to visually display my learning.
• I wanted the learning process to go faster at times and felt discouraged when I didn’t attain my goals as quickly as I wanted! I learned the importance of having grace for myself and understanding that success can be messy.

Future Goals

• I want to keep playing piano as often as I can so that I don’t forget the skills that I’ve learned.
• I want to play for enjoyment and continue to use this instrument as a creative outlet!

Thanks for following along with me as I journeyed through my piano project. It was a “noteworthy” journey indeed!

-Amanda