CAS Reflection

Introduction: My piano lessons are once a week on Saturdays with my teacher for 1 hour. Besides lesson times, I practice every other day by myself (between 30-60mins) to improve the pieces I was previously taught by my teacher the last Saturday.

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L.O.'s:

• LO1 - Strengths and weaknesses are acknowledged and reflected on to be able to improve my skills in the most efficient way. I am open to growth opportunities as I perform in recitals. I propose certain teaching methods that would enable me to learn and memories the pieces effectively and request songs of my interest so that I enjoy practicing during my own free time as well.

• LO4 - Piano lessons are weekly, moreover I practice my pieces almost everyday, thus showing commitment to improve my own skills overtime. I challenge myself to play different genres sometimes to try and adapt these changes and learn to know how to develop in different areas of music.

 

Saturday, September 5, 2015

My piano teacher was satisfied with my old piano pieces that I’d practiced over the week with when I played in front of her today. These old pieces consist of 3 jazz pieces that I’ve previously learnt, but still practice daily in order to remember until today. Towards the end of the lesson, we learnt a new part of my current rag piece entitled “The Strenuous Life” by Scott Joplin; I found it difficult to play both hands at once.

Goals for next week: To keep up with my old pieces and get used to playing the new section of “The Strenuous Life” (playing with both hands comfortably). LO1, LO4

 

Saturaday, September 12, 2015

My piano lesson today didn’t go as well as I planned it would go. I made several mistakes when I played my piece in front of my teacher. I would say that my performance is due to the lack of practice during the week and that how much I’ve practiced would really reflect on how I play my pieces. My piano teacher helped me by coming up with a different practice routine I could do. She said that everyday, I should practice one line of the song over and over again until I get comfortable with it, and do one line per day. She even let me test this method out during our class by playing a section of the piece 5 times in a row without making mistakes and after that, the next time I played it, I could play it faster with less mistakes. My goal for next week is to do the practice method my piano teacher recommended for me and improve on my piece by next week. LO1

 

Saturday, September 19, 2015

I impressed my piano teacher today and she said that she could tell the practice method is working for me. She was very satisfied with how I played my piece, as I played it with flow and with fewer mistakes. Since I practiced and performed my piece well in front of her, we were able to finish the piece today! Because we were able to finish the piece before our class ended, we reviewed my old piece, which is the Super Mario theme, and I was still able to recall it without the music sheet!

My goal for next week is to be able to play the whole piece of ‘The Strenuous Life’ flowingly and to revise the Super Mario theme song well enough to be able to play it continuously. LO1

 

Saturday, September 26, 2015

My piano teacher said that I was able to play my rag piece very well in front of her, and I believe that I was able to play well due to the commitment in practicing my piece half an hour every day. Furthermore, I think that my continuous practice helped boost my confidence, which could be the reason why I played better. We started a new rag piece called the ‘Maple Leaf Rag’, and I chose this because I believe that this will challenge me as it has a lot of octave notes, which is something that is difficult for me. I hope that enough practice of this piece will make me more comfortable in playing pieces similar to this to develop my skills further. LO4

 

Saturday, October 3, 2015

Today’s piano lesson was really fun as I was able to play the intro of “Maple Leaf Rag” quite well. I think this is due to the continuous practice I’ve had during the week. I also realized that enjoying a piece makes it much more easier to practice as you would have the eager to learn how to play it. In this lesson, we learned to play a little further down the piece and I hope that I will be able to practice this well again during the week ahead. LO1

 

Saturday, October 10, 2015

My piano lesson was cancelled today because I attended the whole-day conference of MUN locals 2015.

 

Saturday, October 24, 2015

In my piano lesson today, I learned a new section of the song, which I found quite challenging. The rhythm was different and there were many octave notes, which was why it took me a while to get used to how it sounds. My homework is to continue practicing that section of the piece, but only little by little, repeating several times each. Doing this daily, I believe, would help improve how I play it most efficiently. LO1, LO4

 

Saturday, November 7, 2015

We are starting to learn Christmas pieces in piano lessons now. Because my teacher wants me to explore the side of playing music when only chords are provided, she gave me “Jingle Bell Rock” with only the main chords on the sheet. She wants me to be the one to add more notes to the song when I play it. This week, I will practice different combinations based on the chords given and play it in front of her next time. LO4

 

 

TERM 2

 

Saturday, March 5, 2016

Piano today:

• Performed the parts I practiced of “Married Life”, the theme song from Up

• Played the first page of “Maple Leaf Rag” and revised the second page (weaker at playing second page)

• Learnt a new page of “Married Life” and used the pedal

• I need to work on my dynamics when playing my pieces

 

 

TERM 3

 

Saturday, April 9, 2016

Still studying the piece ‘Married Life’ from the movie Up, but already memorized until the third page. Learning a new song at the same time, which is ‘Once Upon A Dream’. I’ve already memorized the first page of that as well. I hope to be able to play these songs with more flow the next time I present this piece to my tutor. LO1

 

Saturday, May 7, 2016

I finished learning the fourth page of “Married Life” in my piano lesson today. I’ll have to practice my octaves so it’ll be easier for me to reach further notes. Moreover, I’ll try to have those four pages memorized by next meeting. Hopefully by then, I’ll be able to play the entire song with some help from my piano tutor as well. LO1

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August 27, 2016

• revised old piano pieces e.g. ‘Married Life’

• moved on to learn the bridge of ‘Go The Distance’

• put ‘Prologue’ (Beauty and the Beast) on hold for now

• What to work on: practice each section of ‘Married Life’ repeatedly until very comfortable playing it so that I can play the piece continuously in a flow. LO1, LO4

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September 24, 2016​

• continue practicing the newer section learnt last week of ‘Go The Distance’

• revised the first section of ‘Prologue’

• What to work on: the first section of ‘Prologue’ to be played more comfortably and to keep revising old pieces such as ‘Married Life’ and ‘Go The Distance’. LO1, LO4

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November 12, 2016

• I was able to play the entire piece of 'Married Life' in a flow, but in a slower pace.

• I requested to cut certain parts of the bridge that didn't sound like the original soundtrack and instead made up a couple of parts to connect from one section to another. I'm happy with how it turned out in the end as it now sounds more like the soundtrack and the piece is now slightly shorter (it used to be long and draggy).

• I was given the chords of the Christmas song "Noel" and had to make up my own piece just through those chords. It was a bit of a challenge however I was able to manage it and ended up making a short, simple piece of 'Noel'.

• For next time: practice 'Married Life' in a faster pace now that I can play it fluently. Continue practicing 'Go The Distance', especially the bridge part as it's still new to me and I have to memorize how I changed the bridge part. Keep making up different ways of playing 'Noel' through chords given to me. LO1, LO4