Reminiscing...

Overall by allowing me to spend just a bit a time every day playing the piano and exploring many different genres found in piano music today, from classical, to comtemporary, to film soundtracks, this project has allowed me to spend more time and delve deeper into my passion for playing piano (which I had temporarily abandoned for books and the internet >_<"). Whereas before, sometimes I might try to play the piano again, but it would always be just a fleeting few minutes; although there were many pieces I wanted to play and master, I always had excuses to do other activities and never accomplished those goals of really being able to master my favorite piano pieces- instead simply wallowing in wistful bitterness of being inable to play as well as others around me (and on the interenet lol, people post some amazing piano covers/ compositions on youtube!)
I think this project was also helpful in reigniting and encouraging my interest in piano by allowing me to gain more confidence overall in my playing skills (especially in sight reading! ^^) because helping me set a deadline for myself (the end of the 30 days), I was able to become more focused on accomplishing my goal of being able to learn a piano piece well enough to record a piano cover of myself playing the piece! And in the end, to my own surprise, practicing each day really helped me improve a lot quicker and I was able to record not only 1 but 3 different songs on video! :D
Thus from just practicing everyday, to exploring the new techniques for improving my ability to play, and being able to correct myself and improve my playing after posting the piano cover videos (by watching myself play on camera and see where I was prone to make mistakes and which areas I tended to speed up and play too fast >_<"), this project has really helped me regain my confidence in playing the piano and as well, broadened my views of how music is used in film (whether they use classical works or compose a contemporary score that includes the same common melody written in various keys) and can essentially control the tone of a certain scene or how directors want the audience to percieve a scene.
In looking towards to future, I want to continue to explore more piano pieces of both classical and contemporary genres and (hopefully!) be able to master them well enough to record piano covers of myself and thus help myself improve by observing/ critiquing myself as well as be able to get other people's opinions on how to improve. In particular, I'd love if I could be able to improve my playing of pieces with faster tempos (like this one: )
credit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QVDPVpM94Y
lol, or be able to attempt the same piece w/ an orange! xD

credit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoIxkecBf48

Yay!

Finally! I was able to finish the piano cover for "Wedding Dress" (Taeyang) ^^

Ok I know, the beginning was rather fast T_T and then I completely butchered the ending...plus made a ton of mistakes along the way, but I'm glad at least that I was able to play through the entire piece! I think the practice skills that I developed throughout this blog and just being able to play the piano everyday really helped speed my progress on this song in particular! ^^

:D

I finally was able to post another piano cover, this time of a surprise piece that I didn't even think I'd be able to pull off but I guess continuously practicing a piece and pacing oneself over a long period of time produces better more successful (less stumbling! xD) results that cramming all practice into one or two nights. Anyway I did a preview (the first video below) of it, but you should view my actual piano cover of the song (2nd video below) b/c its much better than the preview!
Hope you enjoy my rendition of Yiruma's (one of my favorite comtemporary piano composers!) very famous song "River flows in you"! :D (don't forget to leave critiques/comments on the youtube page if you have any! ^^)

Checkpoint: >:(

I've been practicing pieces from one of my favorite contemporary composers for a time now, Yiruma ("River flows in you", "Kiss the Rain", "Maybe", "Its your day", etc) and one of the aspects that I've constantly been running into has been problems w/ the strength of my finger muscles- my ring finger and pinky fingers are just too weak!! -_____-" Everytime I try to play a sixteenth note in between a stream of eighth notes, because my fingers are so used to the rhythm of the eighth notes, and my ring finger isn't particularly strong, I always end up skipping the sixteenth notes- which is really frustrating to me because that part where he changes it up (adds the sixteenth notes to original eighth note rhythm) adds an extra edge of excitement to the original stream of eighth notes and essentially signifies the beginning of the climax, like a change in the phase of a piece- so its terribly frustrating when I miss it- like missing the entire climax of the piece!
Because I wore out myself playing it over and over again, trying to fix that part, I finally just gave up and took a break. But while resting I was actually able to find an article online that really helped, especially this quote,

"On a larger scale a very beneficial activity is to sit in one’s favourite armchair and with closed eyes hear the whole work through mentally. Because muscular memory is not involved in this process, this is very useful in detecting uncertainties, and moreover makes us much more aware of the general architecture of the piece. A similar and related activity is to do the same, but in addition imagining oneself physically playing the piece, being aware mentally of every movement of fingers and arms, without actually moving a muscle, all the while also mentally hearing the work. It is clear that both these practice methods are very beneficial to the memory, but they also serve to reduce nervousness and enhance the performance. Indeed one can go further and, if one is familiar with the venue, perform the work mentally on that particular piano in that particular space, even for that particular audience or examination panel. If the student is not familiar with the venue, one can conjure up an imaginary venue. By the time of the actual performance, one feels fairly used to the sensation of performing the work for an audience."

credit: http://appca.anu.edu.au/Part%202/Herscovitch%20-%20APPC05%20-%20Efficient%20and%20Productive%20Practice.pdf

by introducing me to other ways of effectively practicing the piano / memorizing piece without directly being at the piano and playing. This new approach really helped me since I didn't seem to be getting much progress at that point from directly playing on the piano >_<"

Returning back to the song that I had originally started so long before but never had to chance to really become comfortable with, I decided to play "Wedding Dress" again! :D Unfortunately, I'm facing the same challenges I had with "From the beginning until now", while the first part all flows together and the main repeating melody is very strong, all other parts are a rather weak and terribly prone to making mistakes >_<"

After reviewing my first piano cover again, I decided to complete and reupload another piano cover of the same song "From the beginning until now" again (Take 2!). When I went back to compare the two, I was so surprised at how taking a break from continuously practicing the piece, and working on other piano pieces helped me develop a new perspective and style (?) of this same piece!

Checkpoint: Reflection on poll results

Also looking back at my poll I also noticed that most of the foreign composers recieved less votes, probably due to the fact that most of the music they composed are for soundtracks of movies released outside the US (although "Ponyo by the Cliff and Sea" and "The Painted Veil" were both released here).
In further exploring the impact of musical soundtracks and pieces chosen to accompany various films, I decided to try playing piece that has been in many movies before ("Lorenzo's Oil", etc) and that our orchestra actually played two years before: Barber's "Adagio". If one has never heard about it before one should definitely listen to it, especially the original orchestral arrangement- so chilling and breathtaking at the climax -its such an interesting piece because of the amount of energy is vested into to building up the tension, releasing, and repeat building up suspense the final towering climax! I've love it if I could play it as well on the piano, but for now I'm still struggling with locating chords >_<"

Last time I also mentioned that one of my favorite film soundtracks is "Oogway ascends" in the movie "Kung fu Panda" (lol who would have thought?) and today, while I was searching for music to add to my playlist (located above the blog posts) I found another piece titled "Sacred pool of tears" that's also part of "Kung fu Panda"'s soundtrack. While I was listening to it I suddenly realized that parts of it was composed of the same melody (rhythm and notes and a different major) as the one played by the eruhu in "Oogway Ascends"- just like how the score of "Up" was created by using the same melody but varying it in different major and minor keys to create a different atmosphere depending on the film scene! :D

In taking a closer look at the past results of my poll that I took over the course of 3 days, it seems that the prominence of the movie in the US played a bit of a defining factor because more people were probably able to go see those popular, well-known movies and thus remember more about the soundtrack these movies. Although some may also think that just because a movie is a popular and more comedy focused, it does not necessarily have a very good soundtrack, I actually, surprisingly found "Kung Fu Panda"'s soundtrack to be among my favorite when I was trying to choose the composers, simply because of one amazing track on it: "Oogway (yes, that's actually how you say turtle in chinese XD) Ascends"


credit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVYQcGQpyoM

The erhu's solo...and the accompanying orchestra...its simply amazing!

In continuing my musings about how music can shape films and really enhance scenes within movies, I decided to conduct a poll concerning the question, "Which composer has composed the most memorable musical scores for movies?" By giving the choices:
-Hans Zimmer (Gladiator, The Lion King, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Da Vinci Code, Sherlock Holmes, The Last Samurai, Kung fu Panda, The Dark Knight)
-James Horner (Titanic, Braveheart, Apollo 13, Glory, The Mask of Zorro, Enemy at the Gates, Star Trek (II & III) A Beautiful Mind, The Perfect Storm, House of Sand and Fog, Avatar)
-John Williams (Fiddler on the Roof, Jaws, The Patriot, Star Wars, Superman, Home Alone, Harry Potter (first 3), Indiana Jones, Schindler's List, E.T., Catch me if you can, Memoirs of a Geisha, Munich)
-Alexandre Desplat (Girl with a Pearl Earring, The Painted Veil, The Queen, The Beat that My Heart Skipped, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Fantastic Mr. Fox)
-Michael Giacchino (Mission: Impossible III, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Star Trek, Up)
-Joe Hisaishi (Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Howl's Moving Castle, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea)

I was able to obtain the results of:
Hans Zimmer 28%
James Horner 25%
John Williams 23%
Alexandre Desplat 5%
Michael Giacchino 15%
Joe Hisaishi 4%

"Up"!

My brother was watching the movie "Up" this afternoon, and while I was upstairs, I could still hear the sounds from the movie, including the various music from the different parts. I'm sure when most people watched the movie, they realized that through the course of the entire movie, the music for different portions of the movie- whether it was when Carl Fredricksen was first living happily with Ellie, or he was attempting to get to Paradise Falls with Russell- was often the same melody, but simply played in different keys. By writing the melody to different keys, I found that the composer was able to adapt the varying situations and set tones from melancholy sadness to joyful adventurous excitement with this same melody.
Here's a sample of one of his repetitive uses of the same melody:


credit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaLegF2hAxI

New exercise! (-attempt-)...

After watching the first piano cover that I made ^^ and being able to watch myself play in the video, I was actually able to pinpoint a few flaws in my posture and playing, that, if successfully corrected, may be able to help me be able to master more pieces faster because I have the basics correct. Do correct posture I decided to try an exercise that my piano teacher used to make us do when we first began learning the piano- the quarter exercise!
In order to train my hands to remain curved while playing (like holding an egg in my hand while playing, keeping the distance between my palm and the surface of the keys) I decided to try this exercise in which I must balance the quarter on the back of my palm and try to play as much as I can without dropping it!

It was definitely lots of fun, and my brother especially had fun chasing after the quarter while I tried to continue playing to the end xD
However, I wouldn't recommend trying it while playing pieces were you have to extensively stretch your fingers to reach far away keys- the quarter usually doesn't stay put for long >_<

surprisingly...^^

haha, so after posting my piano cover on Youtube, I surprisingly got back relatively positive reviews! :D (although the rating of the video, wasn't so as good with a 3 1/2 out of 5 >_< but I definitely was expecting/understand that especially with how my fingers feel apart during the second half...>.<) But I think overall certain people enjoyed the slow melody of the song and I that's one of the reasons why I picked it (my fingers aren't very good at keeping up with each other in fast pieces!) especially since its so relaxing to play. I've actually come to enjoy taking breaks between stressful hw to play a piece or two on the piano (usually I choose soothing, perhaps a bit melancholy pieces- but if I'm feeling particularly mad that day, its definitely a more sinister piece.. xD)

Checkpoint: yay! kind of..

Yay! Finally completed and uploaded my first piano cover! :D
Although I'm glad I finished one, I'm still far from satisfied with the result...(lol it sounds ok in the beginning, but once you get to the second half of the piece- its just bombs exploding all over the place! [leastwise that's how it felt through my head >_<"]) I think what I was really challenged with this time was actually finishing the piece to the end! Normally when I play just for myself, I like to do run throughs where I may make plenty of mistakes, but I simply ignore them and focus on staying on track with the piece and continue steadfastly until the end- basically I never stop :]. But, when I was recording the piano cover, since I knew it was a video, and if you make a mistake, it stays forever embedded in the video and people viewing it can always go back, rewind and hear it again T_T, whereas if you're playing live, who knows what will happen next time you play it?
I think that perspective of thought added a lot of pressure to myself, and partially contributed to my inability to continue and make it all the way to the end on the many retakes I did...I think I only made it all the way to the end once or twice? Its b/c what always happened was I would make minor mistakes but be able to keep going but would be weighed down by the memory of those mistakes and think I should stop and do it again since they were just careless mistakes; or I'll make a big blunder (wrong key, sharp instead of flat!, out-of-tune stumble) and be unable to continue with the rest.
But in terms of pros, what I liked the best was probably my beginning ^^- very steady, calm and clear...anyway hope you enjoy it :]

first time...

So I finally decided to take a stab at recording a piano cover for "From the Beginning until now"! :D Although it took me a bit a of awhile to first set up everything (brought the tripod camera down, but had to run up again to get the screw driver and screw the camera in to attach it securely to the tripod [if not, and it did end up falling off-my dad would have a fit!]) plus figure out where to place the camera so that it would only have a shot of my fingers and the piano, I finally figured out everything. Buut, unfortunately that was probably the easiest part of the whole process, as I soon discovered. Before, when I watched other people play their own piano covers of various songs online, they made it rather easy to record a piano cover: just press the button, play it once, and press it again and tada! all finished! "Easy peasy lemon squeezy!" as my brother might say.
But! Alas! It was anything but that for me T_T...I lost count of how many times I had to redo it! The memory card even ran out of space! :( And this time, while I was playing in front of the camera, I even started messing up in the areas that I was most familiar with! (kept having to start over near the beginning..)...I wonder if I should memorize the piece?

frustrations T_T

So I've been continuing practicing "From the Beginning until now" but one of the major problems that I'm facing is that there are certain sections in the piece that I can play really well and would be quite confident of playing in front of the camera- but then there are the other sections (especially towards the end of the piece) that are...to say the least: simply shaky. I think it may be perhaps the way I practice that caused this to develop? - Sometimes I try to practice the piece by playing as far as I can without making any mistakes, but then turning back and starting over as soon as I do make a mistake -this method does help me practice the beginning (probably contributes to my fluidity b/c I keep having to repeat it over and over again lol) but it doesn't do much to help me work on my shaky ending (I never make it far enough in the piece before I mess up! T_T)

hopefully...?

After practicing "From the beginning until now" all yesterday, as well as today, I definitely feel like I've been getting a bit better at it and certain parts (though not all T_T") like the very beginning, are quite fluid and I feel very comfortable playing those parts. Because of this I'm actually feeling confident enough, to maybe actually record a piano cover video of me playing this song...hopefully some time in the near future ^^

Continuing the thought I had yesterday about the advantage of having a "conversation between left and right hand" versus chords, I went back into the music I had and found a piece that I played before when I first started this 30 days project and wanted to experiment with how well I was able to sight-read a few pieces after my 4 to 5 year hiatus >_<". Anyway, while I was playing "From the Beginnning until Now" (Ryu- OST for Winter Sonata) I noticed that I was able to pick up notes and play the piece with more fluidity, compared to when I first started- and I think its because, although the piece isn't exactly stylized like a conversation, it does alternate the melody between treble and bass clef (although many of the times when the left hand is providing the melody, the right hand is still holding a half note):]

Checkpoint: Having a conversation between left and right hand is easier than playing chords? ^o^

After playing so many chords for a while, I decided to switch back to fairly easier music, at least in my opinion. With chords, since I'm playing multiple notes simultaneously as one, it usually takes me a while to locate all the notes in the chord when I first begin practicing a piece >_<. That's why I prefer piano pieces that mostly have single note melodies and accompanying harmonies; the pieces that I like the most (because I am able to master the pieces the fastest ^o^ and the notes on the treble clef (mostly played by right hand)and ones on the bass clef (mostly played by left hand)can each contribute a portion to the overall melody) are works that includes alternating melodies between notes on the bass clef and notes on the treble clef, that way you're two hands don't have to simultaneously play (I've never really had good coordination with both hands) but can exchange the melody back and forth. Although it looses the richness that having two hand combined playing at once provides a piece, it does create something almost similar to a duet between the two hands or even a conversation: the left starting the first question, and the right answering it, before the left provides an agreeing response, and right continues that thought, and so on...

odd..o.O

Thinking back on all the difficulty with the chords that I've had these past few days, I decided to put "Variations on the Kanon" temporarily on hiatus (after practicing it so much, I was a bit frustrated/ fed up with it -not with the piece itself, just my own slow progress with it >_<") because I've actually found that it feels like, if I continously repeatedly practice a piano piece to correct a certain fingering or wrong notes that I keep playing, I'll simply end up frustrating myself. However if I come back to it after a rest of 1 or 2 days, or more, I feel like I can play the song with less mistakes and more fluidity then I had been able to before immediately after all that practicing- almost like I was able to improve better without practicing; but maybe it was the rest added to the frenzy of practice (due being extremely stubborn about wanting to play the piece right!- and perhaps just a tad bit of OCD-ness lol >_<) that allowed me to play better...odd isn't it? o.O

chords: so beautiful, yet such a pain (for me T_T)

To reemphasize the difficulties I am facing with piece "Variations on the Kanon" (George Winston arrangement), I am posting the link to the sheet music (its in "Public Domain" :D) so that one can further visualize just how many chords one must play throughout this piece! (in the very beginning, and during the fast-paced middle parts of the piece as well!)
Tada!:
Variations on the Kanon (Canon in D) arr. by George Winston

Credit: http://www.scribd.com/doc/16031626/Variations-on-the-Kanon-Canon-in-D-arr-by-George-Winston

Checkpoint: - :(

Played "Variations on a Kanon" again today! ^^

Ok, so to continue my last post...
The cons of playing this piece (at least for myself because I'm not particularly adept in playing, after maintaining a hiatus from playing the piano for around 4 to 5 years >_<" during which I forgot how to read the bass clef -____-") include an aspect that's a bit ironic (situational irony anyone? -^o^-) - is the chords!
As I mentioned before, the main reason I love this version of Pachelbel's Canon ever since I first heard a recording of it, is because of the richness and depth of sound the chords seem to bring to the entire piece! And perhaps, this is also enhanced by the different key (C major versus D major) that this version is written in that allows it to be something similar to...another perspective of the classical Pachelbel's Canon? And perhaps the different key (C major versus D major) that it is written in probably also enhances this version. I also think the faster tempo (allegro? rather than andante...) it is played at, compared to the original "Pachebel's Canon", near the climax of the piece allows it to create a more celebratory? and a bit hopeful? tone.
Anyway, the main problem I'm facing is that everytime I come across a chord (versus just single notes) I have to stop for five seconds to look up at the sheet music and back down at the piano to confirm which notes are in the chord and where they are on the piano (more times than not I play the wrong note the first time -_-") and it gets quite frustrating for me b/c it takes me forever to finish just one run through of the piece...I don't like having to pause after ever other chord - it completely ruins the melody! >:{ But I guess its part of the process I have to suffer of relearning piano >_<"
...I feel sorry for my family though, having to listen to me try to sight-read, Message to mi familia: Sorry mum, dad, kenny! (note to self: must get then something extra nice for their b-days / do more chores around the house! >_<)

+ :)

I practiced "Variations on the Kanon" (George Winston arrangement of Johann Pachelbel's "Canon") again today and there are a lot of pros and cons that I am facing with practicing this piece.
To begin with, the pros are that its written in the key of C major (yay! ^^) which is better for me because I'm really quite terrible at sight-reading; so having to find the exact notes of each chord on the piano, as well as remember which notes in the key are either "sharp" (have to play the black key to the upper right of the "natural" white key) or "flat" (have to play the black key to the upper left of the "natural" white key) is often one of the greatest annoyances I constantly face when I'm first reading the music and practicing it for the first few days. Even though there is the key signature at the beginning of every line that's there to remind you which notes on the scale are sharp/flat throughout the piece, I think I might just have short-term memory because I can never remember to play them sharp or flat when I'm playing! T_T"

"Variations on a Kanon"

So today I decided to go for a more classical piano piece today! -"Canon in D" by Johann Pachelbel (also known as "Pachelbel's Canon")! I've actually played this song on the violin before, in orchestra, and in a small quartet in church, and I loved the way the various different instruments, violin, viola, cello, blended together to form such a poigant, soothing melody- it really is one of my favorite classical pieces!
Even though I really liked though I really like the original piano version of the song:

credit: http://www.youtube.com/v/H1kGJoGVpOs&hl

I could only find music for the George Winston arrangement of "Variations on the Kanon" by Johann Pachelbel. Yet after playing it, I was pleasantly surprised to find I actually enjoyed this version of "Pachelbel's Canon" a little bit better than the original; I think its because while the original version is mainly a piano solo and focuses on the melody (kind of like playing mainly the first violin part in a quartet arrangement of this piece), George Winston's arrangement includes many chords (vs. the original piece starting off w/ single notes) that add a sort of richness to the piece (similar to achieving the same musical quality as when an entire quartet plays the piece versus just the first violin's melody)...but that's just my opinion >_<
Hope you enjoy this version as much as I did! :

credit: http://www.youtube.com/v/kllZlF6mB2s&hl