With the little time and energy I have this evening, I settled into Jonathan Harnum's Basic Music Theory: How to Read, Write, and Understand Written Music. Near the beginning of the book there's an explanation about the parts of a note (note head and the stem) and how to position them on the staff.
I'm not getting it though. It's too early in the game for me to learn this because I can't use it right away.
Maybe that's what I need to ask myself every time I sit down to learn this, or anything for that matter: can I practice and/or apply this new information right away to see if it works? If not, I should probably skip it until I can.
I also learned about rests, something I'm going to do now.
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Today I learned about the stave and clefs, notes, bars and related. Since this new information hasn't been tempered with practical application yet, maybe learned isn't the right word. “Exposure to” is probably more honest.
While I zoom in on various aspects of music theory, I'm also getting a big picture look at Jazz with Playing Changes: Jazz for the New Century. The author Nate Chinen is a top Jazz critic and he flexes his world class writing skills and extensive knowledge of music in this historical overview.
Another book that I'm getting a kick out of is Basic Music Theory: How to Read, Write, and Understand Written Music by Jonathan Harnum. He too is providing a broader look (at music theory), not just for playing the piano but notation for guitar and percussion instruments.
Piano is the best instrument to learn music theory, but I want to keep my options open and explore the terrain.
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The xylophone is looking pretty good right about now...
I'm awash in piano tutorials, and every one seems to employ a different system. However, there's consensus between Wikihow's How to Teach Yourself to Play the Piano, Lisa's (I don't know her last name) Piano Video Lessons and James Rhodes' How to Play the Piano book that each finger and thumb needs to be assigned a note. Doing this now will instill good habits and prevent bad habits from forming.
Makes sense.
What doesn't make sense to this opinionated beginner is numbering the notes (as Wikihow suggests) or numbering the fingers (as Lisa instructs in her excellent video). For example the thumb would be 1 and/or the C note; the index finger would be 2 and also the D note; and so on. To me, this unnecessarily complicates things and creates another layer of abstraction.
I'll follow James Rhodes on this and for the right hand designate the thumb for C, index finger for D, middle finger for E, ring finger for F and pinky for G.
Note sure about the left hand. I haven't gotten that far in his book.
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My struggle with internalizing the white keys reminds me of a story.
A Zen Buddhist monk was being interviewed for advancement in the Sangha (community). He had spent many years meditating, studying the commentaries and had graduated the koans. At the entrance of the zendo he took off his shoes and put down his umbrella.
The Roshi appeared, smiling modestly, and immediately asked the monk this simple question: what shoe did you take off first, the left or the right?
The monk was momentarily stunned. He couldn't remember. He hadn't paid attention.
The monk politely bowed, put his shoes back on, picked up his umbrella and left. He practiced for another 10 years before reapplying for the position.
I feel a bit like the monk right now. I can't even do the most basic thing in piano: instinctively and instantly play the right note on command. I have memorized the white and black keys, but not internalized them. There is often a half-second or so delay before I remember what note a particular key is.
However, unlike the monk, I'm unwilling to practice another 10 years before I get such a simple thing right. I'm moving on to the next stage.
And regarding yesterday's 7 minute white key drill: it's way too fast. I can't keep up with it. Not even close. Maybe I'll re-record it when I have some time.
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Today is day six of my piano learning experiment. Day five was Sunday the sabbath, day of rest.
This morning I did my daily 7 minute workout. After two rounds of going full-out, I'm sweating and panting. It feels like enough exercise – that my time is well spent in those two seven minute drills. I wish I spent all my time as constructively.
Then I thought about how I might make my white key practice more effective. What if I did a 7 minute, non-stop high-intensity white key drill? Would I get the same mileage as my workout?
It's worth a try.
So I developed a 7 minute white key drill that doesn't require signing up for anything. It's seven minutes long of me calling out random notes. I'm going to practice it tomorrow with the same focus and intensity that I bring to my 7 minute workout.
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Yesterday I was over-thinking things. Instead of designating fingers to certain keys, I'll keep it simple and just memorize the white keys. One step at a time.
This morning I printed out an unlabeled image seven white keys and five black keys in an octave:
I cut the image out and stuffed it in my front pocket. Then during the day, whenever I had a free second, I'd glance at the picture. Whatever key my eyes landed on first, I'd name it as fast as I could.
The results are rewarding. I'm correctly identifying most of the keys -sometimes instantaneously. This is while I'm doing other things and not even near a keyboard.
My technique uses the active recall method, by far the most effective way to commit information to long term memory. Through recall, we forge new neural pathways in the brain by integrating the new information with prior knowledge.
I found a white keys memory exercise by Jacques Hopkins, a music teacher who has a YouTube channel called Piano in 21 Days. I'm not going to link to the exercise directly because it bypasses the free 5 day workbook you have to sign up for and it wouldn't be fair to circumvent his sales funnel.
Once I get 100 percent accuracy on the white keys memory test, I'll move on to the next step, whatever by internet consensus that next step is.
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This is day three of my learning piano experiment.
I have an idea for how I might map the location of each white key into my muscle memory: I designated fingers for certain keys with band aids. This way my left hand's middle finger is trained to press the C note, and the index finger is trained to press the D note and so on. Once each of my fingers and thumbs instinctively know what note to press, I can take the band aids off.
This will also help with visualization, a technique I'll be relying heavily on. As stated earlier, I have a bad case of tendinitis in both arms. I plan to visualize my fingers touching the correct note on demand, and even recreate the tactile sensations of it, to prevent overworking the tendons of my arms.
Zig Ziglar, the successful salesman and motivational speaker tells the story of a U.S. prisoner of war in Vietnam who played a round of golf in his mind every day of his captivity. Years later, when finally released, he discovered that his golf game was better than before. It was all due to visualizing himself performing at an optimal level.
This psychological technique is often called the inner game, a term first coined by Timothy Gallwey. I'm trying something similar. Let's call it inner piano lessons.
I don't have years to practice this though. I want this memorized in the next day or so.
I'll have a progress report for you tomorrow. Stay tuned.
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The first step in learning the piano seems to be memorizing the 12 keys in an octave.
Once the white (and black) keys are memorized, I need to physically practice on the keyboard until the location of each note is programmed into my nervous system and my fingers instinctively know where to go.
Brute force memorization at its finest.
Somewhere down the road, my future self will look back at this most basic exercise and smile at what a complete noob I am now. Hi future self! Hope you lost that 20 lbs. You married yet?
Sorry. Back to the present moment. Time to focus on memorizing these seven white keys! Here are two videos I found to remember the names of the piano keys:
TL;DR: I promised to post everyday on this blog, but my new career at a homeless shelter has derailed this project. I'm trying to get back into some kind of groove again, both literally and metaphorically.
I don't know how to read, write or play music. Never did, although that didn't stop me from playing bass guitar for a local nu metal band many years ago. I was what a musician might call a poseur (or poser, if you prefer the American spelling).
Now I want to learn to read music and to play it. My reasons are chiefly cerebral: to improve my cognitive abilities and to more fully appreciate musical genres like jazz, classical and gospel hymns.
In the next 365 days, I promise to post something new I learned about music on this blog. That means everyday except Sundays until June 19, 2020 you'll see a mnemonic, or insight, audio clip... something that demonstrates I am progressing along. I'll be learning in an informal manner, from many sources and combining different methods and techniques. This may be of interest to those who want to learn music, or acquire any new skill for that matter. We can explore the learning process together.
Today is day one.
To manage expectations (both mine and yours), I'll mention that I work a full-time job outside of the home and unrelated to music. I'm a father and active church goer. I date and socialize. I'm committed to reading 100 books a year. I meditate daily and cuddle my cats regularly. This all takes time! Then there is my bilateral tendinitis (golfer's elbow on both arms)...
My point is that due to limited time and energy, I'll have to get over my perfectionism and focus on quantity over quality. Some of what I post of the next 365 days may be found wanting. It may also go in weird directions.
The xylophone is looking pretty good right about now...