Playing piano: the importance of practicing.

So when it comes to my new hobby, in my last blog post I wrote about how I had managed to start playing piano again after a 20+ year break. I had managed to start playing the instrument after hearing a piece of music that was so beautiful and compelling to me.

Indeed, once I heard J. Halvorsen composition 'Passacaglia' almost a month ago, I started practicing it every day. I had a solid practice routine (three times a day) that allowed me to learn the song rather fast, even though skill-wise I had to start almost from zero.

Not surprisingly, after I learned to play 'Passacaglia', the next question was would I keep practicing and would I have the motivation to keep going. Would I be able to learn to play stuff like 'La La Land', that I happened to mention in the article.

Fortunately, when it comes to what has happened during the last few weeks, I have some good news to share. As it happened, I did continue practicing and did learn to play 'Mia & Sebastian's' theme from 'La La Land', even though I had some setbacks too.

Learning-wise, the biggest challenge was that during the first two weeks of September, I had limited opportunities to practice. I had previously practiced at my parent's place and once they came back from their summer house, I had no 'free' place to play anymore.

Thankfully, once my dad came back from the farm the second time, he actually brought me an electric keyboard that was stored there. The keyboard, even though cheap and a bit clunky to play with, gave me an opportunity to play whenever I wanted to.

Practice-wise, I noticed rather quickly that I unlike with 'Passacaglia' that I learned with 'synthesia' (program that shows which keys to play) this method didn't work anymore. This time I had to learn to read notes in order to figure things out properly.

Not that surprisingly, at first learning to read notes turned out to be rather painful and frustrating. This was especially the case with the bass clef and the notes that were outside the bar - particularly for an amateur like me who had been on a break.

Another challenge was that unlike with 'Passacaglia', a composition that is pretty simple to memorize, 'Mia & Sebastian's theme' wasn't as basic and repetitive. It was a challenge to do stuff like memorizing more notes, using black keys and using more fingers at the same time.

Fortunately, as I kept diligently practicing every day, I kept progressing rather steadily. I managed to already learn to play the melodic part of the song (played it at school) and have now moved to the 'jazz solo' part of the composition, which will take some additional practice.

In that sense, now that I'm almost ready to start practicing yet another piece of music (probably Pirates of The Caribbean), it can be said that things are going well. I've managed to exceed my expectations, even though things could have gone better too.

After all, when it comes to this whole thing, there's no question that playing piano is hard work and that there are no shortcuts. You have to be able to put in the hours and understand that sometimes in your sessions you feel like you're not making that much progress.

Still, when it all is said and done, in my case, I'm glad that I've managed to keep my practice routine going so well here. I'm happy that I've found the motivation to learn to play the piano again and learn these wonderful melodies that touch my heart.

After all, even though I won't become a professional pianist, that's not a reason to not keep going. I shouldn't be worrying about how good I might eventually become, because in the end, becoming 'great' is not what this whole thing is supposed to be about.

So I managed to start playing piano again.

During my summer vacation, one of the 'goals' that I had set for myself was that I would start playing piano again. I was thinking that if things would go really well, perhaps I would be able to find motivation to start playing the instrument after a 20+ year break.

Indeed, the last time I played piano was in high school during a school event when I was 18. I played the instrument for our school's choir during an independence day's event, which subsequently was the last time I played it for more than twenty years.

So naturally, with a history like this with the instrument, the chances weren't obviously that high that I would start playing piano again. It was at least somewhat unlikely that I would pick up on this hobby after having been on a break for so long.

Fortunately, even though I hadn't played piano for so long, as it happened, last week I actually started playing it again. I managed to get back to playing the instrument and even managed to get some encouraging results during my practice sessions.

Return-wise, the biggest reason that I started playing again had to do with me hearing J. Halvorsen's beautiful piano composition 'Passacaglia' (based on Händel's musical piece). The piece was so beautiful that I just felt that I had to give it a shot, no matter what. 

Naturally, getting started wasn't easy and I had some real troubles trying to get my muscle memory back (hands to synchronize etc.). It was a bit scary and even hopeless to do basic stuff like where you had to use your both hands simultaneously (left hand two octaves, right hand blind).

Practice-wise, for me the best way to practice was to do it three times a day. I would play for an hour after I came back from work, have another 30-40 minute session in the evening and the next morning play for 5-10 minutes to check how I had progressed.

 

Progress-wise, the good thing about having a practice routine like this is that it allowed me to not overload my brain and my muscle memory too much. Once I inevitably got a bit frustrated after almost every session, I could just go on a break and come back later that day.

Indeed, especially after the evening sessions, when I could feel how my brain really started to turn into mush, it was obvious that I had practiced enough. It was time to call it a day and get some sleep, before I would get too desperate about the whole thing.

Thankfully, as I kept going, every single day I got progressively better at playing the song. I practiced it in sections and it didn't take more than five days before I was ready to play the song at work and show my progress for my friends (we have multiple pianos in our school).

In that sense, when it comes to whole thing, now that I've gotten back to playing piano at least a bit, I think it's clear that I should keep going. I need to keep practicing and find new material that inspires me without getting too complacent (I think I'll do 'La La Land' next).

Indeed, even though I obviously have no desire or intention to become a great player or anything like that, that's not a reason to not take this hobby at least a bit seriously. I definitely shouldn't be thinking that I wouldn't have time for this instrument.

On the contrary, as long as I pick new songs to practice and take things slow enough, I'll get better at it. I'll become a better piano player and even though practicing takes time, it's worth it and shows that I can do other artistic things too in life than just write scripts.