EPT
![[image loading]](http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj236/BigFan_2008/637db238-e3c8-4567-92b2-6544af97f5c3_zps09eb283e.jpg)
Music of dreams ~~~~~
Background: I was talking with a friend about music the other day and how I've always found it to be relaxing to listen to. With tons of great songs, it never really gets boring and the type of music can convey many different emotions which is something I'm fond of. Basically, I was indirectly expressing my admiration for the many musicians out there. Beethoven has always been my favorite musician for masterpieces such as Moonlight Sonata, Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major Op. 73 and others.
My friend decided to make things interesting and challenged me to learn how to play Moonlight Sonata in 6 months time, basically by the beginning of March. Before I go any further, for anyone who is not familiar with Moonlight Sonata, it's a pretty popular music piece. Here's a LINK so that you can listen to it as you read the rest. I've never really played on a piano before and my music knowledge is pretty much 0 at the moment. In other words, I'm a complete newbie starting from scratch who is aiming for the stars (from my perspective). Despite all that, I've always been someone who doesn't back down from a challenge especially one that's this interesting and can also be beneficial.
Plan: I'm going to play the song on a keyboard instead since I don't have a piano lol. I'll start off the usual way, just get familiar with everything like music notes, dos/don't etc... even if it takes a bit longer than I want since I would like to at least get the basics down tight. I'm still debating to the benefits of learning musical scales seeing as those are a time sink and I won't have the luxury of time soon enough. After that, I'll just have to work my way up and eventually start practicing Moonlight Sonata. Seeing as this will be a big challenge (to me at least), I'll just have to dedicate a lot of time to learn it which likely means less BW (T_T) and other activities (Never giving up on writing blogs and SSL/LoveTV though! lol).
![[image loading]](http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj236/BigFan_2008/keyboard-636_zps9b4a461c.jpg)
Thoughts: Honestly, it's hard to tell at this point. I've never tried to learn a music song within such time constraints so I can see the outcome fluctuating from me either being a pro at playing Moonlight Sonata by 6 months to completely botching the whole thing and not being able to play much of it which is a possibility. Ideally, I would like to learn to play the whole song (at least the part in the video above) and that's what I plan to work for but this isn't an ideal world and I'm not Beethoven, go figure haha.
This blog was meant to show my commitment to this challenge. I still haven't decided if I'll do monthly updates seeing as some months will likely be slower than others. I'll think of the best way to show that I've learned how to play it (legit showing lol). If anyone has any questions, advice, encouragement or just to tell me I'm crazy, go for it! lol.
Finally, to make things more interesting and fun, the poll!!!!!
Poll: Will Bigfan manage to play all of Moonlight Sonata (youtube link)?
25% of it! (12)
35%
None at all! (12)
35%
Definitely! (8)
24%
75% of it! (1)
3%
50% of it! (1)
3%
34 total votes
None at all! (12)
Definitely! (8)
75% of it! (1)
50% of it! (1)
34 total votes
Your vote: Will Bigfan manage to play all of Moonlight Sonata (youtube link)?
(Vote): Definitely!
(Vote): 75% of it!
(Vote): 50% of it!
(Vote): 25% of it!
(Vote): None at all!
Let the challenge begin!
+ Show Spoiler [Update #1] +
I'm 2 days shy of a biweekly update but figured this is the best time to give an update:
Housekeeping business:
My friend decided to give me a small extension till mid March since he wanted it to be a full 6 months and I only started practicing after I wrote this blog. My goal is still to learn the song (1st/2nd movement at least) by March 1 so that there's a buffer zone but figured this was important to mention since it'll give me 2 more weeks to try and get it right if I manage to learn it by March 1.
My progress:
I've been playing about 30 minutes to 1 hour a day. A moderate amount imo for someone who's new to the keyboard. I do realize this isn't a ton of time considering my end goal but I prefer to do things at my own pace and slowly increase my practice time. I'm sure that as the deadline gets closer, I'll start practicing more to try and met it so I'm not the most concerned atm. The learning process has been great so far since it's an enjoyable experience. Nothing feels better than realizing that you can finally play something that you couldn't several days back or even sing with the music as you play it lol.
Of course, there have been some small frustrations along the way. When you first start playing with both hands, you're constantly making silly mistakes even in a simple song with no chords (just normal notes) because you're so focused on your right hand that you can't even slightly focus on the left without messing up. Then once you start learning some chords, you start to realize that those normal notes were easy since you're trying to change several fingers at once now but then with practice, it's not too bad and feels much easier. So as they say, practice! practice! practice! It's all about practice!
In order to show how far I am, I decided to record a couple of songs (part of songs it seems in the book) that were meant as practice. Keep in mind that my timing is likely a bit off for the later songs though those songs also have whole notes, half notes and such which means that it might sound 'better' if you can see the notes (or sing with it at least):
So far, I've learned about hand positioning and some chords (CGF) so future plan would be to just practice those, learn to stretch or assume new finger positions as well as learn more chords and work better on timings (get a metronome). I feel this is the least I can do to give myself a fighting chance when I start learning moonlight sonata. One other thing to mention, make sure to stretch well and take breaks (know your limit) to avoid any wrist injury.
Benefits?
Seeing as this is a SC forum, it's time to ask the most important question of all. How did this affect my BW play? Did my APM skyrocket? Am I a gosu player now? Well, I started playing SK Terran in the last 1-2 weeks despite the fact that it's supposed to be more difficult to control than MnM+Tanks (just feels like my style). I won't claim any major benefits, aka I'm not a gosu player now lol but I've been able to multitask a bit better I think. That or I'm able to remember to actually make units (a bit better at splitting my focus?) so it's nice to go back to my natural and see 20-30 marines just waiting to be dispatched lol. My APM seems to have increased a bit as well but I attribute that to SK Terran requiring more APM overall. Thought it was interesting and I just felt like talking BW so there
To conclude: good fun so far. I likely won't do another update till another month at least since my work schedule is getting busy and I won't have time to practice as much. If I do make some notable progress prior to a month, I'll likely end up updating to share my joy lol.
Housekeeping business:
My friend decided to give me a small extension till mid March since he wanted it to be a full 6 months and I only started practicing after I wrote this blog. My goal is still to learn the song (1st/2nd movement at least) by March 1 so that there's a buffer zone but figured this was important to mention since it'll give me 2 more weeks to try and get it right if I manage to learn it by March 1.
My progress:
I've been playing about 30 minutes to 1 hour a day. A moderate amount imo for someone who's new to the keyboard. I do realize this isn't a ton of time considering my end goal but I prefer to do things at my own pace and slowly increase my practice time. I'm sure that as the deadline gets closer, I'll start practicing more to try and met it so I'm not the most concerned atm. The learning process has been great so far since it's an enjoyable experience. Nothing feels better than realizing that you can finally play something that you couldn't several days back or even sing with the music as you play it lol.
Of course, there have been some small frustrations along the way. When you first start playing with both hands, you're constantly making silly mistakes even in a simple song with no chords (just normal notes) because you're so focused on your right hand that you can't even slightly focus on the left without messing up. Then once you start learning some chords, you start to realize that those normal notes were easy since you're trying to change several fingers at once now but then with practice, it's not too bad and feels much easier. So as they say, practice! practice! practice! It's all about practice!
In order to show how far I am, I decided to record a couple of songs (part of songs it seems in the book) that were meant as practice. Keep in mind that my timing is likely a bit off for the later songs though those songs also have whole notes, half notes and such which means that it might sound 'better' if you can see the notes (or sing with it at least):
So far, I've learned about hand positioning and some chords (CGF) so future plan would be to just practice those, learn to stretch or assume new finger positions as well as learn more chords and work better on timings (get a metronome). I feel this is the least I can do to give myself a fighting chance when I start learning moonlight sonata. One other thing to mention, make sure to stretch well and take breaks (know your limit) to avoid any wrist injury.
Benefits?
Seeing as this is a SC forum, it's time to ask the most important question of all. How did this affect my BW play? Did my APM skyrocket? Am I a gosu player now? Well, I started playing SK Terran in the last 1-2 weeks despite the fact that it's supposed to be more difficult to control than MnM+Tanks (just feels like my style). I won't claim any major benefits, aka I'm not a gosu player now lol but I've been able to multitask a bit better I think. That or I'm able to remember to actually make units (a bit better at splitting my focus?) so it's nice to go back to my natural and see 20-30 marines just waiting to be dispatched lol. My APM seems to have increased a bit as well but I attribute that to SK Terran requiring more APM overall. Thought it was interesting and I just felt like talking BW so there
To conclude: good fun so far. I likely won't do another update till another month at least since my work schedule is getting busy and I won't have time to practice as much. If I do make some notable progress prior to a month, I'll likely end up updating to share my joy lol.
