Reflection/Conclusion

I am very happy about the decision to take piano this semester, It had been a while since I practiced piano and I'm very glad to have had the opportunity to continue a useful skill.  I learned about the all-emcopassing skill of reading sheet music (something that I had put off) which will will (and has) serve me later in life both in piano and any other music I aspire towards.
Something else that I did not consider initially, but actually turned into a huge help was the public performance, and interestingly enough I was far less nervous during the final performance in front of everyone than I was during the midterm in front of maybe a dozen people. If I ever have to perform either musically or in any other sense, I think I will be very thankful having taken this class.
Taking this class made me remember how much I love music, and I'm very happy to be playing piano again, and at the prospect of being able to read sheet music.  I learned coordination, dedication, memorization, interpretation, and new methods and critiques such as using the pedal, which is something I had never done before. I'm definitely planning on continuing piano, both privately and at Marist.

Reflection

I definitely enjoyed taking piano this semester. I was enrolled in the Beginner Piano I class and I had never played piano before in my life. Piano was difficult for me the first time playing.  It took a while to memorize all the notes and be able to read and play at the same time. This class taught me the basics on how to play piano. What makes for great improvement is practicing a lot. After playing for a while the notes get easier to memorize and you are able to play faster. A major advantage of this class was the small class sizes. I think grouping individuals by skill helped with the learning process. A negative of the class was the short class periods. Practicing at home helps but having others there to  point out what you need to work on helps. I enjoyed both the midterm and final recital. I never played in front of an audience before and it was great to experience that. I definitely want to learn a lot more when it comes to playing. There are a lot of different symbols and terms that I don't know of when reading music. I would also like to learn how to incorporate the foot pedal when playing. I look forward to playing more and taking the next level of this class. Overall, I enjoyed taking this class and believe I learned a lot.

Final Reflection

Learning to play piano for the first time, overall was a really amazing experience. I am planning to take beg. piano II next semester and I'm really looking forward to that. One of the fundamental lessons that this class taught me is that practice really makes perfect, this was always visible, when we had the practice mid-term or final, because I would make sure I practice my piece several times before playing it in front of the class. The other two useful things that playing the piano taught me was to strengthen my memorization skills, just being able to remember by memory what sound and note to play. And lastly it is being very patient, especially when I feel like I am always messing up towards the end, when I walked away from the piece for a couple days, and would come back to it, it was always easier to play it. So in conclusion, I learned a great amount about a new instrument, and about myself, looking forward to learning more next semester.

Conclusion

This class has really helped me gain the ability to play piano. I am very happy with my progress this year and I intend on playing in the future. I would very much like to learn some pieces such a Claire de Lune and moonlight sonata, and I will continue to look for new pieces to learn. This class definitely taught me how to play piano and made it fun by allowing me to choose my own pieces. Overall, this class was very effective and I look forward to improving my piano skills in the future.

Here is the second video as referred to in my previous post. this is from a few minutes before the recital.

Here is one of the videos from my first practice, as referred to in my previous post.

My Reflections on BG Piano I & II

Hello all,

I wanted to thank Professor L. Natalie for all of her help in these two course. I have had a great time and learned more piano than I could have ever imagined. It was very nice having the professor keep me on track and remind me to be playing from the sheet music and not from how I think the song should sound. It was difficult for me to keep up with the required song amount, which is pretty silly. The professor only requires two songs for the semester, one for the midterm and one for the final. She did keep me on track through and allowed me to submit my song title late (Thanks!)... For my final post I would like to share two videos of me playing the piece. I played this piece much better in the videos than at the recital. Enjoy!! And thanks all!

The End

Overall this piano class was helpful in connecting more with music more so than playing the trumpet has done.  I learned the where each note was on the piano as well as how to read sheet music in Bass cleft.  I want to learn the Circle of Fifths and how to incorporate it.  Just found out about it yesterday and I began to see the patterns in the music and it made sense why certain intervals worked and why songs can be played in different partials.  My continuation on the piano will first start at home cause now since my sister and I both play, it has convinced my parents to go get us a piano, yah!

Class Structure
Pros: - Allowed the students to go at their own pace
         -Informative for student specific questions
         -Class and teacher were helpful in responding to blog posts

Cons: -None

It's been a blast!

Reflection

I really enjoyed my time in Beginner Piano 2 this semester. After taking lessons when I was younger, I took beginner piano 1 in the fall semester and think I picked up where I left off pretty quickly. I am taking advanced piano in the fall and I definitely have a lot of work to do so I can be prepared for the challenge. I'm planning on practicing a lot over the summer to try and improve my skills, because I know that I am behind where most of the other advanced piano students are. Thanks Professor DeNitto for all your support and help this semester!

Closing Statement

While I really enjoyed Beginning Piano 1, I certainly regret taking it this semester due to fact that most of my courses were quite rigorous and demanded significant amounts of time. Also, there were a few outside issues that I had to deal with from time to time. As a result, I was unable to spend as much time as I would like practicing the piano and learning the musical notations. However, this is not the end of my journey. If anything, it is only the beginning. I plan to take Beginning Piano 2 next semester - this time with a stronger mindset, unwavering commitment, and pure determination. Shout out to Laura Denitto for being an awesome instructor. Though I feel like I have a lot to prove, I genuinely appreciate the fact that you were very understanding and tried to connect with each and every one of your students. Good luck to everyone with final exams and I hope you all have a great summer. :)

Closing Statements

https://youtu.be/8pajTsQmULQ

Above is a link to me playing on April 26th as oppose to me playing at the performance. A lot of improvement was made, making me proud of my performance even if some notes were missed. Piano was both fun and frustrating this semester, giving me new challenges and improving my skills. I hope to continue to impress my grandparents with simple piano tunes and maybe even learn some more Disney songs. I learned that Piano has always been about practice, practice, practice, leading me to the conclusion I will only improve through consistent practice. I hope everyone else enjoys their Summer and continues to play and challenge themselves.

I really enjoyed the piano course this year! I've always wanted to learn how to play, and I'm glad this course gave me the opportunity to do so. This course taught me how to read notes and gave me a good starting point to advance in piano. I want to become more advanced with the piano, I have a keyboard at home and plan on continuing to learn. I definitely want to do piano 2 next year also. I think the class was structured well, but it did take a while for the blog to start up and to be a consistent thing for the class. I do think that the blog is a good thing for us to do to get feedback and should be used in the future. I enjoyed working with all of you this semester, and hope to see some of you in piano 2!

Last Post

You know, I just noticed how much I didn't keep up with these posts this semester. Unfortunately, this class was on my back burner. This class is what you make of it. Many of us walk in with no background knowledge, just a passion for music. Some of us progress faster than others and walk out of here with so much experience and passion for the piano. I wish that I could have had that same experience. Trust me, I love this, I love what I have learned and the talented people I have met. This whole year of playing has taken me through a wonderful journey. I just personally wished I could have put my whole heart and soul into this class. Unfortunately, I am dragged in many directions here, with many responsibilities, and I did not progress at the rate I imagined. I am proud of where I have gotten though. I am proud to look down at keys and tell you what they are, to read music, plunk notes. I can't play Beethoven's 5th but I am one step closer than I was before. Still have stage fright, still don't have the rhythm down, and still have claw hands on the piano, but I definitely want to keep improving. One of the things I liked about Laura's class was the freedom to move at your own pace, to chose music you liked and learn that way. But unfortunately I am the type of person that learns best under a structured and rigorous environment. Maybe as I progress, I will be faced with that environment. I hope you all enjoyed yourselves. Keep playing, keep improving, and keep trying new things.

Best,
Hayley Critchfield '18

I've really enjoyed the experience of taking beginner piano 1! This was my first time attempting anything musical related and I am happy I did so. Learning to read music was definitely a challenge but I saw myself understanding it more and more each week which was cool. The performance was somewhat frustrating because I pretty much had the song down when I was practicing the few days leading up to it. I think it was just my nerves, which I can work on. Overall, I loved this whole experience and will definitely practice this summer and take another class next year.

I just want to share a quote I learnt from Arte, the music director of the Marist orchestra, he said; "YOU LEARN BY DOING IT, SO KEEP DOING IT." We can only be better at what we do, if we continue practicing. Amazing class overall.

Overall, I had a great experience with beginner piano 2. I took lessons when i was younger so it was nice to be able to play the piano again. I hope to continue playing even when i am not in a course because this course really sparked my interest in the piano again! Overall i enjoyed the class structure. It was nice to come in every week and not only get feedback on the piece i was working on, but to hear what everyone else was working on. I hope to take another piano in the future!

Good morning pianists!

Congratulations to you all on your performances last night! For many of you, this was your first time performing in front of a (large) audience, and you should be very proud of this accomplishment. We had 126 performers and audience members at last night's recital!

I hope you will all continue to play the piano, and take additional classes and lessons as your schedules allow. Please let me know if you have any questions about the opportunities available to you at Marist. Another person who is an amazing resource is Michael Napolitano- his office is in the music building, 4th floor. He knows the course catalog inside and out, and will be able to guide you to courses that you will enjoy.

Ok, here's your last assignment: please post one last time on the blog, and respond to at least three of your classmates' posts. This last post should sum up your experience, what you learned, what you would like to continue to learn, how you will continue on the piano, any pros or cons you see with the class structure, etc. It can be a written dialogue, a "vlog", or any combination of writing and video. Your post is due by Friday, 5/6 at midnight, to allow you to respond to each other's posts by Monday, 5/9 at midnight. I'll post grades ASAP.

Grades: please recall that your grade is not comprised of me counting how many mistakes you  made at the final and taking that off your final average. Your grade is comprised of your attendance at lessons, your work and progress from day one to the final, and your participation in the blog. The recital is a culminating event that showcases all your work throughout the semester.

Good luck with the rest of your finals!

Laura Natalie

Amazing Class. Thank you Aunty Laura for pressuring me to read the music sheet!! I can boldly say I got something out of this class!!

I am so nervous for this final. I suck playing in front of an audience.

Letting go of 123, and using abc instead

I can honestly say one the most challenging things in this course, was resisting the urge of just writing the numbers on top of the music signs in the book. Having no prior knowledge of music before the course, I did not know how to read music, and found it hard to really remember all the notes. So at the beginning of the textbook, it had the numbers that I could just count off and play, but as i progressed further into the book, I felt like taking my pen and just marking those numbers for safety, in case I forgot. But I think not writing them, help me in biggest way so far.

Final Piece

For my final piece, I chose Brother John, I think during the final practice, I did pretty well, but I noticed I switched up the last two notes. It is very distracting when that happens, and I find it hard to just pick up and go about the rest of he song, but I think what is essential is to always remember the rhythm so you don't lose focus.

progress after my mid-term

For my midterm I performed the Mexican hat dance. Which i thought was at the perfect level for me, in the sense that it was just challenging enough, but not too challenging to the point where I would be anxious when it was time to play it. I also noticed that I always need a couple of seconds before I really start to play, as I get really nervous. So as I am practicing more, I hope to be less anxious, and be more confident.

Final Thoughts

I think I'm pretty much prepared for the recital.  Never actually performed in a formal setting without a conductor, should be interesting to experience the differences!

I'm looking forward to hearing you all play tomorrow at the recital! If you'd like any last minute feedback, you can post here or email/text it to me individually.

See you at 6pm tomorrow in Fusco!

Laura