Self+Reflection

Yes, I shot for the sun, and landed on the moon as it were. I aimed to accomplish accompaniment to film by the end of my project, but only made it maybe a third of the way there. I still need to dramatically improve my piano technique, to improve my music theory understanding, and finally complete research in regards to film scoring.
 * ** Did you change your topic during this process? **

Very much so. Between Sam's painer book, Julie's recordings, sheet music, wiki wiki information, hanon, ricci-adams, and everything else there was an abundance of resources available to me. Combined, these resources gave me a thorough preliminary education in piano.
 * ** Were you able to find information on your topic that was helpful to your understanding of the subject? **

I was thrown to the wolf pit for this experience. I knew nothing, so I had to start from scratch, learning notes on both bass and treble clefs, rhythm, pedalings, fingerings, scales, warm ups, finger exercises, sheet music, chords, and just about everything else a beginner must know to play effectively. I went from knowing nothing, to playing chords with both the left and right hand while doing fancy finger work with the other hand in my intermediate piece, which is a significant accomplishment.
 * ** Were you able to stretch yourself to learn more on the topic or did you find that you relied only on what you already knew on the topic? Be specific. **

Music isn't just about music itself. I learned about pitch frequency, and how different pitches work together. I learned how to count with musical literacy in both rhythm and pitches. However, most of all, I learned the extraordinary amount of effort that is required to play a musical instrument.
 * ** In what way have you grown intellectually as a result of this project? **

I would have done most of what I went through the same way. What is amazing, I find, is that I had no idea what I was learning, but I had a very good idea of how to learn it once I got moving. As a upper-level beginner I think that I would like to go back and reinforce music literacy to begin and become capable of site reading. In addition I'd like to learn all the sharp scales as well as a few flat scales. Finally, I would of course love to pick out another piece of similar or slightly greater difficulty to see the difference in approach to learning the piece.
 * ** How would you approach the process differently if you had another opportunity to learn in this manner? **

I will now be able to attract young impressionable women with my serenading piano abilities (kidding... kind of). I now have an appreciation for the art of music in a much more profound way than I would have ever had without piano. However, I will say the the greatest part about having this knowledge is being able to see a piano and not feel like it is something I fundamentally do not understand and actually be able to make music out of those little black and white lines.
 * ** What was the greatest benefit of your learning experience? **