For my free inquiry project, I’ve decided to learn how to play the piano. This will be a process in which I first learn how to read music, identify keys on the piano and then from there I can learn a song. To start myself off, I’ve studied basic music notes and am beginning to familiarize myself with timing. Here is an indicator of what I have been looking at:

I’ve wanted to learn how to read music since I was sixteen years old but I never took it upon myself to do so. Instead, I preferred memorizing how to play piano songs by muscle memory. That seemed like less work at the time, but was a very confusing and frustrating process. I have two playlists on Spotify that are full of piano songs that I enjoy listening to and that I want to learn. From these songs, I’ve decided that my end goal will be to play Sadness and Sorrow from the Naruto soundtrack. I feel quite anxious about learning how to read music, but I also look forward to the freedom it will give me when I am finally capable of learning in a way that makes sense.

My classmate Gina* told me to use my strengths to help me through this process. She said that I can use my knowledge of tech to design visual indicators that can help me to remember which key is which. I could also try video editing to reflect on the chords and suchlike. I don’t own a piano, but there are some in the music room at UVIC and a keyboard in the school’s library that I can practice on. I am very much a learn-while-doing type of learner, but I also can get emotional when I struggle to understand concepts. Throughout this process, I need to remember to keep calm and enjoy myself.

*Gina is a fake name that I am using in place of my classmate’s first name. As we learned from our internet safety talk last class, it is best to maintain others’ privacy as much as possible.