It is one of my life’s dreams to play keyboard fluently.
For someone like me, this is rather im-possible dream.
At 30 years old, I never knew how to read music sheets.
At 30 years old, I was never exposed to too much music due to the focus in science of the Vietnamese educational system.
My parents are not musicians. They don’t play any musical instruments.
But it has always been my dream.
It is the soothing sound of the keyboard/piano that attracts me. It gets me in the flow, the zone, it calms me. My favourite composers are Yiruma, Joe Hisaishi and Bach.
My brother has the same passion for keyboard. He purchased this Yamaha discontinued keyboard a while ago. It was collecting dust. He had played for a few weeks and then stopped.
When we moved to our new house in 2019, the keyboard was moved to the main floor area. It took me two years to find a proper keyboard stand.
The changing point was when I decided to purchase this app called SimplyPiano. The app is $200/year but 5 of us shared the app. It only costs me $40/year. I started in Jan or Feb of 2023.
And as of Jan. 18, 2024, I have been practicing the keyboard for 32 consecutive weeks straight, at least 3 times each week, at least 10 minutes each time. I used the streak freeze one time for one week when I was away on vacation and didn’t have access to a keyboard.
This is where I like to mention the magic of consistency.
When I first started learning keyboard with SimplyPiano. I knew very little, could not read the notes.
It was hard as little progress happened. My brain hurt when I attempted the basic levels.
After 15 weeks, things were looking up. I remembered a few more common sets of notes. I began to level up to intermediate with Joe Hisaishi/Studio Ghibli songs. The first song I was able to play in full was Carrying You’s intermediate level (theme song of Castle in the Sky anime.)
I then moved onto a few others of Joe Hisaishi including A Town with An Ocean View (theme song of Kiki Delivery Service), Summer Day, theme song of Princess Mononoke, theme song of My Neighbour Totoro. I can even now play the intermediate level of River Flows in You, Spring Time by Yiruma.
I am beyond happy to reach this stage because I know I am going somewhere with this routine. That I will get better. That I may be able to perform on stage one day. And that I may be able to to a duel with my daughter, if she is ever interested in learning the keyboard or an instrument.
I am also happy to learn another language, the language of music, so that I can fall back to it when I need some extra support and clarity.
Thank you, SimplyPiano. You are wonderful.
Thank me, for pushing on.
Best,
ThaoNB
#Day17 #30DayWritingChallenge