First Lessons

I am a beginning doctoral student in Pepperdine's Learning Technology program.  One of our multi-term projects is the "Learn Something" project.  The guidelines are that it should be something that is new to us, not for work, something we have a passion about, and should be done with a significant other.  My choice of subject to learn is playing the piano.  I have had some lessons in the past, as an adult, but I am definitely still in the category of beginner.  The lessons that I had were about 15 years ago, and I have not done anything since then.  My husband, Paul, is an advanced piano player.  Originally I thought I would take lessons from him, but he is sponsoring me (thanks Paul) to take lessons from his piano teacher, Carol Kuzdenyi.  So, although it may not fit exactly what they had in mind for learning together, my learning the piano is definitely a team project for my husband and me.   Carol has already given us a duet to work on, where Paul will play the teacher's part.

Carol has taken me back to the very beginning, making sure that I understand note names and values and time signatures.  Even though these things are familiar to me, I am glad to begin at the beginning.  So far I have had two half-hour lessons, and am really enjoying it. So far I am 100% on practicing every day! Playing piano is a combination of many skills.  There is the hand strength and position, and the mental challenge of thinking about notes, keys, time values, dynamics and musicality.  Carol has me singing the notes, alternating names and counts, on different play throughs.  That extra task seems to make the mental challenge more difficult, but I like that I am making my mind work.

I'll be writing about my challenges and achievements as I learn to play the piano.  Let the adventure begin...