Day 1 - Learning To Read Music and Initial Chopin Insights

This journal entry is about 2 things. 1. Learning to read music while playing the piano. 2. Studying Chopin's composition and applying principles to my own peices. I'm a little embarresed and sad about how much time I spend learning to play the piano growing up but I never did learn how to read music. I was more interested in being able to play specific songs that I could memorize. I wish I had taken the time to learn to read better. It's a little like typing on a computer keyboard while looking at the keys instead of the screen. As I compose music I shy away from studying the sheet music of the composers I love because its such a slow process. But this ends now. I have chosen one of my favorite composers, and one of my favorite peices, Waltz No. 6 in D-Flat Major, Op. 64 No. 1 "Minute Waltz". And I'm getting chagGPT to help me understand how experienced professional think about and study the notes on the page in a way that will allow me to stop counting up form g, then a, then b, then c, then d, then dragging my finger over the left to see if the d is flat before i move on to the next note. What I've realized already is the key is to memorize shapes of key combintions and shapes keys and shapes chords and shapes of scales. When I would learn pieces as a kid, I wouldn't pay attention to the shapes. But now as I learn Chopin's Minute Waltz, the whole point is to learn how to compose using the ingredients that he used. And the ingredients come in the form of these shapes and patterns. So I'll learn what the ingredients are, how they are used well to create certain emotions and song elements, and strongly reinforce the visual representation of these ingredients or shapes and patterns in visual form on the page. I'm very curious to see just how ingrained d flat major become in my mind by the time I'm done studying this piece. I'm hoping that I can read the music easily and effortlessly play my own progressions and melodies within the chord as they come to me.

I spent much of the day studying and learning to play the minute waltz. A few things become clear by the end of the day.

First, I had forgotten how important finger placement is. If you use the wrong finger then you can run out of fingers to play the rest of a section. I found it helpful to write little numbers from 1-5 above the notes where finger placement was unituitive or would make a crucial difference.

Second, I realized that seeing patterns and shapes is not enough. I need to actually know what each space and line on the treble and bass cleff represent. For example, the top line of the treble clef is an F. And its incredibly helpful it is can see a note there and instantly know that it's an F. Right now some of the notes are solidly locked into my memory. And some are not. I realized as I was learning the minute waltz that its easy to play through a string of notes and not pay attention to which notes I'm playing because they are repetitive or they're in succession. In order to speed up the process of learning the notes on the page, I've been makings sure to play slowly enough that I can audibly say the not out loud as I play it. This keeps me honest and forces me to concentrate on looking at the note, knowing what it is and playing it at the same time. Its quite a strain on my brain. I've noticed that I really want to think that letters like E and F are on lines and letters like a and D are is spaces because the the shape of the letter is horiztonal lines or more rounded. Fortunately, I found that in just one afternoon of playing I began to learn many of the notes that I didn't know before. The process of vocalizing each note as I play is a bit gruelling but I think it's definitely worth it. I imagine that after a week or two, I will see every note as familiar a middle C. Third, I noticed that looking down at the piano ruins everything. It just doesn't work at all. The process of looking at the notes, looking down at my hands and then back at the notes is fatal. It's fun though. It's made me realize that a big part of learning to read music and play the piano is knowing where the next note is relative to the note your currently playing. So if I'm playign an E flat with my third finger, and the next note is an F, and I need to tuck my thumb under to reach the F, I need to get familiar with the distance and the shape of the hand in that scenario in order to hit the F without looking. I feel like this part seems like it would be hard or frustrating but its actually one of the most satisfying parts of playing. Ive noticed that as I'm playing I'm creating a mental map of where my hands are so no matter which note I'm playing and no matter which finger I'm using and no mater which not and finger comes next, I kind of know where to place my finger to hit that next note. Generally, the further the notes are from each other the harder this is. It's hard to explain why, but this really is a very satisfying experience. I still have lots of gaps, but I feel like it's coming together pretty quickly.

Fourth, I've noticed that learning the key, like which notes are sharp or flat, is easier that I thought it would be. For this peice, I learned D flat major. Everything is flat except for C and F. At first it was brutal, but by the end of the afternoon, it become fairly intuitive. It goes hand in hand with my third point about knowing where to put your finger on the next note without looking at your hand. For example, if I start at F and come down to C, I know I'm going to skip over E and hit E flat and there is a shape and size of hand movement that becomes very familiar for this process. And usually the thumb hits the F and the third or fourth finger curls over top to hit the E flat. And then the third or second finger hits the D flat and then the thumb plays the C. Again it's very satisfying to see the notes of the page and the finger begin to map out what needs to happen based on where they currently are. Its like learning to see or learning to walk. I feel like its quite different than learning a new language because its far move physical or kinetic. It's beautiful. I've also noticed that the natural (white) notes are uniquely important for finger placement. It's typically best to use the thumb. Because using the thumb allows you to use almost any finger you want next whether you're going up or down. So if you have a string of notes going down you can reset and curl over the fourth finger for example. Then you have four notes to play as you go down before you're back to your thumb again where you can curl over again. See you can't curl finger over other fingers except the thumb. And the only finger that can curl under other fingers is also the thumb. The thumb means you can reset. So what makes the natural importan is that because they're lower (closer to your body and closer to the floor) its much easy and natural for the thumb to reach them without having to stretch because the thumb is shorter than the other fingers and curls inward. So for example, if I go from F natural to C natural and hit E flat and D flat along the way, then its easier to use my thumb to play the F and curl my third finger over to play the E flat. Meanwhile, for me to play the E flat with my thumb after having played the F with another finger is hard and then to curl my third finger over my thumb to play the D flat is again harder and more awkard. All because the thumb is shorter and lower than the other finger. It seems like I'm spending a lot of time on this but I feel like I've never heard this explained before and for me it seems to be a huge contrainst that all piano playing must adapt to. Not all fingers are created equal.

Anyway, I played through Chopin's minute waltz a few times very slowly, marking above notes with little numbers for fingers and letters for notes that I didn't recognize, especially ledger line notes (above the main five lines of the cleff). I worked on the right and focused hard on the things I mentioned - vocalizing which notes were which, never looking at my hands, finger placement, and D flat major at C and F as natural notes. Ultimately I have two goals. 1. To finally learn how to read / play properly. 2. Study Chopin to help me understand how he composes great sounding music so I can make my compositions better.

I've talked a lot about 1. Let's talk a little about 2. It's still a little early to say some things because I have started playing the left hand. But so far here is what comes to mind. He uses a lot of notes. There is a part in the middle of the song where the right hand or melody eases up quite a bit on the notes. Its uses fewer notes and the pace slows down a bit It basically goes, intro, which is fairly fast paced and energetic, then the second section is very similar to the intro but the second second gets repeated. And it's not repeated in a loose general sense. It's identical so the notes aren't even re-written. There is just a notation to repeat the section. Then right at the end of that repeated section is goes into the third section which I've heard is called the trio or middle section. This middle section is slower, as I mentioned. Then after the middle section it goes straight into the intro / section 1, then section 2, then the end of section 2 is changed slightly in order to create a short outro. Here are my big take aways when I think about how I want to apply insights into to my own peices. I'm starting to realize that my intros are typically too long. I imagine that most songs have an intro that takes up 16 or more bars before they introduce the motiff. But with this minute waltz for example, the intro is one note - A flat. And then it goes straight into section 1 which showcases the motiff loud and clear right off the bat. I suppose Chopin doesn't inlcude the left for the first 4 bars, but even that is not unique to the beginning of the song. He does that again for the same section of the melody at the beginning of the third section. The intro really is 1 note. I do notice that that one note is use to tie in the end of the middle/third section to the fourth section. Whatever the case, I need to learn to dive right into the first section, without a long drawn out intro. I want to try to do a better job of following this structure: Intro. Section 1, Section 2, Section 2 repeated, Section 3, Section 4. Outro. Where Intro: (0-1 bar) Super short. Section 1: (20 bars) Medium energy and pace. Section 2: (16 bars x 2 = 32 bars) High energy and pace. Repeated. Section 3: (37 bars) Abrupt emotional shift. Slower paced. Gotta release that tension. Section 4: ( 48 bars ) Repeat of section 1 and 2. Including the repeat of section 2). Outro: (2 bars) Very short.

Not all songs have this exact format, but I think it will be valuable for me to understand how great songs are structured and compose songs within that format. So that is what I plan to do for my next piece. I think my next step is to focus on Chopin's chord progressions and see what sort of patterns I can recognize with sections and across different sections. That's what I will work on next.