Cheers

In the end I am so glad I made this blog and focused enough to learn a new song for my wife and family. There is something so fulfilling to me about furthering my musical abilities.

I could not wait and played the song several times for the fam already. I told my wife it was an early Christmas present. That way I am ahead of the game ;) Her final present is going to be a subscription to the B street theater for a year. So we are going to a bunch of plays in 2017!


As for next steps, I am about to purchase a subscription to Flowkey.

It is a web-based (or Ipad) program that listens to you play, checking for accuracy. It feels a little "fake" to me but I don't have time for real lessons right now. Plus, the immediate feedback may accelerate my learning. I can't keep learning a new song every 7 weeks :)

Lessons I Learned About Myself During This Blog:

1. Having an audience during the learning process is great motivation
2. I like to learn "songs" not theory 
3. I can find time when I am motivated
4. I seem to meet a time goal whenever it is (it took me 7 weeks exactly because that was my goal)

Here's to another year of learning!

Focus

FOCUS

It is amazing what a little focus and can do. I have completed the song. Take a listen: 





Full Song: "The Christmas Song" (take 1)

Over the next week I am going to sharpen it up and memorize the lyrics in preparation for the great unveiling:  

Let's look at the data. Here are the chords in the song by section 

The Intro: C6, Bb9, Am, Am7, F#m7, Fm7, Em7, Eb9, Dm7, C#9, C6
Verse (part 1): C6, Dm7, Em7, Fm7, C6, Gm7, C7, Fm7, Bb9 
Verse (part 2): C6, Bb9, Am, Am7, F#m7, Fm7, Em7, Fm7, Bb9, Ebm7, Dm7, C#9
The Bridge: Gm7, Gm7/C, Fm9, Fm7, Bb7, Ebm7, D7, G7
The Ending: C6, Bb9, aM, aM7, f#M7, Fm7, Em7, Eb9, Dm7, G7, C6 

Here they are again by frequency

Unique Chords	Times in Song
C6	6
Bb9	4
Am	2
Am7	4
F#m7	3
Fm7	7
Em7	4
Eb9	2
Dm7	4
C#9	2
Gm7	2
C7	1
Bb9	1
Ebm7	2
Gm7/C	1
Fm9	1
Bb7	1
D7	1
G7	1

19 unique chords is a lot for a song but great for my learning. 

By forcing myself to see this through (only possible because of this blog) I have learned something about scheduling projects: I tend to think about scheduling things like this as "how will I fit practicing in everyday" when in reality it is more practical to do deep practice 2 times a week. Taking the pressure to find a little time everyday off the table made everything easier. Days are not created equal and so now I am practicing only 2 nights a week but for longer sessions. It's like block scheduling and that worked for me. 

Next week I will have my final version and next steps for my journey back into piano...