Progress Update:

Since the beginning of the project, I’ve made quite a bit of progress considering that it’s only been a couple of weeks. I’ve gone from knowing the basics of reading music and playing the piano to being able to play several basic songs (which definitely still need some more practice), but overall I’ve learned a lot. I have mainly been focusing on learning all the keys and buttons as it can get quite confusing while trying to play both at the same time. A strategy that I’ve been using to learn new songs is to practice the keyboard and the bass buttons separately and then once I feel confident enough I play them together. Usually, it takes a couple of tries to play the buttons and keys both at the proper time, but as I practice more it’s getting easier. So far I’ve mainly been playing songs that only have C and G as notes for the bass buttons, but I’m hoping to soon try some songs with more notes. Over the next couple of weeks, I want to try and practice even more (at least 15 minutes a day) and hopefully start playing more difficult songs.

Below is a video of me practicing one of the songs that I’ve been working on over the past couple of weeks.

 

How to Have a Beautiful Mind:

Agreeing, Disagreeing, and Differing

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve found that my mentor (my mother) and I have quite similar styles of learning. We both like to go over our plan beforehand (for example pick a song), then write it out (writing out the notes of a song) and then start executing the plan (practicing/playing the song). The fact that we both like to do this every time we practice has made learning from her quite easy and we agree on most things.

However, there have definitely been a couple of times where we have disagreed. For example, there have been times when I get a little ahead of myself and want to move on to harder songs as fast as a can, but my mentor thinks that I should slow down and just focus on a few easier songs at a time. In the end, I realized that she was right and it’s better to work on getting really good at the basics before moving on rather than just trying to make as much progress possible as quickly as possible. Most of the things that we disagree on are little things that can easily be fixed/changed.

Lastly is differing. Since the beginning of the project, my mentor and I have had a couple of differences in opinions, mainly about small details, like what song to play next or what note it’s supposed to be. As the book says, “There are many sources for differences in opinion: personal preferences, values, points of view and different personal experiences”. I believe that these differences are mainly because of our different personal experiences. My mentor has been playing the accordion for a long time and is quite knowledgeable about the instrument, which allows her to play and identify notes with ease, whereas I’ve only just started playing. Her experiences give her insight into which songs are good choices, whether or not a note sounds right, when to push or pull the bellows, and many other things. Because of my lack of experience, I sometimes don’t understand these things. Ultimately, I’ve learned that sometimes I need to just trust my mentor and listen to what she says as she has a lot of experience in this area.

Overall, I’ve been able to make quite a bit of progress and learn a lot. I’m excited for the next couple of weeks!