Category: EDCI 306

Today I will hand in my final music growth assignment. I recorded my video last night and was pleased with it. This song was fun to learn and I really loved it. I think I was able to play each note well and they sounded less squeaky than when I had first started. Overall, this assignment gave me a good idea of what it was like to learn how to play the recorder. I learnt that I overshot my abilities for the first midterm which caused a lot of frustration. I had much less motivation to learn how to play those songs than I did with this one.  I think that I should have assessed myself better in the beginning before choosing my songs. It was interesting because when I was practicing Jingle Bells without recording, I was able to play it with almost no mistakes, however, when I started recording it was very difficult getting through the entire song without causing any squeaks or playing the wrong note. The notes C and D were the most confusing as I would mix them up often due to their similar fingering. This assignment was a valuable learning experience and I would like to continue playing the recorder even once this class is over!

The link to my music video

Music Video – Jingle Bells

This week I did not get as much practice as I hoped as there were many presentations and assignments due this week! I practiced the notes B,A,G,D again this time but added more tonguing and sped up the temp. This song is relatively simple and I think that I will have the song completed in its entirety by Sunday. The main difficulty is that I find it quite hard to switch between notes as my fingers are still not very used to having to move in this fashion. I think this comes with the lack of musical experience, however, I have noticed that I have become much better at fingering since beginning this assignment. I feel much less frustrated by the fingering during this song than in my previous songs. I think this is because this song has fewer notes and has a much more familiar rhythm.

This week I did not get as much practice as I hoped as there were many presentations and assignments due this week! I practiced the notes B,A,G,D again, but this time I added more tonguing and sped up the tempo. This song is relatively simple and I think that I will have the song completed in its entirety by Sunday. The main difficulty I find is that it is quite hard to switch between notes as my fingers are still not very used to having to move in this fashion. I think this comes with the lack of musical experience, however, I have noticed that I have become much better at fingering since beginning this assignment. I feel much less frustrated by the fingering during this song than in my previous songs. I think this is because this song has fewer notes and has a much more familiar rhythm. I also find that D and C are sometimes confusing because it is the same fingering on the front but different on the back of the recorder. 

This week I have began practicing my final song “Jingle Bells’ for my final. This song required me to learn B,A,G,C,D. Today I learn the very first bit of the song that uses B,A,G and D. I found this song to be much easier than my songs for the midterm because of how well I know the song already. Jingle Bells is definitely one of the songs that you just have engrained into your mind can begin singing on demand. So with this, I was able to play along with the tune quite nicely. I think my tounging is also very much improved on this song as I don’t have to concentrate as much with where my hands are because I am already familiar with B,A,G,D from my last few songs. The reason it was so difficult for me to practice tounging with my previous songs was because of how much focus had to go into actually playing the song.  But now that I have an easier time with fingering I can also place concentration into tounging. I have also become better and more smooth when switching between notes. I have found that as a very slow speed I can pretty much play along with the recording but when the recording speeds up it is more difficult. So for the next few days I want to concentrate on being able to play a little faster as well as continue on with my tounging.

Last week I worked on my final song “Here Comes the Sun” on my recorder. I attempted to learn the chorus for this song which used the notes B,A,G. I found this to be much easier than the Titanic song which I worked on two weeks ago. It was also much easier to learn because I knew the tune of this song much better than the intro to “My Heart Will Go On”. I watched a video on someone playing this song and instructing which notes to press down on, she also explained how to blow properly into the recorder. I wish I had learnt to play this song second after “Hot Cross Buns” because it used the same three notes. I chose this song because it is my favourite song by the Beatles and I thought it would use relatively easy notes that I already knew. I enjoyed learning this song as it was less frustrating to teach myself, and it sounded better and more in tune than the last song I learnt. I think watching an instructional video of someone actually playing the song rather than watching a video only showing which notes are held down is more beneficial. The person hummed along to the song, reminding me which note came next and went extra slowly to really explain how she was handling her recorder.

This week I have been focusing on learning how to play the very first part of Titanic on the recorder. For this song I used the notes F,C,A,E, and G. I found the C note to be the most difficult because it requited me to hold down all the holes at the same time. It often made a squeakier and higher pitched noise than it was supposed to make. This piece was more heavily involved than my last one and took about an hour and a half for me to learn. Initially I was going to learn the third line of the song but It was too difficult for my skill level and no matter how hard I tried I was unable to get it right. I have realized that learning music is certainly frustrating, I found myself wanting to give up many times but somehow persevered.  Constantly checking to make sure my posture is good and that I am covering all the notes with the pads of fingers can be very tiring. I also noticed that my fingers were quite sore after each session. I watched many YouTube video tutorials for this song and practiced each note many times. I found it difficult to switch between notes such as from F to E because my fingers and brain are not experienced in doing such a thing. However, once I was getting the hang of playing the song over and over again I was quite excited, it only motivated me more to continue practicing. I have attached a video link to me playing the song below, it is definitely not perfect but I worked hard and am happy with the result!

Musical Growth video 2

Today I took the time to begin learning my first song which was Hot Cross Buns. I chose this song because I already knew the tune of the song and am familiar with it. I learnt the notes B, A,G for this song and found it to be quite straightforward.  I tried to use tonguing to get a better and more clear sounds from the recorder but I am still not sure if I am doing this correctly. Overall this song was easy to play and I feel confident about it. This was my first time using the recorder since I was in 4th grade. It brought back many memories from elementary school and how I always found playing instruments to be slightly frustrating as they make screechy sounds if not played right. I remembered to blow very softly into my recorder to avoid squeaking. Some tips I read online that I made sure to follow was to use the pads of fingers to fully cover the note to get the best sounds, using the tongue to blow rather then just pushing air into the instrument and maintaining good posture. I found that it was difficult at time to cover the entire hole with my fingers because I was concentrated on moving from one note to the next. The next song I will learn to play is the very beginning of the song Titanic, I think this piece is much more involved and will definitely take more time to learn. I have already started practicing the F note for this song because it is heavily used. I find it difficult to hold both the notes at the top and bottom of my recorder at the same time using both hands.  I am hopeful that the more I practice the more I will be able to control all my fingers on both hands.

A video of me playing Hot Cross Buns can be accessed below.

Music Video 1