Quarter, Quarter, Haaaalf Note

I had my first piano lesson today!  It was quite exciting if I do say so myself.  I learned some basic stuff:

• How to hold my hands over the keys (pretend I'm holding a bubble or a tennis ball)
• Push down more with my wrist than my fingers
• How to sit at the piano (how far away, posture, etc)

Also, I need to memorize where the notes are.  No more counting from C.  (For example: A = C - 2)  That is what I have been doing.  So next time I have to be able to point out to her and play all the different notes and to verbally describe where they are located.  What good, fundamental stuff!

Also counting, which is the bane of my (very small) musical existence.  Back when I took piano lessons as a kid and in music classes in K-12 (ha! Who am I kidding? K-8) counting has always confused me to no end.  I'm great at math!  But this musical counting business is tough stuff!  Ms. B. gave me a sticker with a soda can on it and it said:

• C count
• O out
• L loud
• A always

Part of my homework is to play some notes in the book and count out loud: "quarter, quarter, haaaalf note, haaaalf note, quarter, quarter."  It sounds simple enough, but I assure you that this is going to get very difficult, especially when I'm not hitting the same note over and over again.  Did I mention that our piano came with a lovely metronome?  Maybe that will help.  It's a very neat one with a pendulum; I can slide the doo-hicky up and down, and it has fancy words like "andante."  It also tells me that andante, for example, is between number x and number y.  (I can't remember the exact numbers off the top of my head). 

So this week I will practice sitting and using my wrist correctly, figuring out where all the notes besides C are, and (yikes) counting.

Haaaalf Note, Quarter, Quarter!