So Much Research

After doing approximately 15 pages of annotations and research I have found out that music can be beneficial in many ways that I had absolutely no idea it was useful for. For example I had no idea that music therapy is being used to help patients suffering from severe depression. Also I read an article on a study that was done in a classroom that was split into two parts: one part took music/voice lessons every week, the other half took art lessons. The students who had the music and voice lessons did significantly better on SAT tests. The reasoning behind this was that music stimulates the left side of the brain which is associated with memory and retaining information. Maybe I should have taken music lessons in high school lol. I found this to be very interesting especially since I continually found the same information to back up what previous articles had claimed.

On another note I hope to begin my first "lesson" tonight. This however all depends on the schedule of my teacher...who happens to be my roommate and never seems to be around. If he can manage to free his schedule for an hour or so I hope to get this little project underway.

Becoming a Concert Pianist in 30 Days....Or At Least Play Chopsticks

With the help of Shaun Jenkins and some serious motivation I am going to attempt a 30 day immersion project in which I am going to attempt to gain at least a beginning knowledge of playing the piano. The main reason I am choosing to to undertake this task is because it is a requirement to do a 30 day immersion project for my English 104 class. I have always wanted to be able to play some sort of instrument however, so I felt this would be as good a time as any to undertake this challenge.

At the end of the 30 day period I hope to have gained at minimum a basic understanding of the fundamentals of piano playing. Ideally I would like to pick out a song at at the beginning of this challenge and be learn to play it in its entirety by the end of this project. But I suppose if I am only able to play chopsticks at the end I will still be further ahead than I am at this moment. I will keep you up to date on what song I choose to play. For those of you who know me well you probably already have a good idea of what it will be. Wish me luck and please continue to check back in for updates!