Archive for the 'Play Piano & Music' Category

Today I shall be having my final piano class but it is of course not the end of playing the piano for me. I have learned enough to self learn from now on. Now that the boy has started to learn as well, I no longer have the time to learn myself as well as help two kids with their practises. Besides it is very expensive to have 3 people in the house all learning at the same time.

Piano Teacher has asked me to memorise my “Moonlight Sonata” and improve on “Save the Last Dance for Me” and “I Left My Heart In San Francisco”. She also gave me two new songs to learn last week. “Souvenir D’enfance” and “Les Fleurs Sauvages”. All for a half hour class. This is a very tall order indeed!

With that I wrap up 2 1/2 years of learning the piano. Yahoo! From now on I can just play for fun. No more practising for lessons or concerts though I shall miss playing together with my girl. We managed to “perform” at two of the piano school’s “concert” and it was a very nice experience to be playing with her.

Below is Richard Clayderman’s Les Fleurs Sauvages as played by HeartBtrue on YouTube. I wish I could play like that!

This is to certify that MG has successfully completed Alfred’s Basic Adult Piano Course, Level 3 on this day 16th September, 2009. Hehe.

This is the last of the series of workbooks and I just played my last song the “Moonlight Sonata” by Beethoven. Ahem. Ahem. Yahoo! Yipeee! *Doing happy dance.* A dreamed fulfilled.

Thank you to my darling who bought me a piano for my birthday in 2007,  signed me up for lessons and fetched me to lessons while he watched the kids after work. He has helped me to fulfil one of my lifetime dreams….. ie to be able to play the piano. He is the best!

I had my first lesson sometime in July 2007. Wah! I have learned for 2 years. I am planning to stop my lessons at the end of this year and self learn from there on, just playing for fun. Really no time to practise.

“Its never too old to pick up a new skill. You just have to be thick skinned.”

I have been a YouTube user since December 18, 2006. That’s what it says on my YouTube Channel. I hadn’t realised that. I absolutely love YouTube! You can find a video on just about anything you need in there. What I love the most about YouTube is the playlist. I have created a few playlists and I am allowed to select “Play All” of my playlist which plays the videos on my playlist continuously like a long cartoon, show or music video etc.

I use YouTube for my kids to watch their favourite cartoons. I find educational videos to teach them and as for myself, I have workout videos in parts which I can put together to make my very own workout routine. I also have my favourite free and easy listening playlist as well as 90s music which I enjoy. I also listen to piano pieces that I am learning to help me in my learning process.

So, here it is, My YouTube Channel to share with my blog readers. Go ahead and check it out and make use of it if you like. In my playlist, I have cartoons for boys and girls so you can find videos for your boy or girl without searching hard. I have already done the job for you (I created the playlists from time to time but I only set up my channel this week). I will regularly update the playlists. So enjoy!

At the moment, I have the following playlists:

1. Love Songs (91 videos)
2. Musicals and Disney Singalongs (40 videos) – For the girls and boys too.
3. Christmas Songs (21 videos)
4. Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends (32 videos) – For the boys.
5. Chinese Songs and Cartoons for Kids (37 videos) – For teaching kids Chinese
6. Cartoons (15 videos)
7. Dance, Fitness, Exercise, Aerobics (65 videos)
8. Piano and Other Pieces (12 videos)
9. Educational Series (5 videos) – For teaching English Grammar
10. My 80′s (32 videos)
11. Children’s Songs (3 videos)

When you go to My YouTube Channel, all you need to do is pick the playlist you like, then click on the video that you like. The playlist will play the videos continuously starting from that video you clicked. Great isn’t it? Very easy for the kids. They don’t have to do any navigation or surfing and the best part is, its all free!

If you have the time, you can create your own playlist too. If you already have a playlist, why not share it here in my comments box. I’ll post up your playlist or YouTube Channel links right here in this post.

This looks a bit like a sponsored post doesn’t it? It’s not. I wish I was being paid for this though. Jobs are hard to come by this days.

Yesterday, my girl had her Grade 1 piano trial exam. Though it was only a trial, we were more nervous than her, worried about whether she would be nervous. Hahaha. It turned out alright. The examiner said that she was a very musical child and for a first timer, it was good achievement, something like that. My memory is so bad, even as I left the music school, I had forgotten what the examiner said so I can’t blog it. lol. I only remember “musical child’ so we went to celebrate even though we didn’t have the results yet. Hahaha. Anyway, its just a trial, so the “celebration” is to encourage and reward her for her hard work in practising and being brave during the test.

She wanted to have McDonalds, so thats what we had. After I left McDonalds and walked past KFC, I saw a familiar face. It was Small C. (The face was unmistakable) Then I saw Big C. So I looked out for Sasha. By that time we had walked on quite far ahead and the family was far ahead of me as I was turning my head back to look. I didn’t catch a glimpse of cute Lil C though. I wanted to run up to her to say “Hi! I know you but you don’t know me” then walk off with a cackle but then they went up the escalator and my family who likes to race in shopping malls had almost disappeared from view by then so I couldn’t go to kacau her.

Too bad. I would have loved to kacau her. My husband would probably think I am mad going to greet and chat with someone I don’t know like she is a long lost friend. Haha. But that is the thing with bloggers. She feels like a long lost friend even though I have not met her before. No, I think it should be, that is the thing with SOME bloggers. Those whom you connect with. They feel like someone whom you have known for a long time.

Maybe another time and place yah Sasha. Its just as well too because a moment later, the little one said “Mummy, I want to shi shi and mmm mmm” Oh. Oh. So I had to rush him to the toilet. Luckily I didn’t have to use a bottle like Sasha did. Haha. But when we reached the toilet, there was a long queue and the little one started to remove his jeans to get ready and everyone stared. Hahaha. I just smiled at another lady in another queue and said “Dia sudah tak boleh tahan” and the lady smiled back understandingly but no one offered the toilet for my poor boy. Hmm….

We went to the toy store to look at possible presents for the little one who will be 5 in two weeks time. He wants more cars for his birthday. Little cars, he says. Hmm… have to crack head on what to buy for him soon. Next month, have to crack head over what to buy for his sister. “If you all can’t tell me what you would like for your birthday, I will buy you more Maths books” says daddy who is their home Math tuition teacher leading to squeals of “No!” As for me, well, I would very much like to have a WII Fit or an electronic dictionary for my birthday which is in June. Hehehe.

Later on, we went to Cold Storage to get two loaves of bread and two ice-creams for the kids. I brought RM10 with me. When my bill came to almost RM15 I got a shock. Apparently the Mars ice-cream cost RM4.79 each! Siao!

Oh, another thing I wanted to write down but forgot. Last week we got a sofa bed for the study room. Its fun. Now we open up the bed during the weekends so that everyone can laze on it and I can have a good uninterrupted afternoon nap away from everybody. We can all congregate at the study room during weekends, daddy can play a game on the pc, the kids can play a game on the tv and mummy can laze on the sofa bed to read a book or daddy can laze on the bed to watch his kungfu movie, the kids can sit on the floor to read books while mummy uses the pc or the kids can laze on the sofa bed reading or playing, mummy can sit on the floor reading while daddy works on the pc etc. Lots of combinations. Hahaha. The funny thing with us is we spend much more time in our study room then in the living room. I guess that is because our family is small so its just more convenient and more cozy that way.

Lastly, a message to all you bloggers who always post lots of photos on  your blog. You are now a familiar face in public and almost like a celebrity where everyone can recognise you. Hahaha.

We finally played at the Piano Concert. The Piano “Concert” was just a very casual affair held at the music school shop lot itself. You know, one of those casual afternoons where parents go and watch how their children are progressing in their classes.

And then they have to see this old fat lady sing, I mean play. Hehe. I have always dreamed of being able to play the piano and last year my husband made that dream come true by buying me a piano for my birthday, enrolling me in classes, fetching me to lessons and watching the kids during my lessons. Before you think otherwise, no, hubby does not normally buy me extravagant gifts for birthdays. In fact, we are normally rather unromantic and don’t get each other anything at all. So it was a big surprise.  (Although, I think he was actually investing for the future for the kids. I mean, he has plans to get the kids to learn piano after all, so why not enrol the wifey first so she can help them later. Hehe.) 

This year, we started my girl on piano lessons too. She is six. I have been learning for 1 1/2 years now and the girl about 4 months. The piano teacher comes to our home to teach now because its easier for us to manage that way so hubby doesn’t have to rush home after work to take us there.

On Concert Day, I was supposed to be playing a solo and a duet with my girl. Now, although it was really casual, my fingers were sweaty and my heart was racing. Hahaha. And naturally, I was the oldest student there required to play.  I was hoping that perhaps there might be a grandpa or grandma aged around 60 playing but there was none. Hehe. So I was the oldest, as expected.

Worse still, teacher had picked a really fast song and she wanted me to play along with the CD acccompaniment. Boy, oh boy. I had trouble keeping up with the CD music.

Whats the end result? I was so nervous, I couldn’t keep up to the tempo in some parts, I even had to stop for a while to wait to catch up and I played the wrong key in the finale. Hahaha. However the duet with my girl went perfectly. Woohoo! I think my girl is less nervous than me. Must be all that kindy emcee training she had. She looked cool and collected even though this casual crowd were total strangers to her since we take our lessons at home and not at the school. We held hands, took a bow, played then bowed again. I felt really funny when I had to do that too on my own for the solo in front of the crowd of parents who went there to watch their little ones. Haha.

The music school took advantage of the fact that we were the only mother and daughter team playing. There were many brother and sister or sisters team playing. They even invited other parents to sign up before and after we played. Hmmm….. I should probably charge them a marketing fee. Heheh.

At the end of the day, hubby said he felt like a proud husband and dad. Hehe. Luckily he included the word proud husband, not just proud dad, even though his wife messed up. Oh, but I forgot to thank him for making my dream of playing piano come true, not until I wrote this post. Aiyer.. terrible of me.