What a crazy time! With so many other things going on, finding the time to play the recorder has been challenging. It doesn’t help that I am having much more trouble learning this song than I have learning previous songs. Since the last blog, I have gotten a bit better, I am able to play the song all the way through now. That said, I am playing at a very slow pace and still have trouble with some of the notes, so it doesn’t sound great. I am giving it my best considering the circumstances.
As I continue to progress in my musical abilities, I am trying to become familiar with reading music notes. This is one of the objectives that I set out to complete at the beginning of the semester, so that I would be able to (hopefully) play other instruments after learning the notes. The challenge for me is that it still takes me a lot of time to figure out what each note is, which slows down my playing. My attempt at learning how to read music has really put into perspective just how impressive it that some people can read it with such ease. I can definitely see the cognitive benefit of learning to play an instrument as I feel challenged in ways that I haven’t before experienced. The mind-body connection is challenging, stimulating, and rewarding all at the same time. I can feel parts of my brain working that haven’t had to work since I danced. This is a skill I hope to be able to master and transfer to my students one day.
