Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Joy of Being Able to Play a Challenging Piano Piece

August 19, 2014 - Tuesday, 12:25 PM

As I have mentioned in a previous post last month, I restarted playing the piano again. This time, with fresh enthusiasm and love for it.

Since that time, I started:
  1. reviewing some pieces I already played in the past;
  2. finishing pieces which I got started but never finished; and
  3. learning new ones.
The Lord had allowed me to learn and finish "The Splendor of His Holiness" last month and from that time, the Lord had allowed me to finally press on to finish two pieces I've been trying to play in the past, I got them from movie sountracks but never finished them. Just as I mentioned in my post last month, I kept on repeating the easy parts and somehow got contented with those, and never really worked on the most challenging parts of the piece.

Those pieces are as follows:

Bella's Lullaby* from the movie "Twilight"...
image

Romantic Flight from the movie "How to Train Your Dragon"...
image

With this piece -- Romantic Flight, I was able to finish this just yesterday and my mom saw me as I almost cried with joy in finishing this! (Nope, no tears!) ;) Just an overwhelmed feeling and really almost produced a tear or two. The thing is, I really had a hard time learning the piece. The difficutly level is higher than my current skill. This is why even if I finished learning this piece (finally!!), I have a lot of parts to polish within it (transitions, hand positions, speed, timing, etc).

It felt really good to finally complete it. Definitely took a lot of patience, practice, and desire to finish and commit to the piece. I thank my Lord and give Him all the glory for this! I started learning both of the pieces above for more than about 3 years already, but never really committed myself to finishing these. I just plainly enjoyed the fun of playing the easy parts. Then I got tired of playing since I can't really finish them (and I already set in my mind that I can't)... But the Lord, I believe, wanted me to be a finisher even in the little things such as these.

So then, only by His enabling grace and strength, could I finally finish both pieces within just a month. (I can't believe it myself, believe me.) :) My Heavenly Lord gives the desire and the strength to pursue! <3 What I've accomplished belongs to Him!

Now, the Lord helps me in the polishing process.. Especially the Romantic Flight. Bella's Lullaby has a different level of difficulty but it's definitely easier to play than the other..

Then, I started learning a new piece.. :)
Her Most Beautiful Smile from the anime "Rurouni Kenshin"...image
I appreciate the sweet melody of this piece. :)

Soooooo...... what I'm doing is giving an update about the pieces I'm playing, right? :) Yeah.. I'd probably do this more often just to keep record of what the Lord is allowing me to play from now on. And I pray that He'd sustain it for until it gives Him glory and praise. :)

"Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." (1 Cor.10:31)
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Help & Heart notes:
*Bella's Lullaby is the piano piece that Edward played for Bella in the Twilight movie.
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