What Kids Say (3)
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Topic:    What's My Most Challenged Thing of Learning Music
 Date:     September 2003
From 1st graders:
There are two things that are challenging for me. One, every piece when I play for the first time is always challenging. Two, not to get in trouble with my mom is also challenging.
My hardest thing is concentrating while I am practicing piano. I always want to wait for mom to sit with me. I need to learn to practice by myself in the future.
Randy Cheung
Sharon Pan
  • "There are two things that are challenging for me. One, every piece when I play for the first time is always challenging. Two, not to get in trouble with my mom is also challenging." --- Randy


  • "My hardest thing is concentrating while I am practicing piano. I always want to wait for mom to sit with me. I need to learn to practice by myself in the future. " --- Sharon
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    From 2nd graders:
    The challenging thing for me is that I have to practice piano every day, and cannot take any vacation from my piano class. However, learning piano strengthens my power of mind and the music makes me happy and active.
    My hardest thing is: I always play faster and faster, and can’t not be slow down. I must remember to use metronome in the future when practicing.
    Vicky Zheng
    Genevieve Macdonald
  • "My hardest thing is: I always play faster and faster, and can’t not be slow down. I must remember to use metronome in the future when practicing." --- Genevieve


  • "The challenging thing for me is that I have to practice piano every day, and cannot take any vacation from my piano class. However, learning piano strengthens my power of mind and the music makes me happy and active." --- Vicky
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    From 3rd graders:
    The most challenging thing is trying to memorize the pieces for the recital. Sometimes you may have to play the same piece up to 20 times a day just to get fluent. This experience will help you in your new pieces in the future. It feels like you are climbing up a big mountain. When you are up there, you feel so great, like you are on top of the world.
    My hardest thing is dynamics. I usually spend a lot of time focusing on notes and tempo, so in the future, I should also spend time working on dynamics in order to play music with expression.
    Piano is easy! Right? Wrong! Piano is very hard. It takes practice, courage. And you have to be willing to play the piano you don't just walk up to a piano and start to play it. My difficulty used to be reading notes on the bass clef. But now I know where G and C are, so I can go up and down to find other notes.
    My hardest thing for playing piano is using my pinky fingers. I want to learn so well, so I can play with my eyes shut. I want to be as good as Dr. Yang. She is a wonderful teacher.
    Alex Chen
    Jimmy Huang
    Grant Wu
    Shawn Zanoni
  • "The most challenging thing is trying to memorize the pieces for the recital. Sometimes you may have to play the same piece up to 20 times a day just to get fluent. This experience will help you in your new pieces in the future. It feels like you are climbing up a big mountain. When you are up there, you feel so great, like you are on top of the world." --- Alex


  • "My hardest thing is dynamics. I usually spend a lot of time focusing on notes and tempo, so in the future, I should also spend time working on dynamics in order to play music with expression." --- Jimmy


  • "Piano is easy! Right? Wrong! Piano is very hard. It takes practice, courage. And you have to be willing to play the piano you don't just walk up to a piano and start to play it. My difficulty used to be reading notes on the bass clef. But now I know where G and C are, so I can go up and down to find other notes." --- Grant


  • "My hardest thing for playing piano is using my pinky fingers. I want to learn so well, so I can play with my eyes shut. I want to be as good as Dr. Yang. She is a wonderful teacher." ---Shawn
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    From 5th graders:
    The hardest things for me are rhythm and fingering. I should use metronome and watch carefully for the right fingerings when I practice piano in the future.
    The actual playing is very simple once I hear the music once. However, the hardest thing for me is that I never can find enough time to sit down and play and or practice piano for an hour.
    Jonathan Pan
    Lotus Tan
  • "The hardest things for me are rhythm and fingering. I should use metronome and watch carefully for the right fingerings when I practice piano in the future." --- Jonathan


  • "The actual playing is very simple once I hear the music once. However, the hardest thing for me is that I never can find enough time to sit down and play and or practice piano for an hour." --- Lotus
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    From 6th graders:
    The hardest tasks for me to handle is theory and listening. It’s hard for me to remember to do either. Mostly, it’s my mom who constantly plays the CD. I hope that my awful habits will improve in the future.
    The most challenging part of learning piano is when my little brothers annoy me while I am practicing. When they start to annoy me, I get so wild up and can’t practice anymore.
    One of the most difficult things is doing theory. Because it requires discipline and it takes a lot of time. However, it helps when you play piano because you understand what you're playing more. Theory is a good experience that will guide you in the future.
    The most difficult part about piano is practicing, especially when learning a new piece. I plan to practice hands separately at first, then, play together to overcome my obstacle of practicing.
    Sarah Gao
    Kevin Kallas
    Justina Lin
    David Selvaraj
  • "The hardest tasks for me to handle is theory and listening. It’s hard for me to remember to do either. Mostly, it’s my mom who constantly plays the CD. I hope that my awful habits will improve in the future." --- Sarah


  • "The most challenging part of learning piano is when my little brothers annoy me while I am practicing. When they start to annoy me, I get so wild up and can’t practice anymore." --- Kevin


  • "One of the most difficult things is doing theory. Because it requires discipline and it takes a lot of time. However, it helps when you play piano because you understand what you're playing more. Theory is a good experience that will guide you in the future." --- Justina


  • "The most difficult part about piano is practicing, especially when learning a new piece. I plan to practice hands separately at first, then, play together to overcome my obstacle of practicing. "--- David
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    One of the hardest things for me is rhythm. But one thing I have learned about piano is that when you need to overcome an obstacle, you just practice, practice, and practice. I feel really good when I accomplish a goal.
    Practicing was definitely the hardest!!! What I should do to solve this problem is be more patient and not give up so easily.
    Practicing piano and staying focused were hard for me to do. I can get easily distracted by noises, and there are a lot of noises in my house. However, I reached my goal just in time to finish my last level of the theory before the recital.
    My difficult thing is to find the right notes when I learn to play a new piece. I’ll try to be patient, and work hard on this problem.
    Emily Wang
    Joycelyn Wang
    Deborah X
    Cory Young
  • "One of the hardest things for me is rhythm. But one thing I have learned about piano is that when you need to overcome an obstacle, you just practice, practice, and practice. I feel really good when I accomplish a goal." --- Emily


  • "Practicing was definitely the hardest!!! What I should do to solve this problem is be more patient and not give up so easily." --- Joycelyn


  • "Practicing piano and staying focused were hard for me to do. I can get easily distracted by noises, and there are a lot of noises in my house. However, I reached my goal just in time to finish my last level of the theory before the recital." ---Deborah


  • "My difficult thing is to find the right notes when I learn to play a new piece. I’ll try to be patient, and work hard on this problem."--- Cory
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    From 7th graders:
    For the years I have been playhing the piano, I have had two major difficulties, memorizing and finding time to practice. Hopefully, I’ll improve throughout the upcoming year.
    One of the difficulties I find in piano is rhythm. I can never seem to be exactly on beat at first. To fix this flaw of mine I should remember to use the metronome and count when I began to learn a new piece.
    Justine Shiou
    Vita Wu
  • "For the years I have been playhing the piano, I have had two major difficulties, memorizing and finding time to practice. Hopefully, I’ll improve throughout the upcoming year." --- Justine


  • "One of the difficulties I find in piano is rhythm. I can never seem to be exactly on beat at first. To fix this flaw of mine I should remember to use the metronome and count when I began to learn a new piece." --- Vita
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    From 9th graders:
    One faces many obstacles. For me, time is a major factor. As a busy sophomore at IMSA this year, usually I can only practice from 9 to 10 PM. However, I’m constantly trying to manage my time in a better way, so that I can continue studying piano because music is very important to me. Therefore, regardless of how busy I am, I will continue to try very hard to make time for piano.
    The most difficult part of piano for me is taking the time and patience to go slowly over the notes when learning a new piece. Normally when I begin a new piece I plunge right ahead and mangle the notes, leaving Mrs. Yang very frustrated. I also like to play fast, making reading notes even harder. However, I’ve started to overcome this habit lately by forcing myself to play slower and carefully read the notes.
    One thing that is hard for me to do in piano is combining the melody and the harmony together. That means I have to practice the coordination between my two hands very hard.
    Yishan C
    Jerry Lin
    Carmen Young
  • "One faces many obstacles. For me, time is a major factor. As a busy sophomore at IMSA this year, usually I can only practice from 9 to 10 PM. However, I’m constantly trying to manage my time in a better way, so that I can continue studying piano because music is very important to me. Therefore, regardless of how busy I am, I will continue to try very hard to make time for piano." --- Yishan


  • "The most difficult part of piano for me is taking the time and patience to go slowly over the notes when learning a new piece. Normally when I begin a new piece I plunge right ahead and mangle the notes, leaving Mrs. Yang very frustrated. I also like to play fast, making reading notes even harder. However, I’ve started to overcome this habit lately by forcing myself to play slower and carefully read the notes."--- Jerry


  • "One thing that is hard for me to do in piano is combining the melody and the harmony together. That means I have to practice the coordination between my two hands very hard."--- Carmen
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    From 12th graders:
    After seven years of playing piano with Dr. Yang, I have learned a lot about music, and how it can be a positive influence on one’s life. But one of the most important things I got out of this experience is learning to be persistent. So no matter what you do, stay persistent, there will be times when it seems like there is no room in your life for the piano, but if you try hard enough you will be able to find time.
    Mike Li
  • "After seven years of playing piano with Dr. Yang, I have learned a lot about music, and how it can be a positive influence on one’s life. But one of the most important things I got out of this experience is learning to be persistent. So no matter what you do, stay persistent, there will be times when it seems like there is no room in your life for the piano, but if you try hard enough you will be able to find time. " --- Mike
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