1. Senior Project Speech
Did you ever take piano lessons as a kid?
Hi, my name is Alex Gainey. For my senior project I learned how to play
the piano. I have always been interested and amazed by musical instruments, like drums
and especially the piano. In three months time I have completed learning the basic skills
of piano. This would take elementary school age kids about a year to learn.
At the beginning of my project, I did a research paper. My research paper showed
the commonality between playing an instrument and the increase in IQ and grades in
children. Statistics have shown that learning to play or read music has shown an increase
in children’s grades and also IQ scores. This concept is called the Beethoven Effect. This
effect has proven to work on young children and even adults. As I started to learn the
piano I saw an increase in my grades and I was becoming more organized with work and
my time.
I had no idea how to read music or what the notes even looked like. So I started
from scratch, learning every single basic note. I learned to play every single note. Notes
range from an “A” to “G”. One by one I played each note up and down the piano. I
wanted to start playing right away, but patience and practice are the keys to learning
piano successfully.
Next, I started to play with my hands together on the piano. This time I was
looking at the notes in the book I was using. The right hand is playing Bass Clef and the
left is playing Treble Clef. I started off doing exercises playing notes together one by one.
This was very hard to complete. By doing this, you are teaching your brain to read notes
and moving your hands in unison. Piano is not a hard instrument to learn, it just takes
time.
Next, I would practice at least three times a week, fifteen minutes each. Practice,
Practice, Practice was one of the most important steps. Repeating steps and notes over
and over sticks in your mind. Then I was able to move on to harder exercises to practice
and to exceed my learning.
Next, learning how to play notes on time and not to fast was a main problem I ran
into. As I was playing, I tended to want to play faster or read the music faster than I was
playing. To fix this I was taught by Mrs. Turner to tap my foot to the beat. Doing this
gave me the rhythm at which the notes were played.
Next, I started playing chords and learning how to play notes and chords at the
same time. There is one major chord and that is the “C” chord. Chords are a great way to
blend notes in to the music. Chords are quite simple to learn, but with me having an
auditory processing disorder, it took me a while to get chords down. Once I finally got
my hands and brain to work over my disability, the chords finally came easier. I still have
troubles reading and then transferring that to playing the music. But I am getting better
day by day.
Although I haven’t learned everything there is to learn, I have completed basic
beginner piano in less than three months. This task would take young to middle age
children at least a year to comprehend and play. Learning the piano has taught me
patience and carefully reading and looking over things.

2. I definitely will be pursuing playing piano in the future. This is a great to skill to
have. Not only does it help with IQ and increase and grades, but the ladies love it to. I
also have wanted to sing and play piano for my churches worship band. This project has
really opened my eyes to new oppurtunities.