Blog

Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large.

Any song

I don’t really have any topic to write about today, so this will just be a train of thoughts. It’s important to keep up the writing even when I have absolutely nothing coming to mind. Often times I would troll twitter to look for news topics and whatnot, but this morning I am drawing a complete blank. I don’t want to write about former President Trump getting deposed in New York today. Hey look, the markets are up so far!

There’s a natural ebbs and flows when it comes to working in education. The middle of August is sort of the deep breath before plunging back into the bustle of the regular academic semester. But we don’t get to relax, at least not for those of us in IT support. We are busy getting things ready: the multitude of computer labs on campus, and making sure incoming new faculty have computers ready to go for Fall. With a week and half to go before classes begin, the deadline is quickly looming.

And then once I get home from all of that, I’ve got my own round of things to do. I imagine most other single people would simply collapse onto a couch and veg out of a bit before even thinking about dinner. Well, I don’t have a couch. Soon as I enter the home and put my stuff down, I start a pot of a rice cooking. In between that 30 minutes of cook time, I put my stuff away properly, wash up a bit, clean the floors, and cook the rest of dinner.

I take my time to eat dinner though, because that is never to be rushed. Not after an already long day at work. Once I’m done eating, then it’s an hour of piano practice. And after that I would get some reading in. Then it’s already time for bed. In a way I’m like a kid that have an evening of homework to do. That’s why I jokingly refer to my weekday nights as school nights.

That’s it for today! Off to work.

Spring breaking

Last week was spring break on campus, so I decided to have my own sort of spring break as well. That meant taking a short hiatus from writing on this blog and not doing any of my usual studies. After coming home from work I basically just chilled and played video games. Wasn’t that the dream of a young Healy anyways? Make money to play videos games all the time. It was as hard core of a gaming week as I’ve had in probably a decade.

And I really don’t know how gamers find the time to play so many games! These open-world role playing game take absolutely forever to finish. I’m still in the midst of playing Ghost of Tsushima, and I’ve only barely gone into act three (of three) after nearly 50 hours of play time. At this rate I’ll be done by end of April. Then I’ll finally move on to another title. I’m not the type of gamer who can juggle multiple games at once, especially of the storytelling variety. I reckon I can make an exception for sports titles.

Nevertheless, it’s back to regularly scheduled programming this week. I’m excited to finally start reading Pachinko, right on time for the TV series that’s coming out on Apple TV+. It’s nearly one year since I started learning the piano, and there’s still plenty of work to do on that multi-year project. Perhaps taking a week off from the keys was not the wisest decision in relation to finger familiarity. Playing the piano is definitely not like riding a bike. Too much dexterity involved with the upper extremities.

But we all need a break from our daily routine from time to time. Spring break was a great opportunity to not do anything. I did get a tremendous amount of sleep, because I’m not waking up early to type out a blog post before breakfast. Good timing, too: I think I’m completely adjusted to the clock moving one hour forwards for daylight saving time.

Back on the rocks, baby.

These damn fingers

One obstacle in my ongoing practice of learning the piano is that I have a bad tendency of hitting the key adjacent to the one I want. The problem is especially acute when I’m going left with my motion. My hands and fingers aren’t particularly big, so I’m not sure what’s going on here. All I can do and have been doing is stop and start over every time I hit a key errantly.

I don’t remember having this problem back in high school. We all had to take a year of art classes, so I chose the piano. Perhaps my fingers weren't as mangled as they are now, with an additional decade of knuckle cracking and surely ligament damage. Trying to learn the piano in my thirties was always going to be a challenge vis a vis the condition of my fingers. Much like learning a language, it’s far easier to do when you are young and malleable.

But then again I taught myself Korean in my late twenties, so it’s not impossible. It’s all about the amount of hours put in (read: a lot). It took me about five years of studying to be able to listen to Korean language radio station and understand about 80 percent of what they are saying. I’m only on year two (pandemic years, no less) of my piano learning journey, so I’m not too worried about my bad tendencies just yet.

If I have to practice a simple piece for a whole week just to play it perfectly, so be it. I’ve got all the time in the world. Besides, I’ve spent way too much money on this Yamaha keyboard to give up so quickly. Money is always a good motivator!

Ouch my fingers

The main obstacle to learning the piano, at my ripe age of 33, is my wretched fingers. Decades of cracking my knuckles and lifting weights (and typing on computer keyboards all day too, probably) have turned these fingers into quite misshapen sticks. I’m fairly sure I have early signs of arthritis, too: certain grips or holds becomes painful rather quickly. Grasping the handle of a frying pan with my right hand, for example.

This is to say it’s not a great foundation to begin with when playing the piano requires tremendous dexterity and precise touch. I’m okay with not being able to hit certain patterns or movements with the proper fingering technique. What I am not okay with is arthritic pain from simply playing the keys. Perhaps I really should stop cracking my knuckles, cold turkey style. It’s truly my equivalent of a smoker trying to quit.

Thankfully, the pain right now is limited to my left hand. When the index finger gets too involved (read: have many notes to play), the arthritic searing is rather immediate. Stretching exercises seem to help, but it feels to me the hitting power of my left index finger just doesn’t have the same punch as the right. The blind hope is that the more and more I practice and play, the better the situation will become. Sort of like muscle soreness and weight lifting.

In some ways, I lament not starting this craft much sooner. Preferably when I was still a kid, when the fingers were yet virgin from the side effects of knuckle-cracking. Then again, you practically need to go to school back then to learn. There were no online apps and tablet computers you can plug into a piano to autodidact my way through. In-person lessons just wasn’t something my family could afford. Never mind the fact that I didn’t have the same conviction and drive as I do now as a full-fledge adult.

Onwards.

Forgot how good it sounds

A crucial component of my piano learning setup is a proper set of headphones. The Yamaha CP88 keyboard I bought doesn’t have any speakers built-in. I don’t think my housemates want to hear my horrible beginner's pecking for an hour every single day, so some discreet headphones is the way to go. Not to half-ass anything - look at the price of the piano alone - I went for a pair of relatively expensive beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO.

Sound quality is important, but so is comfort. If I’m going to be wearing headphones for hours, I don’t want to feel burdened by them after 30 minutes. The DT 770 PRO fulfills that superbly, with excellent comfort and zero fatigue after an hour of wear. I would probably use the beyerdynamics to listen to music regularly, if not for the fact it is corded.

Indeed, after many years of wireless music listening with various AirPods and Bose noise-cancelling headphones, it’s very difficult to go back to being tethered to a cord. There’s no freedom to move, with means wearing them to cook or exercise is a complete non-starter. The cord being there at all can get in the way and be rather annoying. The only reason I went with wired cans to pair with the piano is because I don’t want to introduce any lag.

Well, and also because the CP88 keyboard doesn’t support any wireless connections.

I did try using the DT 770 PRO for some typical music listening, and I have to say I had absolutely forgotten how awesome a good pair of headphones can sound. The clarity of the bass and high notes is amazing. My AirPods sound like crap in comparison, as bad as the headphones they hand out for free on airplanes. It’s kind of funny how much quality we are willing to trade away in the name of convenience.

Not to say I’m giving up the wireless stuff anytime soon. However, I think for serious music listening - like hearing an album for the first time - I’m going to plug in the beyerdynamics from now on.

Fingers pain

It’s only day four of taking up the piano again, and all can say is: ouch. More than a decade has passed since I last consistently touched a piano, and I had forgotten just how heavy those keys are. Maybe I should’ve bought the super entry level 61-key electric piano from Costco, instead of the ultra realistic feel of a Yamaha stage keyboard. I’m sure this is doing wonders for my arthritic future; my fingers are definitely getting a workout.

I’d also forgotten how uncomfortable piano benches are. There’s no back support, obviously, and I’m practically sitting on the edge of the seat. There’s very little cushion to speak of, so I’m getting butt cramps midway through a session. Oh, and I’m suppose to always keep the proper posture: back straight, hands and shoulders relaxed. Easier said than done, of course, after slouching my way through life. I’d surely get beaten by the stick if I were taking lessons from a real piano teacher.

Instead, I am taking lessons from an app, and I am starting right at the beginning. Even though I’ve taken a solid year of piano back in high school, it’s been so long since that it would be good review to start completely over. I vow to learn reading music notes properly this time, and it’s nicer to my mangled adult fingers to start slow and simple.

The Piano Marvel app keeps track of consecutive days I’ve practiced, so it’s also a motivation factor to keep the streak going. It’s early days yet, but I don’t think I’ll be slacking off anytime soon. Unlike the forced learning at school for children, the piano is something I chose to pursue as an adult. There’s an element of joy that keeps me going rather easily. I feel productive as well: learning an instrument sure beats wasting that same hour everyday on YouTube.

Make it easy to start

The thing about creating consistent habits is to make them as easy as possible start doing. Keep it simple and make it convenient to begin. You’re less likely to start if doing that thing takes some setting up. The best way is to make it so that you can just jump right in. That means putting that smartphone away.

Recently, I launch the goal to learn the piano, which entails creating a habit of playing the keyboard every single day. With the aim to make it super easy to get started, I actually spent more money than necessary to create an actual piano station, if you will. Everything is in place, plugged in, and ready to rock. I just have to sit down, put on headphones, and press on the power.

The original idea was to plug the piano into my MacBook Pro to connect with the learning app. However, this involved moving the piano to my desk every single time, along with power and the sustain pedal. While this isn’t exactly cumbersome - takes a few minutes, that’s all - I want to eliminate this hurdle so that I would be more inclined to start playing.

As with most things in life, this means throwing money at the problem. In order to have a piano station, I had to buy another chair, and more importantly, an iPad. The tablet will be permanently plugged into the keyboard, with the Piano Marvel app a few taps of the finger away. Seems a bit overkill to buy an iPad just for this, though I’m sure I can find other uses for it (hello, Kindle app).

I’m still waiting on the chair to arrive, plus other bits and bobs to complete the setup. I think next week is when I can finally start this piano journey in earnest. Can’t wait!