- TARA KUMAR
Learning to sing while playing the piano has been a challenging, yet rewarding skill when it comes to music. Merging these two have helped me gain insight as to how musicians work, and the effort, coordination, and perseverance an artist must put behind his/her music. I not onlyunderstood more about singing and piano individually, but also what skills I need to do themboth simultaneously.
There were many skills I had to master, before being able to successfully accompany my singingwith piano. Firstly, coordination. Singing demands control over one’s pitch and rhythm, whilethe piano requires precise finger movements; hitting each note at a certain time, with certainforce. Practicing both these skills at once enabled me to slow down, and really pay attention tothe music I was creating. I took my time to master the notes and then layer on my voice. Doingso helped me understand where I was going wrong quickly, and how to fix it. Additionally, for anaspiring artist like myself, singing and playing simultaneously has helped me build mycoordination skills that I will be using in my future where I plan to write and create my own music and songs.
Second, navigating through the struggles of playing and singing together has taught me howimportant it is to keep going. There were many times where I felt discouraged - worrying howmy coordination was off or how many mistakes I had made. However, I realized that instead ofcounting my mistakes, I should appreciate that I am trying something new and pushing myboundaries. Each time my fingers touched the keys, I knew I was getting closer, motivating meto keep going. This resilience will only help me continue to grow in music, encouraging me tonot give up when trying different things. In fact, it is a skill I can implement in other aspects ofmy life too.
Finally, to improve and learn as much as I could, I had to practice singing and playing a lot. Asthis is something I am not familiar with, it required for as much of my attention and patience aspossible. I practiced both elements individually and together. Practicing helped me understandwhere I was making the most mistakes, and how I could fix them. For instance, when I playedand realized something went wrong – either in singing or playing – I paused to practice what Imessed up on before continuing with playing and singing together. Practicing on a daily or evenan alternate day basis was hard, however doing this helped me build the habit of doing so.
To conclude, simultaneously playing and singing a piece for the first time really helped meunderstand patience, coordination, practice and resilience. I’m so glad that I did it, because ofhow many new things I learnt, and the beautiful music I created. I’ll never forget the feeling ofpride when performing infront of my teachers and parents and the applause I got. I learned thatthese skills are the foundation of many successful musicians that I aspire to be like when I’molder. Therefore, I will continue to learn, grow and build off of this experience! I am trulythankful to my teachers; Smiti ma’am and Nidhi ma’am for providing me with this amazing opportunity and cheering me on along the way.
~TARA KUMAR
Tara is a senior student of Vocals and Voice Ensemble at One World College of Music