Game of Thrones - Great music and great for speed and coordination

[CharlesErickson]

I thought their theme was awesome before I got to play it I find it the very useful for my speed and coordination like a speed coordination combo training piece would love to see some more like it at that level.. up to that point my most difficult foe in the beginning stages was the Greenday - Good Riddance specifically more for speed .. but to me the Game of Thrones lesson has proved I think the best for that time in learning in speed and coordination ..from the point of view of someone who is in the beginnings of learning to change hand positions in songs and was enjoying the sheer speed and coordination differences I could see practicing from day to day without changing hand position this one I think has proven to be the most challenging for me and I like that as I want to have the ability to match the place where I'm at and don't want to go to fast hope all are well plus it is another one of those themes I really liked before I learned how to play some of it

[sw1tch73ch]

We've had our share of conversations on Facebook regarding the Game Of Thrones theme. It took me quite a while to manage this piece. I can't say I've mastered it, though. I'm now working on playing the lesson with no finger number notation, no note name notation, and no metronome. It turns out that's another level to the challenge. I play GoT first, because I don't want to lose what I've learned on it, then I play the lesson I'm currently on.... which right now is the very next lesson "Scarborough Fair."

[globetrotterdk]

I can't seem to get past this "lesson" no matter what I do. I am considering cancelling my subscription to Playground Sessions. My piano teacher was shocked when she saw the lesson. The past couple of lessons have not improved my knowledge or technique and functions as more of a hurdle in my opinion.

Any advice on how others have gotten past this hurdle (other than "practice")? I use one to two hours a day for weeks, have tried slowing down the song, etc. to no effect.

[sw1tch73ch]

Don't expect to get this one right away. I think it took me three weeks to get this one done. I started slow, working at 52 BPM to start. Only once I could play through at a specific BPM would I try to advance to my next goal. So from 52 BPM, I'd move up to 68 BPM. From 68 to 76, then 84, then 92, then 100, then 106, and finally, just to get to the "slow" tempo, I'd go for 112.

I'd practice at each level until I could manage 100% play-throughs at least three times in a row. If you've made it to 112 BPM, then you're good to go, continuing slowly up the BPM. 170 is quite fast and it might be that your computer and keyboard aren't communicating fast enough to track your progress at that speed. I always make sure there is absolutely nothing else running on the system when I'm going that fast. Turn off the internet and antivirus, even, if you have to.

The program is more picky about timing when going that fast, so you have to be more accurate with your timing, and if the computer or keyboard aren't keeping up, the program will not be able to recognize even if you are doing it correct, so take that into account.

[Alunap]

I had one earlier lesson that I could not pass for some time. It wasn't me either, it was quite a simple one, but the tolerance was extremely fine, in fact it was putting my 'missed' notes right on top of the displayed notes. I actually contacted support about it, but when they contacted me I tried it again to demo it and it worked just fine at all speeds! Unfortunately, no idea what made it go right, I had previously uninstalled and reinstalled the lesson with no effect. Is that the problem? I do find GoT quite a difficult one to get exactly right, but it really is me this time, I find it hard to get the timing on some of those phrases. This is definitely one where I have to count out load. I am enjoying learning it, though.

When you say your teacher was 'shocked', in what way?

[globetrotterdk]

Thanks for the replies. I am sure that it is me that is the problem, but I do think that the learning curve in general has been ratcheted up too high for a beginner that has only been playing for a few weeks.

My piano teacher was shocked because of the steep learning curve. I got the impression that she also thought that the learning curve was far too steep. She gave me some simple exercises to build my dexterity and speed and told me to take a break from Playground Sessions. However, I have no desire to continue my subscription if I need to take an extended break to work on speed and dexterity, before I am "fit" to take on Bootcamp again.

[Alunap]

Ah, I see, thanks. Of course, 'steep learning curve' doesn't mean what most people think it means, it means you learn a lot in a short space of time, not 'very difficult', which it may or may not be. I found this one tune more difficult that most, not because I couldn't hit the notes, I can do that easily, but getting the timing right. For the first time today I got the two combined hand positions version 100%, so although it has taken longer to master than the previous tunes it is definitely coming. Anything I can do, even once, that I didn't manage to do before I count as progress. I tried counting out loud, but I'm still not used to doing that and it actually made it harder. So instead I hummed the tune, and that helped me keep up with the speed in the parts that we don't play. Also, did you notice that there are a couple of places where the hand position changes but it doesn't mention it? eg on the last line you play the first two notes and then the fingers move down to be nearer the thumb for the remainder. Also, I have been reading that it is a bad idea to 'practise' by just playing a piece you cannot yet play over and over. You are just practising playing it incorrectly. Instead, slow right down, make use of the feature to isolate parts of the tune and practice them until they come easily, and gradually add them together until you get the whole song. As they are geting more difficult I'm doing this more and more. I'm always looking to do something right, no matter how short a part or how slowly, rather than doing it incorrectly at the right tempo.

Another thing I have just started doing is putting aside the sheet music. I want to learn to associate the written notes with the keyboard, yes (I can do this with the flute without thinking, but I'm totally unused to the bass clef), but at the same time reading the music bypasses the ear. So I have started putting the backing tracks onto my kronos, putting it into the sequencer, and just playing by ear. Of course you could do the same with it on the computer, not looking at the screen or something. I find it easier to get the timing when I do that.

I think you could gain a lot even from the earlier tunes. eg, if you have been playing them with the finger numbers, you could try doing it with the note names, and then with no annotations, and then without looking at the music at all.

[globetrotterdk]

To help me practice the song, I wrote the song out in MuseScore 2.1 and then exported a MIDI file that I imported to Syntesia for practicing purposes. The idea was to try to avoid worrying about getting an overwhelming amount of bad scores. The interesting thing is that the song in MuseScore with the same time signature and BPM is much slower than in Playground Sessions. This suggests that there is a problem with the Playground Sessions program.

[sw1tch73ch]

globetrotterdk,

Did you also remember to set MuseScore to give the half note the beat count? Most of the lessons are 4/2 time, where as most notation software assume 4/4 unless told otherwise. 4/4 means there are 4 beats to the measure, and it is the quarter note that gets the beat. So a tempo of 120 is twice as fast when the half note gets the beat than the same notation that is set to give the beat to a quarter note.

I did the same thing, for different reasons. I ended up setting the tempo to 340 for GoT. Now that I've thought about this, I need to verify if I remembered to set the time signature correctly.

[sw1tch73ch]

OK, a short amount of experimentation later...

The XML file defines the tempo in terms of quarter notes. It seems that we are getting twice the tempo from the music than is indicated. Fixing this would break all the songs and lessons.