I recently purchases a new classical piano music book with songs from the Romantic period (1830 to 1900). In the book there are many of my favorite classic piano songs by famous composers, including Chopin, Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky, etc.

(My new piano book with sticky notes on the songs I want to learn.)

When I received the book and scanned through the content I felt like it was Christmas arriving early for me. There are so many songs I wanted to learn how to play. And I found myself putting sticky notes all over the book. It was impossible to contain my excitement of knowing that I have access to these music pages on my finger tips.

There are a total of 51 songs in this book. It would take me years to learn all the songs I wanted to play in this book, but I have my entire life to learn and play at my own pace.

Instead of focusing on learning one song at a time, I decided to start  with multiple songs and make some progress everyday. I think this will make learning new songs less challenging and more fun.

Right now, I am learning Tchaikovsky’s June: Barcarolle from The Seasons, Op. 37b, and Chopin’s Étude Op. 10, No. 3., Nocturne Op. 9, No. 2 and Prelude Op. 28, No. 15 (aka Raindrop). These are some of my favorite songs. The process of learning how to play these songs and hearing myself playing them gives me a thrill and great joy.

(A picture of the song I am currently learning; taken with the flowers from my garden.)

I enjoy learning and playing these songs. I’d play them right after work and on the weekends. Sometimes I’d take small breaks (if time allows) during work to practice. I think I am very lucky that I can play these songs when I want to. And I can’t wait to learn more new songs from this book.