Piano Lessons

I had my first piano lessons last Thursday.  I've said it several times, but I know how to play notes.  This teacher is going to help me learn how to play music. Case in point, the first week I'm working on scales.  C Major, G Major, D Major, A Major, and E Major.  C Major has no sharps.  Starting with G Major you add 1 sharp at a time from C# to F#, to G# to D#.  So E Major has 4 sharps. 

That doesn't matter.  I just wrote that out to prove to myself that I have it down.  I assume these are good things to know.  I even picked a song to practice in A Major and identified it as such.  Not now - I had to look that song up again.  But at the time I did.

I asked my teacher:

"At least how much a day should I be practicing?" (this is a delicate questions because I didn't want her to think that I was already planning to do the bare minimum, but at the same time I want to make a true effort towards my commitment and my money)

"30 minutes a day at least." (reasonable I thought)

So far for the week I might be up to an hour.  Maaaaybe.  Shoot.  I can already see that this is going to take a lot more effort.  Luckily I pick up scales easily.  And I have been doing a lot of visualization at being great so that should help out.

She told me to pick one song from each book I brought.  Here is what I picked.

Number 4 is just for show.  It's the last piece I was practicing before I quit at 18.  It's a beautiful, fun Gershwin piece.  Note all of the penciling.  I could hardly read the notes anymore.  Hey, I didn't say I was good at it, I said I was practicing to be good at it.  But still, I've got a lot of work to go before this piece will come out again.

Really looking forward to week two.  And practicing 30 minutes a day.