I recently started learning how to play the piano, something I’ve wanted to learn since I was a little kid. Like, I remember watching my older sister playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on a neighbor’s piano when I was two and a half years old, and being absolutely mesmerized by what seemed to be magic to me at the time. Finally, so many years later I bought myself an electric piano and I’m starting to practice. And what did I start to practice? Anime theme songs of course!

This time around I’m just going to go solo for learning. I’m just watching YouTube videos and practicing on my own with sheet music. Big Warning here, I’m only doing this because I’ve already learned to play three other instruments (Recorder, Irish Penny Whistle, and Zither) the first two of which I did take lessons for and was coached by an instructor. I learned the zither on my own because I already had the basics of learning an instrument down. It worked out fine, so I’m doing the same with the piano. So far so good! If you have never learned any instrument, I highly recommend working with an instructor so they can make sure you’re not developing any bad habits that could cause long term injury to your fingers and wrists.

The first song I tried to play after I got out of the Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Mary Had A Little Lamb phase of learning was Renai Circulation from the anime Bakemonogatari. Of course, anime songs aren’t the only thing I’m practicing. I’m also learning some Elvis Presley songs that my mom really liked when she was still alive (I Can’t Help Falling in Love) and some classical songs too (Bach’s Minuet in G) but my main focus is on anime songs I love. At this point I have a woppping two whole weeks of practice under my belt (I know, I’m such a pro! Lol) so now I’m ready to expand my anime piano music portfolio!

Renai Circulation

This is just such a fun and light hearted sounding song, it seemed perfect for a beginning piano artist. I also thought this would be a good song to learn because I don’t mind hearing it over and over again in a loop. And considering how many times I was likely to hear it while practicing, I thought it was smart to go with a song that wouldn’t become annoying after a while. My favorite part of this song goes F F# G G# F F# G# E, I don’t know why but it always reminds me of when my cat is trying to be sneaky. Though I am a huge fan of this song, I’ve never actually watched the anime Bakemonogatari, so I honestly can’t say that the anime inspires me to play piano, but its theme song sure is catchy!

Merry-go-round of Life

Howel’s Moving Castle is one of my favorite Ghibli Studio films (who can resist a story about a dashing scoundrel wizard, a plucky hatter turned senior citizen, and a steam punk castle that walks around on chicken legs?) and the music by Joe Hisaishi makes it all the more magical. Needless to say, I had to learn how to play Merry-Go-Round of Life. It’s just so iconic! Not only is it a lovely song, but it is also a great waltz to learn because it’s quite repetitious. Waltz’s are such a common kind of song that I thought it was important to learn at least one early on in my piano practice. And while practicing this song, I have learned a lot about pace and timing. At first I was thinking of learning the theme song to My Neighbor Totoro, but that seemed really basic and I thought I would get bored with it pretty quickly. Besides, I like the music from Howel’s Moving Castle more.

Unravel

I’ve always liked this song. In fact, this was my favorite part of the Tokyo Ghoul anime series (I’m not a huge fan of the second season). I talked more about Tokyo Ghoul in the earlier post Tokyo Ghoul, Not Really My Thing. So of course I would want to play this theme song. Once again, it’s a song that I can listen to over and over again in a loop and not get bored or annoyed. There has just been one little hiccup in my rise to Youtube piano playing stardom, this song is really hard! Even the “Easy” online tutorials are difficult to follow. There is no way around it, this is just a difficult song to play. Period. So, at the moment I can’t actually play this song yet, but I’m working my way up to it!

Hero

I’m not just a fan of the One Punch Man anime, as you might have guessed by how many times I’ve mentioned the series on my blog, I also really like the opening theme song. I was really surprised to find so many good piano adaptations of this song. It’s not always easy to switch music written for one instrument to another. One of the things I found most frustrating about playing the zither is that there isn’t a whole lot of music written for it, so I had to adapt piano music to the instrument. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t! Unfortunately, much like Unravel from Tokyo Ghoul, this song is quite difficult and it’s probably not likely I’ll be playing it any time soon. So I guess this is also going on my wish list of songs I’m working my way up to.