Things that may one-day be easy

 So fun things I'm learning are significant piano challenges to beginner me:

• my fingers are getting better at playing notes independently, but they absolutely CANNOT play volume independently.   And even together, my options are loud or quiet - there is no middle ground.  
• They also struggle with independent rhythm.  I can skip beats or add beats (eg one hand can hold a note while the other plays a bunch), or they can play different notes at the same time.   But they cannot break the basic rhythm.  I think I need a picture to explain this one.  Okay - so the green bars all line up.  Even the one that's got the extra speedy-bit, still works in my brain.  But for some reason the red bars?!?!  Just not okay.  Like I can't even tap the rhythm out, much less play it.  To be fair, this rarely happens in the level-appropriate beginner music, but still.  I'm aware it's a problem.

Unreasonable brain-breaking music
Music from Flowkey - Game of Thrones - Advanced

• Pinky fingers are weaker - they need a like a strength building program, while the ring fingers are followers and have the biggest challenge working independently.   I've been a touch typist since I was a kid, so that last part actually surprises me a bit, but I guess to be fair, it's rare I type multiple keys at the same time ;).  Ring fingers definitely prefer to bring a friend along for moral support.
• And the pedal?!?!  Yeah not an option ;-P. lol coordinating two hands is hard enough, throwing in a foot, esp a foot that's supposed to be just a fraction of a second behind the hands...  Not happening ;).  I'm practicing it super slow in some of my "technique" homework and when it appears in my lesson book, but it's painful and I don't even pretend to try it in real songs.
• I'm getting better at reading sheet music but am a long way from literate - as a result, for better or worse, I find I'm quasi-memorizing songs as I go and using the music more as a reminder for roughly where to go next and then just letting my figures remember it from there.  I feel like that's cheating and definitely not helpful if I don't look at something for a couple days (or if I get lost mid-piece), but it's my interim solution until I get better at instinctually knowing what note the symbol is talking about.  Treble clef I can mostly read unless it gets way above the staff, but bass?!?!  Yeah still no.  At least there's a couple notes that are becoming more known to me, but mostly fuzzy.   It's the musical equivalent of having to sound out a word to read it.

So that's today's list.  Looking forward to when that stuff is easy and I have a whole new list instead ;)