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I'm a new member - heard about this in Perri Knize's book. I played piano as a child, and when I went off to college I stopped. 30 years later I was wandering through a music store and I sat down to play the digital pianos. The manager came over and asked me where I studied; when I said I didn't, he lectured me! I had just met my own inner voice, that voice that had been nagging me to start playing again. So I bought a Yamaha Clavinova and by sheer good luck I found the teacher of my dreams. I did well enough, played in some recitals, and practiced many many hours. I don't know when I started thinking about a grand piano, but I ended up searching for almost three years. I started out looking for a relatively inexpensive grand, and I played hundreds of them. Never could resist trying out some of the great pianos too, but never thought I could afford one. Then it happened to me - I played a truly great piano, a 1917 Steinway "O", and fell completely in love with it. Now I was REALLY miserable, but I really couldn't afford it and I knew it. Then my teacher offered to take me to his piano tech's studio to see if there was something I could handle. We looked at several pianos being rebuilt - a Steinway B, an A, and an O. The A and the B were too expensive even in their untouched state, and they both needed work. The "O" was so ugly I almost couldn't bear to play it - someone had actually painted it brown and the paint had bubbled and cracked. But my teacher played it for me, insisting that I give it a chance, and inside that horrible paint job was a gem. The price was almost right, but it did need some work. We started to negotiate, and every time I went back to visit I heard more wonderful things from the piano in its 'as-is' state. Turns out that this "O" is also a 1917 New York Steinway, the twin sister of the gorgeous one I had fallen in love with, but the neglected twin for sure! So I had her gussied up and am living happily ever after with her. The story has a nice postscript: unbeknownst to me, that first "O" was bought by one of my fellow students, and we are now duet partners. Our beloved teacher passed away last year and all his students are searching for someone to succeed him. I came to this forum looking for thoughts about finding a teacher who prefers to take older, lapsed students who are coming back to the piano. I don't have time to become a great pianist, but hope to be as good as I can and have lots of musical evenings at home.

Hey my name is Miles. I've been playing the piano for a bit more than a year... but according to my teacher I'm moving faster than most people do. Just got through Fur Elise and the Moonlight Sonata 1st Mvt (yeah I know... BOTH overplayed) and Im moving on into some Chopin Preludes. Im always looking for suggestions for things to play and Im excited to join the piano forums, Ive read a lot of topics from the piano forum while google searching and Im excited to be able to RESPOND now

Hello, all and sundry. My name is Greg Monks, and I am a semi-retired writer/musician. I also research period brasswinds. I studied to be a concert-pianist at one time, but allowed the skills to lag somewhat because I prefer composition to performance. I wrote a number of novels over the years, most of them under various pseudonyms. I play all brass instruments, as well as bass and some guitar. The instrument I play best is the clarinet, which is ironic because I have no love for the instrument.

Incidentally, what is a "lurker", besides someone hiding in the bushes, intending to do something indecent?

Hi Greg! In Internet slang, a "lurker" is someone who reads others people's posts but doesn't participate. Gretchen

Hi everybody
my name is adam and ive been playing piano for about 8 years. im 15 and live in Los Angeles California. In California we have Certificate of Merit. I am CM level 10. Current pieces that im working on include Rachmaninoff etude-tableau op 39 no 6 (Little Red Riding Hood) and Liszt's Un Sospiro. I also play the drums but prefer piano. I LOVE romantic music the most but play everything. Looking forward to meeting some new people!

Hi all!

My name's Sam, and I've just returned to piano playing. I took lessons all of my childhood, only ending when I went to uni in '04. But finally I've got myself a great keyboard (one of those proper ones which has a great sound to it), and I'm finding how quickly it all comes back to me,.

At the moment, I'm trying to work my way through a variety of pieces: some various pop and theatre songs for performance; and a variety of pieces including the Chopin preludes, Rhapsody in Blue (well I've got about 5 of 26 pages down to something acceptable!), and - my new favourite - Liebermann's "Gargoyles", which I only just bought today so we'll see how that one works out...

(Those are my long-term pursuits anyway; I'm just exploring various compilation books I have, and discovering how many pieces I vaguely remember)

Anyway, I'm so happy to find a place like this, and look forward to finding out a lot more about the pieces I like, and the world of piano playing... cheers!

Hi everyone!

I am excited to become a part of such an enourmously active website. I am astounded that some folks have more than 10000 posts! I guess that's an average of 3 posts per day if they joined in 2001. Still, that's a ton!

I took 6 weeks of lessons and then became a self teacher (this was back in middle school) and my high school band program really taught me enough theory (can you ever know enough, though?).

My favorite composer is probably hans zimmer or from a more classical standpoint, beethoven (mainly for moonlight sonata). I also enjoy Yann Tiersen quite a bit.

Hello everyone :-)

I am a newcomer to this forum. I am 62 and learnt the piano up to AMEB Grade 3 when a teenager - I think my wise teachers at the time didn't suggest that I try any further grades (*grin*). But I have kept my lovely Lipp upright always and persevered at the keyboard (including a detour into pipe organ when at uni for my residential college), and recently was lucky enough to acquire a new Boston GP178.

After 6 months of getting nowhere on the Boston I realized I should also acquire a teacher.

The teacher has proved to be a most excellent acquisition as he has cured me of the bad pianistic habits that I had carefully cultivated for decades, and now I am playing works that I never thought I could (some unkind friends still say I can't play them but I will get some new friends instead).

But seriously, I love the piano and its repertoire and get huge pleasure (as I think we all do) from playing my favourite works and occasionally entertaining friends at home. I toy with idea of doing a diploma sometime as I think I am almost to Associate level, but not having done years of Czerny/Hanon and the technical stuff I don't think I am quite there yet.

So much interesting stuff in these forums! It is going to take me months to scan the posts and get all the good advice that is in them.

Cheers to everyone.

Hi there.

I've been lurking here for a few months so I figured I might as well join.

I've been playing piano for four years now, but for half of this year I haven't had a teacher because I'm having a very long holiday. I've recently realised that I've been playing with tension in my hands, which are just starting to feel better after (two weeks later!) practising the chordal part of Rachmaninoff's Prelude in G minor from (the famous bit at bar 17) way too much, so I've decided to learn Bach's inventions as practice to get rid of tension.

My favourite composers are Rachmaninoff, Ravel, Bartok, Chopin and Prokofiev, and my favourite pianists are Pogorelich and Hamelin.

If I could, I'd practise piano all day, and I hope to be able to one day.

- Randommelon.

Welcome to PW all of you! I hope you all read our wonderful (and sometimes not-so-wonderful) discussions here in the Pianist Corner, as well as other forums and join in the threads!

Randommelon, I'm going to learn all the Bach inventions too.

They're pretty super-special awesome.

Hello everyone! Just seen this thread and I couldn't write a post. I'm 18 years old, been playing piano since I was 5. Finished my music school when I was 14.I graduated with a perfect, straight A exam certificate.Just after graduation, performed a recitale, which included J.S.Bach's - prelude & fugue no.6 d- minor, L.Bethoven - sonata no.9 e major, etc. Didn't play for a year after, because I hit the ''interest wall''. Now I just moved to London after my high school graduation (gap year in progress), and I feel captivated by piano. Been trying to find where can I practise piano here in London.Found this website just by accident and I am already glad to be apart of it.Looking forward to quality discussions!

I've just gotten back to piano (stopped playing when I was 22, am now 47). Skill level is moderate. I have restarted w/Bach. First one is the English Suite 2 in A-min.

Sight reading ability as decayed considerably, but am having a good time. Have a terrific instructor.

Looking forward to the journey.

Hi everyone!

I just randomly found this website while searching online for practice tips and techniques.

I am currently working on my master's degree in piano performance (this is my first semester). I started piano lessons when I was 4 (so my mom tells me - I don't remember that far back, and the earliest kiddie recital program I could find my name on was from when I was 5).

I had an electric keyboard until I was almost 18. I had recently switched piano teachers (my first teacher who had me play real classical music) and she was horrified when she found out I wasn't practicing on a real piano. So after that, I used my grandma's tiny little spinet piano for about a year until I graduated from high school, when my parents bought me a grand piano as a graduation gift (thanks Mom and Dad)! Having started classical music relatively late, and using an electric keyboard for so many years, I have always felt like I'm technically a little behind other pianists in my age group, but I think I'm slowly catching up.

My top two very favorite composers are Beethoven and Brahms, and then come Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, Chopin, Debussy, and Ravel. My favorite pianists are Richter, Rubinstein, and Argerich. I also love Barbara Nissman's Prokofiev recordings and Pascal Roge's Debussy. These are just the ones who come to mind right now, there are definitely more!

I'm looking forward to conversing with other fellow pianists!

Wow, those two words especially spoke out to me! And also, welcome to Piano World!

She is also amazing with Ginastera! I have this recording on CD and it's the best I've heard so far.

Hi guys! Been active in a couple of the other forums here but new to this one. Just ordered a new Roland 700NX DP but I'm still really a beginner. I'm sure I can pick up alot of knowledge here though.

Wow, that's awesome!

I recently discovered Barbara Nissman because my piano teacher was students with her at Michigan. He mentioned it because I'm working on that same Ginastera sonata that you posted.

Anyways I found her recording of the Prokofiev sonatas and I liked it so much I looked her up online, found out she had a website, and emailed her mentioning that I was studying with one of her former colleagues and saying how much I enjoyed her recording. And she actually wrote back thanking me for my email! Needless to say that email is never going to be deleted!

Good evening, I'm a guy from Stockholm, Sweden who's been studying the piano since the age of 8. Other than piano, I also play the tenor saxophone, church organ and a little Hammond organ. I'm now 19 and have played many pieces of music, from Clementi's Sonatina in C to Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. My first teacher was Sven Åke Andersson, who I had until I started on the Gymnasium of Södra Latin, where my teacher was Ann-Sofi Klingberg. I have also attended masterclasses and workshops with pianists like Stefan Bojsten, Mats Widlund and Roland Pöntinen. Right now I'm having a year off with lessons in piano and organ, and practice...and listening of course. I'm looking forward to be a part of this forum!

Oh, forgot something important: I improvise a lot!

Hi, I'm a newcomer to this forum. I learnt to play the piano from the age of 10 but soon realised I was only slightly better than average in my abilities, so I gave up any hope of becoming a concert pianist. But my love of classical music intensified if anything over the years despite my not having a piano after leaving university (where I had unlimited access to the Music Department's big Yamaha uprights in their practice rooms). Since then, I played only intermittently on whatever piano I could get my hands on (including on a cruise ship from Alaska....), getting used to out-of-tune, out-of-condition honky-tonks as well as occasionally hiring a concert grand to play on when my itch became unbearable.

Eventually, I took the plunge a few months ago and decided to buy myself a digital piano of the best quality I could afford, having realised that if I bought an acoustic, I'd never be able to play it at its proper volume because I'm surrounded by neighbours above, below and on both sides. Which was how I chanced upon this great forum, to see what other pianists' opinions were about using DPs (Answer - predominantly negative in the Pianist Corner, occasionally positive in the DP section!?!). So I armed myself with a selection of music - Ravel's Alborada del gracioso and Ondine, the first movement cadenzas of the Grieg and Rachmaninov's 3rd Concertos (the big chordal one) and some Chopin Nocturnes - and a pair of good headphones, and went around various music stores to try them out on the top-end DPs, discarding any that didn't past muster on any of the music (fast repeated notes, unlimited big sound on massive chords, separation of melodic strands, pedal effects including half-pedal etc), eventually settling on the Roland V-Piano which I duly bought after several auditions.

And I'm now rediscovering my technique, refining my tone, learning new stuff etc on my new toy, in the knowledge it's never going to go out of tune no matter how hard I bash it.

Hi, I'm new to the forum. What a great place for lovers of piano music to get together!

I've been playing piano since I was about 9 years old (violin before that at age 3 - yes my parents were like that). I didn't ever get the solid foundation I needed due to intermittent lessons when I first began, etc, but that didn't stop me from practicing hard and getting a Bachelor of Music in piano performance from the University of Utah.

I can't say that I have ever played that well, but I mostly play for my own enjoyment anyway. I'm working on a couple of Chopin Etudes in my almost non-existent spare time. I own a hand-me-down Knabe grand, built in 1938, that needs a lot of work I can't afford. At least the soundboard and pegboard are still in great shape!

Currently I'm a software developer, and I'm working on business software for private teachers on the side, an idea I had when I started teaching in 2005. I just moved, though, and I'm looking to start teaching again on weekends.