Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum OT, Tell us about yourself

jotur - Thank you! Yes, we have already met, sort of. I've probably been a hair too loquacious for someone who just joined AND just started to play; but sharing opinions is what it's all about! =)

Yes, our fiddles have a singular sound! (From the four freely resonating strings under the bowed ones.) The instrument is called Hardingfele (sing., pl. -feler). Here's a traditional rural dance that goes with it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ollNmWvlhI

The dance is called Hallingkast, and is performed by eligible bachelors to woo women (which, I suppose, is the basis for most human behaviour =).

Sarah & Toby - Hey guys! Start writing, Toby! =) I'm an aspiring writer as well. So far I've mostly written short stores, but I'm working on ideas for an extended text. Perhaps the piano (or your pregnant wife) will inspire you!

thanks for the video, Thorium! I love the characteristic bounce and easiness of the dancer - a friend of mine looks much like that when he dances. We did have a Swedish troup come over for a workshop, and dancing with them was, of course, a whole nother dance from dancing with us USAers that are trying it, no matter how good. And the music - aah.

Cathy

Hi, everyone, I'm another newbie here.

I took a couple of semesters of piano in college, but that was many years ago, and I have a wonderful old piano from 1926 that sounds fantastic with blues and Bob Seger-style rock and gospel.

I've been practicing scales and picking out tunes by ear for the past few years and using the keyboard to help me figure out theory-related concepts, as I also play around with an acoustic guitar, violin/fiddle, penny whistle, Native American flute, ukulele and probably some other things I'm not remembering right now.

So I recently encountered a young lady who teaches piano at reasonable rates and today is my first lesson, and I'm excited about polishing my skills.

I'm supposed to be retired (at an extremely young age ), but have taken on two part-time jobs, two home-based businesses, and I also am obsessed with reading books and making music-like sounds, so I keep fairly busy.

So that's who I am, at least until learning to play some piano changes my life.

The main reason I'm here is it seemed like a reasonable thing to do -- find like-minded people working on similar pursuits and share some experiences, challenges, etc.

RB

Hi, everyone. I just discovered this thread and so I copy a post from another thread "reading music" here (typed up a few minutes ago), because it is my first introduction of myself.

Forgive my double-posting.

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Thanks Chris. I value you views and experience as a piano teacher.

The question is asked and it will be answered honestly.

I am not a teacher. I am not a musician. At best, I am a STUDENT, a self-taught student.

A note about the "Music Educationist" in my Forum Profile ... I did not think much when I put it down. You can say that is a title I give myself for the future in case things work out.

I am 42 years old now. I first touched a keyboard 3 years ago ... I will talk more about it.

My only contact with music before that, apart from having an ear and heart for it, was a bit of folk guitar (with no music theory, just the chords), and a bit of classical guitar (trying to figure out the music from the Grand Staff) - back in the university days.

The way I make a living has nothing to do with music. I am what people call an executive, working in an oil company, a brand every driver should know. I am married with 2 children. I am an ethnic Chinese but I won't go into my nationality, because it is complicated and boring. I have (sequencially) lived in China, UK, Singapore, US, Hong Kong, and now Beijing.

Anyway, back to the keyboard. Winter of 2005/2006. I moved to Beijing before the family. There was suddenly more time to myself after work. Logical decision to buy a keyboard for the kids. The idea was that before they arrived, it was mine to try and see what happened.

My first text book was the User Manual of the Casio model. There were a few pieces of sample music (Ode To Joy, Bach's Minuet in G major, Fur Elise, etc.) on the Grand Staff. The Hao Staff was not available then.

Although I had some recollection how the notation system worked, I decided to buy a comprehensive music theory book. That I finished in one night, because I just could not stop.

I managed to play a few pieces from the keyboard Manual, proving that at my age, there was no problem making the fingers work together to produce music - it's only a function of how much practice one puts in. Once that worry was out of the window, I wanted to play more and play the music I really love. I met the next problem - the Grand Staff.

I understood the mechanics of the Grand Staff very well. And I tried the various practices to get better. But I had limited time after work everyday. It is just too slow for me to read the Grand Staff. And when it comes to the music I love, they are usually in "difficult Keys" with many sharps and flats. They are unintelligible to me. It could take me a few minutes to figure out one bar, and then I forgot how the previous bar was played.

Then I asked myself, would I present the music information on paper this way? Why is the "Y-Axis" (i.e. the pitch axis) of the two dimensional graph made so difficult to read? Why do we not give it the same ticks as the piano keyboard, one-to-one?

So with computer-drawn blank sheets (with grey and white stripes), I transcribed music to this "keyboard staff" by marking the notes by hand. I then practiced them, "sight-reading" my own sheets. By doing this, I progressed a lot faster. My bottleneck is no longer how fast I read ("figure out", to be more precise) the music. It is how much time I can afford to play.

It naturally followed ... if it helps me so well, it should help others in my situation as well. So I thought about commercialising it, and possibilities of patent protection to help with the commercial prospects. Then the website, the transcription work, the investment of time and effort. But frankly, beyond a certain point, the drive is not money any more, because it does not seem a good business idea based on the amount of negative comments received from people like yourselves who have the "right to speak" because you have been teaching and those pianists who have made it over the Grand Staff hurdle. The usual (understandable) first reaction is: if I (and many) did it this way, why can't you? Because I have just started (one year against eight hundred years), I don't have many voices saying "I did it with the Hao Staff" yet. But I will have them.

There are people who love music and the piano but did not make it over the Grand Staff hurdle. What do we tell them? Do it the way it is always done, or you don't deserve to enjoy playing music?

I need to clarify one thing. You mentioned that the invention is not new. Yes, piano roll (both horizontal and vertical) was invented a long time ago. And the same application existed in computer programs. If I just apply for a patent based on the grey-and-white stripes, I would not have gotten it. My patent is a combination of that with traditional music notes and marks, and a simple way of indicating the Key of the piece (or part of a piece). None of these three elements are new, but combined use of them is new, at least based on the Patent Officer's research. My patent is granted on that basis. Believe me it went through competent examination.

You may say: that simple? Yes, that simple. An invention does not have to be rocket science.

It has been too long a post. I ask for forgiveness from those who are not interested in this discussion.

I will come back again.

Regards,
Jeff

Hello,
My name is Ritchy and my wife is Mary – we are from Texas. I just turned 40 and my wife has been 29 for just a few years now!

We have been taking care of my wife’s grandmother after a stroke for 5+ years now, which keeps us tied to the house more than we would like. While sitting out brewing last weekend we were talking and decided that now is the time to learn piano.

I have a history of drums and bass, so I know a little about rhythm and have a very small knowledge of music theory, but can't read music. My wife has never played an instrument but we both have always wanted to learn piano…so we are heading to guitar center tomorrow to buy an inexpensive keyboard to start out. I was excited to find this forum, and hope to still be around 2-3 years from now!

We are interested in classical and jazz - we are headed to see Diana Krall for our tenth anniversary this year!

Welcome Ritchy, it's a great community. Looking forward to seeing you (both) progress.

I'm Jason, 34 - an Iowan living in Illinois, with a convoluted relationship with learning to play. Loved classical music even as a kid, but my family wasn't in an income bracket that would support piano studies. Voice was a pretty cheap instrument, though, so I took up choral singing. I sang in high school choirs, and after high school, in church choirs.

Through my 20s, I drove trucks for a living. At 25 or so, I decided that it was time to go for it and learn the piano. Before I could make any progress, a mishap partially severed a tendon on the back of my left ring finger; it would be years before I could move that finger without moving the middle and pinky fingers surrounding it. So, piano aspirations were shelved.

At 30, I decided to finish my education, and have recently earned my degree in English lit. A tax refund while I was enrolled allowed me to take a trimester's worth of lessons, which I loved. By the end of the term, I was in grade 2 repertoire. While I wished I had been able to progress faster, there was an immense satisfaction in having gone from being able to play nothing to being able to play recognizable pieces of music - Bach's (though I've seen it attributed to someone else lately) Minuet in G, with a variety of beginner repertoire along the way.

The past year, I've been working in arts management, which is rewarding but not especially lucrative. No longer being a student has meant that I haven't had access to an instrument upon which to practice, though I attack any piano I come across, hoping that I can still play that minuet correctly. Unfortunately, a year without being able to practice regularly and the muscle memory is fading.

So, I decided that I was tired of not being able to practice and learn, and that I was tired of letting fiscal prudence determine my ability to study piano. I'm shopping for the best digital piano I can stretch to afford - probably a Roland HP-203, though I'm in love with the feel of the keys on the 207. I'm also considering canceling my cable package in order to afford lessons again. Who needs cable if they have a piano?

I'm also exploring graduate school options, looking towards studying theory of composition and rhetoric. Since music folks usually hear the word "composition" and assume that I'm wanting to go to grad school in music, I should mention that this is basically the study of the written word.

I love music of most kinds, particularly classical, piano rock and jazz. I read voraciously, ranging from fantasy and speculative fiction to the 'masters' from six centuries. On rainy days, it's tough to beat a hard-boiled detective novel and a cup of coffee with a splash of whiskey. I'm also a pretty darned fine cook.

That's enough from me. I'm glad to have found Piano World, and look forward to all I can learn here.

J.W.,
Love you intro. What an inspiring journey! Welcome to PW!

Hi there

I'm currently 20 years old, I live in Belgium which is a tiny country in Europe. I just finished my bachelor in marketing, but I'm about to start again in law.

I always had an interest for the piano and piano music, but I never really got to it. Until my latest birthday, I used all my money to buy a keyboard. It isn't professional, but it's a start and decent enough to learn on. However, I hope to buy a real acoustic piano someday.

I'm doing things on myself, with books and internet.
My studies in marketing and my current internship were a reason for me to start blogging. That's why I also started a blog about piano learning resources for beginners by a beginner. And that is eventually the way I got to this forum.

Hallo.

I'm a math student, and will be teaching math eventually.

I used to play the piano (and the violin) when I was a kid because I thought they were just like algebra exercises, but then neglected that playing music means you have to play with emotions, something that I don't do very well. So I quit because of that.

Why am I back here? Because I had a philosophy. I don't have to play with my own emotions, but I can play something in a way which other people might enjoy. In other words, I'm saying I don't necessarily have to feel something; I just have to know how other people feel about it. There was another reason why I considered returning to the piano. I have, as of lately, been learning lots of things on my own. I picked up German through reading materials meant for native German speakers. I learned rollerblading and ice skating purely from physics. I consider playing the piano another kind of deduction exercise, and I think I would actually enjoy this more than I would being with a teacher.

I do actually have some theories about playing the piano that I wish to test.

Welcome Jason!

Welcome xnapoleonx!

Welcome. Theories or Hypotheses?

I think hypothesis is a better term. Sorry about that, because if I use "theory", that gets easily confused with piano theory.

Just having a little fun with you. I'm a computer engineer, but lots of science background.

Enjoy and welcome to the madness!

Thank you

I joined about a month ago but didn't notice this thread until just a few days ago. Better late than never, just like my playing.

My name is Michelle and I've always wanted to play piano but my parents couldn't afford to get me one when I was younger and later it always seemed like there was always something else I "should be doing" that kept me from finally just doing it. When my husband and I looked at our house before we bought it my mom was reading the real estate info sheet to me from across the lawn. When she got to "the piano stays" she suggested it might be an omen that we'd finally found the right house. Two boys and several years later I was thinking about things I always planned to do "someday" and hadn't gotten to. Learn to play piano was #1 on the list so I got the "free with house" piano tuned and have spent a bit more than a year now puttering and learning little bits of songs I like here and there and getting the notes on the piano and sheet music down. Now I'm starting into scales a and chords. I had a little bit of basic music theory in a music for elementary teachers class in college so I'm not totally lost.

I did get very frustrated and almost give up when I had problems with my piano not playing notes twice, sticking notes and being just generally worn out actionwise knowing I can't just go out and buy a newer one. I decided to channel the frustration into learning about piano repair hoping to make some minor improvements and the deeper I get into it the farther I want to go. The piano works a little better everyday. I'm currently working part time as a special education paraprofessional. I'm seriously considering becoming a piano technician eventually.

Welcome Michelle! Sounds like you have got everything about where you want it and progressing just fine.

Welcome. You'll probably enjoy Monster M&H's thread on his career change. And somewhere on the ABF, tho I haven't searched for it lately, are funberger's videos that she posted on restoring and working on pianos as a complete amateur. Really great fun. We haven't seen her around here in a while

Cathy

I'm new to this site, looking for inspiration and advice for this hobbie of mine. My name is Terry, and I have always loved the piano yet never really got to it until six months ago. I currently reside in Hollywood, FL where the weather is wonderful and sometimes unpredictable. Originaly I'm from Bedford Stuyvasant Brooklyn, and I miss NY everyday. Although I'm a begginer in piano and it seems that with each time that I play I discover that it gets easier and easier, not to mention fun! My goal is to play Jazz, and classical; I would love to learn how to play Stride piano, Improvision like Coltrane, and classical pieces like Chopin. Oddly enough I want to learn to play commercial music ex: Video Game Music.
The pieces from Cowboy Bebop, Final Fantasy, etc. excite me.