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I am a 54 year old woman and playing the piano has been on my Bucket list for many years. I took lessons for a short time as a young child but never learned to read music and only memorized a few short easy pieces. I have been in love with piano music forever and ever time I hear it, I regret not sticking with it as a child.

A couple of months ago there was a beautiful upright piano at a local auction house. It sort of got me thinking seriously about learning to play. I began researching pianos (acoustic vs digital, brands, etc) and finally made my choice. I bought a Clavinova 440 which came with 2 months of free lessons.

The piano has been in my house for 2 weeks now. My 2nd lesson is today. I am really enjoying it and am picking it up pretty fast. I am looking forward to hanging out here and learning from everyone. It looks like a very good forum!

Cindy

Welcome to the forum, carolinagirl! And welcome (back) to the wonderful world of piano. What type of music do you most want to play?

p.s. this is a great forum indeed. Lots of support, information, and silliness to be found here.

Welcome to the forum, and congratulations on returning to piano finally! Your last statement above is what I hear so many times. Enjoy the process of learning now that you can appreciate it fully, and understand there will be times when your life changes and you will have to rethink your practicing routine. Remember this feeling because you will need it in these low times to push through.

What sort of music do you want to play?

Thank you for the kind welcomes.

I love classical and also love Boogie Woogie. So I want to learn both. Boogie Woogie looks like it may be not as hard as it first appears since the left hand is repetitive. I have printed out a bunch of left hand patterns and will practice with some of those. I especially like Pine Top Smith's patterns.

My ultimate goal is to be able to pick up a sheet of music and be able to read it well enough to play it.

My life is really busy (I run a small farm) but I am managing to get a good bit of practice time in daily, usually broken up into smaller segments (at least 15 minutes at a time, several times a day).

Sounds like you have a full life already. Having a farm and working on your own land seems like a very good thing to me, an almost romantic idea comes to mind but I know it's not exactly rainbows and butterflies but still it must be cool to have your own farm and produce your own food. I eat mostly junk these days.

Enjoy your new piano and welcome to Pianoworld!

Welcome to the PW forums carolinagirl and remember, "it's never too late to have a happy childhood".



True but it takes years to play it like this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9b3ZZywQvg .

Sometime Google up Matthew Ball and Sylvan Zingg both.

Welcome to PW Cindy! it's never too late to learn. Will be waiting to hear your first recording on the piano bar and/or recital.

For all of us!

Of course, there are sheets of music and there are sheets of music. But if it's a goal to be a reasonable sight reader, for whichever level of difficulty you might want to play, work on that as a specific activity. You'll find a ton of threads on this forum about sight reading so browse / search and you'll find something.

And good luck with the boogy-woogy; I have often wondered how hard it could possibly be ... and then found out

Thanks everyone. I appreciate the kind words. Living in the country has always been a dream, even though I was raised as a city girl. But hubby and I bought land when we were first married and now have 25 acres. We are trying to become more self-sufficient. we raise meat and egg chickens, sheep, have a couple of cows and goats. We plant a huge veggie garden and can, freeze or dehydrate our crops. My adult children and their families live on the property as well, so this is as close to heaven as I can get on earth. I love it here.

I know that piano is something that I will be learning forever and it will take a long time to get good enough to play Boogie Woogie at a nice fast pace but in the mean time I'll practice like crazy on pieces that are more managable.

Glad to hear that you have picked up playing again and hope you will enjoy the new Clavinova.

Everything you want to do at the piano is possible with practice!

Welcome, carolinagirl.........you can throw away that bucket list. Piano is all you will ever need.

You (and your teacher) might want to look at:

"Improvising Blues Piano" -- Tim Richards

There's some boogie-woogie in it. The presentation is very well thought-out. It's for "intermediate" pianists, but that doesn't mean you can't bang your head (and fingers) against it.



I think that experience is universal.<g>

Have fun --
. Charles

Welcome carolinagirl. Good luck on the boogie woogie.

Having the piano around during the day is a real advantage. I envy you. Sounds like you've found an approach that works in breaking up practice time. Keep it up, and welcome.

Hi, sounds like you have a little slice of heaven to live in. Hope you have a good journey with your clavinova :-)

Welcome Cindy! I'm also a farmer, although just an amateur - I have an olive grove.
Have fun with your piano!

Me too...but I only have a potted tomato plant. Starting small!

A little something is better than nothing!
But be careful, it's as addictive as piano