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Hi,

I'm Wouter. I'm 32 years old and live and work in Belgium. It's been a long desire to learn to play music and I decided to learn the piano. I feel it's a very vesatile instrument allowing plenty of styles to play. My musical tastee is pretty broad. Actually I can appreciate the hardest rock to dreamy music like Enya or synthsizer like Vangelis. Not that much a fan of Classical music though I guess that has more to do with not listening to it enough. or at least knowing the music well enough. I'm the kind of person that likes good music when I hear it. Doesn't matter whether it's pop, rock, or anything else for that matter. But as I was born in the 80's and have a 10 year older brother i guess I really grw up with pop and rock. No surprise that I like it

Now I'm entirely new to playing music myself. But I went ahead and got myself a piano this morning and gonna sign up for a music class at the end of August.

The salesman at the store was very helpful and showed me a number of instruments whithout pusig me to exxesively expensive instruments. Finally after hearing a number of instruments I decided to go with a Kawai ES7. of all the instruments within my budget it sounde the best to me. I like that it's an insrument that doesn't have too many "gadgets" and buttons so it will allow me to focus on playing the instrument rather than playing with settings.

The store owner was also friendly enough to give me a book on reading notes and a stand for the piano free of charge.

I'm quite exited now but I'm sure I'll have a long way to go. I hope that by buying the piano already instead of at the end of august or beginning of september it can familiarize myself a bit already with bot the piano and reading notes. And who knows i maight be able to get a small headstart :-)

If any of you have some advice or pointers to help an absolute beginner i'm all ears.

Kind regards,

Wouter.

Hi Wouter,

Nice to find another kind soul from my neck of the woods on here . Where in Belgium are you from?

If you're not into classical music, I suppose you're not going to go to an academy in September. Classical music is par for the course there, at least for the first three years (after which you can choose to go the 'jazz and popular music' route, if you want to). But it is by far the cheapest way to get a decent music education in Belgium.

I'm pretty wet behind the ears myself, still. I took about two years of lessons as a child, and then after a twelve-year break, got back into it in September of last year. I take lessons in Brussels, at the Hoofdstedelijke Academie, and I'm absolutely loving it. My teacher is very flexible about the music we tackle, but then, I do happen to like and want to play mostly classical.

All of this to say: our backgrounds seem to be pretty different, and I'm still a rookie, too. But if I could give you one piece of advice, it would be this: plan to play every day, without exception. There will be days when ten minutes running through an almost-there piece is all you can manage, and there will be days when you spend an hour on the bench without realizing it. But if you don't make a habit out of playing *something* every single day, your progress will be hampered from the start, and after a while it will be hard to find the motivation to continue.

Make it a part of your daily routine. The rest will come by itself.

Welcome and Congrats! Many people here are selfless in sharing so feel free to post any questions or issues you may have.

Videos are a great way For you to see your progress and show yourself what you want to improve.

Keep it up and don't give up. Be patient and discipline with practice.

All the best!

Hi,

Saranoya, Tubby thanks for the warm welcome. I'm from "het waasland" no clue how to translate in english... I'm gonna sign up at an academy indeed. I'm aware that the course will be classical music. But I don't think that would harm, would it? I assume the academy is the basis to work from lateron. And I don't think there's anything that would keep me from learing to play the pop/rock songs that I like by myself when I'm readyfor it. (not any time soon i guess) Also the classical music may broaden my musical experience. So I not only get to learn to read notes and play an instrument. I also learn a whole now world of music.. How cool is that?!

I really hope I get a good teacher. My experience in other fields is that a good/bad teacher can be as night and day.

Kind regards,

Wouter.

They really can. Be sure to do your research in selecting the right one for you.

Hi Wouter,

No, I don't think it will do you any harm to learn classical music first. In fact, most teachers you might encounter at an academy will probably tell you that the opposite is true: that playing classical will give you a good technical foundation, and then you can 'branch out' from there. But then again, they would basically be talking themselves out of a job if they told you anything different .

In any case, if you're doing this from scratch, they will probably start you off in some kind of method book. Method books have all kinds of music in them, ranging from original compositions by the book's author, to simple arrangements of well-known folk songs, to easy classical pieces (minuets written by Mozart at the age of five, for example ;)), to simplified standards from other genres (The Entertainer, etc.).

If you're fine covering mostly classical music with your teacher, and doing other pieces that interest you on your own, then I guess you can follow the 'standard' trajectory. But if you think you might want to switch to the 'jazz and popular music' track down the road, it may be a good idea to tell your teacher that from the start. I know of one person, who takes lessons from the same teacher that I do, who is in his second year now but already knows he's not going to continue on the classical music track from the fourth year onwards. My teacher gave him the Oscar Peterson book for studies and technical exercises, because it was specifically written to give classically-trained pianists a solid foundation for playing jazz and blues piano.

Moral of that particular story: be clear about your goals. Even if it doesn't immediately influence the choice of method book and/or repertoire your teacher makes for you, it will be good for both of you to know in advance the general direction you're moving in.

Also, if your academy has different piano teachers, ask around a bit. I don't know how old you are, and whether or not you have children. But if you do, find out if any of their friends are taking piano lessons, who with, and what the teacher is like. Or if you have other ways of getting in touch with parents of young children (perhaps you are or were once a youth leader, or something along those lines), then tap those sources. In addition to trying to get to know the teachers a little bit before you register at the academy, it might also be worthwhile to try to find out if any of them have a sizeable number of adult students. As anyone on this board will tell you (including those who are themselves piano teachers), not everyone is equally enthusiastic about and/or adept at teaching adult beginners.

You will be registering in September, so you may not have much of a choice (existing pupils and early deciders will have taken up most of the slots with the best teachers already), but it always helps to know a few things in advance, so that *if* you are offered a choice, you'll know who to pick.

Because you're right, of course. Finding the right teacher is of huge importance, and it will have great impact on your progress and enjoyment.

If you are really brave, you might want to try to pick up the basics of note reading (in both treble and bass clef) and music theory (building scales, identifying key signatures, etc.) before you go to register at the academy. I know that some academies will let adult students test out of the first-year music theory class, if they can demonstrate that they already have the skills. But you only have a month, and you're starting from zero, so maybe you're better off just taking the class .

Anyway. Good luck! And welcome to the ABF .

I reckon you got a very good pee-anno there man. A popular choice which will last a long time. Do we get to hear it yet?

good luck!!! its a great journey and very fun!! can't wait to read about it

Welcome Wouter D'hoye, and congratulations on making one of the best decisions in life. Learning piano can be frustrating but is so rewarding and one of the few hobbies that can touch the soul.

As a lover of all music myself I easily stepped into learning just classical pieces. I find the technical challenge of a classical piece beneficial but to be playing something written by a composer 100 - 300 years ago blows my mind. it is also very easy to fall in love with classical pieces when you can really hear the notes express themselves through your fingers so good luck and above all enjoy the journey.

In preparation for your music lessons learning the notes is a good advantage so below are links to flash cards I used. Cut the pages up and jumble the notes around and practice daily to see and name the note. it is a simple thing and doesn't take long to master but is so fundamental to everything you do from here on in.


https://app.box.com/s/78rpvfhr3my78bihrdxk
https://app.box.com/s/7ccq3xuqu9ug1nc0ycgk

A note of caution here: the flash cards are fabulous, but Belgian music schools don't use letter names for notes. We use solfège names:

A = la
B = si
C = do
D = re
E = mi
F = fa
G = sol

Congrats, Woyter...

You're entering a really big world of music with piano. There is a ton to learn.
I'm of the opinion that classical is where the real training is at. Even though playing classical is not my end focus. If you want to listen to some classical that is really really good. Listen to anything from Seiji Ozawa. He is the Symphony Conductor in Vienna. He gets it! He is very old now.

Congratulations on choosing a really good digital piano. Very wise choice. It won't hold you back.

Please also consider...A teacher that isn't a good match for one, might be a great match teaching another.

It sounds like Belgium is a great place to learn music.

When you start thinking: Oh this is only a hobby. Remember that physics was only a hobby to Albert Einstein. You get out of it what you put into it.

Welcome Wouter! It's good to have another European in the club.

Welcome!

Hi,

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome.

peterws: I like the piano a lot. Though right now it doesn't produce anything worth hearing to.. but that has more to do with my total lack of skill. As soon as I manage to play something worh hearing I may try to upload an audio file somewhere.

Saranoya: I sure will make my goals and desirer clear when I start/sign up at the academy. But I'll just do whatever it takes to master the basics. Don' tthink it matters a lot whether that means playing classic or modern music. As long as I get to master the skills. Thanks also for explaining the link between the do-re-mi and the letter notes.

Earlofmar: thanks for the card game. Sure will be of help to learn my notes a bit already. From the piano store I got this little (well.. it's actually not that little) on reading notes: how tp read notes by Alan Charlton. While it focuses mostly on reading notes and not playing any instrument in particular it does show where the notes are on the piano and on the guitar. So it allows me to practice a bit already.

rnaple: Belgium is a great country for plenty of things

Kind regards,

Wouter.