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Hello! New here. Took lessons for many years when I was young then didn't play for a long time. Just started trying to practice seriously again. I have a young daughter, so my time is limited and hopefully I will be able to find time to keep playing. She will be starting lessons soon too! Much younger than when I started, I think that will help her a lot.

Glad to join the forum, recommended by my technician friend.

A professional pianist stayed in the US for 10 years, and earned a masters degree in piano performance and pedagogy.

Now unfortunately went back to Hong Kong...let's just hope for now.

Active performer and teacher, avid supporter of Nikolai Kapustin's music.

Hi, Alan! The fellow in Madison, WI, correct? I know you had mentioned to me that there was a definite problem in remaining in the US, and that you'd probably have to go back to Hong Kong -- and that evidently is what has happened. I can only wish you the best, and hang in there! You play Kapustin wonderfully well, in addition to Scriabin.

Hi Tim,

Yes you are correct! Sorry I don't recall your full name. And I just Googled to see your picture and remembered you!

Thank you for your words. Hopefully I can start posting my music soon, after I get rid of my current POS piano.

Hi!

I am new.

I am a composer, pianist, and teacher living in Norway. I used to perform as a classical pianist a lot, now I spend more time as a composer (and teacher). Hope to contribute to this forum.

Hello,

I've been a member here for quite some time but I just changed my screen name from 'tbuscuit' (not sure why I chose that one).

I've been playing primarily classical piano for about 13 years. My favorite composers are mostly from the Romantic period including Brahms, Chopin, and Mendelssohn. Other favorites that I've played are Bach, Debussy and Mozart.

I took a long break from this forum which was actually a break from piano. Once I started playing again it naturally brought me back here.

Hello everyone!

I'm 22 years old and just a little over 2 years ago I bought myself a digital piano and started playing from scratch. I'm self tought, but eager to find a teacher in my area which hasn't been easy. I joined these forums because I felt a need to share my interest in piano playing and music with other people, I don't have anyone in my direct environment to do that with. It's also nice to have a place where I can go to ask questions, and maybe I can even help others out.

I'll probably be lurking for some time to get the hang of these forums before I start posting. See y'all around!

tijn

Good idea! Too many posters just jump right in, resurrecting ancient thread after ancient thread, and generally breaking every conceivable rule of forum conduct within their first two posts. I hope you will be different.

But don't worry, resurrecting threads isn't against any forum rules.

Hello everyone,

My name is Andrew and this is my first post here! I used to train heavily since young and I feel that I could have tried to become a concert pianist (was actually competing in some regional competitions and won some of them when I was 14-16 yrs old), but due to parent's objections I studied Civil Engineering instead and am now working as a full time civil engineer, part time piano teacher. I still try to get in at least 1-2 hrs of practice everyday though! I do have a secret dream of quitting my job and becoming a full time musician but I feel the time is not now.

Nowadays I'm trying to challenge the boundaries of my technique by tackling all of the Chopin Etudes. Am currently working through op.10 no.1,2,12 and op.25 no.6,11 (the ones that I have trouble with, especially with stamina would like to discuss technique details with other forum members too!). Am also playing through the Rachmaninov 2nd piano concerto and a lot of gentler pieces to balance out my Chopin Etudes training. (Chopin Nocturnes, the quiet Rachmaninov preludes and some Mozart/Beethoven/Bach).

Welcome Andrew! Always good to see more engineers come on board. I am an electrical engineer myself. You sound pretty advanced...tackling all the Chopin etudes...wow!

Hehe nice to meet you jazzyprof! I'm not even 1 year into practising engineering so I'm kinda a newbie in that field. I always saw the Chopin Etudes as the pinnacle of technical achievement on the piano and it's always quite fun to challenge technical boundaries and discover new things!

OK, I belong to a few other forums (Harmony Central KSS, Keyboard Magazine), but I only have been a lurker on piano world. Frankly, I have been turned off by some of the comments in the classical posts. I think that one of the reasons that classical music turns off so many people is the snobbish attitude of some people.

For the record, I am a 57 YO male, married, two kids with a heavy day job. I have been playing since I was 11, performing since I was 15. I am actually performing more now than I ever had- nearly every weekend.

Through high school, lessons were classical. In college, I played Hammond organ and synth in a prog rock band (ELP, Yes, Genesis, etc). When punk rock hit, that died. I then switched to playing casuals (weddings, etc) with various variety bands as good extra money when the kids were small. In the past 10 years I got back into it bigger time, playing in rock bands, jazz trios and funk bands. Lately, I have just been doing the solo piano gig at local restaurants, etc. This gives me a chance to play all styles of music, including one or two classical pieces, one or two originals every night.

I own several keyboards, but perform mostly on a Yamaha Motif XF. I practice on an ancient Kohler & Campbell upright daily. One of the reasons I joined Piano World is to learn about buying a used piano. Hope to get a Yamaha U1 (or similar) in next few months.

Looks like there is a lot of good stuff on this forum!

Hi everyone,

I'm a pianist in western Massachusetts. I mostly work as a dance accompanist, church musician and teacher. Nice to find a place full of so many people enthusiastic about piano music!

Repertoire -- I enjoy a lot of different things but am most fond of Haydn, Mozart and new music. (But then right now most of what I'm working on is Schumann through Ravel.)
I recently had the honor of giving a recital at the church where I work and the program was
Haydn - Sonata in D major Hob. XVI:33
Debussy - "Des pas sur la neige," "Sons et parfums tournent dans l'aur du soir," and "Ce qu'a vu le vent d'Ouest" from Preludes book 1
Higdon - Secret and Glass Gardens
Bellissimo - Problems for Piano
(the latter two pieces are part of a current recording project of contemporary music)
Schumann - Fantasiestucke Op. 12 no. 1-5

Looking forward to enjoying conversations and shared experiences.
Heather

Hello. My name is Neil and I'm 33. I'm getting a digital piano for a christmas present, although I'm paying for some of it myself. lol

I record music under the name Dream Of Sleeping. I'm mainly a guitarist and I've been playing guitar since I was 14.

I've always had a keyboard since I was young, but never really learned to play it. I would get it out a couple of times a year and mess about on it and make up song ideas. About once a year I would go to a friend's house for christmas who had a piano, so a couple of weeks before, I would get my keyboard out and learn to play Clair de lune, then I'd forget it, and do the same the following year.

I could read music from playing classical guitar, although the bass clef notes slowed me down. And the fact that there are so many flats didn't help, but I would get it sounding pretty decent. When I would play it people would think I was good, but that was the ONLY thing I could play! I couldn't play it all because the keyboard I practiced on was too small and I would run out of keys when it got too high.

Now I'm trying to learn properly so I've been learning some simple pieces from some old copies of pianist magazine. I'm getting one of the alfed's books for christmas too.

I have a few piano songs on my soundcloud page, there should be a link in my sig. It would be interesting to hear what real pianists think about what I've created. I probably headed straight for the obvious. Everything sounds new to me on piano. Unlike the guitar where everything sounds old, like I've heard it a million times before.

Hi! I've posted a few replies, but now I will officially introduce myself.

I am a 50-year old new beginner. I've had no prior musical training. I've always wanted to play piano ever since I can remember. One thing that held me back was that I was afraid I would be terrible and would only frustrate myself. (My Dad's guitar playing was awful.). But when my soon-to-be-ex-wife announced she wanted a divorce, I needed something. So last April, I borrowed my brother's keyboard and started piano lessons. (I since bought a Yamaha P155 digital.)

I really scored a great instructor. She is a retired music school professor and seems to prefer her own piano "method". I am close to finishing book two of both "A Dozen a Day" and "FingerPower". For pieces, she had me start with a Piano Adventures book. I finished that and we switched to John Thompson's "Teaching Little Fingers to Play". Finished that, and now we work on pieces I want to play. So far I can play well "Minuet in Rondo Form" by Rameau, "Minuet in C", by Mozart, and the first part of "Fur Elise" by Beethoven. I am currently working on the rest of Fur Elise, "Come Sail Away" by Styx and "Music Box Dancer" by Frank Mills. It's kind of embarrassing to admit this, but my instructor once said to me, "I think you may have missed your calling". I'm not trying to boast, it's just that piano came to my life when I really needed help and its been, well, liberating in a way.

For the future, I can picture myself playing jazz lounge kind of stuff for local bars, restaurants and events on a part time mostly for fun basis. (I live in a ski town and we can really use an act like that!). Not sure how long that will take, though.

Thanks for allowing me this forum!

Hello everyone!

I'm 49 and returning to the piano after 27 years hiatus.

When I left off all those years ago, I was playing a Back Invention, a Scriabin prelude, and a Brahms Intermezzo. Kind of advanced beginner/early intermediate type pieces.

Nowadays, I'm back to learning easy-beginner level pieces. I've committed to 30 minutes practice every day and signed up for MYOD so hopefully I can stick with it this time and work my way up to playing some more interesting pieces, the ones that inspire me.

I am 55 and am returning to the piano after a long hiatus induced first by a crazy work schedule and then by a stroke suffered when I was 42.

Through high school, I played clarinet, alto sax, and flute in addition to piano. I played in various jazz ensembles, but classical piano remained my greatest enthusiasm; so I pretty much stuck with it in college and after.

After I get back up to speed, which from the feel of things seems like it will take from six months to a year, I intend to study with a teacher again.

Hello PW,

I am a 23 year old in Ohio. I never played piano seriously while growing up, but I taught myself a lot of things. While studying vocal performance, I became obsessed with memorizing big pieces, and pouring myself into the interpretive aspect. At age 21 or 22, I really discovered how to listen to sonata form unfold, and became transfixed by Mozart's piano sonatas. I have also spent time listening to Beethoven's sonatas. I could blab on!

I teach a bunch of young beginners for my meager income. I'm a self-taught pedagogue, but I think I do well. Lots and lots and lots of counting, reading, note-spelling. I am trying to get into graduate school for choral conducting. I spend time doing weird sight reading drills and trying to read from some basic "Essential Repertoire" books, I am not a skilled reader. I also still get obsessed with learning pieces for fun - and I'm better, lately, about reading the score a lot more and not just drilling the notes into my muscle memory! Most recently I have learned three of Mendelssohn's songs without words, Op. 19 No2 and No4, aaand.... the E major one with the silly subtitle "Consolation". Where did those subtitles come from anyway?

I really like discussing the rhetoric of music, and I got really excited when I saw people writing about composers and compositions on here.

Hi everyone!

So glad I found this forum. I took piano lessons since I was 6 years old and stopped in Junior High.. I recently started practicing again (I'm in my early 30's) and am loving it. I just bought digital piano Kawai CA65 and found a great teacher so am very motivated. I wish I had more time to play outside of work.

Nice meeting you!