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Had tonight. I'm SO excited to be taking proper lessons again! Just wanted to share.

Congratulations! What are you going to be focusing on?

Filling in the gaps in my technique and theory, for starters. This week I will be practicing scales (never really had to do them as a kid) and starting on Bach Invention No. 8. One thing that's definitely week for me is intuitive fingering in pieces, which I totally agree with him. He's going to help me over my plateau I've been on since my teens.

Nice! Were you nervous? How did you play?

Cool! I want to do this, too. Good luck.

I did okay, but yes I was nervous. I feel very vulnerable playing in front of people right now, but that's why I'm taking lessons. Eventually, I hope I don't have to feel so scared! This teacher is the academy's jazz specialist too, which I'm super excited about possibility-wise. I've always wanted to explore things other than the classics.

Wow that's awesome. At first when I started I used to get nervous. Not so much anymore. Its a good nervous though. I would leave lessons very drained. I too would like to go back to school for music like you but I have old school loans out as well. Kinda been goin at it alone lately which is not so good. It means a lot to me though. Are you going to school for music aside from lessons?

I work full-time for a university (I'm a computer geek by trade). I've been ignoring my dream for a really long time. I'm going to start with private lessons and see where things go. Eventually, I'd like to pursue it academically/professionally. I'm already in courses this semester, but one of our benefits is 2 free courses a year, so I can work really hard in the next 6 months or so and try to audition for Fall semester next year. The school has an admirable enough program, and if I can take some of the classes free, even better! I only hope that I might be able to score a scholarship or two to make things possible if I do ace the audition, so I hope I'm able to get to the place I know I'm capable to go.

I have more student debt than should be allowed, so I understand the loans thing. I'm going to be paying them off forever though, so might as well do something that makes me happy. I don't do much in way of hobbies or social outings, so I think this expense is excusable. Kind of like finding my way home.

Take it from an old man:

. . . You'll kick yourself in later life for not
. . . _trying_ to realize your dreams.

You're young enough to recover from a mistake, even if you make one.

There's a long-known relationship between music and computer (and math) skills. I don't know if it's been explored by the academics. But I've noticed that lots of computer people play music. The same for physicists and mathematicians.

A story:

We just celebrated the 40th anniversary of a rabbinical school that I attended. I was only there for about six months. It was a "poor fit", and I found that I was much happier with my part-time work programming computers.

One of the original teachers (now an important academic) asked me:

. . . "Well, what did you learn in your six months?"

. . . "I learned that I was not suited to Jewish studies,
. . . or working as a rabbi."

. . . "That's wonderful! Some of my graduate students
. . . . haven't figured that out in six years."

So even failure can be productive.

. Charles

Cheers, Charles At least you figured out it wasn't for you quickly. I honestly think me going out into the world and not going for music right away is a blessing. I am so much more mature now than I was when I was in high school, emotionally and intellectually. I know what I need to do to succeed and know I have the drive. I was floating through life as a kid/teen/young adult, with music being the zephyrs that would carry me home when I needed. It takes losing that energy to realize where you're meant to go.

If you haven't look up Pythagorean and music. I presume the correlation is fitting, being that music is math.

really? i'm a computer geek working for godaddy.com and i have put off music till just recently. i started lessons when i was 24, im now 25 and i feel like i wasted so much time i could have been pretty good by now

i still feel like i have plenty of time to really fulfill what i want out of music lessons tho

i've never heard of this correlation between computer geek and music tho