Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum 2013 in review: how was yours?

Wow Sam
I would be happy to complete so many wonderful pieces you did in 2014.
I would love to do an impromptu in g flat by Schubert as well. My teacher says I have to complete 2nd mvmnt of D 960 before I can move on to impromptu. Likewise I have to do Chopin op 25 no 1 before I can move on to op 10 no 3. So I donno when

Saranoya you're too kind! Thank you and I shall dedicate my first guitar song to you

CarlosCC do you feel it's distracting to piano or just adds to your musicality? I mean, I'm still a beginner at piano so I am a bit cautious.

Three major things in 2013:
1. My older daughter started her first year in Primary School,
2. I bought my first acoustic piano,
3. Started preparation for ABRSM Jazz Piano grade 1, after one year not really knowing which way I should develop my piano passion.

I hope 2014 will be as generous as 2013.

All the best!
Romek

2013 was a real mixed bag. Best thing of all was finding Piano World, well second best - I had just returned to piano at the end of 2012 so it only almost counts for this year! I signed up for the MOYD, third best thing. It meant I kept track of what was going on in my life. Lots of travel and time away from the keys , but without the vow I would have just 'let go' and not returned each time.
So I am no longer afraid of touching those black and white things under the lid, in fact I rarely close the lid anymore. I play nearly every time I go past the piano, even just a study.
I've regained confidence about playing. I know I've forgotten lots but strangely its slowly coming back. I did one of the Bach's very easy inventions to start, and looking through my old music, found it again - I'd learned it as a kid but only when I saw the old book did I remember it at all! Scarey!
Now I'm remembering theory lessons and chord sequences aren't so bad!
Sounds like I know a lot but not, 1, !V, V, is about it!
Then another magical thing was not stumbling around finding the keys anymore. They really are in the same place every time, its just my fingers that move around - fancy that! But lately they hit the right note when there's a big leap more often than they used to. So much less frustrating! I throw the books aside less and less frequently - do you ever fell like doing that!
I've found some great apps on the iPad which means I can take my music scores with me ' in case' I find a piano and can sneak in a play. I did photocopy stuff and brought it with me a few times , but that's too impossible to keep up carrying around on the 'off chance'!
I love reading the Forums, it's my therapy time. I admire you all so much.
I don't know anyone else other than my teacher who plays so you are important virtual friends in my life. Who leas really know what it is to learn master and eventually really play a piece than someone who has also tried.
I have the greatest respect for creative artists of all genres.
I listened to one of the on-line recitals to discover what it was all about. The November one.
Now I understand what Piano World is all about!
So next year I shall actually record something,probably on my iPad! Ecco Fatto Cafe, is one of my goals.
Personally, the year has been the depths of despair and yet soaring with the eagles.
You wine-lovers - celebrate with me, we have just heard, in New Year we will be announced as receivers of the Platinum Best of Show award for our white wine - don't know which one yet(!) - at the World Beverage Show in Geneva, the biggest competition in the world... beat out France and Argentina.....little ol' us in Kelowna B.C. Our labels got bronze as well. They got silver last year. One son is the winemaker and one son is the artist. So we thought this competition was just about labels!
What a way to end the year - guess we won't be selling up after all - and I can play Claire de Lune again!

This year I had a change in my career, which meant a pretty horrible schedule and too little rest, but thankfully I didn't give up practicing daily. I've had moments of despair, but last month or so has made me think that I might actually be able to play properly one day. I've made a huge leap forward in the physical side of my playing. Learning pieces has been very slow, but maybe a demanding work is a good excuse for having mushy brain...

Congratulations on your wine, Palmpirate!

And to everyone on their piano years.

Cathy

Palmpirate I love wines! Message me with the names of your award winning vinos, I would love to try them out.

I forgot to mention the ROOF ----

No, no distracting at all. It's just another instrument with a different approach. I'm learning it just for fun
It's a good way to be a couple of hours with my kids talking about music

Edit: Btw, I'm still a beginner, too!

Wow congratulations, but I don't envy you

Kind of shitty--except for the piano part.

In February, my wife tells me she wants a divorce and we only just recently agreed on a settlement. Things were getting pretty ugly for a while there... What kept my sanity was piano! I started lessons for the first time in April. Piano was something I had always wanted to do, but I feared that I would have no musical talent and would just get frustrated. My experience has been quite the opposite! Piano is an absolute joy! I sat down the other day to noodle on some chord progressions "for a few minutes" and and hour vanished!

2014 is going to be my year. I'm already shopping for a grand piano...and a girlfriend!

You all learn music piece much faster than I do thats for sure. It takes me a lot of time to really learn one piece. Everyone has some really impressive material.


I have to say. I'm very thrilled with how this year went. I started off this year not knowing where middle C was. The yamaha p-155 my dad gifted me (after telling him i always wanted to learn, he was upgrading) had been sitting in the corner of my room for over a year.
March this year, I say [censored] looking at this thing. I emailed a teacher I found online met with him, did a first "free" lesson and have been going ever since, 1 hour weekly, haven't missed one. Probably the best decision I have made with my entire adult life (25). That kind of sounds sad, but I think its totally true. It has taught me discipline, it has taught me soooo much about myself and how I work. Really worth more than anything you could put a dollar sign to. Best of all I can look back at this year and say holy crap! I can kind of plunk away at the piano now! I can really say I did something constructive this year and something tangible even after this year.

I have learned video game songs that bring back incredible nostalgia and feels great to play. I have learned more about music this year alone than my entire life put together. I even used to play violin for almost TEN YEARS!!! I have learned two beatles songs, a pop song, an entire method book worth of material, how to improv (albeit not well), all my major, minor chords with all inversions, my maj7 chords (few inversions due to learning them on the fly via lead sheets), learned how to read lead sheets, can play an easy version of requiem for a dream, star wars. I learned how to read music really, it had ALSO been ten years since I played violin, and i wasn't very good @ violin, think small kid is big orchestra with not 1 hour of 1on1 teaching in my entire life. I can put some decent dynamics into my music, nothing impressive, but decent non the less. I'm really understanding what another member posted about sight reading: "I see the notes, not as notes but as words and my hands respond appropriately.". I'm starting to get that and I'm noticing im letting myself not think about things that don't matter, IE "that octave i just played is a G". Nope, I don't care, I see the octave, then my hand makes the octave "position" and I hit the note, who cares what the letter is while sight-reading.

Importants I've learned. The value of learning something and to always be learning something in my life. The value of getting real life reward for time put in. What it is to be dedicated to something and maintain consistency. Understanding this is a lifetime "hobby" with no REAL end goal.

Big revelations: keys are more than just a signature on the staff to make reading easier. they are tonal centers of a piece. Thats the big piece of knowledge I was missing in violin, I'd always get so annoyed, now I get it.


Ultimately, I'm just proud to say, this year I accomplished something very near and dear to me

A mixed bag, for me.

Family: this year we started again traveling all together, after several years. We had great fun.
The children are growing fast, they are nice little boys.
My husband is still working abroad and commuting on weekends, but since the kids are older it is easier for me to manage everything during the week like a single mother!

At work, not a very positive year (not so bad either, it could be much worse).

Piano: ups and downs and plateaus in my second year of my second piano life. Played in a children and teens recital, submitted in Ecco Fatto Cafè.
Learnt nice pieces, even if I'm still a slow learner.
MOYD gave me motivation for practicing more (thanks, Cheryl!), even when time is scarce and I'm really tired.
This year my piano passion is really grown, now I think it will be a lifelong affair.