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I still can't play it, but I made a commitment to keep on trying.

I play music and piano simply because it is vital for me.

I really like to revive the thoughts/feelings of the great composers and (if not playing alone) transmit their music to others. Sometimes, playing helps me forget about bad stuff but it can also be to celebrate the present moment. It's also fun to play any style, experiment/improvise, use other keyboard instruments, tuning and regulate my own piano and when unable to play reading about composers, instruments, etc.

After WW 2, when my Dad went back to being a school head in Rhodesia ( remember it ), he found an old piano for sale and I started lessons aged ten, my teacher had a charming daughter! My mother could play and encouraged me. I carried on-and-off with lessons untill aged sixteen, then I and my friends still kept on playing - hits like Buttons and Bows, and Nola.
When I had my two children I made certain they had lessons, unfortunately they only told me when grown up that their lady teacher used a ruler to smack their knuckles ! They do have pianos but I gather they and their children seldom play.

However one daughter has daughter who is a professional ballerina - music never really left !
Now at eighty I like the challenge of learning a new piece (e.g. an easy Mozart ) and relearning old pieces - amazing how one never really forgets.
Unfortunately being mechanically minded I'm inclined to spend too much time with my piano in pieces !

I always try to understand the inner workings of everything I like or need. I think it may have started in the 1960's with the Idiot Guide VW book. I was rebuilding my own engines. I do the same with houses, carpentry, plumbing, electrical, etc. Back in the DOS days, I wrote assembly language on the PC.

Since I've always loved the popular music of the first half of the 20th century, the obvious thing to do beyond listening of course is to play it.

Playing keyboards is a great way to get much deeper into the music. Mere listening doesn't nearly use your full brain capacity. But playing takes all of mine and much more..... ;-)

I grew up on a little island off the west coast of Norway. We had no electric power, no cars, and, of course, no television. Just a battery radio that was reserved for the weather forecast and the news. But in the living room was an old piano that my mother, and sometimes my father, would play. Neither of them were accomplished musicians, but the sound of piano music in the house was always welcome, and I learned to sing many an old operetta song in German long before I actually learned the language. During the summertime, my aunt from the city would visit, and she was an accomplished player and entertained us with Chopin, Beethoven, Schubert et al.
At age 11, my mother decided that she would teach me how to play after struggling to teach my sister with no success. I loved it from day one, but hated being told what to do and how to do it from my mother. She left me alone and only came to my rescue when I was absolutely stuck. For two years I hammered on the old Brödrene Hals piano, and then I had to leave home to attend high school. From now on, practicing was limited to the weekends when I was home. After two years, I had to go even farther away for senior high school, and practicing became even more sporadic. There was an old piano in the school building, but it was not much fun sitting there all alone at night struggling through pieces that were much to difficult for my fingers.
After school, I started my career in the hospitality industry, and it was not until I was 28 years of age and moved to California that I got my own house with my own piano. From now on I would practice every day, something I still do. I cannot imagine a day without sitting down to the keyboard of my lovely Estonia and play something. It is my dearest hobby next to gardening, and I am sure the grand old masters forgive me for hacking through their beautiful pieces and hitting enough wrong notes to write a whole concerto. The main thing is that I enjoy it tremendously.

Why do I play the Piano?
When I play the piano the world is perfect. I feel loved and am loved unconditionally - even when I make mistakes. My mind, heart, soul, ears and hands are in alignment. Nothing hurts, no one can hurt me. It is everything I am and means everything to me.

I have been musical since I heard "I want to hold your hand" in the first grade. I knew I would be a musician. At the age of ten, I got an electric guitar for Christmas, my twin sister got the Emenee Electric Piano Organ - ironically, years later, she is the guitar player (singer songwriter Lili Anel) and I'm the piano player. When I was a freshman in High School, my Grandmother was who helped me decide to study music. She gave my mother her bank pass book and told her to buy me a steinway. She wanted me to have the best. On the day she did this, we had a fire. My grandmother passed from smoke inhalation. My mother didn't tell me any of this until almost nine months later, after we relocated and she bought me a Baldwin upright with some of the insurance money. I feel I honor her every time I sit and play. My mother also played the piano and was classically trained. She knew what it meant to me.

I went on to study music. I was 15 years old when I started to formally study piano. To say I loved it is not
enough. I progressed very quickly. I went on to get my Bachelor's degree in Music with Piano. My wildest dream was to score films. I did it once and actually got paid for it. I performed professionally with my sister for many years.

I am nine months from retiring from my career in Law Enforcement. I will be relocating to the area of Rehoboth Beach in Delaware. My beautiful incredibly sounding Cunningham Parlour Grand will be moved to my home after it is built. Along with my Yamaha NU1, which has given me much joy and satisfaction.

I am infinitely grateful for having studied (and still do) and loved the piano. Unlike the human ones, this romance will last forever.

Why do I play the piano? Because it's there (as Mallory would say), and I can (or, I think I can, which amounts to the same thing ).

But as to how I came to play the piano at all, it was an accident of fate, like so many good things that's happened in my life. My uncle was musical, his children all played, and my non-musical parents couldn't bear to be left behind pianoless, so that's how a cheap little upright arrived in the family home, and us kids (my brother and I, later my two sisters) were started on lessons with a young teacher who'd never taught anyone before.

As to why I kept at it through thick & thin while my siblings all dropped out, it was partly because I never cared to follow the crowd. My first teacher (the one who'd never taught before) had imbued me with a love of classical music, and it didn't bother me that I knew no-one else who did. My school friends could listen to Deep Purple (or whatever deep color), and play their air guitars; I'd listen to Beethoven symphonies, and play Mozart on a real piano instead . I must seemed like an unusual kid to others, but when I was sent halfway around the world to continue my high school education, I found kindred spirits, and my piano playing went from strength to strength (or as much strength as my total lack of musical talent would allow).

Love of music and the 'classical' piano repertoire got me to a reasonable skill set (because practicing was enjoyable & fun, and I loved discovering new pieces, so I spent most of my free time on the piano), but it was never going to be a career. Vissi d'arte might be fine for Floria, but reality kicked in for me early on - not least because there were plenty of talented students around, some of whom gave school concerts, which I never could do - so I settled for a 'proper job' and kept my piano playing as a hobby.

Latterly, I've been playing regularly in public, and my proselytizing efforts on behalf of classical music and the piano have gathered fruit. In my twilight years, I've found a way to repay my first teacher, who started me on this amazing path all those years ago......

Bennevis- Love your last post. So nice and inspiring.

Lovely story, and a nice memory for me! Do you remember the Emenee jingle?

"Jumpin' Jimminy, it's by Emenee!"

I hadn't thought of that one in years.

At this time I do not know how to play and at 51 years old I hope I am not too old to learn to play well enough for my own enjoyment, I have no asperations to join a band or have a concert just love music and wish to try to make some. I just bought a Yamaha Clavinova CVP-709 in the hopes it will help me reduce stress and deal with my PTSD.

Music has always been in my life, albeit in different forms. My mother told me that when she was pregnant with me, she would lie on the bed and play classical music, so that I would be able to listen to beautiful music. I have loved music my whole life.

As a small child, I thought all adults knew how to play piano, My uncles played, my Mom played a little, and my grandparents played. They mostly played by ear, so I assumed it was a natural skill.

I took ballet lessons as a child, and enjoyed dance as well. Then something special happened. We bought a piano. I still remember when my Mom had an old "upright grand" delivered when I was eight years old. I loved that piano and spent hours at it. I had a teacher that gave me a good start on piano, though she was a very scary, authoritarian with a ruler! Still, I loved piano and tried to do my best. Then, my family moved to a small town without a piano teacher. I continued to play everyday until I went to college, but I no longer had any guidance. When I was in college, I remember standing outside the practice rooms at UMC, wishing I could go in and play!

Life intervened for 30 years. I got married, had a career, but I never forgot my love of piano. Another passion in my life led me back to it. I owned horses growing up, and as an adult I rode and showed dressage horses. I began doing my own choreography for freestyle, which is dressage routines set to music. It was a perfect melding of my love of dance, music, and horses. My husband suggested I relearn piano, and do my own music for the dance. So we purchased a keyboard and I rediscovered piano. Six months later I purchased a M&H BB, and started lessons. I practiced every available minute.

In 2005 I developed MS, and could no longer ride horses. The piano became therapy for me. I had severe tremors and in my legs and hands, and playing piano retrained my neural pathways, eliminating the tremors in my hands. Piano has become my sanctuary and my therapist. I no longer believe that I have any limitations that I cannot overcome. It soothes the body and soul, and brightens my spirits everyday. It gives me continuous goals to work toward, and self assurance. It has brought me friends who share my passion for piano, both live and virtual (PianoWorld). At this point in my life, I cannot imagine not playing piano!

A couple of things always intrigued me about pianists, first how they could play with two hands each doing something different and not even watching what they were doing, were they wired differently to me? The second was most of them seemed to sight read which seemed like some sort of dark art passed down from master to student.

I decided nearly four years ago to buy a digital piano to find out what it was all about. It made perfect sense as I was nearing retirement and knew I would have to substitute a work addiction for something different. I had pottered about with acoustic guitars since my youth, just as a relaxation, but I decided a complete restart of my musical education following a traditional method was how I should proceed. Incidentally when I first started I could not bear to listen to classical solo pianists and I thought Chopin was overrated. Last year while in Paris for a couple of days the only thing I wanted to do was visit his grave and museum, how things have changed. In the few years since starting I have found out the hardship of trying to learn an instrument to a high degree can be, but every day is a joy in exploration that is most fulfilling.

I play because it brings me joy. Some on the forum have cats. Many cats like to be scratched on the head, or under the chin. The cat will often close its eyes and purr in contentment. Its like that with piano, when I get it just so, even at my still beginner level.

I got started by tinkering with a tablet app, where a person presses the screen to sound notes. I enjoyed that so much, I decided to upgrade to a 61-key Yamaha NP11. Another year or so, and I got a Casio PX150.

I thought I would be terrible at piano. I have tinnitus, chronic hand problems, difficulty with rhythm and harmony. Unlike most reporting on this thread, I grew up in a home with minimal exposure to music, and it shows.

I haven't traveled very far in my four year piano journey. I tell people that I poke away at it. There are limits as to what I can do, or even attempt. Still, I have my moments, whether it be finding a good phrase while composing or performing on stage on a grand piano, there are moments that approach magic.

I find that piano tends to be a less soulful, less expressive instrument than wind instruments. Or perhaps a person needs ten or more years and/or a degree level of mastery to get to the expressive level. The trade off is complexity. A good pianist can add layers and layers that melody only instruments can only attempt with an ensemble.

Why does the bug bite anyone? The short answer is that I play because I can't help myself. I need it. Go figure. I loved the piano since I first saw one, as a young child... and here we are, a lifetime later.

Well said Jeff, that would pretty much sum my reasons up too.

I'm just one of those people who can use twenty words to say what could have been said in four :-)

- Frank B.
Piano World

I began piano lessons at age six and abandoned it at age 13 or 14 having achieved only modest success. I took lessons during one summer school in college at age 30. Now at age 73, I'm in the middle of Alfred's Basic Adult Piano Course. There is some serious void time here!

I think of all the wasted years during which I might have developed a decent repertoire for my own pleasure and possibly others. Now I'm sensing a state of urgency to realize my dream of mastering some of Chopin's easier pieces, a couple of Scott Joplin's ragtimes, and some popular stuff as well.

I'm very thankful for my early opportunity to experience the piano. It benefits me to this day. Playing my piano provides a way to keep my mind engaged, to be constructive, and of course I love the sounds that can emanate from a good piano.

The better question is why didn't I play the piano for so long before taking it up?

Astro Ed-

Go for it! Jump in head first! You are the best person you can play for.

On a social level, I love when parties gather around a piano, especially around Christmas. Such a pure form of entertainment, but I only know one person who can play and it's a friend of a friend.

On a personal level, I just love music. With the piano, you can create beautiful music will all the intricacies and layers that would normally require several musicians of relatively equal skill. That gets hard to find as you get older for those of outside of music professions. Adding musicians along with a piano? Now that's magic; layers upon layers of cool stuff happening.

But mostly cause I've always wanted to play (but for the above reasons). It just took me a while to get the courage to learn.

From my earliest memories, I've always wanted to play the piano, but I didn't get the chance until I was 7 and we got our first piano. I immediately asked for lessons, but for reasons they've never explained, my parents said no. But that couldn't stop me - I knew in my heart I was a pianist - and so I pulled out some of my mom's old books, taught myself to read music, and learned the first part of Für Elise. At about that point, my grandmother took pity on me and signed me up for lessons. My parents never really did understand my passion and so were never very supportive. They paid for lessons and drove me to recitals, festivals, and competitions, but they never really encouraged me. There was actually a period when my mom actively discouraged me from playing. But it didn't matter, I never gave it up. I couldn't have. Playing the piano is a very large part of who I am. If I gave it up, I would die a figurative death. I play because I'm a pianist.