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Hello from Australia. I am an adult beginner who started taking lessons just over a year now at the age of 44. I did have a VERY brief introduction to the organ when I was around 8 or 9 years old but that didn't last long at all. In fact all I can remember was starting on these 5 black keys, and I don't remember graduating from those 5 black keys so that little endeavour was definitely very short lived.

Fast forward 30+ years I enrolled my daughter into piano lessons, bought a digital piano and tried teaching myself by riding off my daughters lessons and following the Alfreds Adult All-In-One book. That didn't quite work out as I hoped. Bad, or should I say, non existent technique and the passion and determination that comes with a new hobby and toy I experienced very sore hands trying to play all those chords (there are a lot of chords from the beginning in that book). I think I played 1/2 the book within a week. So I decided to take the plunge and enrolled in lessons myself. A year later and I haven't regretted it one bit. I have even upgrade my piano and am now the proud owner of Kawai acoustic.

I am loving my piano journey, complete with its success, frustrations and yes even an injury already. I injured my thumb trying to play a jazzy Christmas piece that had these stretchy 4 note chords. A sneaky little project I was trying by myself, so absolutely no fault of my teachers. I have small hands, maximum hand span is an octave at full stretch. I spent a whole day trying to play these chords that where not comfortable and I still hadn't quite got a handle on playing without tension. Finally my thumb decided enough was enough and just went really weird. 10 weeks on and my thumb/wrist is still giving me grief. But, you learn from these mistakes, it is all part of the process.

Currently I am preparing for a Grade 1 mock exam. By mock I mean I will be sitting the exam with my teacher, not a formal exam. As I am only learning piano as a hobby and not interested in a career I don't really see the necessity to sit a formal exam, but I do wan't to see what grade I am at. Plus performance anxiety is a major issue for me. Even playing for my teacher seems to cause a bit of anxiety. Something that my teacher keeps telling me is completely normal. In fact she mentioned she is thinking about getting shirts make up with "I can play it just fine at home" printed on it.

Anyway, I am still trying to navigate my way around this site. I am definitely interested in the 40 piece challenge. What better way to help face performance anxiety that record yourself and put yourself out there. Though I don't know if I will reach 40 "perfect" performance pieces. Sometimes my lesson material can take a few weeks before I get a pass from my teacher.

I notice some really cool merchandise in the store section. Does piano world post to Australia by any chance?

Welcome to PW, Marianne! You might want to take a look at this book. The e-book version is not expensive and I've read some great reviews of it on some of the piano sites.

Also, check out this video from professional concert pianist Lydie Solomon

Welcome, Marianne! Piano is such a wonderful, fulfilling journey. I'm nodding along to so much you say there - I'm returning to the piano myself, so not a total beginner, but I too managed to injure my hand by overdoing it at first, and I have terrible performance anxiety these days. I've never done any grades or exams, they weren't around where I grew up, and I turned out okay back then - I believe they might be a good way of checking where you stand, but they aren't the be all and end all.

I do believe PW ship worldwide - you could perhaps contact them about it?

Very interesting video!

Hello everyone! I’m an adult beginner. I took lessons for a couple of years as a child but wasn’t sufficiently motivated to practice at that age (I was more interested in fishing) so needless to say I didn’t progress very far or develop many skills.

Despite my relative disinterest as a child I subsequently developed a deep love for classical music. In the back of my mind I wanted to try playing the piano again. I live an apartment, on the 3rd floor, and didn’t think it was an option. Getting a piano up to where I live would be too difficult. Then I recently learned about digital pianos and realized I no longer had an excuse. I also have lots of free time to dedicate to learning since I’m retired. My first lesson was last week and my teacher is wonderful.

I love how endlessly fascinating the topic of piano playing is: the history, theory, technique, performance, everything. I’m excited to learn as much as I can.

Glad to be on the forum!

John

Welcome to PW!

Welcome! Keep us updated on your progress. I agree it's such a fascinating journey. To me it seems that the more I learn, the more I discover how much there's still left to learn...!

At Kreisler's suggestion, I'm giving a brief intro to myself.

I took piano lessons from about age 8 to 18. At the time I stopped studying, I was playing at a Grade 9-10-ARCM (Royal Conservatory) level, though I never took any examinations after Grade 8. I wasn't quite polished enough to major in music at university, and in any case, I was "encouraged" to major in a discipline that would let me "put food on the table". Hello Computer Science, goodbye music.

Now, almost 40 years later, I'm back to playing. I had started with a rental digital piano, and I thought that a digital was all I would ever use, but my significant other encouraged me to "go big or go home", so we just took delivery of a lovely W. Hoffman (C. Bechstein Czech-made "2nd label") upright piano, and I've enrolled in lessons at the conservatory.

I'm a little apprehensive ... I'm quite rusty, and things that were 2nd nature to me before are still a struggle. I tried learning the Two-Part Invention #6 on my own, for example, and it took me ages to coordinate the rhythm of the left hand against the right. It was like learning to pat your head and rub your tummy all over again. I tried to resurrect #13, which I played for my grade 7, and, once again, I find my faulty memory bashing up against what actually appears on the page. I had thought dusting off some old pieces would be a good place to start, but now I'm thinking starting with completely fresh stuff might be a better idea ...?

Currently, I'm working on (or dabbling in):

• Mozart's K283 Sonata - all movements
• Various Bach two-part inventions
• Various pieces from Schumann's Kinderszenen
• One of Schubert's Moments Musicaux
• Beethoven's Sonata #15 Op 28

My new teacher (after our first, 30-minute trial lesson) is encouraging me to pick up some Chopin, and maybe even something 20th century, such as something by Jacques Ibert.

Eventually, my hope is to be able to make my way through the Italian Concerto, some of the "big" Beethoven sonatas, or even Schubert's Wanderer Fantasy.

I'm also looking for some ways to address the shortcomings in my technique. Obviously, there's the usual scales, chords, arpeggios, etc. But I'd also like to try some more focused exercises to improve finger dexterity, accuracy, independence, fluidity, etc. I'm considering picking up Geoffrey Tankard's Pianoforte Technique On An Hour A Day. Any thoughts on this particular choice?

I'm a fairly analytical person ... so while the input of my teacher is most welcome, I like doing research on my own, and coming to an understanding (even if it's imperfect, incomplete, or even controversial) about how to approach the piano is something I'm going to enjoy doing. I look forward to participating in this forum for this reason.

ASR - I suggest you look up the online lessons of Graham Fitch and Dr John Mortensen. I think you will find them very useful.

Welcome to PW!

I have this book and also his Foundations of Piano Technique, and they both look very well organized. I haven't tried either myself because shortly after buying these books, I started piano lessons with a teacher and now having progressed to twice weekly lessons, I have no time for anything else outside what is assigned in the lessons.

Hello!
I'm brand new to Piano forum after lurking here for couple of months. I've returned to piano playing after nearly 30 years hiatus. I had 5 years of traditional music school as a child and then 3 more years with private teacher in my teens. I don't think I was good, but what I had was ease with the instrument. I wasn't afraid to play anything and could easily provide accompaniment on short notice and generally just enjoyed it all freely. After this long break I discovered that my hands and brain do not get along as nicely anymore. It's amazing how you can forget very basic things. After 3 months of doing it alone, I realized I need a teacher, so I found one. Now, just over a month with my teacher, I feel better about my slow progress back to whatever I can get back to at this point in my life, but I learned one thing so far - music is all in your brain, hands are just slaves…
Happy I found this wonderful resource for piano lovers!

Might as well jump on the train!

I've been around the PW forums since 2002 (originally as PianoMuse), but took a very long hiatus, so it's a joy to be back. I trained classically from the time I was 3, then studied piano performance in college and afterwards worked professionally. I studied with Seymour Bernstein among many others who really shaped my musicality (and my life!). Pianistically, I had a focus on the the late romantic and early modern composers.

While I truly, profoundly loved the piano, I hated the business side of music. I was playing hours upon hours a day, teaching, conducting, performing, accompanying, and it was exhausting. I realized that when I taught, I was far more interested in the psychology of practice, discipline, and emotional connection than I was in teaching music - and so became a psychologist instead! I've been working as such for over a decade, with a focus on trauma and pastoral care.

I walked away completely from music at the time, and didn't so much as touch a piano for over 10 years. In 2016, I started tinkering once a month or so. This January, I returned to playing as a hobby with a vengance. While I am RUSTY, most of what I learned remained, I am glad to find. I'm working with a phenomenal teacher local to me (Pennsylvania) and practicing a few hours a day on my new Yamaha N1X.

Currently I am working on Rachmaninoff's Corelli variations, having played the Chopin variations many years ago. I'm also finishing up Bach's English suite No 5, Beethoven's 13th sonata, a Mozart duet sonata, some Satie, and am deep in the middle of Mozart's piano concerto No 20 in d minor.

Anyway. Glad to be here!

Welcome, Amy!

I just saw Seymour at an Angela concert on Saturday night at the 92nd St Y in New York, where Angela played the Toccatas. He seems like such a sweet man. I don’t know him personally. How lucky that you studied with him! I have seen the Ethan Hawke film about Seymour and loved it. He will probably be there tonight, when Angela will be playing the English Suites 1-3.

I’m only an adult beginner on the piano. I played the violin for about ten years and the classical guitar for around eight or nine years, and still take lessons on the latter with a wonderful Juilliard-trained player. I started playing music too late in my life, I just never had any opportunities as a child, sadly, but I try hard.

Recently, I came to the realization that I would never play many of Bach’s keyboard works on the classical guitar, I have played some of the inventions in a duo, so, here I am, trying to learn how to play the piano. It is a humbling experience but I found a wonderful Russian teacher who delights in teaching people of all ages and levels.

Gosh, I miss those 92nd St Y concerts! I miss NYC in general. I live in horse country now, in the gently rolling hills of southern PA. Beautiful (and very inspiring when playing Beethoven), but my access to great concerts is a lot more limited. I miss lessons with Seymour, too...crammed in his wildly overstuffed apartment, with what seemed like a thousand priceless artifacts that he would gladly let me touch and hold and examine, haha. Like being in a really fun "please touch" museum. I still have a few tapes of our lessons hanging around, though I lost most of them.

Good for you for picking up the piano! I have teen daughters who are just coming to it now, and really enjoying it. I know what you mean about humbling - after having not played for so long, there is much that I can't seem to get right. It's humbling to say the least!

It’s not too far fetched to say that I stay in New York because of the music. Angela’s Bach series has been excellent. I was absolutely spellbound at the end of her Goldberg recital, as was everyone else in the audience. I don’t think anybody clapped for twenty seconds.

I actually have two classical guitar teachers, one for solo repertoire, and one for ensemble work. I bought this huge contra bass guitar, tuned the same as a classical guitar, with six strings, but tuned one octave lower. That way, I don’t have to learn to read bass clef on the guitar! ;-) Luckily, my ensemble guitar teacher lives three blocks from me so I wheel the contra guitar, nicknamed Babar, down the street on a cart for our rehearsals! I hope to join the New York City Guitar Orchestra in the Fall. Can you imagine that, we have such a thing! I look forward to playing fewer notes as the bass player but having more fun than the other players. Fewer notes, more fun, that’s my new motto.

It’s not easy to live here but once you find your little cell, you don’t want to leave. Like Seymour, I live in an overstuffed apartment, a one bedroom, with guitars, computers, books, a big stereo, vinyl albums, and now, a keyboard. I want a fine upright, maybe a Seiler with the nifty magnet action for faster repeated notes, although I am not sure I’ll ever be skilled enough to use that feature. Any thoughts on that?

I simply have no room for a grand. Do you have a grand? All the cool kids on here have grands. As it is, I’ll have to convince my wife to get rid of the credenza to make a place for an upright. The credenza holds mostly junk but it does hold my wife’s scarves, so, being a French woman, she’s going to fight me for that storage space. Haha! I have got to think of some alternative for her.

Pennsylvania is beautiful. We’ve been out to the Nakashima House in New Hope. I went thorough a period of trying to build furniture in a cabinetmaker’s shop and it was then that I visited their compound.
Have you been? There are a number of wonderful buildings there including a concert hall which has no support beams. The roof is a thin shell concrete structure, absolutely amazing.

Are you teaching your teen daughters? What books are you using? I made it through the first twenty six exercises in Bartok’s Mikrokosmos Volume I before starting with my Russian teacher. My teacher does not like it so I put it aside. She had me buy the Schaum PowerFinger? Exercises book and a book of first classics. I am glad I started with a teacher because I was stuck to the keyboard like a bug, terrified to move!

Oh my goodness, you got to hear her Goldbergs live? Oh I am VERY jealous. My goodness. Her version is right at the very top for me, right up with Feltsman.

Funnily enough, I actually CAN believe there is a guitar orchestra in NYC! I there is anywhere in the world where such a thing could exist, it would be there, wouldn't it! That sounds outrageously fun.

So, on the topic of crammed spaces, I don't have a grand, though oh how nice would that be. I just don't have the space. I've really fallen in love with the Yamaha Hybrid pianos - the are digital but have a natural action. The feel and sound is so wonderful, it's a little smaller than an upright, and you can plus headphones in! I find that to be the best feature (especially if you practice early or late at night and have close neighbors!). That's what I currently have - the Yamaha N1X. Grand piano action in a little package. It's worth wandering to a Yamaha dealer and checking it out if you get the chance. As for getting rid of the credenza - good luck, haha! I too collect scarves and well, sometimes you just need extra storage space

I daren't teach my own kids - I only have so much clout with them. They seem to respect a teacher who isn't "mom" FAR more, that's for sure!

It is certainly funny that your kids won’t recognize your expertise in playing the piano! I worked for IBM many years ago and I had a friend, a woman, who had an advanced degree in French. For some reason, management put a young guy in charge of the French translation effort for a product and he shared an office with my friend. He knew nothing about French. He was calling up people in France and asking them if the French language had accents, while my friend with the French degree looked on in disbelief!

If you collect scarves, you should know about this little place called TieCrafters that specializes in cleaning and repairing silk scarves and ties:

http://tiecrafters.com/

My wife worked for Hermès for a while and picked up a few nice scarves. No, they did not give them away to employees but they offered discounts once in a while.

I have to listen to the Feltsman Goldbergs! Thanks for the tip. I feel very lucky to have heard Angela play them. She has three concerts left in her series. She ends, appropriately, with The Art of the Fugue.

I still dream of an acoustic piano but perhaps I’ll get an N1X. I may lose the Battle of the Credenza. :-( I don’t dare let my piano noise mingle with the playing of my neighbor in the next building, whom I heard banging out Busoni’s transcription of Bach’s Chaconne on her grand one day. New York, you know.

I went to a GroupMuse where a violinist and harpsichordist played Bach’s last three sonatas for violin and harpsichord. The harpsichordist’s roommate is a theorbo player and the guy makes his living in New York playing the theorbo! How many places in the world can support a theorbo player?

Hello...

I've been on this forum for a while now...I've sort of lurked for a few years, but now I'm embarking on a project of recording 30 or so pieces and eventually putting them up on YouTube. I've gotten some excellent criticisms/feedback so far, so I just wanted properly introduce myself, and to say "thank you" and "hello".

I'm from Japan...I'm self-taught, and have been playing the piano for an odd decade and a half or so. I've been traveling a lot and have gotten the chance to visit many musical cities in Europe like Paris and Vienna. I've fallen in love with the music of a lot of different composers, and I just want to spend the next few weeks consolidating pieces that I've been playing (badly) and never gotten around to really practicing. I'm hoping to stay motivated throughout.

Nice to meet all of you.

Hello PianoYos, and everyone who snuck in while I wasn't looking (for a few weeks... ahem...) Nice to *meet* you. I love reading all the piano stories.

Hello. Joining after benefiting greatly from the insight and wisdom on this site for a while. Thank you all. Thank you, Piano World!

Consistent playing early 15 and recent 5 years (approx.), intermittent in between. Consider myself a student, not a master.

Chose stem_pianist name because Science/Technology/Engineering/Math is my educational background, career, and I find that yet another interesting dimension to the art, in additional to all the other wonderful aspects of this instrument.