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Hi, I'm new here. I started playing piano when I was fifteen. For a few years I stoppped and now I've started up again. Piano is my second instrument, violin is my first.

I'll write a quick intro before I post my question on the board... I did the whole competitive pianist thing throughout my childhood/teens. I loved it, but later turned down a scholarship to Eastman because I just didn't want to make it my life's work, you know?

Fast-forward 25 years, and I have no regrets. I perform occasionally in local concerts and that's enough for me. (although I admit that I've had a few "wow, what if..." moments when I've heard my former competitors playing on NPR!)

I lurk on this forum semi-regularly but don't post since I am sure I lack the education of so many here. I hope someone will respond to the thread I'm about to start.

I studied piano from age 9 to 15 and then my interest moved to other things (computers and Math, mostly). I continued playing casually through the years, and at the age of 30 I took some more lessons and got significantly better at it. To give you an idea of my skill level, I can play the first two pieces in Albéniz's suite Iberia ("Evocación" and "El Puerto") but I find the rest of the pieces too challenging.

I have only posted in these forums to ask for advice before buying pianos (I now have a Schimmel 189BE that I am really happy with and I just bought a used Kawai RX-6 that I still haven't had time to really play).

As for the type of music I play, I seem to gravitate towards Albéniz, Debussy, Mompou and Padre Donostia. Recently I've been playing some Rachmaninoff and a bit of Chopin.

If I ever find the time I would love to learn to improvise, particularly jazz. But I am afraid I might be too old now (mid thirties).

Hello Piano World

My name is Lee & i have always wanted to play piano since i was a child. I am currently learning (2 years of practice) classical guitar & have just got a cheap keyboard. I want to learn piano for myself but i really want to get my teenage niece into music. She does not want to learn the techniques at the moment or reading the notations. If i can learn the basics i know i can help her & not force her away with endless scales etc.

I play guitar so i can read music but i have a problem with the bass staff. I know i have only just started on piano so I'm not expecting miracles. I find reading the bass staff stops me dead in my tracks & i have to work out the notes.

I have a question if anyone can help...
Is there any rhyme that will help me remember the ledger lines on the bass staff? Any advice or tips on this subject would be greatly appreciated

I am very excited to be learning piano & can't wait to play along with my niece. Also i know this forum will help me with all the experienced members it has.

Hi to everybody,

my name is Bernd, 54, I am german, engineer, did the german "Haus Baum Sohn" thing (built a house, no two, planted a tree, no nine, and mad.. hrmm have a son of 22 yrs.

I am not fully new here as I posted in the piano forum several times and also posted a little bit in the technicians division. ;-)

Ending 2009 I had worked a very lot and my pocket was too full (two times saved xmas money) and I strolled along to get a new digital piano, replacing my Yamaha DX-7 synthesizer, adding my G. Adam upright from 1909.

I now own my third piano. My first I took from a classmate in highschool when he ovccasionally got a new piano - I convinced the transporters to transprt the old one to my parents' house who knew nothing.. And the piano did not match through the staircase.. At last it matched - disasembled.

My second piano was a gift from my bro-in-law who had mastered his university exam as an organ player and choir leader for the catholic church, had married my sister, they went to another town and also bought a new piano. I got his old one, the G. Adam, Wesel upright.

29 yrs. later.. having learned one year piano lessons, having played the ragtime of Scott Joplin only, had dreamt on Chopin's music but thought it were too difficult for me.. Then I saw a waltz occasionally at my bro-in-laws home, thought that I could do this piece, turned the page - SHOCK - Chopin!!! I can play it! YESSS! I was so happy.. I bought note sheets of Chopin and learned.

Now, five years later - I strolled to music shops, looked into the internet, saw also ebay, also acoustic pianos - and saw the web shop of a big pianoshop some 30 mls away, offering 200 pianos of which 50 were grands.. Strolled along there. 't was an eye opener. I always hat thought that I would buy a grand when I were 60 or 65 - the eyeopener was that I yed HAD the money for a grand whose place was kept free since 20 yrs in our living room..

The search ended in the fulfilling of my dream which I thought had to wait some other 5 or 10 yrs: a grand. Looked ebay - three days later my heart got an attack - a Steinway grand - super old, super big.. A real Formula One class piano, Nine Footer Sailing Class.. I occasionally found THE piano, a super old Steinway concert grand, this quite famous "Centennial D" type.. It surprised me deeply when I was curious how such a piano might sound, when I visited a small piano workshop near the railway station in Hannover, Germany. It produced an ending chord to the Recuerdos de la Alhambra from Tarrega, A major, and the end chord lasted nearly five minutes.. .. It was Heaven on Earth. I did not choose a piano – ohh no.. The big black fat male singing cat from Manhattan’s street has built in the soul of a poor pianomaker. He had sold it to the Devil of Sounds. The cat has found a new servant.. to nurse him the next 30 yrs.

..this writing the happiest hobby pianist on Planet Earth.

:-)

I took lessons from my father, a professional organist, from 2nd grade through high school. Five years of that I took organ lessons also, and played in a church. That got me very used to playing in public.

Fast forward a few decades, and I decided to take piano lessons again. It's very rewarding and fun. I'm not terribly serious, practicing about 20-30 minutes many days of the week.

For the equipment fans: I have the family Mason & Hamlin AA, c. 1919. For an old piano it is in relatively good condition. It's been played a LOT, for hours every day when the large family was growing up. It has an interesting effect: when you slightly press the una corda pedal, there is a "fuzzy", almost harpsichord-like effect. It may be inappropriate, but I love it. It's almost like another stop.

For the music fans: I'm working on Cesar Franck's "Prelude, Chorale and Fugue" -- probably a 4 year project. I'm over 2 years into it already.

Hi I am Frank. I have been playing since I was 12. I played until I got out of College. Did a couple of jobs playing piano at restaurants and some recording. Pretty much stopped playing until my 50th birthday. I started taking lessions from a local college professor. I have started back up in the Bach two part inventions and some Chopin Noctunes. In addition I play some soft jazz. I now own a 1994 Baldwin Hamilton upright and a Kawai MP6 stage piano. I have at my office a 1973 Fender Rhodes 88 piano. Since some people wander off and smoke, I just take piano breaks. I am an IT Manager for a fortune 500 company. Both of my daughter play piano and one is currently majoring in music education. I do look forward to following and contributing to this board.

I stumbled across this forum recently. I have had a few lessons, but never took lessons on a regular basis. Mostly I would play easy classical pieces, but ran into a problem when I couldn't play two against three. Somehow the bug bit and I decided I was going to learn how. Next I was trying to tackle three against four and then other rhythms. It took about four years of this before it became natural. Anyway, I found it really easy to improvise and ended up composing a number of pieces. None are published but only for my own amusement. I have been pursuing polyrhythms for 21 years now.

My current piano is a Yamaha P140 which I use with a Yamaha MU-15 sound module. In the past I had an upright piano. Just about a year ago, I took up the bass guitar as a challenge. Dave

Hello,

I have been lurking on this forum for a year but recently decided to join and participate in the conversations. I am a college student studying to be a commercial pilot but was a piano major for a few years prior to obtaining my medical certificate. Other hobbies of mine include reviewing wine and cigars for a few online publications. I look forward to contributing here.

Respectfully,
Tritones

I started to play piano when I was about five. I went through about 3 teachers before I found out who I liked. I was recently into Jazz, but Georges Cziffra has caught my eye now. I enjoy pieces that Franz Liszt wrote, and although I can't reach that far yet, I do wish to learn the Hungarian Rhapsody no.2 sometime in the future.

Nonsense!! You are hardly over the hills at the mid thirties. I just turned age 63, and re-started piano practice a few months ago after a 30-year "recess". I am finding that learning new things can be more fun as an adult.

Hi Folks

Ive just signed up for these forums - great to see so many fellow piano lovers here.

Im Rich, 41 years of age and living in Birmingham, England. I've been playing piano on and off since age 9 and have done lots of different types of music over the years, from Orchestra Choruses to Beach Boys covers bands!

I was taught in the usual classical style, but lost interest with that for a while and got into guitar based music and then later electronic music. I returned to the piano a few years ago when I started writing my own music and now I play and compose most days and self released an album of my music in 2009.

Music is still a hobby for me at the moment (im also a booking agent in stand up comedy) but I am working towards building a full time music career in the future (encompassing composing, performing and teaching)

please do have a listen to my music - its melodic and meditative - www.richbatsford.com/music

my main influences are beethoven, vaughan williams, satie, steve reich and electronica.

looking forward to diving in to more conversations here over the time and hopefully making some new friends

Rich

HI, I have been playing paino for about 3 1/2 years(I am at a much higher level though). music is my life:)

Hi I am a new member here as well! I t's great the way you and me can inteact with other users and help them out with their pieces! I play piano and I am on Grade 7. I am 17 and when I am finished school I want to do a B.a. in Music Performance Degree and then after that maybe a Masters Degree in College/University. I really want to become a concert pianist when I'm older. Please take a look at my post "Music(Piano)Performance College" and reply to it and give me all of the advice you can! I want my dream to come true!
ALSO! View my post "Bach Invention No.13 in A Minor" and reply and help me get better with that left hand and speed it up so COMMENT, COMMENT, COMMENT!! ha

View my YouTube channel:(NEW PIECES UPLOADED DAILY..) http://www.youtube.com/ClassicalMusicPiano and tell me what you think of me!
Bye for now and hope to talk to you all very soon!

Nice work! you should work on your melody phrasing, singing it helps find where to stop and start.

Thanks, my name is Jerry (new member), I have played piano for 35 years, am self-taught, and play exclusively from Lead Sheets. I can't read the bass clef but it has never stopped me from playing. I currently play at two restaurants and volunteer weekly at a local hospital and monthly at a nursing home. I just finished making my first CD at a local studio and I'm 72 years old. My favoriate passtime is visiting piano stores. I am a tone nut. My piano is a Steinway B but I love many other brands have fun hearing all the different sounds from various brands and sizes.

hello everyone! I've recently moved to the Arlington, VA/metro D.C. area for work, and am trying desperately to find a place to practice in the area! if anyone has any spots/tips, it would be much appreciated!

as for me, my baby grand is up in PA, and I have to wait until I get a bigger place to ship it down. I haven't played competitively for a few years now, but previously I attended the Lancaster Conservatory (PA), the Peabody Prep (Peabody Conservatory, MD), and did my undergrad work at Bucknell University. Then obviously moved to Los Angeles to work at a record label, ha...

Cheers!

Hey all! I'm a 33 year old musican "lifer" who recently stumbled upon pianoworld due to a renewed obsession with the piano over the last few years. I played for a few years as a child, but switched over to violin at an early age as my folks didn't/couldn't have space for a piano. My subsequent musical background entailed classical violin for about 10 years, and guitar from high school to now (morphing from rock to folk to jazz to whatever...). About four years ago, I got the means to get my own piano, and haven't looked back since. I'm particularly obsessed with late Romanticism to early 20th century Impressionism (All of the many schisms of Scriabin are rocking my world right now, though they don't conveniently fit into either/any category...). Anyway, this is a long winded way of saying, "hello"!

Cheers, 18 year old pianist here, live in Colorado. I've had lessons at the University of Colorado at Boulder for 4 years and going there as a freshman in the fall. We'll see after my first year if I can stand Colorado any longer (lived here my whole life) because my ideal would be to transfer after a year or two to Peabody or the likes. We'll see...
Have a Yamaha C3 that I love. Working on Chopin Etudes now as a project to build a solid technique and Waldstein. Recently into Scarlatti Sonatas- so much fun in those pieces! I'm also suddenly really into Strauss' Salomé... go figure. My tastes can vary month to month
Oh and my favorites are Gilels, Richter, Yudina, Pogorelich, Gould (sometimes), Hough, Argerich and Wild. And so many others.

Heyy, 17 year old from Singapore here, I've played the piano since I was 6 (yeah I'm Asian, stereotype's perfectly valid), but I didn't like it very much because it was only ever drilling for exams (stereotype's still perpetuating). I only really started gaining interest in the piano and music in general 2 years ago, but in that time I think I've learnt more than I have in the previous 9 years or so. Rather strangely it started with wanting to learn how to play by ear so I could cover pop songs, but I've since gravitated more towards classical stuff, as well as trying to learn to improvise the best I can (with covers of songs thrown in from time to time still though). My favourite composer's Rachmaninoff, and favourite pianists are Argerich and Richter, if that information's vaguely relevant.