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Originally posted by David Sprunger: Most memorable? I'd like to take this opportunity to drop a bomb on my brother for my most memorable piano moment:
I was about eight years old, in with my dad being a pastor, I knew I would someday play in church. We lived in a high mountain town which would get unreasonable amounts of snow in the winter. One Sunday it happened - none of the other piano players showed up. My dad gave me the opportunity to play through the first hymn. I butchered it, but at least I got the very last chord right.
My sweet brother Paul was kind enough to call out from the congregation "at least he got the last chord right".
Back at you Paul! Along the same vein: When I was 15, I accompanied my piano teacher as she sang O Holy Night one Christmas Eve. Was nervous and played sloppily. One of my dad's friends came up to me afterwards and said, "Hey fumblefingers." fumblefingers was taken when I signed up for PianoWorld.
If I had ever learnt, I should have been a great proficient.
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What a great thread!
I hope to have a few more but currently I think my most favourite was after my first recital at a piano camp when I finished without major flubs and went back to my seat with applause and fellow students complimenting me.
I've had moments at lessons when my teacher went "wow" you've really worked on that piece/section. They are very special as well because he isn't one to shower me with praise so I know it's well deserved.
It's the journey not the destination..
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I’ve had several memorable moments…mostly those when, after struggling through weeks and months of practice, there comes that day when I can play a composition... perfectly! But this one falls into the category of “Can you top this?†Last April, I was invited to the Polish Embassy in Washington D.C. to attend a performance of M. Chopin starring Hershey Felder. I was sitting in the very first row, right in front of a huge grand that sounded unbelievable. (Of course, Hershey had a lot to do with this.) Later, I found out that the piano once belonged to Paderewski. Then, at the urging of a friend, I hopped on the stage and actually played the first five measures of Chopin’s a minor waltz on PADEREWSKI’S piano!! The second super moment has to be attending the performance of "M. Chopin." When Mr. Felder, as Chopin, walked on stage in the attire of the day, I got the chills. For the next 60 minutes, Chopin was alive, talking and playing his music for us. It was magical!! Kathleen
Chopin’s music is all I need to look into my soul.
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Chopin’s music is all I need to look into my soul.
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One of the most memorable "piano" moments I recall was during a question and answer session after a jazz concert at the college I attended. Dick Hyman was the piano player. My smart a** trumpet instructor asked Dick, "Don't you think the piano is too loud?" I love Hyman's reply:
"That depends on whether you're a piano player," he said with a smile.
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I just reminded myself of another memorable moment, though not piano related. When I was in high school about 1977 or 1978, Dizzy Gillespie was in town for a concert at another high school auditorium. There were considerable "technical difficulties" during the evening concerning microphones that quit working. After changing mics several times, Dizzy walked out into the audience carrying the most recent non-working microphone. He handed it to an audience member and said, "Here ya go. Have a microphone." That comment brought the house down.
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I inherited my grandmother's baby grand piano when she died. When it arrived at my house many months later - it still smelled strongly of my grandmothers house (violets) and invoked all sorts of memories that were otherwise lost... She was the originator of wonderful phrases such as: (when hearing the 'winterwind') "nobody could play that, it must be a recording" and (upon welcoming you to her house) "take a seat and walk about"...
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Wow what a lot of nice stories. I almost fell out laughing at Cathy's story. I'm still laughing. I don't have any true memorable ones yet but I do have 2 that I think about often. The first time I played in front of anybody besides my teacher was when I went on vacation to PR and my friends who I was staying with had a keyboard. I was practicing my Malguena, watered down version of course and my friends were humming and singing to it. That's the first time I felt a lot of my inhibition go away. The second one was with my current piano teacher. We have so much fun, so much in fact that her husband comes out every now and then and says "You guys are just having too much fun, all I hear is the giggling" Anyway I was playing for my piano teacher and I hit a wrong chord somewhere and being the brilliant teacher that she is, noticed it right away and said "What happened to that chord?" I said "I don't know Miss Lydia, I think because you have a grand piano, it has more keys than mine". We laughed hysterically and she still brings it up everytime I hit a wrong chord or note which is often.
Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear, Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair.>>> Herman Munster
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Oh my gosh...how could I forget this one!
I was actually on the same stage with Artur Rubinstein!!
The concert was all sold out, so they put folding chairs on the stage. My chair was right in the front (funny how I always manage to get those front row seats), and I was sitting about 10 feet away from him. I was so excited I don't even remember what he played. Chopin, of course...and some other pieces, but my head was in the clouds.
Kathleen
Chopin’s music is all I need to look into my soul.
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I would have to say it was when I bought my new digital yamaha clavinova home without my wife knowing. When she got home she just yelled and screamed for at least 2 hours. Didn't feel like playing at that time. :rolleyes: Peter
Ok..Ok... If you don't want your Steinway give it to me !!!!
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But she got over it eventually, right?
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Oh ya... Trying to hint every now and then that an acoustic will eventually come into the picture ... Ouch....
Peter
Ok..Ok... If you don't want your Steinway give it to me !!!!
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So many memories are tied to pianos, but this one I cherish more than others: Ingrid Bjoner was going to sing in the Norwegian Seaman's church, and our mutual friend Eva Gustavson asked me to accompany her. I said "NO WAY AM I PLAYING FOR A WORLD RENOWNED DIVA!!!" But she conned me into it, and I perspired my way through the rehearsals. Good Lord, it was only "O Holy Night" and "Joy to the World", but I am not at all that good a pianist. At the finish, I turned to Ingrid Bjoner and said: Well, at least now I can add to my resume that I have played for Ingrid Bjoner! She smiled back at me and said: And I can put on my resume that I have sung with YOU! She was the most delightful lady, down to earth without any prima donna manners. Later, we lunched at Eva's house where the dog in our absence had eaten a pound of Norwegian candy which Ingrid had brought as a little Christmas present. Eva was heartbroken, but Ingrid just laughed and pointed out that the dog needed a little Christmas cheer, too.
Some men are music lovers. Others make love without it.
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When I was a teenager, I learned my first ragtime time piece (Maple Leaf Rag) and played it for our 80+-year-old piano tuner, Mr. Lurch, when he came that year to tune the piano. After I played it I looked at him, and he seemed to be tearing up. He said that his father, also a piano tuner, had always played that song, and it was his all-time favorite.
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Originally posted by ChatNoir: So many memories are tied to pianos, but this one I cherish more than others: Ingrid Bjoner was going to sing in the Norwegian Seaman's church, and our mutual friend Eva Gustavson asked me to accompany her. I said "NO WAY AM I PLAYING FOR A WORLD RENOWNED DIVA!!!" But she conned me into it, and I perspired my way through the rehearsals. Good Lord, it was only "O Holy Night" and "Joy to the World", but I am not at all that good a pianist. At the finish, I turned to Ingrid Bjoner and said: Well, at least now I can add to my resume that I have played for Ingrid Bjoner! She smiled back at me and said: And I can put on my resume that I have sung with YOU! She was the most delightful lady, down to earth without any prima donna manners. Later, we lunched at Eva's house where the dog in our absence had eaten a pound of Norwegian candy which Ingrid had brought as a little Christmas present. Eva was heartbroken, but Ingrid just laughed and pointed out that the dog needed a little Christmas cheer, too. Thank you for sharing this delightful memory.
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Nobody listens like Mom.
I could probably think of some other moments that might seem greater than this, but it having happened somewhat recently, it's still fresh in my mind. And honestly, I can't think of a reason in the world why this wouldn't be tops.
I suppose we can all relate to playing piano in front of people who don't have much of an appreciation for piano or piano playing. I've seen it happen many times when someone is coaxed to play and the aforementioned listener takes it in and for a brief moment is mildly fascinated and at least a little impressed that someone can play, but it's just a very short time before a little conversation begins, distraction sets in, and the playing becomes background music.
Most folks don't recognize that humble little amateur pianists like ourselves are usually conquering anywhere from a small to a very large amount of fear to even sit down in front of anyone to play. Our minds go blank and we forget parts that we normally play without mistake. And they unknowingly are disrespectful by ignoring us while we feel like one of the Walendas tightroping it between the World Trade Centers on a windy day.
And then there's Mom.
Recently my whole family got together during the holidays and at a point during the evening gathered around the piano. My family is quite musical, almost all members play music and my dad and I even played professionally for years (though not piano). So my sister, who had achieved a quite respectable level of accomplishment through lessons as a child, got up and played the pieces she remembered from childhood. Then my 11-year old nephew who is just learning played a little, and my 83 year old father sat down and played the one song he knew (White Christmas). Finally I sat down (I've returned to playing and lessons of late) and played a couple of pieces I had just got down pretty well and I looked over and there was my 80 year old Mom - who doesn't play - with a lone tear streaming down her cheek, a crinkled up, holding back the tears kind of smile on her face.
Mom? You OK?
She announced that she was so proud that so many of her family could play piano that it made her cry with joy. She was so happy that she had introduced us to piano and had us take lessons as children and that music was such an important part of our family.
Now when she comes over to my house and listens to me play, she's the only one who never says a word, and listens to every note, pulling for me the whole way through, like only a mom can. And maybe she cries just a little too.
Needless to say, there's no one I'd rather play for than my mom.
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That's a beautiful story.
If I had ever learnt, I should have been a great proficient.
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I think mine would have to be attending a Ludovico Einaudi concert in Edinburgh this year. It was memorable for several reasons - he is one of my favourite composers, and I had been looking forward to the concert for a few months Then, on the day of the concert, things started to go wrong. I was a few hundred miles away, spending the day with friends before heading towards Edinburgh for the concert. Sure enough, there were traffic problems, and I spent the last 50 miles with my foot to the floor (tut, tut!). Then I had to navigate through the city as fast as possible. I convinced myself that it would all be in vain, that I wouldn't make it. But I did! And the best part of the whole experience? Hearing a concert grand piano live for the first time
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When I was young, we frequently went to a restaurant that had a two story room next to the bar area called "the carousel room". It had a grand piano and a gentleman who traveled from chicago to play on weekend evenings.
I would plop down next to him and request all sorts of songs which he was happy to play, and I always asked for my fav. - music box dancer. Sometimes, he would invite me to sit at the piano and play for him (if it wasn't too crowded). He once gave me a little pocket bible with an note of inspiration written to me on the inside cover (I still have it).
It had probably been 12 years since I had been been to the restaurant, when my husband and I were invited to a wedding reception there. Sure enough, he was still at that piano, in at least his late 80's. I walked into the room, he looked up, smiled, and began playing Music Box Dancer. Talk about teary, I couldn't believe that he had remembered me. He has since passed away, but I will always think about his kindness and be inspired by his words.
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What a great topic.
My memorable moment would be, when I first visited musical library in my university. There is a small room only for listening to the music, and the first music I listened to was Rachmaninoff Piano concerto. I wasn't htere for an hour I guess..
It is, of course, a man that would be around us til the end. However, it is music that would be with us constantly, that never betrays us.
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Piano
by Gino2 - 04/17/24 02:34 PM
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Piano
by Gino2 - 04/17/24 02:23 PM
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