Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Newbie here...

Hello everyone. I joined the Piano World Forum yesterday and I thought it proper to introduce myself. Background: I took piano lessons when I was in my teens (early 70's). In 1987 I bought a Mason & Hamlin Baby Grand. In 1991 my piano teacher died and with her died my interest in playing the piano. After that, life got in the way a couple of times. In 1997, I had to place my piano in Public Storage. In 2004, I rescued it and brought it into our newly bought house. After all these years (and after the piano just sitting in the living room for the past few years), my desire to play again was rekindled. I recently have been trying to practice everyday, at least a little bit. It was while following some links in Chang's book "Fundamentals of Piano Practice" that I came across this site; and here I am. Thank you for having me.

Clemente

Welcome to PianoWorld, Clemente.

Good to have you here. The more the merrier.

If your eyes get tired of reading, you can also listen to Chang\'s book .

I also took lessons (although not for very long) about 20 years ago and have recently began taking lessons again (about six months ago). What type of music interests you?

Welcome to PianoWorld, Clemente.

Good to have you here. The more the merrier.

If your eyes get tired of reading, you can also listen to Chang's book.

I also took lessons (although not for very long) about 20 years ago and have recently began taking lessons again (about six months ago). What type of music interests you?
------------------------------
Akira, thank you for the welcome. Also thank you for the tip about listening to the book. I will look into that later today!

I have not taken lessons since 1989. Even though I am now practicing every day, I am still not taking lesson. I have been searching and I think that I have found a place at which I would like to start taking lesson again.

My type of music is classical, but I would not mind at all playing some jazz, blues, ragtime.

Again, thank you!

Clemente

Welcome to the forum, Clemente! I just love your avatar, by the way... did you design that yourself?

I'm very happy to hear that you rescued your M&H out of storage and are playing it again.

Welcome to the forum, Clemente! I just love your avatar, by the way... did you design that yourself?

I'm very happy to hear that you rescued your M&H out of storage and are playing it again.

-------------------------
Thank you very much for the welcome Monica K. Also thank you for liking my avatar. Yes I designed it and created it myself. I needed something for this forum, so I made a quick animation with a musical theme.

About quick jobs... I uploaded onto my web site a clip of me practicing the piano. It is just a hidden web page inside the actual site. I simply removed some stuff from one of the pages, dumped the clip onto it, unlinked that page, saved it with a different name, and that was it. I shall call that page my introduction to this forum. I will leave it there for a little while and then delete it. Here is the link, but promise me that you will not laugh.

http://www.clementelopez.com/ClementePianoPracticeTemp.html

I hope that the link works and you can view the clip. Thank you again for the welcome.

Clemente

I enjoyed your playing, Clemente. Thank you for sharing. Such a sad story about your former piano teacher. I have no doubt she will live in your heart for the rest of your life.

Keep playing.

Hi Clemente, and welcome to the forum.

I went to your page and love the pictures but the clip didn't work for me.

I'm so sorry about your teacher, she sounds so much like my current teacher, spanish, brilliant and so giving.

I hope you have fun again.

Loly

Hi, Clemente I like your "hidden" page and your avatar.... and your playing! Looking forward to reading your posts.

Akira, thank you for your visit.
About my former teacher... Yes, those were sad times, but I am honoring her memory by going back to playing the piano.

Loly, I am sorry that the clip did not play for you. I only tested it in IE... It is supposed to open with Windows Media Player.

You are very lucky to have such a teacher. Special piano teachers of that nature do not come around that often. What is the saying?... "They don't make them like that anymore." Of course, that is not true; it just seems that way.

I am, indeed, having fun with this again. Thank you.

Clemente

Amygdala, you are very kind with your words. Thank you for that and for your visit.

Clemente, your clip works perfectly for me, and I do not use Internet Explorer. Very nice playing, and a nice setting for it. One question, though; is it safe to have your piano so close to a heating unit? Your teacher obviously taught you well, and it seems that you haven't forgotten much in the years you weren't playing.

EDIT: I hadn't yet read the text. Sorry, I didn;t realize the video was shot some time ago. Good playing, nonetheless.

Now that I have read the entire text of your page, I can comment further. The experience you recall with your teacher is truly sad. I cannot imagine how sad she must have felt about losing here ability to play suddenly like that.

On the brighter side, welcome back to music. I, too, took a long break from playing (longer than yours) although my reasons were more mundane than yours. By the way, my wife was born and grew up in Cuba although not in Havana.

Clemente,

Wow nice playing. I opened it in firefox and the little clip showed up and played nicely.

Not sure why my IE won't play or even show it. It's my work computer so no biggy. I'll have to check it out at home as well.

Hi Clemente - I really enjoyed your playing, and the hidden page!, as well. Very sorry for the loss of your teacher.

Welcome to the forums!

Hi Clemente,

I studied in the conservatory in Havana in the 70's so I found your post interesting.
I am glad you decided to play again. I am trying to get back into it myself. Do you play Lecuona and Cervantes?

Hi Dennis,

Thank you for visiting, for your posts, and for your question. I was also concerned about that heating unit. But that is not all. I have a double whammy...The piano is surrounded...not only by the heating unit you previously saw, but there is a fireplace to the right of the piano.



I asked Mr. Willis about the heat issue and he said that the piano was okay where it was. I only use the fireplace towards the end of November (Thanksgiving) and during Christmas. That's about it.



Mr. Willis is very knowledgeable. He used to be a piano teacher himself and gave it up to become a piano tuner. He has told me many things. One of those things was that Billy Joel had in his contract that every time he (Joel) was to give a concert in the tri-State area, it had to be Mr. Willis the person to tune his piano. He seems to be a very honest gentleman and I do not think that he is fibbing.

The period of time that I was concerned about this piano getting damaged was when I had to place it in storage. What a nightmare that was! I was always expecting the sprinkler system to come on at any time due to fire somewhere in the building. Because of that, I had a green tarp over it, just in case. I do not think that it would have helped that much, though. But it made me feel better.



I used to go to the cubicle just to check on it from time to time and pat it on its side. It felt like visiting a sick friend at the hospital.

Well, same as your wife, I was born in Cuba. I lived there until the age of 14 when my family and I came to the States in 1968.

Again, Dennis, thank you.

Clemente

Loly, I am glad that you were able to view the clip. Thank you!

Clemente

Hi saerra,

That is so kind of you. Thank you! I thought long and hard before posting that clip. I know that the playing is not good, and I was embarrassed. But, it was the only thing I had to share. You, and all the people here are so encouraging that is giving me back the desire to get good at this! Thank you for that, and for the welcome.

Clemente

Hi ibolano-todd,

You are very lucky. There is so much musical history attached to that conservatory. I know this through my teacher. I never visited the place.

Yes, I decided to dive head first into it for the second time. I fear that now at the age of 53 (54 this coming July) my fingers are not as agile as they were when I was 17, but I am furiously working at it. I make it a point to practice at least 2 hours a day, more on weekends. I need to make up for lost time...and I am keeping a log!

Yes, I played Lecuona. Cervantes not that much. It was my piano teacher who introduced me to Cervantes' music. She told me that as a child, Cervantes was taken to see L.M. Gottschalk so that the latter could listen to the child play. Gottschalk told Cervantes' father that the boy was a brilliant pianist and would one day be famous. Last year I heard on WQXR (New York's Classical radio station, on the program "The Piano in comparative performance") Cervantes' La Carcajada. That is one that I used to play (again, I was 17 LOL!) Another one I played was La Glorieta and the last one solo piece was El Velorio. But the reason why I studied those three pieces was that my teacher approached me with the idea of learning the last three pieces from his book...the ones which were written for piano-four hands. We were to perform it at a benefit concert held at a church (I forgot what church...it carried the name of a male saint; that is all I remember) on West End Avenue in Manhattan. We did. Then I decided to learn those pieces I previously mentioned.

Lecuona, absolutely!! During my third year of piano study I was itching to play Lecuona. My teacher kept telling me that I was not ready for it yet. So, I started learning La Comparsa on my own. One day I arrived early for my lesson, sat at the piano and played it. She was upstairs and rushed down the stairs and stood there. I did not look up. Even after I finished playing. I kept looking at the keyboard. I was so ashamed that I had learned it behind her back. At that point she started telling about all the other "little things" that Lecuona added to the piece when he played it and were not written on the published score. Then it was okay for me to learn the other compositions by Lecuona. That was the same way I got her to allow me to play popular music. She was very adamant about that. She said that I had to first learn and acquire the classical technique. After that, I could play anything I wanted. Again, behind her back, I learned Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag. I played it for her once...the same way I had done with Lecuona. Then she went out and purchased a book with a few of his rags arraged for piano-four hands, and we did that as well.

Aren't you sorry you asked? LOL! I am sorry for the long post...and thank you!

Clemente