This question for all, although my interest began with Kawaigirl.
Her beautiful style, and competence is something to strive to.
How long learning, how much practise, what methods etc. How to choose what to learn, to get to that wonderful standard?
It does seem a bit personal, but I do wonder what kind of people you all are on the forum. Do you work, do you have families, can you really devote the time to the piano you feel you want to. If this is too personal, just the piano question will answer my questions. Thanks. Shey

I am 39 years old, and married.
My wife and I have two children, a 20 year old son and 7 year old daughter.
I work full time.
Given the opportunity, I could easily spend 3 or more hours per day on piano.
I try not to let piano take time away from my family,
so usually my practice time is in lieu of much needed sleep.
The middle of May will mark 1 year of piano for me, and I will meet only 1 of 3 very reasonable goals I set for myself.
Lack of time and lack of focus are my biggest culprits.

Thanks Trirych, interesting that you set yourself goals. I am one year into piano in June, I didn't know what goals to set origially it was just for fun and then became much more. You can't do much about time, but try to keep focused. Shey

I am 54 years old, wanted to play the piano all my life. I let my teacher pick my music for the most part but I get my panties in a twist occasionally for things like The Sabbath Prayer in Fiddler on the Roof or Tennessee Waltz. But I have found if I jump to far above my abilities I get discourged so I allow myself to be teacher dependent. I also depend on her to have expectations of me as well. I also depend on her to tell me when I am done with a piece because I find my standards are so much less than hers and if I go to her standard, I can play the piece again with little or no effort later. I practice mostly because I love it. I try to do it inbetween the time my husband leaves for work and when I leave for work. I spend about l0 to l5 minutes on each piece. I unfortunately lack the discipline to take the piece apart and work on the hard parts without the surrounding areas. I have started inviting friends who play the piano over for tea and playing. I find that I have a horrible time with performance even in the more comfortable environments. It is very frustrating to me. My teacher talks about it being such a vulnerable place sharing a piece which touches your soul. I look forward to retirement because I would love to play much more. I still after five years go through times when I think to myself that i will never meet the goals I have set as modest as they are. But every year I get closer and closer. That is to sit down at the piano and play music that pleases me with little or no effort. So I try not to buckle under my discouragement and just say to myself that I need to be discouraged a total of six months prior to quitting lessons and my discouragement lasts only days at a time. Sheesh. I am sure this more than you wanted to know. Thanks for asking. Happy

I am 46 years old, am married and have three 11-year old boys (all three also take piano). I teach part-time, about 20 hours a week.

I took piano about six years as a child/teenager, then quit but fiddled with it off and on as an adult. When I was 40, I decided to go back to it to earn a Sonata award from the Piano Guild--a plaque they give you for playing 5 complete Sonatas from memory (no matter how poorly you play them, apparently). It took three years, and I thought I'd quit after that, but I decided to continue on and that was three years ago. I thought it was a bit decadent to play without a goal in mind, but now I proudly tell people I take lessons and practice every day, no matter what they think. I try to set goals for myself, but my teacher would like me to be less goal-oriented and more "play from the heart." That's definitely not me, so I am working on it.

Nancy

I picked up the piano again in Dec 05, althought I did take piano lessons as a child for almost 10 years.
I am curently self taught so at this point the dreaded red dot is my teacher. I do have a full time job which is quite demanding. So during the weekdays I usually have no more than 20 minutes of piano time at most. I try to do all my household chores during weeknights so I can have more piano time on the weekend. I usually practise for about 6-7 hours on the weekend.
The pieces that I like to learn are pieces that I enjoy listening to. I find that if it's a piece that I enjoy, once I learn the piece, I'll be able to play it from the heart rather than just playing notes.

How did I get where I am? Well, I spent many years floundering about half-way learning different instruments. Never focused on one genre. Had no program or set goals. Didn't know how to learn. Didn't have access to good teachers (or didn't have enough sense to seek them out).

After a lifetime of doing that, I finally settled in and just decided to be lazy.

It has gotten me where I am.

I am fifty-nine, married, with one independent twenty-four year old son. I am gradually phasing myself out of the workforce after having been a programmer and IT manager for the manufacturing industry for twenty-eight years. The drive to play and create music, particularly through improvisation, has always been very strong and has tended to make time for itself regardless of life events. I have never had the slightest desire to be in the music business. This is probably just as well because, until I posted on music forums, I had no idea just how very differently I think about music and piano playing.

I will be 41 this May 4th (so start saving for a present!) :p and have been with the lovely Mrs Hunky for almost 23 years.

Both of us were very lucky to heavily invest in Arizona acreage real estate many years ago and are now selling off some of the land.

I have been hacking at piano for almost three years now and most likely know much less than most students after just a month or so.

This is because I can only read simple music and must improvise to make up for that. I really have no intentions on learning to read any better as the improvising part is what I really like to do.

I do not take any lessons and disregard much of the written score and signatures in an attempt to make a piece my own. (I know this is a pretty bold statement from a hack, but you've gotta start somewhere right?!)

We have a very small Llama ranch which we run just for fun. It is not a business but rather a passion for my wife as she loves to weave and spin the fiber.

We are currently living on our investments so I guess that makes me a bum of sorts!

Wow, you guys are really inspiring me with the amount of time you spend practicing!
I'm single, work full time and also am studying law. Between law school, work and the regular household "stuff" that we all have to do, I'm lucky if I get 30 minutes a day, and maybe an hour on Saturdays and Sundays.

Part of the reason I joined this forum was to help me get motivated to spend MORE time at the piano and less of my free time goofing off.

I'm 50, work part time, volunteer as an ESL tutor, and look after my husband, dog, home and garden. I'd love to have more time for piano but I really enjoy the time I do have, which is about 45-60 minutes a day.

Choosing pieces is difficult. I try to play only music I enjoy - life's too short to spend time learning things that don't appeal to me. But I don't play only pieces I know, because I like the challenge of taking on something I've never heard and having to figure it out from scratch. I spend quite a lot of time looking through my books and picking out pieces I think will help me to learn something new or consolidate something that's shaky, but if I play something for a couple of weeks and just don't like it very much I put it aside. I do have a rule though that if it has some technical challenge in it that I'm having trouble with, the piece I replace it with has to be similarly challenging. (As my husband often remarks, I'm a "thin end of the wedge" person .)

Donna

Hi,
Seems to have ,more or less,same difficulties and schedules.
Am 51,with full time job and family that takes so much of my time.
Picked up my old piano after so long and trying to choose the pieces that I like,either what I had heard or were recommended here at Forum.
Was very close to take teacher but for now,do not have time to do it because my practicing depends on my free time,which still do not have enough.
In any way,I like playing very much ! That is what is pushing me ahead and although progress is not with big steps,it is a progress.
Being intermediate level,can enjoy Chopin Waltzes or Schumman easier pieces,Dvorzak or Bhrams.
The point is not to give up!

I'm 44 and have been playing for 3 years. I work from home, no kids and am married. I usually play during the day, no more than 20 minutes at a time (3 or 4)intervals and an hour in the evening. I also find time on the weekends.

I chose to learn all methods, reading music, improvising, theory and bass lines. I find that if one plays from only reading music, their music sounds only like someone else's, but more importantly if one only improvises, then all their music sounds the same, just different variations. I find theory, chord progression interesting, but I love to figure out the art behind the score when reading a piece of advanced music. I play everything except classical.

I'm currently working on Desperado and New York State of Mind. I have a lead sheet, original arrangements, and a pencil for jotting my own expression.

I have a wonderful teacher that will teach the way I want to learn, i.e., theory, improv, rote, chording. What I really like is his bass line technique. I can't imagine playing something and not knowing what I'm playig. I like to think and feel while I'm playing, not just one or the other.

Music is wonderful!

i am 18 years old. i got to where i am by doing minimal effort.

ditto here!

I came to piano 3 years ago. I had 7 years of accordion lessons as a child, which gave me a tremendous head start. I mostly teach myself, although I have a friend who teaches music in the elementary schools whom I consult every few months when something trips me up. She is thinking of turning to piano teaching full time, and if she does, I'll start taking weekly lessons.

I have a cushy job that lets me browse the forum during work hours heavily , but with cooking and kids and homework I don't get much time during the week to play, maybe 45 minutes a day. I try to make up for that on the weekends and squeeze in 2-3 hours per day.

I've been playing piano for just about 5 years. I practice 2 hours on the weeknights and 3+ hours on the weekends.

I'm 13 years old, (14 next month) and still in school.

I am 61. I took up piano again about six weeks ago after giving it up at age 14. (I subsequently took up drums and worked in a semi pro group for a few years giving that up at age 22; by that time I was married with children and had responsibilities. My full time job had to take priority).
Since age 22; nothing. and I must admit I missed playing music. So, at age 61 I can afford a nice Yamaha CP300 stage piano (which is wonderful) and I have had this now for about six weeks). I find that I can still read music, albeit slowly. I am in a bit of a quandry as to how to progress from here. I do not want to be dependent on sight reading (I'm not m uch good at it). I also wish to learn chord progressions and acquire an instinct for playing my own arrangements from basic scores (fake books ?).. Anyway; after six weeks I can do Brahms Prelude No 1 in C almost by heart, and I keep working on a few other pieces (including the difficult version of "The Entertainer".. first section).. I love every minute; even the difficult minutes where I just cannot get the hang of a phrase or a run.
What I really want to play is Debussy's Clare De Lune and Arabasque. I looked at the scores.. and put them away for another day.. (time sig on Clare De Lune is difficult at that tempo.. and Arabesque has that three against two section)
I'll get there..

I am 61. I took up piano again about six weeks ago after giving it up at age 14. (I subsequently took up drums and worked in a semi pro group for a few years giving that up at age 22; by that time I was married with children and had responsibilities. My full time job had to take priority).
Since age 22; nothing. and I must admit I missed playing music. So, at age 61 I can afford a nice Yamaha CP300 stage piano (which is wonderful) and I have had this now for about six weeks). I find that I can still read music, albeit slowly. I am in a bit of a quandry as to how to progress from here. I do not want to be dependent on sight reading (I'm not m uch good at it). I also wish to learn chord progressions and acquire an instinct for playing my own arrangements from basic scores (fake books ?).. Anyway; after six weeks I can do Brahms Prelude No 1 in C almost by heart, and I keep working on a few other pieces (including the difficult version of "The Entertainer".. first section).. I love every minute; even the difficult minutes where I just cannot get the hang of a phrase or a run.
What I really want to play is Debussy's Clare De Lune and Arabasque. I looked at the scores.. and put them away for another day.. (time sig on Clare De Lune is difficult at that tempo.. and Arabesque has that three against two section)
I'll get there..

For me the first few weeks were the hardest to keep going. And I think the getting past the first year was a huge milestone.

I've been taking lessons for 3 years now. In the last few months, I've started to play from books I impulsively bought online long before I could play out of them. It feels really good to actually start using them. And I'm glad my teacher is open to my suggestions. (Although, I still haven't gotten the nerve to whip out my Burt Bacharach for easy piano yet).

In the beginning I had lessons pretty much everyweek for 30 minutes plus. For the last several months I have starting going every other week. I think it is working better and I think I am making faster progress. I am married with 2 kids and work fulltime. Finding time to practice is a problem. Or rather, I have time but after dinner, homework, kids baths, bed time routines I often feel too tired to practice. If I practice anyway I don't think I'm getting a lot out of it. Two weeks between lessons is better for me because things can just come up that can kill off a week, Science fair projects, etc. With two weeks I feel I'm really getting a chance to work on the pieces before my lesson even if I miss two or three days in a row. Weekends are the best for me because I'm fresh. I try to get in 1-3 hours practice on Saturday and Sunday. My wife has kidded me (I hope) about how I zone out and lose track of time when I'm at the piano.

My lessons generally consist of a shorter, lighter piece and a harder longer piece. Recently (once I got through with the Faber books) I have been able to introduce my own suggestions for the shorter pieces, so I have been able to start playing some things that mean a lot to me.

I haven't saved any of my practice sheets so my memory is kind of hazy about how long I've been at each level but here is the general progression to where I am now. Doing both book I and II of the Sonatinas is my choice; my teacher saw how much I was enjoying them so we just kept going.

Start Apr 2004:
Selection from Burnam, A Dozen a Day Book One| Selection from Faber, Piano Literature Book I

Burnam, A Dozen a Day Book I | Faber, Piano Literature Book II | Faber,Piano Sontatinas Book I

Burnam, A Dozen a Day Book II | Faber, Piano Literature Book II | Faber,Piano Sonatinas Book II (I spent a long time going through these books)

appox Year 2
Burnam, A Dozen a Day Book III| Puccini For Easy Piano "Flower Duet" | Faber, Piano Sonatinas Book II

Burnam, A Dozen a Day Book III | Puccini For Easy Piano "Un Bel di vedremo" | Faber, Piano Sonatinas Book II

Burnam, A Dozen a Day Book III | Puccini For Easy Piano "Ch'ella mi creda" | Faber, Piano Sonatinas Book II

Burnam, A Dozen a Day Book III | Puccini For Easy Piano "O mio babbino caro" | Faber, Piano Sonatinas Book II

Burnam, A Dozen a Day Book III | "Somewhere over the Rainbow" arr Dan Coates for easy piano | Faber, Piano Sonatinas Book II

Currently working on:
Burnam, A Dozen a Day Book III | Guaraldi, "Linus and Lucy" | Bach, Little Prelude in Cmin BWV 999, Bach, Little Prelude in Cmaj BWV 939