Hello everyone!

I have not been posting much at all since I joined, and mainly because my poor Yamaha Clainova has been broken a while after a moving. At last (and to my great joy!) it’s working again. So I thought it’s about time I introduce myself.

I am still at the beginning stages and the book I use is mainly Bastien for adults 2. Right now the “Minstrel’s song” and the etude after that. However, I am using Aaron’s books too a little, and I do tend to buy far too much sheet music as soon as I see anything that I can play, or maybe will be able to play soon. A habit that unfortunately quickly can become expensive, and which is distracting form the pieces I should be working on.

Currently I have no teacher, but I am looking for one for the autumn. The problem is that I play the flute as well and cannot really afford taking lessons on two instruments. It would be great if I could find a student from the academy of music at our university that need practise students.

Time is of course an issue as always. I am a busy PhD student, and really should be reading research papers, preparing courses, and so on, instead of attempting to play the piano. Maybe I should start practising hanon and put a book I need to read on the music stand when I have learnt the pattern? Or, in order not to get bored, memorize some pieces from different genres and entertain myself as I read. Sadly, I guess if my multitasking skills are not good enough for playing hands together smoothly, then they will not be good enough for this project either.

I started playing from scratch as an adult since I never got the opportunity as a child. Here in Sweden we have nice municipal music schools for children, but when I was in 2nd grade long time ago we had a music teacher that selected students by some kind of musicality test, which did not turn out so well since I did not know the song I was asked to sing and was too afraid to ask to sing something different. All the same, this only means that I have a lot of playing to look forward now instead.

Please, do not expect posts from me too often since I will try really, really hard to spend the few free minutes at the piano instead of the computer. (The good thing is that it is everyone’s adventures here at ABF are excellent help and inspiration, so I should certainly not feel too bad about spending time here. )

Well, you're not alone I also tend to buy too much books, sheets music and videos.

Serge

Welcome to the forum, Basia! Grad school is not healthy if you don't have some kind of outlet. Don't begrudge your time on the bench at all. (PW browsing, on the other hand, is a little more difficult to defend... )

Thanks for the welcoming!