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Autopsies of any sort for that matter.

Personally, I'd like to be with a woman who could play classical piano well. I don't know yet if it would matter if she had made it her profession (like I plan to) or not, but I think it would be great to have someone who understood me.

Since I want to be a professor also, if worse came to worse I could do the majority of my practicing in my office.


That's a pretty cool little post there buddy.

Piano World Dating website anyone???

Sounds like a good idea right about now

Think about it, a matchmaker board for PW singles everywhere..haha!!

I guess I'm pretty lucky to have found someone who is also a pianist and has the same passion about music as I do... and the same goals, which I think is very important. I can't imagine being with someone who is not in music.. I think that would be very weird for me.

But then again, I also can't imagine being with anyone else besides my man

Logically, the next step should be this:
http://www.dirtyragz.com/productdetails.aspx?pid=308&o1=1183

Such an inspiring shirt ha.

Hahaha well not for another 5 years at least..

Yeah, no kidding. This is going to be OT and nothing but a personal rant, but here goes anyway:

The T-shirt is cute and all, and I understand it's just supposed to be something funny... but the "game over" caption and the frowning groom get my dander up a little. I'm increasingly annoyed and offended by the ever-perpetuated "joke" that men don't want to get married... women have to trap them into it... it's the end of their life as they know it... etc.

You know, not all men are like that. I am not only madly in love with my wife, but thrilled to be married to her (I was much more keen to get married than she was!). I happen to want a committed, caring, supportive relationship with her that is going to grow and deepen more and more as time goes by together. What a wonderful way to enrich your life! And the older I get, the more I realize that a lot of men around me really feel exactly the same way, but because of the popular culture myth to the contrary, many of them think it would be "unmanly" to admit it. What a pity, IMO.

Wasn't there a movie about this-- I think it was called The Competition?

I fell in love with a pianist when he was 10 and I was 11. We kind of grew up together. Last I heard of him, he was doing a lot of drugs, treating his wife abusively, and not playing anymore.

I have some sort of bizarre predilection for keyboard players, which has continued over the years. Won't bore you with the stories.

However, I married a woodwind player (who is really a closet percussionist). Sometimes he does play the piano, though. If I am ill or out of sorts, I find that if I curl up under the grand and soak up the sound while he improvises, I feel much better.

We've been together for over 30 years. I regret that we're not in a band or ensemble anymore like we were early on. I do dance with his band, though, so I get to be part of the show sometimes.

Perhaps a dating service for musicians could be a real moneymaker for someone! Except that musicians often don't have money....

Elene

I was married to a serious amateur guitarist for 18 years, which worked out well, musically. (I fall into the serious amateur category, too, pianistically--my education is in engineering and I write mystery novels now. But the piano is my sanity-keeper, and my music of choice is classical.) He was an excellent musician and our acoustic trio played around town for much of our marriage. Music was not the problem...

A few months ago, I went out once with a man who was so obviously not right for me. I spent the afternoon wishing a bus would roll past so that I could throw myself under its wheels. When the date was finally over, he wouldn't let me leave until he'd played his treasured guitar for me. So there we sat in the parking lot and I learned that, not only is he a not-enthralling date, he's a pretty bad guitar player. And I thought, "Oh, no. Is my dating pool now radically smaller, because I couldn't stand spending the rest of my life listening to this and smiling and saying, 'That's great, sweetie!'?"

Lately, I've been going out with a man who attended a music conservatory until he dropped out to travel the world as a sound engineer for the likes of Elton John and Stevie Wonder. He works in a completely different field now, but he plays a bunch of instruments, composes, sings. I thought, "Oh, great. *He's* going to want to throw himself under a bus when he hears me play."

But no. He likes to show me new blues licks on the piano and to try to teach me guitar. He says I sing like a young Joni Mitchell (extra-nice since I think he knew her when she was young) and he says I'm a kick-*ss sightreader. So maybe the answer is that if the relationship is good in other ways, a disparity in musical ability can be overlooked. In this case, it's way too soon to tell.

I do know that the down-side of dating musicians in particular and artists in general is that they are an extremely eccentric bunch. Not talking about anybody in particular. Just sayin'...

Depends on what stage of life you are in. A man in his early 20's with that mentality, not as likely as someone in his early 30's and 40's. It's innocent fun and I like the t-shirt. I'm happy that you have found that right one for you but not everyone is fortunate enough to have that experience in life. Better off romanticizing oneself with the piano than placing any time on a species that is so deceptive and unreliable. OT end.

I don't think the partners in a relationship necessarily have to share the same passions. In fact, if a relationship is based only on shared passions, is it possible to run into problems down the road? Because over a lifetime, those passions are likely to change. Personally, I have found it very fulfilling to learn about my husband's interests, respect and support them, share them to the level we can, and keep my own interests alive to share with him.

Sounds like a Brahms fan!

Then best approached with caution.

I had a friend several years ago who thought Brahms the greatest composer since Beethoven. That's fair enough; there's an awful lot going for that. But here was the catch: he hated Liszt. As a result the battle lines were always drawn between us, and he just couldn't settle for enjoying both composers. It was one to the exclusion of the other. No compromise.

Disclaimer: my friend was not a musician. He somewhat liked Elgar -and you can vaguely hear the 1st mov't of the Brahms 3rd symphony in the background of the 1st mov't of Elgar's 2nd- but basically he felt music was finished off with Brahms. How do you argue with that? And we won't mention the Wagner issues...

Your friend followed in Brahms' footsteps quite closely. I'm not sure that Brahms HATED Liszt, but the two weren't all too fond of each other. I take it he wasn't a Wagner fan, eh? Can't say I blame him lol.

Jason, I used to hate Liszt too (until about six months ago). Even though I loved Mahler and Wagner (and I'm sure would love Elgar too if I knew him better).

Your friend sounds different, if his dislike of Liszt was a specific case of the general rule of disliking everyone after Brahms! But still, everyone has such different opinions; how can you expect them to line up? I love Schoenberg, but if I drew battle lines around him, my life would be very lonely.



-Jason

I think your situation and the one described are totally different. I didn't say she has to share his passion but she should least respect it or respect him for it.

I guess you missed the part where he said that she was an "ignoramus" about his passion. If she is totally ignorant about and uninterested in his passion and has no desire to share in it, how long is it going to be before she is so bored by it that she either ridicules it or ridicules him?

Seriously? I adore Wagner, though recent Met b'casts this season of Verdi operas have proven to me once again that Verdi was a sovereign master. Even Stiffelio (the last opera before the BIG THREE) had my undivided attention. Verdi rocks.

Wagner is amazing!! Stores better watch it...

Jason, my good mate, what caused you to change your opinion of Liszt? A particular piece or reading about him? Do tell.

You would like Elgar. It is music of very intense, yet personal, integrity and seriousness. Brits like to claim him as their 'own', but with the exception of the occasional music, there is nothing particularly British about Elgar at all. He firmly belongs in the European Mahler-Strauss school.

I'm not really big on Schoenberg. I like the piano and violin concertos, a bit of Moses and Aaron, but the piano music and the wind quintet tend to bypass me. I have not reached 30 yet, so that needs to be kept in mind. Thanks for your post.