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I'm not an adult beginner, but I want to be encouraging to those who are. What inspired you to get started? What are the benefits you anticipate as you grow in competence? What would you say to someone who is teetering on the edge of getting going? What would you say to someone who is a little ways in and getting discouraged?

What inspired you to get started?
As a guitarist of 10 years I wanted to try and add another tool for composition. Also, a better understanding of music theory and sight reading. Plus, the piano is just such a damn beautiful instrument.

What are the benefits you anticipate as you grow in competence? That I can use piano as a real tool for writing, arranging, and orchestrating film scores and personal compositions.

What would you say to someone who is teetering on the edge of getting going? Try it out. You never know until you try and learning new things MAKES YOUR BRAIN BIGGER! MWAHAHA

What would you say to someone who is a little ways in and getting discouraged? Progress builds in strange increments. It may not seem like things are improving but they almost always are. Look to others for specific advice if something is really not clicking. The resources are there but the end results depend on how much effort you are willing to put in.

erockrazor - your experience is pretty similar to mine, I played bass and guitar for many years and was dabbling in composition using guitar, bass and drum machine for recording. I soon realized that I wanted to work in MIDI so that I could add more instruments, do more with the drums, be able to make edits easily etc so I bought myself a keyboard and started playing it. I got hooked on the keyboard and 10 years later it is now my primary instrument, I haven't picked up a guitar in months although I do still get to play bass from time to time.

I was looking into little MIDI keyboards to help with my learning theory and composition, but decided to spend more to get a full-sized one so I could revisit piano, which I had studied briefly as a kid. Its semi-weighted keyboard turned out to be too annoyingly springy to play piano on, and the whole thing was too annoyingly large to use for MIDI input to my laptop, but it did get me re-started playing piano. When resources permitted, I upgraded to a real DP to play piano on, and a little Akai LPK25 to use with the laptop.

One benefit you will get is a greater appreciation of music. After you have played a piece of music you notice a lot of things that you maybe weren't aware of from just listening to it.



Everyone goes through phases where they feel like they are going backwards or are stuck in the same place for months on end. If you have a piece that you are having problems with put it to one side and work on less difficult pieces for a while. Impatience to get ahead can work against you, take your time and you will advance more steadily.

What a nice thread.

I had several reasons for inspiration:

1.) Erase a life-long regret of quitting. Even after I quit, I always admired pianists from afar for 25 years (kids' recitals, Beethoven CDs, etc), and always knew I'd get back into it.

2.) I got back into it so I would have a clue when my kids got started with it. I tried to play easy classical pieces - some of the ones I played as a kid - but then discovered Joplin. The rest, as they say, is history. I've been hooked since!

I’ve made these comments elsewhere but …

What inspired you to get started?

My original musical motivation was The Beatles. As a consequence, decades ago, I was in high school and teaching myself to play guitar. At the same time I also drew a keyboard on paper (a couple of octaves) and stuck it to the desk in my bedroom. When I learnt a new guitar chord I also worked out how to voice it on my paper piano. Over all those years every time I was near a keyboard I’d pick out a few triads.

Over the last few years (certainly since I stopped playing live and in bands) I felt that I’d peaked and grown a bit stale as a guitar player. My thoughts returned to the piano and now, at last, that paper piano has become real. And I can't keep away from it, finding myself playing everyday, some days for hours at a time.

What are the benefits you anticipate as you grow in competence?

To be able to sit down and play effortlessly in the same way as I can play guitar. The unexpected benefit is that I'm really enjoying 'listening' again and 'hearing' chords and progressions better because I've also found my understanding of theory/chord structure has leapt ahead. While I can play any chord I want to on guitar I didn’t know the theory/structure that well. There is something about the linear layout of the keyboard which makes it easier to see. And, although I’m still not attempting to read, I finally realised the direct comparison between the staff and the keyboard.

What would you say to someone who is teetering on the edge of getting going?

Start now. You will never regret it. If you don’t start now you will regret not having started earlier when, finally, you do start. And you will start one day.

What would you say to someone who is a little ways in and getting discouraged?

Persist. It gets easier. Find another approach, method or teacher (if you have one). There is more than one path.

I inherited a very nice vertigrand (1876 Steinway).
My 6yo son showed an interest in playing, so I got him lessons, but he didn't want to practise. I started to learn, thinking that would make him practise.

He never got the practice habit, gave up within 6 months, but I was bitten! That was 5 yrs ago, my progress slow, but I'm happy with it.

My mother sort of tried to teach me when I was a child but she wasn't a good teacher & I had to become a mature adult to learn that a lot of things I'm better off learning on my own (don't do well with a teacher).

BENEFITS I EXPECT: I am just amazed (delighted) by any progress.

SAY TO THOSE TEETERING ON THE EDGE: What do you have to lose?

DISCOURAGED EARLY ON: Actually I'm no good on that one, if you want to do something else more, then do that something else. Life is too short to work hard at stuff you don't need or enjoy.

What I'd say to someone who's discouraged at the beginning that "It gets better!" I found most early beginner material musically pretty dire, esp. the method book stuff. But as you progress it becomes more and more fun!

ETA: I personally found the "preparatory" level of classical teaching literature anthologies/methods far more satisfying to play than modern, pedagogy-approved method book pieces.

I was inspired by music as a whole. I love all kinds of music, always have. But you could say I was inspired by watching pianists perform. I wanted to experience pieces on such a deep emotional level as they did. Of course this turned out to be very difficult but I will get there eventually.

I had wanted to take an instrument when I was a kid - any instrument, but my parents couldn't afford it. I pretty much forgot about all that until I purchased an inexpensive keyboard for one of my own kids. I was wishing that I had bought it for myself. Fast forward through raising 3 kids, and getting them through college and into adulthood, and at the age of 63, I finally decided to treat myself, first to a keyboard, and later upgraded to a DP. I know that I will never play advanced material, but it doesn't matter. I'm having so much fun playing music at my current beginner level. I'm past the "Saints Go Marching In" phase, and playing easy beginner classics, and easy hymns and show tunes, and loving it.

Do I get discouraged? Yes, sometimes. But the enjoyment far outweighs the frustration.

What would I say to someone who is thinking about starting? Go for it, and do it now. The sooner you get started, the better you will eventually get. But mostly, enjoy the journey.

Oh! I just remembered what got me interested in going for a full sized MIDI keyboard instead of a compact MIDI input device.

I was lying in bed late at night, listening to the classical music station and trying (but not quite succeeding) in falling asleep, when the most beautiful Bach piano music came on. As I lay there listening, I thought to myself, it would be wonderful to have that level of musical understanding of Bach's work, to have assimilated his music deeply enough to be able to express the the intricate precision of his musical ideas in such a gorgeous way.

I fell into a semi-sleeping musical trance in which I inhabited the music in a deeply involved and intimate way that I'd never experienced before, but I was asleep enough that I've never been able to figure out precisely which of piece it was. I must have been semi-dreaming for some of it, particularly the parts I've never been able to find in the actual recording . I was just conscious enough at the end to grab a pen and scrawl "Angela Hewett French Suites".

But I woke up with, and retained the goal of someday being able to play Bach for myself.

What inspired you to get started?
One day I just realized I need some hobby to make use of my spare time. Something which I can improve in with time, but is also fun. Oh yeah, playing an instrument! I originally thought of the guitar, and when I was browsing some guitar vids, I accidentaly clicked on piano cover of Hey Jude by The Beatles... and it hit me, why the heck don't I start piano? After all, it's WAY more original around here than playing guitar
In the beginning, I was just playing pop covers etc., without professional guidance... But then it got quite boring and I ''discovered'' classical music (I mean, other than Fur Elise and 9th). I was quite certain that I need some guidance and organised improving plan to learn that. So I found a teacher, and replaced my keyboard with a digital piano. Now I'm playing for over a year, and purchasing an upright in the upcoming month, YAY
And for self-starters: I don't regret self-teaching the basics myself... why bother a teacher with sheet reading and key-naming when a book does the job just fine

What are the benefits you anticipate as you grow in competence?
I hope to improve not only the pieces I play, but also sight-reading, and surely some understanding of music theory. To see something more underneath all that notes

What would you say to someone who is teetering on the edge of getting going?
Just go for it, a month from now, you will regret any day you were ''teetering'' and not playing!

What would you say to someone who is a little ways in and getting discouraged?
That he's almost certainly wrong! If you practise, you GET better, the discourage is just a sign how much you want to be better when I get discouraged trying to play some (for me) hard piece, I just find some easier one (Tiersen music is easy and really nice), learn it in a while, and tell myself ''hey, would I be able to do THAT 6 months ago?'' ;-)

I am a re-starter and I owe it to my father in law. Years ago one Christmas my in-laws gave each of their "kids" a gift certificate to a local music store that was large enough to cover the cost of a decent upright. Both my wife and I had lessons as kids but our pianism lay dormant for years until we got the little upright. I was intermediate at best whereas my wife was playing some early advanced stuff.
Through the years we played occasionally, I more than she, mostly the old stuff we learned as kids and Chrismas music.
Then came kids of our own and my wife found a really good teacher for them.
As they got away from piano I took over their lessons. It has evolved to one hour once a month, and I have to say my playing as advanced tremendously. We purchased a nice grand a few years ago and my in laws love to hear me play!
Unfortunately my wife didn't get the bug like me and only plays her old pieces when I am not around....

I had always wanted to play piano since early childhood, but my mom couldn't afford one. She got me accordion lessons instead, and while I enjoyed them, I always had a wistful longing for piano. I quit accordion when I couldn't stand the social stigma anymore as a senior in high school, and then life got in the way, as it often does.

Fast forward to grad school, when I became enamored of contemporary solo piano, especially George Winston and David Lanz at the time (I didn't hear about Einaudi until I started hanging out here. ). Swore to myself that I would "someday" pick up the piano and learn how to play "Longing/Love."

More fast forwarding through career, tenure track, marriage, kids. In the spring of 2004 my mother died, and thanks to the crazy real estate market in southern California (we sold my mom's house at the peak), I had a nice little inheritance that I earmarked mostly for the kids' college education, with some left over for an indulgence for me, and my children were old enough to not need constant supervising, providing me with time for an indulgence.

I think I realized then that "someday" wasn't going to happen unless I made it happen right then, and I also realized that my mother--who sacrificed a lot to provide me the accordion and music lessons for so long--would have been very happy to know that I used her inheritance to fulfill a musical dream.

So I bought my cheap entry level upright and started teaching myself, traded it in for my grand a year later, and after seven years of playing, my love affair with piano remains undiminished.

Out of the blue my wonderful wife surprised me with a Technics Digital Piano for Christmas one year. As a guitar player I was able to teach myself a few chords and bang out a few tunes in pretty short order. I have been banging on pianos ever since.

It was clearly the best present anyone has ever given me.

There were three reasons why I started to learn to play piano:
a) I always wanted (althoug music lessons at school - diseaster and always struggling to get good note)
b) when I discuss my desire to play with my friends, ALL of them kept telling me that piano is only for children, when you are an adult there is no way to learn to play. Well, I wanted to prove they are wrong
c) I love classical music, always wanted to play something on my own
d) one Sunday I was in the mall with my girlfriend and after finishing usuall cruise through the shops we entered musical shop and it was an impuls - I simply decided to buy one of Yamaha digital piano (following salesman suggestion, who dissuaded me to buy simple keyboard). I thought then - now or never.

It was 4 months ago and my entusiasm is still growing (I changed Yamaha p95 for p155). Of course my family "couldn't care less", I have to listen all the time remarks such as "well, you do not sound like people from Classical Radio (Polish radio station with classical music)", "don't you have anything to do?" or "why all this sounds like we are in church (Bach))". But, I won't give up (the only thing I hate is SIGHT READING learning, but "must is a must").

_________________________
Marcin

Curently working on:
Polonaise in G minor (BWV 119) and Bouree (BWV 996) from Anna Bach Notebook
Russian Song from Album for Young by Czajkowski
Brahms Waltz Op. 39, No. 9

I started off playing the guitar and was inspired by jimi hendrix, michael hedges, don ross, beatles, clapton, radiohead, ect.

then i discovered fredric chopin and his opus 10/25 etudes, along with, vladimir ashkenazy.

chopin single handily built my obsession with music although hendrix instigated it.

I think it was the first time that I heard music live! It was strange...I've been losing my mind. I couldn't understand it as well as I wanted and It bothered me a lot.
after that, I listened to many many pieces and musics, but they couldn't satisfy me. I've been feeling that there's something else in music. something that can't be recorded. something painful...I wanted to start playing, but in my damn country it was almost impossible for us.
but I tried. I borrowed my friend's keyboard and started playing by myself. I haven't developed really since those times, but at least Piano can remakes my world, and even myself. it has changed everything in my life. Now, nothing can bother me in a country like Iran which destroy any kind of existence and talent.I forget everything with it. everything...

That is inspiring, and what matters most. We wish you the best.