When my son left for college I joked with his teacher that I would just take his time slot. She thought that was a very interesting idea ..... I thought, "well, hmmmm, let me think about it." After a few days, I decided it really was a good idea. The external discipline of regular lessons would provide both a structure to the process and the benefit of deadlines. We settled on an every other week approach.

So, my first lesson was this afternoon. We planned for an hour, but because she had no one following me, she just let time go. We went for a bit over two hours.

The first 40 minutes or so were similar to a first visit with a new physician. She did the equivalent of a history and physical. She asked me detailed questions about everything I had encountered musically, and did it chronologically from Bach on up. Then she had me play a piece through. I selected "The Girl" as she called it. Debussy's Flaxen, of course.

When I was done, she said she had nothing really to add to my take on the piece ..... but. Yes, there was that little "but." She zeroed in on two very small errors I had embedded in the piece. I hadn't noticed either one, but she caught them without benefit of staring at the music. The purpose of the exercise was not really to catch mistakes. She just wanted to see how the old hands worked; how I approached a familiar piece.

We then had a great discussion about fingering. I wanted help in fingering a duo piano piece I'm beginning to learn (Piazzolla's Libertango). The broader lesson I got was about how to think about choosing among alternative fingering options.

She also "assigned" me a new piece (a Chopin Nocturne that I had never played) and said that she would think about a potential Haydn sonata to work on. Next time ....

I am so out of practice. Perhaps this new process will get me going.

[Edit: I do not endorse 12-step midi converter, or whatever product you happen to be seeing advertised within this post. Please do NOT support any product whose makers feel that they are entitled to mislead people into presuming that my participation at Piano World in any way endorses their products]

It's quite exciting to read of your (re)new(ed) venture into lessons. Nothing but good, substantial progress will come of it, I'm sure and resulting satisfaction. Good also to read that the Grotrian won't be abandoned!

Regards,

P.S. I do not endorse the embedded spam ad in this post.

Now it's gone!

Congratulations! If your returning to the piano is anything like my experience, you are in for a delightful ride!

Not really -- you've been rapping with us on here for months.

So, what we really want to know is, has that given you a head start?

But seriously... good luck, and have fun!

So *what* will your new name be now?

;-)

I think it's a great idea. I only had a few lessons a year ago (skype) but boy did I learn stuff that I continue to use as I practice each day. TONE, TONE, TONE, especially.

I guess it'll have to be Piano*Piano*Dad.

That could be confusing... Wasn't there a member called piano_P I A N O or something like that some time ago?

By the way, congratulations, Piano*Dad!

Exactly -- and I thought of that too.
(She's still around sometimes.)

Hah, hah. Maybe we could just introduce a common typo .... Paino*Dad.

My goals at this stage are rather modest. I just want to get back into some sort of routine that allows me to recapture old skills and build some new ones. Musically, I'm trying to gain enough facility to be able to approach beautiful music again with the idea that I can actually accomplish a decent performance. I'm not looking to conquer the most technically demanding stuff. I doubt I have the patience to tackle that. The kind of technical challenge I want is to pull off a slower nocturne with some flair. I'll leave the Liszt etudes to others.

I guess another way to put it is that I'm not planning to join Mark, Fuzzy, and others out there on the amateur competition circuit .... at least not anytime soon!

I can address a group of 200 college presidents with confidence and authority. But at this point, I cannot get up in front of group of friends to play the piano without having a far more acute attack of the butterflies. Yes, I know that that is a learned skill. How many times have I said that to others! But at this point, I'm not interesting in trying to acquire those skills beyond a certain level. Yes, I would like to be able to entertain small groups without a panic attack. But only with repertoire I can totally command.

You're welcome to join us in the ABF recitals. Plenty of re-starters there as well as beginners, and it's a kinder, gentler way to get some practice at performing and recording.

Sam

Hi PD,

Am intrigued to know what the snag was in your playing of the Debussy
“Da Goil widda ponytail ...” ... and the Chopin Nocturne assigned.

At least you play a decent piano.

Kind regards,
btb

PS So you got Son launched at last ... seems ages since we first suggested that he join the Foreign Legion.

Sam,

That's quite an index you have created! I did participate in three recitals a while ago (and I see I'm in the index). I went back to listen to my own playing of "Da Goil" as btb calls her, and discovered the same two silly errors that prof. Niehaus noted at our lesson! Longstanding errors ....




The two errors (dumb, dumb, dumb) were failing to see the tie on the high note on the first page, and failing to notice that the second coming of the fourths in the left hand (on the second page) has a sneaky tritone slip in. I just missed it.



Now, is that a sly way of damning the player by comparison ....



Launched is probably the right term, since his current plan is to concentrate in aerospace engineering. That is rocket science.

What a terrific way to fill that partially empty nest of yours! I'll be looking forward to hearing your observations on how the regular lessons are affecting your playing.

p.s. How's piano*son holding up to the first few weeks of college? Any roommate problems?

Hi Monica,

I'm sure the lessons will help me quite a bit, both with motivation and with technique.


As for P*S, he seems to be "holding up" very well. But he is discovering that college professors can be quite unforgiving of careless errors on exams! Gotta learn sometime.

His wind ensemble, the Frost Symphonic Winds plays its first concert on the 26th. He tells me it'll be recorded, so I may get a chance to listen at some point. I think it's great to be able to participate in ensembles at the university level, and having a good music program on campus helps raise the game a bit.

Frank,

I want that ad for 12-step (or whatever each individual happens to be seeing) out of my post. I do not endorse that product. Putting ads into our individual posts is misusing the people who make this site.

[edit: OK, I just went into my original post and wrote a disclaimer. When I viewed the thread again, the offending ad wasn't visible. Why is that? Does editing your post break some link? Can everyone else still see an advertisement in my original post?]

Piano*Dad - I noticed the ad was gone, too. Maybe editing is the solution? But I know exactly how you feel.

Cathy

P*D
Glad to hear Anthony is doing well and now you have time to focus on your piano playing (does this mean you get unlimited access to the Grotrian ?? )

Sophia

Yes, indeed it does .... until he comes home for vacations.

Not necessarily that learned.
It's still exactly like this for me, even after all these years and performances, and even though I have a lot more experience doing it with piano than speaking. Speaking is easier. Music is harder.

Well, I'll bet there is some learned desensitization. And if there is, I hope to learn it!

Speaking is indeed easier. But speaking well is not.

Yes. Usually a lot.

BTW, about "speaking well"....I agree, but I think playing piano in public for people who play piano well is harder than speaking in public is for people who speak well, and that people who do both well usually have more butterflies about piano.

I never answered this ... it's the Op. 32 no. 1 in B major.

Thanks for all the info on your new goings-on PD ... you are going to find it hard to expunge the quirks in your playing of the Debussy “Goil”...
in learning a new piece, it pays to find the right notes from the outset
(one of the important aural roles of a piano teacher).

Please let us know of your progress on the Chopin Nocturne Opus 34/1 ... 54 measures at Andante sostenuto shouldn’t prove too heavy on the sight-reading.

Delighted to hear that Son has ventured into Rocket Science ... he might learn how to stop that presently hurtling bit of space debris from falling on my nut.

Kind regards,
btb

In general, I think that's true. But this is a piece I know well enough that I can pull two measures apart relatively easily. It's just a matter of a slight adjustment to my hand position in both cases.

As far as the nocturne goes, that one is a bit of a mess for me to sight read accurately. Gimme a simple Schubert dance for sight reading, or a Grieg Lyric Piece. Bloody ornamentation in the Chopin drives me bonkers, but then again I'm not the world's best sight reader (hint: understatement). In fact, improving my reading is one of my teacher's goals.

But pieces like that nocturne are what I want to be able to play well. I want to be able to "get the notes" without huge difficulty and then spend the bulk of my time turning it into real music.