Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum OT, Tell us about yourself

hi Piano forum,
I am 18 years old. I dont go to college and i dont have a job so i thought i might pass the time Beethoven style and learn the most important skill of all, music.

My goal is to learn Jazz, that would be just too rad.

Hello,

I am 32 years old and have just started playing piano again. I have been self-taught, and first found a piano at my grandmother's house when I was four.

We couldn't afford lessons or a piano until I was about twelve, when my grandparents helped us buy a Clavinova. I had to loan it to some cousins when I went away to college and for some time after that (too expensive to ship, no car) but it's now back at home with me and I've started to play again.

This Thursday is the first time I'm going to have a real lesson with a piano teacher, so I'm extremely nervous and anxious about it. I would really like to become more proficient (i.e. can play beautifully instead of just hitting the correct keys) and learn music theory and solfege. I don't feel like I know much of anything at all; and I don't know what level I am in terms of playing --- my sight reading is absolutely horrendous, though!

I don't play well in front of others, which adds to my anxiety, but I'm hoping that lessons will help out with that.

In terms of long-term goals if it's possible for adults to do so, I'd like to do the RCM/ABRSM exams as a sort of marker of progress.

I love classical music (Rachmaninov and Chopin particularly for piano) and would like to focus on that genre. My hands are kind of small (8.5 inch handspan) so I won't be able to play some of the crazier pieces ever, unfortunately.

Currently I have my old Yamaha CLP-560. I've been looking at the Roland HP-207 as a replacement / reward for when I improve a bit, since we can't have an acoustic piano where we live.

I've been lurking on these forums for a bit and decided to come out and join the conversations finally. Please excuse any newbiness, it's a lot of information to absorb.

name- William Penafiel =)

age- ? (very shy about it)
currently a composer/ piano teacher

I play all kinds of piano music (no exceptions)
and listen to all kinds as well ...

I play on an old Bechstein that was given to me as a gift years ago, still works fine =)

I suffer from stage fright, and an terrified of the experience..

I suffered a horrible accident about 5 years ago leaving my left hand a bit hurt, but has been recuperating over the years, enough for me to attempt to play difficult stuff again..the tension is almost compeletely gone by now..

goals for now- finish a set of piano etudes and a composition entitled 'Poeme Etude' ... These will be my occupation for some time ...

Catch me around, I blog when I can .. email me if you need help with something... Check out my scores if youre interested on my site as well (on my sig) ...

take care everyone =)

I live in Vancouver, Canada but in the summertime (between June-sept) I live in London, England. I travel a lot to different places in the world such as Switzerland, Morocco, France, etc. I think I travel to Europe the most since I have relatives there.

Other activities I enjoy are: skiing, travelling, badminton, reading comic books, listening to music, painting, digital art, etc.

I also play the flute and guitar but I'm not extremely good at either. If I have time/money, I will pick up violin.

My favorite composers are Debussy, Chopin, some Schubert. I love jazz as well and my favorite there is definitely Keith Jarrett.

Other music that I listen to are Coldplay, Keane, Cirque du Soleil, Eric Claption, etc.

As for my age...well I'm only 17 turning 18 in Jan.

I started playing the piano at 3 yrs old and my grandfather forced me to practice. I hated it so much that when I finally could, I stopped at 7 when I moved to England and left my piano. 3 years ago, I decided to pick up playing the piano again. And here I am today! I think of myself as an intermediate player. My skill right is is about Claire de Lune, Pathetique, around that level.

Nice to meet you all!

and you as well

Hi,

I am 33 years old. I had a few years (five, maybe) piano lessons as a kid with a lovely teacher whose criticisms were usually very generous. Alas, I think they were a little too generous for me to develop any technique. On the other hand, sure enough, I quit as soon as she introduced Czerny's "School of Velocity" to me. About two years later, my sister managed to awaken my dormant love of the piano by giving me the sheet music of Chopin's Etude 10/3 as a birthday present. I practiced that one quite obsessively and was soon able to butcher it convincingly - of course I was, and too be honest, still am, not able to grasp the subtleties that make the "Tristesse" a veritable etude, as I was replacing legato playing by heavy pedalling, but anyway, from that point I went on to conquer large chunks of the classical/romantical/impressionist repertoire, without technique, without ear, without taste, but with lots of enthusiasm(*). This period lasted for about 15 years, after which I had to leave my piano and hardly ever played again, a period which lasted about five years. I didn't even miss playing that much, except for a short while after that one time when I visited a colleague of mine, who turned out to be an amateur a lot more gifted than I am. In awe, I scanned through the mountain of sheet music on his upright, and when I got to an edition of the Chopin etudes (again!) I asked him to play the Aeolian Harp for me. He did, I was wowed, and I had to think he could have done the same with about any of the other 10.000 sheets that were lying there.

My pianism was reawakened again, when, early in 2008, two of my friends independently found out that I used to play the piano and asked me to do things for them. The first one asked me to sightread through some of her pop music sheets and to show her how she, too, could play them. While my attempts at teaching failed, the sightreading went well enough. The second friend's request was much harder. She asked me to play a little something at her graduation celebration. I had four weeks to prepare something, which was not a problem (well, due to my limited appreciation of musical details, I guess). The problem was that that would be the most formal performance situation I ever had, and I knew I suffer quite a bit from performance anxiety. That was, when, looking for advice on that problem, I discovered PW. I ended up practicing a lot before that day, eating a lot of bananas on the day and I, ... ummh..., survived.

During practice in the practice rooms of my university, one thing that gave me a further kick was to hear how other people practiced. They tackled material that I would not have dared, but in the first stages sounded like I would have if I did, and I could actually hear their progress. So that was how I was introduced to efficient, slow tempo, measure-by-measure practicing, and I was intrigued by the implied possibility that I, too, could make progress.

In summer, I bought a digital piano, which made practicing much easier, and finally, after visiting two fine concerts (one classical, Schumann's a-minor concerto, and one jazz) I really felt the urge to actually learn how to play the piano.

I started lessons in October. I was not quite sure what to expect, so I just prepared my first lesson by easily going through some of the pieces I thought I had under my fingers. In the lesson, of course, the teacher asked me if I had brought something, and as soon as I said yes, PA reared its ugly head, I grabbed into my bag, took the first thing I found, which happened to be Chopin's Prelude 28/17, and had a serious "it worked better at home"-situation. So serious, actually, that I felt like interrupting and leaving the place. But well, I stumbled through it, and after some chit-chat and finger exercises I could regain some composure. To my surprise, she did not insist on trying to tackle something much easier. Instead we spent the rest of the lesson going through, like, the first ten measures of the thing. She is much stricter and more into constructive criticism than my teacher from childhood. The big thing she taught me in the first lesson is that keys must not be hit, but stroken; a truly revolutionary insight for me.

I now think of my taking up lessons again as one of the most brilliant decisions I ever made and hope to learn a lot in the near future. I probably wouldn't have made this step if I hadn't had access to all your experiences as adult beginners. Thank you all for that, and as much as I have enjoyed lurking in the ABF in the past few months, I'm glad that I'm finally stepping out and I can say "hi" to you.


(*) I picked up a copy of Dohnanyi's Finger Exercises recently, and in the foreword he advocates a teaching style that basically has the student polish only a few pieces, study more pieces intensively, but not necessarily to performance level, and spend a lot of time playing through the literature, bringing pieces only slightly above sight-reading level. Now that's an approach that would have suited me well in those times.

What a great story grotrianer,

One day I hope to be able to butcher with enthusiasm

welcome to the forum grotrianer!
I also wish mastering the butchering one day.

Thanks for the story grotrianer.

I think this would fall under the "I've got a piano and I'm not afraid to use it!" category.

I just got some new sheet music books today so I'll soon be starting out with the slow butchering category until before you know it everything will click into place and everyone with ears can breathe a sigh of relief.

Hello there. My name is Nova, and Saturday I will have my first piano lesson. I’m 25 and live in the DFW, Texas area. I’ve been checking out this forum for a few weeks, and decided to join in.

I think I decided to learn piano from watching Youtube videos of others.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kJMeSW495I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U591Al9KF8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvSZTmS1zew&feature=related

Hi Grotrianer.

I saw your contribution to the recital and then followed it here!

I suspect I'm one of the few posters here who has spent some time in Braunschweig. I went, of course, because of the company name that is conveniently buried in your avatar.

Have you visited the factory yet? If not, talk to Burkhard Kämmerling and arrange a tour.


Hi Piano*kid,

Glad to see I'm not the only one with an asterisk in their name!

Hi Piano*Dad,

to clarify my screen name, my connection with Grotrian is that first, their old abandoned factory buildings serve as examination rooms at the university, meaning I spent quite some quality time there as a student and now as an exam supervisor. Second, I now try to spend as much practice time as I can on acoustic pianos, and the ones that I can access are mostly Grotrians (and the occasional Schimmel - they are from Braunschweig, too).

I've never visited the new factory. I have found your photo documentation now - it surely looks mouthwatering. I'm afraid that a visit would lead me into serious temptation to really live up to my screen name.

Hi, I'm Karen, new to piano world and just got a digital piano on Saturday. My husband has 2 Alfred books and we are both beginner players. I'm 38 and have sung chorally for years but am not active now - we have 3 kids 4 and under. I learn music by ear, can read a bit, and look forward to learning more.

The reason we got the piano is because I dream of having kids that enjoy music, and this is our start.

Hi! I've been on the forum a few weeks now but I haven't written here yet so i thought I'd say hello.

I'm Maria, 19 years old. I used to have a piano lessons when I was 9. It lasted for only a few months. 10 years later I had the opportunity to study piano again and soon after found this wonderful forum.

I'm from the Philippines but moved here to Texas a few weeks ago so I had to stop formal lessons. I plan to continue by teaching myself however using Alfred's all in one.

Newbie here

I'm starting Alfred 1 TODAY!! I've been lurking for awhile and finally plucked up the courage to join in.

Originally from Arkansas, now living in Texas, I'm married with two boys under 10. One of which is learning piano with me. I'll be 35 in about a month.

I had about six months of piano lessons as a kid before my teacher moved away (there were no other ones for 70 miles) and played trumpet in school band for about four years. Other than that I have no musical experience whatsoever.

My other activities include writing and anything outdoors. My family loves camping, hiking, pretty much anything that gets us outside. We take a family vacation to a national park each summer.

Hm...what else can I bore you with? I really don't like classical music but I think that's probably because I don't have a broad exposure to it. I have grown to like Vivaldi the past few months but nothing else has really caught my attention. I do love instrumental movie tracks - ones that comine fast paced with slower "epic" movements built in. A combination all in one song, I guess.

I think that about covers it! I'm looking forward to getting to know some of you better as I hang around here!

Welcome to ABF, timeturner! How fun to be learning the piano with your boy!

Welcome to the forums, timeturner. I wish I could get my son to learn piano with me. He is "8" and says "No way mom"!!!!!! So its just me doing the lessons. Im hoping my girl will start in about 2 years.

Well, welcome. Its a great group of people and I have learned allot just hanging around.

Enjoy, KaylaX

Hello everyone, My name is Salvador, I'm 20 years and I haven't been playing piano very long, only 3 weeks now. But I've managed to play all the music I made up on guitar on the piano now. I taught myself how to play the guitar and became quite obsessed with it after my older brother had passed away. He passed away three years ago on his 19th birthday and ever since I've dedicated myself to music. I'm playing a Baldwin Acrosonic right now, but I'm also making payments on a restored 1929 Mason and Hamlin 5'8" grand hehe , I can't wait till that's paid off, I'm actually going over to the seller's house to play it in a half hour and help him take more pics of his other pianos (he has a 7' bosendorfer that's amazing, he's selling it too). I've only been playing for a little while now, but ever since I've transfered my music from the guitar to piano it's become my most favorite instrument by far, and by doing so I've gained fingering technique very quickly. I'm also teaching myself cello right now, and it's comming along great. My dream is to become a composer and compose pieces for theater and movies. Also, to find a great teacher that can get me there and to build a great relationship as teacher and student. Have a great day

Hi, another noobie here. My name is Mike. I make my living as an engineer.

I have been playing fingerstyle guitar for three years now, picking it up again after a three decade lull. I play a little classical, some standards, some popular, and some blues. I have done very well with sticking to a daily practice routine, even taking a guitar on the road with me when I travel. I took lessons for a few months, but quit because of the environment at the facility.

Recently I felt I had gotten into a rut. As many of you know much guitar music is written in tablature which emphasizes fingering over the niceties of the music itself. Once I had become dependent on tablature, I found that reading sheet music and converting it to guitar fingering was just too painful mentally. For example in tablature one never has to attack key signatures or read a bass clef.

I had a desire to play keyboard in the back of my mind for some time. So I reasoned that taking up piano would re-energize my musical interest and at the same time help with reading honest to goodness sheet music and focusing on music theory a bit.

Once I joined this group a few weeks ago I picked up on the emphasis on the Alfred’s Adult series and have been working through books one & two. I bought a used Roland 61 key synthesizer to see if I generated enough interest to justify the investment and space commitment of a ‘real’ piano. I’ll probably take that step this month. I’m strictly interested in digital. Due to my housing circumstances and the need to play during others’ quiet hours, I play with headphones most of the time.

I’ve enjoyed the atmosphere in this group, especially the Adult Beginners section and look forward to spending many quiet mornings with all of you.

Happy Holidays, Mike

Welcome all you newcomers to our site. There's about 4 new people here who want to join up but do to the current conditions and cutbacks, only 3 of you will be accepted. The forth won't make it.

The first 3 to provide a MORE in depth exlanation of what playing the piano really means to you will get in but the last guy will take a hike.

That's just how weird it can get here. All in all, still a nice bunch. :p