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

Hi everyone, figured I'd take a turn and introduce myself. I'm 36, mostly new to piano though I played flute and French horn in high school. Thank goodness I could read music already, or I might have given up by now.

I have a beat-up old player piano I inherited years ago, I had played around with it for a while but nothing serious. Finally a few months ago I decided to give it a shot, I started lessons (3rd lesson is tomorrow) and I bought a cheap digital. I really wish I could afford to go out and buy a beautiful new acoustic piano right now! (Someday....)

I probably won't post much, but I think this forum is amazingly helpful - I check the Alfred's Book 1 topic every time I start a new piece in the book. :-) So, thanks to all the other contributors!

Becky

Hello to all,

I am a new member here. I found this forum when I was researching my piano purchase. I had a 70 year old Bradbury spinet (ugh) and after a few months research purchased a 12 year old Yamaha P22. What a difference! Both in feel and sound. I have to credit this forum with providing so much information to help my decision.

I am 55 years old, and had several short bursts of group piano lessons, starting in college. About a year ago I decided to try private lessons, and now have a lesson every other week. It has helped me with technique and I am progressing very well.

In addition to a full time job as a paralegal, I have many interests: Piano (of course!), beading jewelry, Homebrew Beer Judge (certified), and running.

I hope to post more often, but part of my decision to take piano more seriously was to keep myself away from TV and the computer. Soooooooooo..... I'm off to play.

Trish

Hi all,
I joined the forum yesterday after being referred here from Yahoo Answers LOL. I'm 32 and I've started playing piano again after a 20 year break. I returned to the piano after badly breaking my ankle in January, which has forced me to take 4 months off work. I can't do anything with the horses (I own and show 2 QHs) and I can't work as a psychiatric nurse as I work in a forensic setting which means I have to be 100% fit. The piano was sitting there, unplayed and unloved. Plus, I got sick of watching TV all day and talking to the cats

I originally started playing piano when I was about 9 years old, and played daily for about 3 years. By the time I did my grade 2 AMEB exam, I thoroughly hated piano. My teacher had a rather 'interesting' teaching method - at the start of each year I got the latest AMEB series grade book, chose each of my list pieces and played those 3 or 4 pieces constantly until my practical exams in November. By the end of the year my playing was robotic and I HATED each of those pieces.

When I got to high school I took up cello which was wonderful. Initially I found it a bit weird that I only chose my exam pieces a month before the exams, but I soon got over it! Cello was so interesting, I played a much wider variety of songs and my teacher was great so I quit piano lessons. From then on I only played the piano sporadically up until I moved out of home at 18. By that stage I was playing cello in two amateur orchestras and also played viola and violin.

My mother said she wouldn't let me have my piano until I bought a house - like that's ever going to happen, especially in this market. Then last year she told me that the local 'antique dealer'(!!) came over to tune my piano. She said that he only tried to tune three keys (concert A and the B and C above it) but broke a wire each time!!! He then supposedly said 'the piano is wrecked and you should send it to the tip' !!!! A beautiful hundred year old piano with full iron frame, ivory keys and never a problem before?

Mother then admitted that she thought it was rather odd that the only tools the supposedly 'qualified' piano tuner/antique dealer brought were a chromatic tuner and a pair of long nosed pliers. She agreed to let me have the piano and it's with me now. Unfortunatly I haven't had it tuned/repaired yet, but other than the three broken wires, it's fine. Anyone know of a good piano tuner and repairer in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia?

I'm currently playing only about 45 mins a day as its difficult playing around the keys with broken wires I have to get creative, playing some pieces up or down an octave or two - this greatly reduces my choice of pieces. I would like to do my Grade 3 AMEB exam later in the year and once I get back to work and am earning $$ I'll get the piano tuned/repaired and have some lessons again.

Shelly

Hi everyone,

I'm from Malaysia. 24 this year, started piano lesson few months ago. Prior musical background : playing recorder during primary school (is that consider?).

I've always felt envy when i listen to other playing the piano. Now after i graduated and secure myself a job as an medical engineer, i decided is time to buy a digital piano (Yamaha P-85) and sign up for lesson! Hope to save enough money to buy an acoustic soon.

Hey everyone,

Although not a pianist for now I'll be starting soon. Been reading some parts of this forum since some weeks, a month maybe. Figured I'd 'support' this Adult Beginner forum with an introduction at least... I was googling around for adult beginners and found it, and it was nice to see that there's life beyond the age of 10 or so, hehe...
I'm 31 years old from Budapest, Hungary. I grew up in Romania and lived there till the age of 27 or so. Maybe being an IT professional is kinda far from any sort of art, as music too, but having a totally different hobby as job can be refreshing, I think.
About music, I met some music a long time ago. Never actually learned professionally, but around age of 10 to 14 or something like that, I have learned to play hungarian folk music (being a hungarian from Romania) with the guidance of some experienced adults (like my mother) that were playing music for an amateur folk band (talking of traditional music).
I actually had to look that up but this is the instrument I was playing:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cimbalom
Seems not to be a very widespread thing, in any case, but there's actually some sort of familiarities with a piano. So while I'm a total newbie there's a few things I remember vaguely, luckily.
I always liked piano, and was always a bit envy to hear pianists play (who isn't). The thought crossed my mind sometimes since I'm an adult, but only now I thought seriously of actually learning to play the piano. It's the winter I guess, I stay at home much more these months. And sometimes I spend time with stuff that's far more useless, like watching TV... so I figured I give it a go and started reading about the subject.
As far as goals are concerned I don't have anything really fixed yet, just want to be able to play stuff that I like. Let's see where that takes me. Maybe I'll be lousy, maybe I'll be pretty good.
Got my DP and will be taking lessons once a week, starting coming Saturday - can't wait I'm like a kid with a new toy. I expect lessons to help me a lot (someone actively correcting my mistakes, setting the direction, providing a little extra motivation).

So while I'll really be just starting, so not really part of this community, just want to say it's nice to see that not everyone here is a professional and not everyone started at a very young age. Many restarters sure but I see there's actually people like me that just start it late for the heck of it Thanks for the - indirect - encouragement I got from this forum :p
And not to be mean - feels good to see I'm not the oldest starter ever :p I don't have to set a record here so doesn't sound as tough anymore :p

Where to start.....

I'm 41 (how did that happen?) and I started taking piano lessons 3 years ago. I've been married for 15 years to a great husband. We have 3 dogs and no kids.

Like so many here I've always wanted to learn the piano but didn't have one growing up or the money for lessons. I taught myself the first year of piano and after that started taking lessons. Last year I bought a Brodmann BU-121. Before that I had a Clavinova.

I'm new to the forums but I enjoy them and they are a great source of encouragement.

Shelly, how did you break your ankle? I broke mine falling from my crazy Thoroughbred!

WannaB - the cimbalom looks way to complicated to me! Good luck with your piano lessons.

DumbSoprano - I broke my ankle falling off a bicycle worst of all, I was only going at about a walking pace!

Shelly

Hi all.

I've been reading the posts on PW for a couple of weeks now, so I thought I'd chime in.

I'm 59, live in New York City and recently (like two weeks ago)re-started learning piano. I'd taken lessons for 8 years as a kid but never practiced much so never never really got beyond advanced beginner. I'd always enjoyed the idea of playing the piano, but not the work involved. I had the same experience more or less with the violin, which I played for about 6 years. (Though, with the violin, I did make it to second chair in a very weak high school orchestra.) Same for the clarinet. (One year.) The only instrument I did wind up playing tolerably well was the guitar, which I taught myself.

But all those years of lessons at least gave me an appreciation for music and an admiration for those who could make it.

I inherited my old family piano (a 1953 Baldwin M, in mahoganny) twenty five years ago, after my father died, and shipped it to my apartment in Manhattan. Though I had it tuned every 6 months or so, I knew nothing about piano care. The piano was placed right in front of a large south-facing window, pressed up against a huge window air conditioner and a couple of feet from the radiator.

Except for a few months during which my youngest child took lessons, the Baldwin mainly functioned as a handsome piece of furniture, a beautiful stand for a dozen and a half framed family photos plus the occasional floral arrangement.

In time, the kids grew up and moved out and my wife passed away. A few years ago, my new love moved in. She's a very decent amateur player (Chopin, Debussy) and she started playing the Baldwin. I was so pleased that it was finally being used, and her playing sounded lovely to me. She never thought much of the old Baldwin's sound, however, and couldn't understand my protesting "But, it's a really good piano!"

A couple of months ago, it completely stopped holding a tune. Several of the keys stopped working.

The tuner had been telling me for years that that the soundboard was cracked and the instrument had lots of other ailments, but we always got by with a tuning and some cheap tricks he had up his sleeve. Now, though, when it wouldn't hold a tune at all, we knew we had to make a decision.

After getting inspections from two reputable restorers/rebuilders, it became clear that the Baldwin needed virually a complete rebuild. The cost estimates came in at $15 - $20K. I thought about that for a while, and was tempted, but I eventually decided that the sentimental value of the old Baldwin jsut wasn't worth the cost, not with the uncertainty of knowing what I'd wind up with after the rebuild and not when compared with the certainty of what we'd get if we bought a new or used instrument.

So we embarked on our own little odyssey of shopping and comparing new versus used pianos.

My love said she'd be perfectly happy with an inexpensive upright. But I'd grown up with a grand in the house (well, a small grand)and had had one in my apartment for a quarter of a century. I just like the feel and warmth of a grand. Makes the house (apartment) look good.

By chance, the first day out, I wandered into Beethoven Pianos here in Manhattan and was taken care of by a lovely, slight, older gentleman by the name of Carl Demler. As it happens, and as I later found out, Carl plays a major role in Perri Knize's book "Grand Obsession." I too found Carl quite intriguing. After doing some addditional research (inclulding finding and trolling through this site), reading The Piano Book, and a doing a modest amount of comparison shopping and piano sampling, we wound up buying a used G2 Yamaha from Carl.

A day after the G2 arrived, I got the old bug, bought the first two of the Alfred Adult books, and, now, about 2 weeks after starting my new adventure, am happily plugging away at "Blow the Man Down."

That's my story.

DoverCt,
Hi, I really enjoy reading your story. And congrats on your new piano - and new love! I cringed when I read that your old Baldwin "was placed right in front of a large south-facing window, pressed up against a huge window air conditioner and a couple of feet from the radiator." Yikes!! Please don't put your Yamaha in that same location!!

Thanks.

Well, I know better now how to treat a piano. Getting a Dampp Chaser installed next week.

Hi,

My Name is Richard i am 32 and live in Aberdeen, Scotland.

I work as a captain for an airline that goes to the islands to the north of Scotland- Shetland and Orkney.

Im married and about to have a baby girl in 4 weeks time( exciting!)

I have been playing properly for 6 months i bought a keyboard but after about a week realised i wanted a full size piano and got a Yamaha digital which i play every day sometimes 20 mins, sometimes 3 hours.

I was thrown out of lessons by my teacher when i was 6 after 4 lessons because i always wanted to memorise and look at my hands. I still have this problem, i am taking lessons now and am getting frustrated trying to sight read.

I came across the book by Chan and have used it to good effect to learn tunes liker the Raindrop Prelude.

My favourite music is Chopin, Einaudi, Nyman, Debusey and Beethoven.

I also like golf, tennis

My fav foods are chinese and indian food and nothing beats a full roast dinner!!!

I also have a ginger cat called called Leo who cost £1000 ($900)
(not to buy!!!-vet bills-he's a total wimp and gets beaten up by the local cats almost daily!!

Hello everyone ^_^

My name is Mali and my occupation is a college student. I mean..if you consider that an occupation at all but it surely feels like one! I live in America and I'm just here to jump start my desire to get into the piano world. I know absolutely nothing about piano except that it's pretty and in 10 years when I am stable with my own house I want a nice grand piano sitting in my living room that I can actually play and not just wish I could play. I'm looking forward to meeting everyone~

Hi!

Quite new to this forum, but I understand that introductions are appreciated.

I am a comeback trumpet-player, with one solid aim: I want to be the best trumpetplayer in the world! And it's just around the corner - only the corner seems quite far away

This goal of mine is partly a joke, but only partly. I've come to believe that the more positively you think and the higher you aim, the further you'll get.

As for the piano, I simply LOVE playing the piano and I've been doodling with it on and off through the years.

Right now I am learning Chopins Prelude 15 in Db (the raindrop prelude), and looking on the net for fingering suggestions I bumped into this forum. It looks like a good place, and I've promptly registered!

Hi,

I'm a 29-year-old Norwegian, clinging desperately to my twenties. I bought my first piano (albeit digital) three weeks ago, and with the music of guys who've been dead for 250 years I will feel better about my own incipient dotage. =) No, that's not why I bought it; but it helps, right?

Great forum. I see there are many very knowledgeable people here. I've been trawling the archives for info and I must say it's lovely to see so many people in the same boat as I (adult learners).

Thor

Howdy Ya'll

I'm Sarah Lynne 22 year old wife of four years to Michael and stay at home mom of 2 boys, Austin (2.5) and Steven (1). I've always loved music and have an ear for it vocally. If you can play it, I can almost always sing it (in my range of course!) I played violin for 4 years and while I loved it at the time have found no "practical" use for it as I've gotten older. I've found over the last few years my appreciation for the piano to have increased ten-fold and I'm now looking to begin playing on my own until perhaps one day I have the ability to afford a proper teacher. My husband has had a few lessons and plays guitar so I'm hoping if I get stuck he'll be able to help me out

Right now I only have a keyboard to work with, but my husband and I are keeping an eye out for a piano on craigslist even if its cheap and only useful for a short amount of time. I'd really prefer to play an accoustic over a digital, but will take whatever I can find!

I've been searching the forums pretty much non-stop since yesterday when I discovered it. I have Alfred's AIO Level One coming to me from interlibrary loan as well as the Alfred's essentials of music theory : a complete self-study course for all musicians.

Hope to see ya'll around

Welcome to those of you who have come in the last couple of weeks or so.

NeNiRi - we kind of like pictures of new arrivals around here, whether they're pianos or babies - so maybe in a couple of weeks?

Mali - I think being a college student can be considered having an occupation. What are you studying?

acebone - being a trumpet player should give you some good ideas for your piano if you improvise or play from lead sheets and do embellishments. Nothing like a little Louie Armstrong lick to liven up a piece

Thor - I thik we've met on another thread, but welcome here. I love Norwegian folk dance music - and Hardangar fiddles. Can't play it on a piano, but a couple of fiddle-playing friends of mine are beginning to get hooked, and I can use the organ setting on my DP to accompany. I used to play 2-fiddle and pump organ trios for Scandinavian dancing - heavenly. It may not be your thing, I suppose, but I love it.

Sarah Lynne - the practical use of piano for many of us is that it keeps us from going crazy Guitar/piano duets can be fun, too -

Cathy

That's why I've fallen in love with the piano I can use it even just for playing little ditties for the kids. The violin isn't near as much fun! Plus my oldest loves the piano at his Papa's house (its an antique and badly badly out of shape. I wouldn't be able to begin to afford the repairs just to make it sound pretty much less look pretty, but the kids like to plunk around on it)so I know it'll be a good thing to have around.

I secretly want to get proficient enough to play for our worship band at church.

You can do that! Keep hanging around ABF and the Non-classical forum and you'll run into folks who do just that -

Cathy

Hey.

I have to admit that I haven't read all the introductions here--has anyone--but I just joined the group and figured an introduction was a good place to start.

My name is Toby and I'm not the one who's officially learning to play the piano. That's my wife. Because we live in Germany, and she's pregnant and diabetic, her work is required to pay her to stay at home during the pregnancy. (There's more to it than that, but as an American, I think it's crazy that she's getting paid to stay home.) And we bought her a Yamaha Clavinova to practice on while she's home. . . she played when she was a girl.

And now I'm playing on it as much as she is. I used to play the accordion and I really enjoy the Piano-In-A-Flash style of playing with a fakebook and chords. (The accordion is very similar.) So, I don't think I'm learning to be a real pianist, but I am working on songs like Für Elise and The Entertainer and trying to learn the 'real' left hand part.

Uhm. . . My other interests are teaching English--it's what I do here in Germany, and that's more by coincidence than anything else--and reading. In my dreams I'll become a novelist soon, but I don't write and I think that's a prerequisite. We have a dog named "Katze" (if you speak German, you know it's a funny name) and two cats.

And, like I said, we're expecting. Our first child will becoming in August and that's exciting. . . and a lot of stress.

Okay. That was my ramble. I will now take questions at this time.