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Hello everyone
I'm 24 yrs old from Grand Rapids, MI. I have played the piano off and on over the years but I've had only 2 years of lessons and that was a very long time ago. I like to play on the computer, watch movies, and play the piano ofc!I'm currently going to a University but I'm still a little undecided of what to do. Augustina who posted up above is my sister and we like to play piano duets sometime together even though we aren't very good at them Anyways, Look forward to meeting everyone here!

yeah I'm ladypayne's sister.. We took piano lessons at the same time, finished the same book. I thought that we might've took piano lessons for 2 years though couldn't remember for sure:P

Huh........didn't notice that we have this.
And I thought I looked around pretty good too. :-)

I'm new here as of a week ago, even though I already have about a billion posts, mostly lecturing people about their posts.

Much like William Hung :-) "I have no professional training" but I've played the piano seriously for most of my life, started studying very young with "that little old lady around the corner" and have been blessed with great teachers in college and thereafter. My work is psychiatry but I've always made sure to keep some time for the music.

I've been in many of the amateur piano competitions, with varying degrees of occasional success and currently have an entry in the Cliburn YouTube contest.

I first came by here last week out of curiosity to see if there was any discussion of this YouTube contest, and I didn't find much, but I did find more than enough other things to make me want to stay and participate, and it's been great. The level of the members and of the discussion is extraordinary, and people treat other with far more regard and respect than what unfortunately is usually found on the internet.

This is one great place.

Oh.......just noticed that this is in the Beginner's section.....I don't fit that description but I already did that long post so I'm not about to undo it.....

Not sure if this is the appropriate place to post this, but I didn't want to start a new thread just to brag, and this is such a supportive forum/topic.

Queue the drumroll and fanfare!!! Last night I played the recital repertoire for Suzuki level 2 for my teacher and I'm now cleared to move on the level 3. I am so stoked! The first piece in book 3 is the Clementi Op. 36 no. 1, which was one of my Grade 3 Western Board exam pieces when I was taking lessons in the late 50s, early 60s. I used to love that piece. I wonder if I'll get anywhere near to recovering the finger agility I had 50 years ago . . . .

Hey CMohr, thanks for your warm welcome. What kind of an artist are you? Your background sounds very interesting, I'd love to spend more time on artistic activities in my daily life too! Am kind of toying with the idea, but I don't think it will be easy... I guess for now I'll just focus on piano and singing, and see where I end up!

As soon as I think I can play something that sounds somewhat decent in comparison to what I heard on the recitals - I don't think that'll happen too soon though - I'll give it a try and join in!

Greets,

Manu

Hi Manu, thanks for asking! I'm a printmaker, mostly woodcut & monoprints now. I taught at the university for a couple years, and for the local art center for kids, at-risk teenagers, and young adults.
I'm relatively new to the ABF forum, just since last July. I hope you'll find the wealth of information and friendliness I have. I'm sure you will!
Cheers!

Greetings all,

Most of my life, particularly my work life has been technical in nature. Auto and motorcycle mechanic in my teens, avionics technician in USAF and aviation manufacturing, professional pilot, and currently aviation safety inspector.

But I guess I've always been a closet musician. I remember as a child of 5 or 6 years singing french tunes with my mother and maternal grand parents as she played an almost in-tune upright piano her father got as payment for carpentry work during the great depression. On occasion my father would strum his old ukelele he bought from another GI when he was stationed in the Aleutian Islands during WWII. He taught himself to play it to fill his off duty hours. My mother was also self taught and played by ear. So I guess by some degree, I came by my musical desire through my family. Unfortunately, money was tight, the piano and ukelele fell into disrepair and disappeared from our home by my 10th or 11th year.

But I never lost that desire to be musical, even if it was only to tap out a beat with my fingers. Which was the source of much trouble for me, particularly in school. I would spend my last 25 cents on cheap harmonica or french harp and work out tunes, driving the adults in my home batty.

As it usually goes, adult pursuits of career, dating, family, etc. displace many things in ones life. Not intentionally, but life happens. So here I am, age 62, ready to purchase my first piano and coax the latent musician from my DNA. Wish me well.

Hank

I wish you well.

But wait, there's more.

What an interesting and varied story. You've done a lot.... and now you're about to do more.

I've been in a number of the "amateur piano competitions" and one of the people that I've met through it is an airline pilot who has also been a serious pianist all his life. And (I'm just free associating here about flying) the fellow who runs the organization that does the Colorado competition (officially called the Rocky Mountain competition) is a retired air force general, and a fine amateur pianist. (His dad was one of the people who established the Air Force.) Must be something about flying.

"French harp" is a new one on me......will have to check it out.

P.S. I wouldn't have imagined that one of the things GI's did during World War II was buy and sell ukeleles.

But I shouldn't joke about it.....People like your dad enabled my family to survive in Europe during that time, and allowed me to be born. I thank you for his service.
And I do wish you well.

Thanks MarkCannon,

Oops - I think the French Harp is actually a harmonica, but what my grandmother called the French Harp is actually the Jew's Harp. Guess some things stick with you for life.

Based on my dad's stories, there was a lot of horse trading going on between GI's in those days.

The best to ya,
Hank

Okay, I'll bite. This seems like fun.

* I'm 39 and turning the big FOUR-OH in 2010

* I plan to celebrate 40th at Disneyworld with my wife and 2 girls

* I'm originally from Cebu, Philippines, but grew up in Chicago. I immigrated to the U.S. at age 3.

* I'm a degree'd Engineer.

* I regret my career choice. I've hated my job 10 out of 15 years that I've been in it, but it pays decent.

* I'm a lifelong "C-student", never having given it my all in school.

* I've been addicted to Golf for this entire decade..that is, until piano came along last year.

* I have no natural ability at Golf. I work my ass off just to shoot in the '90s.

* I'll never forget my piano teacher, Mrs. Hessey, who discouraged me from quitting at age 11. She was the only one who saw how talented I was at piano, and I got zero encouragement from my parents (both non-musicians)

* I also played percussion for 5-years. Percussion was my first love. Percussion is why I was able to pick up syncopation so quickly after a 27 year layoff from piano.

* My daughter is the true Virtuoso of the family.

* Scott Joplin is the main reason why I play piano again.

* I love watching amateur pianists on YouTube - so much talent out there.

* I love when my videos on YouTube get hits, ratings, and comments.

Well that's it for now. Check my channel out folks, when you get a chance.

Do you have a YouTube channel? Please describe how one enters that YouTube contest.

Sorry to hear that.....I have a friend (also a pianist) who's in that exact same boat. It seems he has often not minded his engineering work too much, but sometimes can't stand it. I wonder if you went into the field mostly out of 'family pressure' rather than that you were drawn to it. Family pressure was involved to some extent in my career choice too (medicine), but fortunately I truly wanted it myself also, and I've been lucky with it.


That's darn good!!!!!
I used to play a lot myself and wasn't half-bad (or I don't think I was) and only once did I ever break 90. And that was only with some luck.


Don't miss my entry in the Cliburn youtube contest.


Boy, do I know how it is!
By the way.......do you want to give a link to one or more of those?

Yes -- my channel is larchmontmark. My only video is the one that's in the contest. I'm still not equipped to handle the 'tech' part of uploading and so I had some help on that.

Entering the contest is easy except that it's now too late!!
The viewing/voting are still going on (till Nov. 24) but the deadline for submission was Nov. 2.
But you'll probably have other chances for it. The Cliburn organization also did this last year, so this is their second such contest, and I'd guess they'll be doing it periodically in the future because it seems to be a success.

All you need to do is, put a video of 5-10 minutes on YouTube and submit it to them with a brief and simple application.

I am... "cebukid70" . I've already subscribed to your channel and will check your video out. All of my vids are located in my channel.

I'll see you in "YouTube" land!

Thanks!
I subscribed back to you and I will be interested to look at your things.....

P.S. I did look over there! Pretty funny how you mix the music with the completely unrelated videos in some of those.
Nice Joplin playing!

btw.....WHO is the lady talking about the boxing thing? She looks just about exactly like my niece.....

And....thanks for the great comment on my video!!

Hi Mark,

Thanks for checking out my channel. This long weekend, I'll have to review your Scriabin video again. Again, I'm not familiar with the piece and have no others to compare it to.

Yes, my channel is a mish-mosh of non-piano stuff. Thanks for the compliment on Joplin. I mixed in "The Entertainer" on one of my kids' impromptu recordings of our guinea pigs....funny, but it got 5 ratings - all 5 stars. The player in me would like to think it was due to my playing and not the rodents.. I'm actually rehearsing for a full do-over of "Entertainer" - I know the FULL 1902 version with all the octaves now and I'm letting it ripen a bit...I'm ready to post in the next week or so. "Fur Elise" will be next (a nicer version), and then "Weeping Willow" in a couple months hopefully.

I hope to see more videos from you too. You're a very precise and technically proficient player.

Hi, I am a new lurker of these forums and a new piano player. When I got my piano I got Alfred's Teach Yourself To Play Piano (ISBN: 0882846744). I'm not sure how this relates to the 3 step course that seems popular on these forums. I suppose I should make Alfred's course book 1 my next purchase? Anywho, I live in southeastern PA and starting to look around for an instructor but google is failing me on results, haha. Any good sites for finding someone for lessons? Maybe one day when I get used to the format of the forums and have a bit more time with the instrument I'll post more but I'll maintain my lurker status for now . Oh, I'm 29 years old, have a b.s. degree in computer science/digital media, struggling to find work in our current economy & probably am getting laid off from my current position permanently next year.

Have you tried "online lessons?"

I was a brief subscriber to "WebPianoTeacher", but didn't renew since I got better at reading musical notation. I'll admit, it actually did cut down my learning time for one of the pieces I learned, but now I'm too cheap to renew.

There's lots of free instructors on YouTube as well.



In response to:
Poster: RyanMortos
Subject: Re: OT, Tell us about yourself

Hi, I am a new lurker of these forums and a new piano player. When I got my piano I got Alfred's Teach Yourself To Play Piano (ISBN: 0882846744). I'm not sure how this relates to the 3 step course that seems popular on these forums. I suppose I should make Alfred's course book 1 my next purchase? Anywho, I live in southeastern PA and starting to look around for an instructor but google is failing me on results, haha. Any good sites for finding someone for lessons? Maybe one day when I get used to the format of the forums and have a bit more time with the instrument I'll post more but I'll maintain my lurker status for now . Oh, I'm 29 years old, have a b.s. degree in computer science/digital media, struggling to find work in our current economy & probably am getting laid off from my current position permanently next year.