Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner New Visitors and Lurkers Please Read...

Hello all,

It occurred to me that I never made an introduction, so since I've been lurking around for a few years and have been using piano world more frequently than before, I thought I'd say a few things about myself.

I started playing the piano when I was 6, but I didn't start my classical training and begin building my repertoire until I was a senior in high school in 2005, which was when I discovered my passion for music and the piano. Now I am a piano performance and music composition major at JMU. I'm about to enter my senior year (2009-2010) and will be doing grad school auditions the year after to continue my studies in piano in some form. I'd like to go as far and wide as I can with piano in spite of any disadvantages I may face as a result of being a late starter.

I'm glad to have this forum as a valuable resource!

Whats up? My name is Flex and I am very thrilled to find a community full of piano players. I started playing piano in 5th grade but dont let that stat fool you. I am not a great player by any means but I am dedicated. I produce music in the RnB/Hip-Hop genre but am not limited to that. I am a big fan of all styles of piano ranging from classical to maplerag as I call it.

I look forward to embracing the trade of piano playing along with meeting others who do the same.

Some of my favorite players include:
Mozart
Chopin
Teddy Riley
Chuckii Booker
Elton John
Koji Kondo

and many others

I already started posting, but here's a more "official" intro to me:

Born 1981.

Began piano lessons in 1990.

Studied until 1999, then went to college.

Studied music technology. Kept playing classical piano for fun, rock keyboards in bands.

Went to grad school in 2004 to study composition.

Began playing piano on works by fellow composers. Began teaching piano/trombone/composition/conducting lessons.

Temporarily out of grad school in 2008. Starting to perform new classical/new age compositions.

In short, I am a composer who can play piano. I want to play more often, but composing takes precedence. There is only so much spare time!

Some favorite composers:
Debussy, Chopin, Beethoven, Satie, Messiaen, Morton Feldman, George Crumb

Hello everyone, My name's Geoff Preston. I'm 17 years old, and I've been playing instruments for the last 8 years of my life. Mainly guitar, which I completely regret not taking more time out to learn piano. I immediately realized my love for piano, and how much I enjoy playing it and just everything about it.

I've been playing here and there for about.. a year now, but recently I've been trying more and more to practice everyday. I know little melodies and things, but I strive to be a blues/rags pianist. I love blues.


... loooovveee blues.

Hi everyone!

I'm Deniz from Turkey - Ankara. I was born in America and i'm 15 years old. I started to play piano when i was about 10 and was taking lessons once a in week. When i was 11, i won the exam of Hacettepe University Ankara State Conservatory. And i'm still studying there.

I really loved this forum. It's very helpfull. And i'm also happy that now, i can communicate with the different piano students and lovers like me.

Deniz

Hi there! I'm Chopin Gal, but I love many composers besides Chopin as well! I've been playing the piano since I was 8 or 9 and while I'm a full time nerd on a computer everyday, I still love the piano and have started up piano lessons about 8 months ago with a wonderful teacher here in Washington, DC. I love classical music and am thinking about getting a real piano within the next 2 years!

Hi all, I have been lurking these forums for sometime now and had to join with the recent arrival of my 1890's Chickering upright. Theory and Organization are my focus though a major goal of mine is to be able to express clearly my own ideas with these white and black keys.

Hi, I'm new to PW.

I started piano when I was four and continued until I went to college. Unfortunately, I hated piano when I was younger(I thought it was very feminine). I never practiced and I hated going to lessons. The bulk of my piano lessons were with high school students. To give you a better idea of how bad I was: I didn't know the difference between bass and treble clef, I couldn't read music, and I had the technique of someone who never learned piano.

Towards the end of my junior year, I got access to the internet and file sharing networks. I happened to stumble upon Chopin Polonaise op. 53 played by Argerich. Previously all the "pianists" I met weren't really good standards to listen to. It's funny because I originally thought the piece was played by several pianists... Anyways, I was blown away by the playing and I immediately developed a love for the piano. I started listening to everything and gradually developed an appetite to play everything I was listening to.

Through a parent's friend I was introduced to a proper teacher. Since I wasn't going to go into music professionally, he agreed to let me learn the Chopin Polonaise along with a few other pieces I wanted to learn even though they were above my musical or technical abilities (it took me 2 about hours to read the first bar). Basically, I went from barely being able to handle a introductory method book to attempting to learn a Chopin Polonaise (let's say my lessons were extremely unpleasant for him).

I never really finished any pieces because my reading was painfully slow and all the pieces I wanted to play were way above my level. I'm actually quite surprised by the audacity I had for trying to attempt those pieces. I quit when I went off to college.

About two weeks ago I started playing the piano again after stumbling upon Cortot's technique book and his editions of Chopin music. Strangely enough, my reading is now 200x better than when I quit (one would assume that after not reading music for so long one's music reading skills would deteriorate). I've followed Cortot's technique book and several of his preliminary exercises for Chopin etudes and my technique and playing has seriously improved at an exponential rate. I'll probably hit a wall soon though =(.

Anyways, I'm improving at such a quick rate that I'm contemplating whether I should take piano seriously. I practice anywhere from five to fifteen hours daily now.

Hello all,

I've been lurking around here for years (might have asked a question or two in the past) and thought I'd say a little bit about myself. I recently graduated with a piano performance degree and am still trying to figure out what's next. Since graduating I haven't been practicing as frequently as I was, but have picked a few pieces to work on.

I've studied a good number of works from different eras and styles, but I particularly like playing Bach and Debussy, and have been working on a Mozart sonata and trying to learn more about 20th-century rep, especially pieces outside of the standard rep. I have also recently become interested in harpsichord, and hope to become a better harpsichordist and continuo player. However, I haven't been too successful finding a teacher or an instrument to play on.

My immediate future goals are to begin teaching, which I hope to do under the guidance of a former teacher of mine, to continue accompanying (I love playing with singers, and want to play with more instrumentalists) and to just keep improving and learning.

I enjoy reading most of the conversations in this forum, particularly in the Pianists and Piano Teachers forum. I have learned so much from your posts over the years and am glad I found my way here. I will probably do much more reading than posting (everyone seems so knowledgeable!), but I may have some questions in the near future..

Hi. I'm Shane and have a Master's degree in Piano Performance and have been teaching for about 15 years now. I do a lot of accompanying work, but don't get time to practise solo repertoire because I don't have my own piano. My practising is usually done at the school where I teach and I miss the piano until I get to school the next day. I am hoping that i will be able to get my own good upright piano soon, or organise a permanent place where i can freely practise. My goals are to give more concerts and perform with Symphony Orchestras again.

I have performed the Tchaikovsky 1st, Rachmaninoff 1st and Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue with the Cape Town Philharmonic, but that was a long time ago. Missing being in performance shape terribly.

Nice to be part of the Pianoworld Community. Thank you for the welcome!

For an absolutely EXCELLENT interpretation of Chopin Ballade No. 1, I HIGHLY recommend Krystian Zimerman! I cannot tell you how many times I visited that recording (found on YouTube) while I was learning that piece!

My name is Sadie and I am going to be a senior in high school this fall. I have been playing the piano since I was 3-4 and unfortunately had to wait until I turned 6 to begin lessons.

I have had multiple instructors, but none really introduced me to the glorious world of classical music until my current one began to do so 3 years ago. Since then, I have developed an absolute obsession with anything piano/classical.

My practicing then was mediocre, but now has improved to a productive 5-6 hours (at least) daily. I am excited that PW gives me, and others like me, an opportunity to communicate with other musicians; such a wonderful idea!

Feel free to add me as a "fellowpianist"!

Hey, all!

Glad to be a part of such a thriving community!

C5.......G4 F#4 G4 Ab4________G4............B4......C5!
(Those are meant to be notes, not chords)

I love your name "aEguals440"

Thanks, fellowp! I tell you, at first I was trying name after name and it said they were all taken - then I finally realized that it was my "Display Name" that was the problem. So, I had a some good exercise in brainstorming names until I came up with that one.

In my playing experience, though, it's usually more like "aEqualsSomewhereAround440Hopefully".

Hi

My name is Collyermum, and I am a stay at home mum to 4 small children. Piano is my "me-time"!

I would have loved to play the piano as a child but we didn't have the space or the money for an instrument so I learnt the flute all the way through the grades, but never really fell in love with it!

Then as an adult after I was married I took singing lessons and really enjoyed learning how to use my voice properly and unleashing my inner drama in music! I also enjoyed taking the Graded exams to Grade 8 (our hardest here) for voice, too!

Then once my first baby was born I finally got a Clavinova and have been taking piano lessons with it on and off in between having 3 more children over the past 8 years. I'm now about grade 6/7 and have finally persuaded my DH that its time for a REAL piano, and I have realised my long term dream and have a lovely new Irmler grand in my living room! (along with all the toddler toys etc!)

Now I am trying to learn how to develop my technique properly for a real piano - even though the Clavinova was a good one, it just wasn't the same and while I am loving the beautiful tone of the new piano I can see there is still SO much work to do to learn to really play it the way I would like it to sound!

But I'm still thrilled to be here, learning piano and with a real grand to play on. And the youngest two children will be going to nursery in the mornings this autumn so I will have more time to practise without worrying about how loud I am!

Collyermum

Congrats on the Irmler, Collyer! You've had quite the musical voyage, but it sounds like you've found your instrument of choice.

Ever try playing when the kids are asleep? It never seems to bother ours - maybe we're just lucky!

Hi people

This does look an interesting place and I look forward to exploring.
I am a great believer in forums having spent sometime at the leading Classical Guitar forum, www.delcamp.net/forum/en/index.php, providing assistance to guitarists all over the world via my YouTube site at http://www.youtube.com/user/ramsnake53.
After 30+ years of restricting my playing of classical music to the guitar, I recently purchased a Casio CDP 100 having decided it was time I learnt to play the piano more seriously.
I am attempting to keep some record of this new journey at http://nevertoolatetolearnpiano.blogspot.com
I look forward to getting know more of you here.

Heya PW,
Im Sean, 14, from Ireland. I absolutely love playing piano, and Iv been playing since I was six, and taking lessons since age 9. I love ragtime music, I can play quite a few rags, for example Maple Leaf Rag, Top Liner Rag and 12th Street Rag, and im currently working on Gladiolus Rag. Im pretty alright on piano I guess... I have nearly all my piano exams done, but Im absolutely rubbish at scales.. Their gonna be my downfall im thinking. Anyway,I joined Piano World forums so that maybe I could get some good advice off the peeps here, or maybe suggestions of good pieces that are in my difficult range that might help me improve.
Hehe, thats all I can think of to write right now, everyone elses intros were much more detailed.. So I will just list off a few pieces I am currently learning:
Gladiolus Rag
Revolutionary Etude(argh.. brilliant but haaard...)
The Heart Asks For Pleasure First
And I am about to start Gymnopedie no. 1
Thanks for reading.=D

Hi - finally going to join in the great discussions going on here. I'm a teacher and professional pianist - most of my professional playing is jazz/blues/standard-type improvisional, but I also play classical (my whole life), and have been back taking lessons for almost three years, planning to start giving recitals next year in conjunction with my 50th birthday. I'm studying with a fantastic concert artist - Moscow conservatory, full scholarship Ph.D from USC, and my first experience working from a "Russian school" approach.

Current working on:
Bach Prelude and Fugue in F# major
Chopin Polonaise OP. 26 #1 in C# minor
Shostakovich Prelude and Fugue #4 in E minor
Rachmaninoff Etude in D minor Op. 39 #8
Scarlatti Sonata in C minor K115
Granados Quejas o la Maya y el Ruisenor
Schedrin Basso Ostinato
Chopin Etude Op.10 #5 Gb

Piano - Kawaii R1
Teach - classical and jazz/improv.
Getting ready to to the MTNA certification program

Don't know if this is the correct place to put all this, but here it is anyway. Looking forward to getting to know you guys.

Cindy
Caseysmom - Casey's my dog!