...you have a category 4 typhoon bearing down on you and all you are worrying about is losing power and not being able to play piano.

This is a really good argument for an accoustic, isn't it?

You know you're really a dinosaur when.....you almost don't understand that post without the last line.

I'm thankful for the use of the word "addict". Piano practice or lessons or tuning or listening seems to have consumed my brain. I wonder if this addiction will become a fleeting obsession. I hope not.

Haha, that would be my worry too!

You also know you're a piano addict when you go out to a party and the whole time you are talking to people you are wondering how soon you can politely hurry home to practice.

You also know you're an addict when you are constantly googling for a practice room while holidaying in Sydney. I can't believe they is none!

When you own two acoustic pianos and two electric keyboards, when one of the keyboards has taken up permanent residence in your pianoless parents' spare room so you don't lose practice time when you stay over, and when you attach a long waterproof aluminum tool box to the bed of your truck so you can safely carry your other keyboard to other benighted pianoless locations to which you find yourself exiled - - -

I am seriously addicted. Piano has consumed my life, I think about it at work, I don't want to leave my house at all in my free time except for piano lessons.

But when you start late in life I think you need this to get through the painstaking first steps of learning. So I wouldn't think of it as a bad thing unless you get fired or loose your family and friends because of it...

When you dread the prospect of power outages because you're too old to be able to practice on your acoustic by candlelight with your old dinosaur eyes - - -

When you take your keyboard and extra batteries along on a camping trip.

...when you make extra trips from the car to the house carrying plastic grocery bags because you realized that carrying them all meant you would hang some off of your fingers, which might injure them for piano playing.

... not right now honey, I have to practice

When the first thing you do when a huge storm is announced is to unplug your piano, lest a lightning strike

So funny! I've really enjoyed reading all the "addicted to piano" posts and I'm happy to know that even though I may be totally nuts, I have a lot of company.:)

Thanks to all,

......when you get tingling fingers after some hours when you do not play....

......when you get pain in your stomach after one day not playing......

.......when you start snapping at your wife and children after a week not playing....

cheers

Johan B

When you need to come here for a conversation fix.

"Normal" people's eyes start to glaze over about 30 seconds after they have seen your piano or the fact that you play comes up in conversation. I've never yet found someone on the outside willing to discuss the merits of Hanon or how to really nail syncopation. They just start edging away from me.

I have that too. I manage to turn any conversation into a piano conversation and spend the whole time I'm talking to someone wondering about how I can work piano into the topic again. It's only safe to talk about it for only a little while before you start to seem quite mad. I love it here and also in my lessons as it's ok to be obsessed!!

When people try and talk to you all you can hear is piano music.

Definitely... trying to make up for lost time here.

... when you realize 4 days later that you monopolized a 2 hour dinner with a conversation about everything you've been learning about piano playing, including tips, tricks and web forum posts! Oops.

I totally understand the power outage thing. A couple weeks ago we had a rare 3 hour thunderstorm and I was pouting the whole time because I didn't dare turn on my piano in case there was a lightening strike.

i know about this one--I'm really careful about how I carry everything now.

when I first started playing piano, i posted a few things on facebook. My friends were really supportive, but I realized they would get bored of it pretty quickly. Then I found this place.

The typhoon is mostly over. I kept power the whole time, and at some point my bigger worry was that the big window the piano is sitting next to would leak, or worse, give way completely. I got lot of practice in, obviously the most important thing.

MaryAnn, I'm pleased to hear the storm has mostly passed and you are safe!

You win.

The most obsessive I've been has to be transporting my practice digital on a 4 hour drive for a long weekend vacation.

I got my practice in, and a lot of angry glares from my wife. That was the only, and last, time I brought my digital piano along on vacation.

Sneaking down to the casino bar in Las Vegas at 5am. to turn on the lounge digital for 10 minutes of practice and getting chased out by security guards three mornings in a row...........

..............guilty

... when you run to your piano first thing in the morning, even before having a coffee!

Yep that's where I am now! I was lying there wide awake at 6.30am wondering when would be a normal-ish time to go down and play, but it got too much in the end and I came down at 6.45. I am so pleased this isn't just me.

So let's add to the list: when piano is the first thing you think of each morning and the last thing at night.

So, its not a fleeting obsession? Its a life-long addiction.,,,or what's left of life addiction? Does being addicted to learning to play the piano mean that we are just trying to fill a void in our lives and piano does the job very well? Will we get to the point that piano stops filling that void? I think not because there is so much beautiful music out there that I'd love to be able to play well and it will probably take me 20 years to learn to play well which is probably close to my life expectancy, so I'm thinking I'll be addicted to the piano to the grave.:)

You got it!

Also... When your idea of a great day out is to visit piano showrooms even though you have no intention of buying any of the pianos.

Went to a conference on a topic I love (ethics) but found the music school would let me use their practice rooms so I was in those little closets every day for at least an hour to get my fix...

When you share your bed with a piano...

Couldn't we just call it a life long love affair?

Really? Seriously? Pictures?

Not me, but wouldn't you be a piano addict if you would do such a thing?

When it hits you that one hour practice each day = not enough so you decide to retire from a six figure job five years early.

Ha ha. Yeah, I've become a bit obsessed, too. I'm just trying to keep it under control so it doesn't interfere with school too much (it certainly is to some degree now).

Well, I just wondered. Back when I was a bagpiper I would sometimes sleep with my pipes in a strange place. The bag tucked under your arm feels like a nice little warm animal after all. But a piano? A bit bony perhaps?

Let's say... not only before having a coffee... but even before putting on your slippers in the middle of winter... You just have to run to your piano as you are...

As a 70 year old piano player who has been playing since I was 10 years old, I can tell you that the feeling never goes away.

It is still an awesome thing to be able to make music at any level. I'm not sure there is anything quite like it. I've tried to explain it to people or find analogies and have not been able to.

I quit discussing it with most people because they couldn't care less and can't understand.

Sometimes it feels like the music is already in the piano and all I have to do is move my fingers on the keys to release it into the world. Not sure how to explain what I mean there, but, the thrill never goes away.

Making music is an awesome thing.

An addict here!

I'm glad i'm not the only one.

When your boyfriend talks to you, but you don't even hear what he's saying until he says "stop thinking about piano and listen". And even then you only start to listen because you heard the word "piano".

I still have no idea what he was saying, as he's sulking now.

LOL @ Toastie...

...when everything you think or say turns into whatever song your working on at the moment and you keep trying to sing it in key....

Yes, I often start to sing whatever I'm saying to the tune of whatever I'm working on - this must make me seem completely deranged. Do you find yourself hearing the piece in your head? This happens when I'm falling asleep, but also when I'm walking around and I end up walking in time to my imaginary music.

Giving your beloved piano a name.

What's its name? What's its name? We need to know this now...

this is kind of funny.

My students asked me if i had named the piano (It's an Estonia, and at one time i thought I should name it Stone). I told them that, then that i never referred to it by name, just 'the piano'. the little girl said - you could call it 'dusty!

she's adorable.

... when you've been a staunch fan of the same NFL team since 1963, you DVR'd their game today and still don't know how it turned out, and after coming home from an orchestra performance in the afternoon, you sit down at the piano and can't stop playing... even not knowing how the football team did.

Toastie, I hear you! I'm the same but worse.

Q: Do you want to watch a movie?
A: No. Need to practice.
Q Do you want to go to Jazz?
A: No, I enjoy playing more than watching others play.
Q: Do you..
A: No! Go to the room. I need to concentrate at the piano!

Toastie, I hear you! I'm the same but worse.

Q: Do you want to watch a movie?
A: No. Need to practice.
Q Do you want to go to Jazz?
A: No, I enjoy playing more than watching others play.
Q: Do you..
A: No! Go to the room. I need to concentrate at the piano!

That's what Michelangelo said about stone...that every block of stone had a scupture inside it, and the artist's job was to bring it out.



I find it inspiring to hear you say that playing has been and continues to be such a life long inspiration and joy for you! I started late, but hope to follow that sort of enthusiastic path!

When on a walk to wherever, you keep tapping your thumb to the rest of your fingers in your hand to simulate playing piano and you hear beautiful piano song in your head.

When you start to go to work 45 minutes early every morning because there's a really nice piano there and you can play it when there's no one around.

When you are two hours into a Texas Hold 'em poker tournament, grinding away while listenting to Beethoven's Appassionata on your pod-ears, and you decide to shove "all-in" on the next hand no matter what....mainly because if you lose, who cares... the alternative, going home to play the piano, sounds like a great idea.

H ha ha..love these! When your Piano is an old overdamped instrument who is a "he" and you love him with a passion and have researched some of his history and he is a friend.
Pianos are the most beautiful magical instruments ever.

...you have set things up so that you can practice even if there is a power outage (I have a long cord that goes into the garage, and plugs into an inverter which is plugged into the car. Works great, because with headphones my Yamaha P90 only draws four watts.

When someone say you need to exercise you immediately think of scales and arpeggios.

When someone buys your keyboard (which you hate) and you have a little freak out, because this means you won't be able to play at weekends for a few weeks as you are currently relying on the piano at work until you get your own.

...when piano is THE reason why you get up in the morning...

When its 3 or 4 am and instead of trying to get back to sleep. I'll play till the sunrises.

When you sometimes sit beside your piano just admiring it, or when you pat your piano lightly before or after playing, appreciating it like a friend or pet.

..your dentist tells you so

Oh man....

This sounds like an AA meeting.

But I just broke up with a woman I was dating....

One of my first thoughts was oh man. My second thought was well I can spend more time playing on my piano

Haha! It's always the first thing I think of too when anything bad happens. Or anything good. Or anything at all really. I recently got a pay rise at work and you can guess what was going around in my head as my boss was listing the (literally) hundreds of additional responsibilities I will have.... All I could hear was "piano, piano PIANO more money to buy a piano" as he was talking. I left his office with no idea what the job even entails, but I do know that I now have more money with which to buy a piano.

Chopin was known to do that.

LOVE IT!!

LOL!

Cool Toastie.!! I was at a seminar the other day and was tapping out chords with my pen- all I could think of was piano.

Did he? Awesome! I do that too. I say goodnight to mine each night. And there are two framed pictures of Chopin on top of my Piano.

When you suffer from nightly piano insomnia. I have decided that my increasing obsession with piano is a bit like when you first fall in love, as currently I also feel sick all the time and can't eat properly. Madness!

three typhoons later (!), I've lost power twice. The first time, ~half a day; this time a full day and counting!

I really need an acoustic!

So glad that I'm not the only one doing that...

My hubby says that he is glad that I never looked at another man like I look at the piano.

So what else can I add... Maybe another sign is that someone leaning against the piano or - gasp - putting something on top of it - changes you into a sable tooth tiger mother defending her cubs?

When you miss your piano when you are out and say hello to it when you come in.

Toastie it might indeed be piano

Mary Ann I had my piano lesson last Wednesday afternoon and suddenly in the middle of the lesson it started to thunder! My teacher and I looked at each other and found it quite atmopsheric. Piano is 110 years old so no problems playing during a storm LOL.

LOL Barbareola!

I thought there was a way to do multiple quotes in a reply but I can't figure it out. *confused*

Anyway, in response to Tubbie, Frycek, EdwardianPiano and Barbareola: I am also a confirmed piano-petter. It's nice to know that I'm in good company.

You just select the quote button and it does the rest Deb. Piano petters LOL! Do you bid your piano a goodnight as well?

When you listen to the Raindrop Prelude and write a piano story:

http://www.helium.com/items/2139982-piano-fiction

I've been thinking this for 2 years. Using electronic pianos, I found that there is NOTHING more boring than a blackout... and NOT having a piano to play. Blackouts are the perfect time for piano, so I have an acoustic on the way.

The leccie came back on at 4am and it was all I could do not to run downstairs and start playing. I would have, but I really needed the sleep!

During the first of the recent typhoons, I was asking a piano friend here for atmospheric suggestions to play during the typhoon. He was playing Chopin's Fantasie Impromtu and suggested something by Janacek. I'll have to look it up...

How about the third movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata?

That only selects the one post ... How do I select multiples from a thread and reply to them all in one post?

Oh I see... I just select them, copy and paste and then use the speech marks you see by the smileys. Highlight the text then click on the speech marks.

Are all you guys insane? If you are addicts, you should be playing in the early hours at 3-5am instead of e-mailing every one at this time. I have often been shouted down to stop playing. Screw every one, it's my house. I know I am an addict. I have compiled my own list if anyone wants to read it. to be continued...

Yes, please show us your list Tap Dancer.

I need a to add another sign of addiction:

When you lose loads of weight because instead of eating breakfast or lunch you play piano when you have got a break.

Well I would if I didn't have neighbours! I was practising last night about 10.20 pm, when the fellow in the house behind mine me knocked my door! I thought he was coming to complain but he wasn't- he wanted to come in and see me play so I invited him in. We are on friendly terms and he said before til 11 pm was fine- now he said any time cos he is up all night studying The lady next to me says she nebver hears me. I still wouldn't play past 1 am tho.
Awaiting your list!

When you're late for dropping kid to school and while rushing to the door, stop and play a quick phrase because the piano was on the way to the door! Had this happen today . . .

1 you play 2 hours every day for 2 weeks playing the same piece.
2.you wake up in the iddle of the night just to hit iddle c on the piano in the dark.
3.you bought 4 different editions of the same piece
4. you play piano in the dark imitating a famous blind pianist.
5.you get phone calls from your neighbors to play requests
6.you tune your own piano every 3 months.
7.you request people not to put their drinks or plates, filled or not
8. you put a mirror fallboard on your grand piano
you wipe the keyboard clean with alcohol after someone plays your piano.
9. you hear a piece in a recital and go home and play it better.!

I did this the other day. I had a few extra minutes before leaving and sat at the piano to fill the time. Naturally, I got absorbed and distracted.

I was 10 minutes late to my appointment.

- you start making a mental map of all the grand pianos in the area, like an orangatan maps out cumquat trees in the jungle.

You want people to come round and meet your Piano and you have a photo on your phone to show people.

- get a little too gushy when discussing one's repertoire.
(caught myself, just today) Accidently come off sounding a little overly proud. Where in truth im simply hooked on these full luscious tones eminating from this wonderous box. To play it is to be in love. Whoops i did it again.

I'm mildly ill a nasty cold. I went to work but came home about an hour early. Went straight to bed but had to get up to practice.......

I'm draped in a blanket and a bathrobe, had to practice a bit ...

... when you marry your piano in a private ceremony and remain faithful to your darling for life.

Haha, I would feel far more secure in making that commitment to my piano than I would my boyfriend. As it is, I am currently considering sharing my home with a new piano, so I think cohabiting is a big enough commitment for now, and I will wait until my piano is ready before we think about marriage.

Hope you feel better soon Justpin. I think your decision to practice a bit was very sensible! Just make sure you disinfect those keys... Xx

I have been sick all day too... I had to give up a book sale (where I could have found sheet music too ), but still forced myself to play as usual (between sneezes).
I am off to bed now though.

My new piano and I have been together for over a year now and get along very well. So I guess next year we can talk about marriage. (We are not going to invite many people though, we want to keep it private. )

You get a MIDI beginner's keyboard just for it's ability to talk with your computer and you tell your accoustic piana that it doesn't have to be envious, it will always be the number 1.

You decide the point when you really need to see a doctor is when you feel too sick to play the piano.

When after selling the 7 foot grand (Yamaha C7) you turn to the digital world constantly seeking the holy grail of virtual pianos to temporarily replace it with. Finally I think Ivory American Concert D Grand 1951 comes the absolute closest to the mark after obsessing with so many other digital grands. Soon to add an acoustic grand again due to this addiction....Steinway B?....

This morning I woke up at 4am and went downstairs to my keyboard. This has never happened before, although do find I am getting up earlier and going to bed later because my piano obsession is stopping me from sleeping properly.

Does it calm down after a while? It's only been two months and I can't imagine how I can continue with my current level of addiction indefinitely.

When you work in a piano dealership, the owner gives you the keys, you play every piano in the store then settle down and you play the 1947 Steinway B till 5:30 in the morning until you're all played out and you still want to play more because the piano is begging you to bring out every nuance of tone imaginable and it seems you have entered another world where, in a dreamlike trance, your fingers suddenly capture entrancing blocks of sound, strings of melodies, percussive adventures, and emotional states which at the same time drains you physically yet recharges you and transforms your soul to new realities.........................sound familiar?

This is a really lovely description.

This is so wrong..... everybody knows you should have it next to your bed

When you sit on the sofa watching something on i player and even though it is the Leeds Piano Competition, you feel your piano is watching you and you should be practising!

When you do half an hour before you start work, pretend you're going to a meeting so you can do another half an hour at lunchtime, then fake a headache so you can sneak off to do another half hour after work. And this is before you drive home to do a few hours more.

I have discovered a cupboard at work filled with various old digital pianos, so I am eating my lunch in there these days.

You shouldn't anthropomorphize pianos. They hate that.

Forrest

LOL Toastie! My Piano is looking at me right now begging to be played!

I was watching err. A 'Blue movie' on a er well known website.

She was sat at a piano and was playing really really well an unknown piece, it was a sad Beethoven type piece.

I was extremely disappointed when she stopped playing the piano and began to 'play' with herself.

I love this topic. When I am away from my piano, my wife complains because I am playing the table, or the couch, or the steering wheel. I spend all my time on YouTube looking at beautiful pianos, or on PW reading about them. When I watch movies that include a piano, I am more interested in the piano than the story. When I am home again, I can't stay away from the piano. I feel guilty not keeping my wife company at the tv or in the kitchen, but my thoughts are on how long I need to wait before excusing myself to go play. I still love to try every new piano I see and can.t wait to get new music to play on my beautiful Mason-Hamlin. Did I mention that I have loved pianos since I was about two and spent time at Grandpa's house? He was a tuner-tech/rebuilder all his life. I bought many, many uprights, and even a square grand, over the years even though I didn't know how to play. Moving around, I had to let them all go until now, but I have succeeded in one great passion: I taught myself to play.

...you forget what you were doing while moving from point A to point B in the house, and find yourself walking towards the piano.

This could also be early onset Alzheimer's, I'm not quite sure (only half kidding).

I was told I would be going to be in hospital for cancer treatment for a month so I went out and bought a cheap, 45 key spring loaded keyboard as opposed to a electronic piano with weighted keys and the hospital staff said no patient ever brought a keyboard to the hospital before. People brought laptops but never keyboards. There aren't many firsts in my life so I guess this is one.

Sorry to hear you face cancer treatment Michael- I hope you don't have too hard a time of it and send you my best wishes. I'm glad you have your keyboard.

Michael, I hope you get better soon.

Man after my own heart. I was hospitalized with pneumonia for a week this past January. I missed my piano more than anything. More than edible food even. Hope all goes well for you.

Sorry, I may not have phrased my posting appropriately. I was diagnosed in 2007 with cancer and treated during 2008, 2009, and during 2010 I was told by the doctors they couldn't find any more cancer. And my question to the doctors was - politely spoken - but meant humorously - How hard did they look (for the cancer)? Their advice to me was to live every day fully.
I have always lived my life fully each day and continue to do so. So the cancer is in remission is the term. I am very happy to still be alive - and trying to play the piano! I am being treated current for ancillary matters related to the overall treatment but in laymens terms the cancer is gone as far as anybody knows. I am sorry for the misunderstand - but thank you for your concern and nice comments.

Michael, that's a wonderful 'clarification'! (I especially liked you asking exactly how hard the doctors looked...) May you continue to stay cancer free!

I know I'm addicted because when asked what I wanted for my upcoming birthday, all I wanted was the piano tuned!

The tech did an evaluation on my old "baby" while he was here and said it would very much improve with hammer reshaping and a full regulation. Hey, family! Here's what I want for Christmas! (And for about the next 5 Christmases - a bit spendy.)

Glad to hear the cancer has gone Michael.

I just realized this: I must be an addict as I was told by a co-worker today (kiddingly) to "chill out and go to your happy place" when I got a little tense.

I imagined being at my piano!

...you get your first real piano (after playing on cheap synths with nonweighted keys), you can't stop thinking about playing it, you read this thread for comfort because you're stuck at work, and then you post a reply because you ran out of thread to read...

Piano... must... piano... *tries not to hyperventilate* m-must... Piiiiiaaaaanooooo!

I get this too... Withdrawal symptoms and a desperate feeling about when I can next get to a piano again. Feelings of longing while at work and general distraction from things you should be concentrating on because you actually feel a bit ill with wanting to go play so much.

... when you have a photo of your piano in your wallet (and you look at it with love all the time).

When on monday colleagues at work asking if you have had a good weekend. And the only true answer is yes, I played piano! But if you say that, people stare at you if some mathematics is rolling out your mouth. So instead you lie and say something like no, I slipped on a frog walking in the park and fell on my back. It hurt so much, so I stayed home.

When you pay to have your piano's portrait painted by a professional. (Not my piano, but I know the artist who did the portrait.)

When your facebook profile pic is of your piano. I put this up when the piano was new to me, but it's been quite a while now--probably time to change it.

But, really, I have no problem...

My eBay profile is a piano.

... when in an emergency you think of your piano before you think of yourself, and are ready to happily die with it if necessary.

Rather than having a picture of your hubby, your sister's new baby or your other sister's lovely kids, the pic on your cell phone is of your piano!

...and the ring tone is one of your own recorded pieces

I'd be more worried if the ring tone was the baby crying.

when your wife says : all piano should be destroid

... when you play with your feet when you are eating because you are hungry but don't want to interrupt the bliss.

When you are on a several hour job interview, they give you a break for lunch, and on your way to grab a quick bite you hear an employee jamming on the chapel piano (this was at a hospital) and you're tempted, really tempted...

America is talking about middle class tax. When asked about what class you belong to, I answered Intermediate.

In our new church (episcopal now after born & raised catholic) I stated my observation that they use the organ during the readings and use the piano for intermission. Turning red, I immediatly realized that I should have said "communion" .

you know you're a piano addict when you have a calculus final tomorrow morning and you play piano instead of studying and convince yourself that "at least the music theory will help me learn my fractions!"

When you throw a sickie at work, just to practice (slippery slope lol)

and

Cant wait for your Toddler to go to bed, just so you can play! (terrible mother here ha!)

A smart way to study! It's not so much the fractions per se, but it will maximize all your neural connections . That's how I persuade myself that a break from work to play piano is really efficient.

...When you sing a lullaby to your piano before going to bed.

When you think about your piano more than your husband lol

LOL! Hope you put its lid down so it has a good sleep!

When you agonise all week because you're going crazy without your piano, but you don't want to inflict you germs on the poor thing as its beautiful and it feels wrong to cough or sneeze near it when you're ill. Am staring at it longingly now and wondering about the possibility of playing with a scarf over my face, but I think the noise might hurt my head.

I find this thread a little disturbing. There is more to life than a piano. If I am at home with nothing much else to do, I will sit and play, but I do not go to work and sit and think about the next time I can play the instrument. It is a different matter when you have an exam coming up, but if not, then to sit and think about it too much is unhealthy.

People are different. I dont agree that it's unhealthy - well unless your piano addition is making you unhappy or having a negative impact upon you, then that would be unhealthy yes. Ultimately having piano in my life makes me really happy and I suspect it's the case for everyone else here too. I am naturally an obsessive person and if it wasn't piano it would be something else - I actually think piano is a fantastic healthy thing to be addicted to!!

Also I think a forum especially dedicated to piano is bound to attract people who are little more into piano than others! Especially as adults... Only the most interested are likely to bother signing up to this site.

I know I love piano far more than is normal, but I'm really pleased with that

It is good to be enthusiastic but to think about it day and night is an obsession. I come from a family where we have addictive behaviour and it destroyed a lot of good things. To be over obsessive is not good. In fact it is a bit creepy.