...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...