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Hi Folks:

I just wanted to stop by and say hello. I've been trying to find active forums where people help each other learn to play piano, but so far, the places I've been going to are just dead.

If anyone knows of other active boards where learning piano is actively discussed, I'd love to have some links.

A little about me. I'm 47 turning 48 in July of this year (man does life fly by!) I resigned my job 14 months ago to help my dad through his stage 4 pancreatic cancer and his end of life journey. I spend a good part of the remainder of that year helping get my mom on her own two feet as well as a sort of mini sabbatical. I've been looking for work solidly for six months, but i'm still out of work. I'm a Director of IT by trade.

Recently, I Was given a Wurlitzer 45" upright piano from my mom's church. Many years ago (almost two decades) I taught myself to sight read using Thompson's classical method through year 4. I wanted to play pop tunes...Billy Joel, et al. And I just LOVE jazz. I learned that much of what makes music special in jazz and pop isn't in the lead sheet. Improvisation, ad-libbing, adding colorings/reharmonizations/arrangements.

So about 8 years ago I took 1 year of private lessons in Jazz from a phd professor here in buffalo. He taught me a lot of the theory I was missing, along with how to use a real book. I can play basic 7th chords and read from a lead sheet. But truth be told, I suck.

Recently, since I got the new Wurlitzer, I got Tim Richards Improvising Blues Piano and Exploring Jazz PIano books. I was trying to use Noah Baerman's Beginning Jazz book, but found the tunes pretty dull.

I'm still in Chapter 1 of Richard's IBP, and I'm finding my fingers weakened a lot and I'm relearning a lot of what I lost.

So now I'm trying to be more diligent in my learning and am trying to follow a focused learning plan (sans instructor because I'm broke) to develop my playing skills.

Richard's book is good because it teaches improve right from the start, something I never learned at all before.

So now, I'm on my journey, looking to make some friends to share the experience and maybe get some online help every now and then. One day, when I get back to work, I hope to be able to afford jazz lesson's again.

So anyways, Hi All. I'm glad to be here. And I'm hoping to be a part of these groups and discussions.

FWIW...I'm also an amateur oil painter trying to turn pro. That's my other 'talent' from God. I don't know that I'll ever be able to make a living from it. But it's a great gift. I don't know if it's allowed here (apologize if it's not) but you can see some of my art on my blog: robertbrittonjr.blogspot.com

anyways, trying to use both art and piano (along with my faith) to fight the depression and shame that comes with protracted unemployment. I figure I might as well try to be productive even though I don't have a job.

Thanks for listening all!

Pianostreet.com is an option. A much more piano serious (classical) crowd but less social.

You'll find some active help here, too. There's some great jazz tutorial threads that I don't participate in (it's not my genre of choice), but they appear very useful when I glance at them.

Something that can work well sometimes is to start a 'study group' thread with a specific goal, e.g., everybody tackling a certain piece together, sharing progress recordings, fingering tips, etc. You might want to start one such thread yourself.

As Monica says, there's a great ABF jazz beginner's thread called something like "Autumn Leaves & ATYA" here (you can search for it), and in the Non-Classical forum a little further down the forum's list there's a Joy of Improvisation study group:

JOI study group

so I'd guess you've come to the right place

Cathy

Here's the ABF study group:

ABF jazz beginners study group

It doesn't get as much traffic as the advanced group, but if you post in it it will come to the top and one of the jazz players will see it and respond - they're good about that. I believe that in the opening post there's an index to the lessons.

Have fun

Cathy

Howyadoon man . . you`ll be welcome here. It`s a great place; I restarted on the piano since finding the site. I`ve given up other things to practice music. Sorry to hear about your work situation, I`ve been there many years ago. Not nice. Faith got me and `er through it and it`ll do the same for you.

I like jazz but can`t really get into it. Perhaps you have a style of your own just waiting to blossom . ..

Thank you, All. I will definitely stop over to that post. Autumn Leaves is one of my favorite tunes. Who knows, maybe I can pick up a few friends there.

Yes,Peterws, I'm trying so hard to keep my faith. I pray and pray, and I keep trusting God. But what do you do when you don't get an answer and you don't have an income? I've been rejected for two jobs lately, and things are REALLY difficult.

But I keep praying and praying along with everyone I can think of to pray for me. I have to trust that God will provide. But man this really is NOT fun being out of work with no income or means to pay the bills.

not fun at all...very shameful.

How about substituting music for faith?

Music is my faith. Beethoven (Bach?) is my God and the piano is my temple (church? synagogue?).

Hi bubba-az,

Nice paintings. Can I ask, Why does your piano painting have 1 and 2 written in purple pen/pencil?

Hi Linda:

Thanks for saying something nice about my paintings. I just put another one up I finished tonight.

My piano painting? i'm not sure what you are referring to? Could you help me there? I'm really not sure what you are referring to...

Hi bubba,

If you look at the bottom of your bio page you will see a picture of a piano and purple writing. What is that about?

*stamps foot*

Oh!


that's so funny!





I forgot to take that picture down. Doing it now. One of the people here in the tuning/technicians forum was trying to help me figure out what is wrong with my piano. So I took that pic and posted it on my bio for him to see what I was seeing.

Okay, good luck with your piano.

Thanks, Linda!



Have a great day!