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Hi Kreisler,

I just read this thread, so I thought I should tell you who I am before I spread any more gossip!

I have B. Mus and MFA degrees in piano performance from the the University of California, where I was a teaching assistant and Regent's Fellow. I studied with Nina Scolnik during my time there. I was a student and teaching assistant during the 80s and 90s at the Taubman Institute. I studied in Paris for a few years at the Ecole Normale de Musique, and with pianist Noel Lee privately. I gave a number of concerts in France before coming home, a couple at some high-profile venues. My work with the Taubman Institute morphed into a professional consultancy doing research, and working with injured office and industrial workers that I've been doing for 20 years now, as well as general office and industrial ergonomics. You can read more about that at my web site, if you're the least bit interested. There's a link to it in my signature line.

I'm particularly interested in the French School which is why I went to study in France. I play all the Debussy and most of the Ravel output for solo piano. I also accompany and coach singers, and have taught at the university level for a short while before my consulting took off. I give anywhere from 1 to 10 public concerts a year, although it varies a lot. I don't "teach" much anymore, but I still see the occasional injured pianist, and the occasional person who wants me to fix their trill or octaves. I have given a number of lectures about my work to local MTA groups, but I haven't written anything about it yet. That's going to change soon.

I've spent a lot of time on the "piano" forum because I'm an inveterate shopper, and pianos are just plain fun. I'm looking forward to spending time here too.

Thanks!

Hi. I've been here on the forum for a couple of weeks. I've been playing piano (and guitars and synths) on and off since I was seven. I'm 61 now.

Our piano was a small Baldwin upright for many years. But we've recently, gulp, changed to a C3XSH Yamaha grand. I decided I wasn't playing enough piano, and with my daughter expressing a wish for a nicer piano, we took the plunge.

At present, I'm mostly re-learning some of my old stuff that had got rusty: some Scott Joplin, some Yann Tiersen, Promenade from Pictures At An Exhibition, Billy Joel's Piano Man and Mozart's Fantasy in D minor coming up. For new stuff I'm practising Boogie Woogie. I'd half-heartedly learned a few left-hands but hadn't really managed to connect the right hand. It's coming along. Connecting right-hand trills to the left-hand is really tough.

I'm new as well, so I just wanted to do a proper introduction. I'm 27 and played piano very seriously in my teens, but gave it up when I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia before I went to college. My illness has lessened in the ways that effect piano, so I've restarted as of six months ago or so. It's slow going so far, but I'm so sad it's taken me so long to get back to it.

I'm playing a mixture of easy sight reading type things and then working on some advanced "project pieces" that I hope to slowly bring up to a standard that I'm happy with (basically, the point where I would play one for someone else with some sense of confidence). I'm so excited about the recitals here and can't wait to get to a point where I feel comfortable participating.

I love all of the big dramatic and romantic composers - Ravel, Rachmanioff, etc. I'm a small handed player, so sometimes I really wish my personal tastes were different!

Hello! I see in your signature that you are playing Ravel's Pavane pour une infante défunte. I played it this past school year! A great piece. Welcome to PW, and I'm happy to hear that you are able to play again. Stay well.

Hello All --

I'm a new member here. Actually, I apparently joined back in 2007 and then forgot about it. I must have been browsing for pianos online back then, and signed up. Anyway, here I am now.

I studied piano from the age of about 7, through completion of a B.M. However since then I haven't really had regular access to a piano. My playing has suffered accordingly. Recently, only three weeks ago in fact, I finally decided to be a grown up and buy a real piano (Kawai GE-30). I'm in my mid-40s at this point, and I have a long road ahead of me before I get to a point where I think I'm "good" again. But, you know, Gradus Ad Parnassum. I'll get there.

Welcome (back) to Piano World, TimV! Thanks for sharing your introduction with us. It's wonderful that you still want to continue playing and improving. Keep up the hard work and you'll get there. If you don't have one already and can afford it, a good teacher would also be great.

But either way, we are glad to have you here.

Welcome to PW, Francis!

I was intrigued by the fact you were born with no ears but can play and enjoy the piano. How do you hear the music?

Francis: Bravo to you!

Jazzy: Thank you for highlighting the post. Most of us seem not to look at this thread very often (maybe we ought to do something about that!) and so it's easy to miss posts of new members.


I'll be interested to see what Francis might say, but I can tell you.....while we tend to think that we hear with our ears -- meaning the outer ears -- hearing doesn't depend on them, and I've heard it said that their role is less than we might think.

To Francis:

Hi, I am new here.

I enjoy almost all piano music. My favourite composer is Schumann and I am currently learning his piano concerto.
I joined this forum after spending a while at talkclassical.

Not much else to say really...

Hello!

I just started playing piano a couple of months ago, Im a late bloomer (28 years old).
I studied jazz flute (transcribing/analyzing/learning solos) when I was younger, so I have some kind of an understanding how things work when it comes to theory. I have played keyboards in bands, but the keyboard parts were very simple and I always thought I didn't have any understanding how the instrument works and what can I do with it, other than playing chords. I just started taking lessons and Im overwhelmed by the beauty of this instrument and compared to flute it feels like Im playing a symphonic orchestra (88 keys!). I enjoy practising the instrument and I feel that learning/studying piano expands my musical knowledge. When I play flute, I never really think about chord inversions etc.

My goal is to expand my musical horizons and learn more ways to express myself through music.
It's a long road, but when it comes to music, it's not about the destination. It's about the journey.

Hi everyone!

I was on this forum a few years ago but lost my login details. Since then, I have moved to the US, finished medical school, started psychiatry training, done really well in my piano licentiate, and hopelessly failed my FTCL :-)

After about a year of not playing (I had to leave my RX-3 in South Africa), I have just bought a lovely Yamaha U1 (I now will start saving for an Estonia, or maybe another Kawai Grand), and hope to re-attempt my FTCL, or at least work towards being comfortable playing pieces of that level of musical complexity.

I also play the Flute, but this has taken a serious back seat to my career recently. I find it very difficult to maintain even one instrument with a full time job. But maybe one day I will have the time to pick it up again!

Thanks in advance to everyone for your advice. I hope to contribute as much as I can!

Hi there,

Long time lurker and finally an occasional poster. I think I joined in high school before I knew anything about anything, and now I have probably less of an idea than I did then. I don't like to have too many identifiers on the internet because, frankly, I'm paranoid, but I will say that I am a professional pianist just out of school, taking some time off to hone my teaching and playing skills before I prepare for another round of degrees. Whether this is wise or not remains to be seen.

Hello, everybody-- Brand new to Piano World. I'm a woman in my mid-70s (!). I asked for piano lessons at 3, and got them at 4. I always loved to play, but had trouble with thinking of practice as *work.* In my teens I had some well known teachers, but--what can I say, I was immature and scared--I said no, I didn't want to be a concert pianist. I went on to graduate in music from UC Berkeley, where I put in a very mediocre appearance. (Their emphasis was all on theory and composition, no credit even given for performance study, and I was way too lost and bewildered to do the right thing by myself, kept thinking I should switch to English.)

Years intervened in which I didn't really play at all. In my 40s I got my piano back, and played on and off for a few years, then avoided it, guilt-ridden, for 20 years! Finally sold my 1903 Model A Steinway (it needed $20K worth of work) and ended up getting a 5'8" Yamaha which, to my amazement, sounds just fine in my living room. That was in 2005. And I told myself, since I live on a shoestring, I really couldn't afford to have this piano and not play it. So, again off and on, I went back to playing.

This year, though, something seems to have changed: [now that I'm practically doddering, tra-la] I'm finally seeing some BIG shifts in my attitudes about playing (a lot of the ghastly old ego stuff seems to have subsided), and I seem to have decided that playing--and practicing!!!--is all pleasure. Whoopee!! My speed surely isn't what it was when I was 16, and I have a weird-looking arthritic right thumb, but I seem to be working my way through the WTC and the Chopin nocturnes very happily. I have the Children's Corner and the Bergamasque, and I'm thinking I'd really like to play for others to the extent that I can. I still have a *lot* of nervousness that I didn't have as a kid when it comes to playing in front of people, but I'm hoping that doing it frequently--my friends all seem to like hearing me play--it'll get easier, so that I can concentrate on delivering the message instead of worrying about how I look.

So, that's a lot about me--but I'm very pleased to have found this place. Thank you for being here!

Hello and welcome Kate. Your story is absolutely wonderful! I must agree, there is nothing like practicing. Even doing scales, and exercises adds to your playing technique, ability and ease. What I love most of all is that I do it for myself! This selfish act on my part keeps me alive and makes me feel that I have a huge connection to life. I have no doubt that you (and others) can understand what I feel.

I look forward to reading your posts!

Music is God.

Barbara, thanks for the very warm welcome! I confess, none of my teachers (thank God!) ever insisted that I do scales and exercises. It's my (very subjective) opinion that technique can be learned on Bach better than on Hanon, and without running the risk of repelling the player away from the whole enterprise.

Lately I've been managing a couple of hours' practice a day and, for the first time EVAH, feeling that every single minute is pure pleasure! I do the first hour on Bach--I'm working on the WTC Bk 1 Eb minor fugue, polishing the Eb Major, and bringing back the C# Major one--and the second on Chopin (polishing #1 in Bb minor, #20 in C# minor, #10 in Ab Major, and #15, F minor, and working on #8 in Db Major. Eager to get to #7, and also #3.)

Additionally, I really need to bring back Bergamasque, because my plan for getting past the worst of the performance anxiety is to do it until it's not so terrifying any more. With that in mind, I'm starting to have people over, I bribe them with food, and then make them sit and listen.

But I want to give a little recital in the next few months, and I'm thinking off-hand it could consist of the two preludes and fugues, followed by some of the nocturnes, and finishing up with Bergamasque, encores in my pocket consisting of The Girl With the Flaxen Hair and The Little White Donkey.

How's that sound? Is that about enough material for a recital? Too much? Not enough? Dying to get others' ideas here!

Hi all

I have been playing the piano since I was young (around 5 years of age). I have had many teachers over the years, but ever since I have had to move to Australia, I could no longer continue my lessons (it's been 9 years now, without lessons). I still continue playing the digital piano in my house occasionally, and my dream is to buy a grand piano one day. The house is currently too small though.

I have tried teaching a few friends how to play, but don't know where to start. I don't actually have any pedagogy experience though. I usually take the ABRSM exams when I was actively learning, and finished Grade 8. I have recently stumbled upon the Diploma examination syllabus for other schools (eg London College) and I am learning a few pieces from them here and there. Even though I don't have lessons now, I am still very interested in learning about music.

Someday as well, I would like to learn to compose my own piano music, but as usual, don't know where to start. I have a predominantly classical background, but would sometimes try to play some jazz pieces. Improvisation is not my strong suit though. I usually perform solo, as it is very hard for me to play regularly with a group.

Hi everyone!

My name is Jenny and I'm in grade 11. I just reigistered a few days ago, after I've discovered this amazing site while looking for information. I'm so excited to join this community!

I started playing piano at age 5, but I stopped taking lessons for a year when I was 8 because I moved to Canada. I had experience accompanying youth orchestras and I've played in a chamber music group, and I also play clarinet in school. Life was pretty smooth until high school, when I moved in the middle of the semester, and it really affected my motivation to practice; but then I also found a wonderful teacher who helped improve my technique a lot. My family recently bought a new piano, and now I have just completed my ARCT in Performance at RCM. So, now I'm looking for new repertoire, and I look forward to exploring the music of composers I haven't played before - Haydn, Liszt, Ravel, Prokoviev...(surprising, heh?). I really want to learn Ravel's Jeux d'eau and Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3, but, sadly, I'm already working on a concerto.

So that's my history, and I look forward to sharing my thoughts in some topics, and I thank everyone, in advance, for all the help and advice I can get here.

Jenny

Poly, her signature indicates Saint-Saens' G Minor!

Though, maybe she has edited her profile information since making her first post and your reply.

Welcome, Jenny/Jenni! (You list both spellings...) I hope you enjoy Piano World.

Aha - either that or I just missed it the first time. Two huge G minor pieces and and the other one in the relative major.