Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum My 6 months anniversary, piano is so much fun :)

So it was the last week in May 2014 I received my lovely Casio Celviano AP-450 and not looked back since. I often say to myself why did I not started this sooner, but for various reasons, life, it did not happen.

I did have musical experience on recorder as a child, age 7 - 11 or so, with formal lessons and sight reading. I guess this would have been around grade 4 - 5 ABRSM equivalent, that was in the Netherlands where I was born, so my memory is a bit vague on that. Then I stopped, I played some trumpet, very casually in a group which mostly involved getting drunk from what I recall around age 18 - 20.

While I was student studying for my BSc I always had a guitar lying around I used to mess about with, but just playing by ear during that time for about 4 - 5 years, I just used to improvise mainly and had fun without opening books.

I moved to the UK around 1993 to study for my PhD, sadly no guitar came with me, so I guess when I was around 22 years old all music ventures stopped entirely. I settled down, now living with the missus she use to play flute, much better than me ( grade 8) and got to viola grade 5, she recently also started again on the viola and that urged me to start on the piano. while we got the piano for us both, she never plays it. I am hogging all the piano time

We used to have an old yamaha my missus used to play a little bit, but I never played, it was a very early digital YPP-50, but it had broken keys and a horrible light spring action when we moved in together, so after a couple of attempts I stopped trying to play it, I was too busy with work anyway at the time, so I never got around to igniting that piano adventure 10 - 15 years ago.

My parents and recorder teacher always told me I was musical ... supposedly, that I should have kept at it etc. etc, they had great plans/hopes I would go to music conservatory to further my studies, but the recorder just bored me at that age, there were other interesting things/distractions. All that said, I have no regrets studying science.

But now I am back and it feels like for good, at 47 it doesn't get any easier not having played for twenty or more years, but there is time yet I hope to get to a reasonable standard, enough for me to enjoy it. I have simple goals, that is to improve over time, whatever time it takes, and as long as I enjoy it, that's it. I have no qualms that at this stage my "best before date" label has elapsed no doubt I do think the piano is for me though, I wish had played it when I was younger.

I am self teaching at the moment and want to this properly with sight reading and method books etc. I've not considered a teacher yet, but I am open to that approach at some point.

I enjoy a wide repertoire and all sorts of music, but mainly improvisation. Every day I work about equally on my material and improvisation alike. The resources I am using are various, at the moment it is

- Carol Barratt Classic piano course ( book 1 - 3 )
- The piano handbook by Carl Humphries
- The Young pianist repertoire - book one
- printouts of whatever I fancy on the internet occasionally
- Alfred's Basic Adult piano course.

I picked up Alfred second hand in a book shop but rarely used it. I guess against the grain here. We have a case full of basic music books for piano from the time my missus played a bit as a child also, but she never had piano lessons either.

To celebrate my sort of roughly 6 months anniversary I started my soundcloud account today. Call it my best hits if you like, I uploaded a few pieces of mine for the world to tear apart, all my own improvisations each with a description given little of the background to each I'll be uploading there as I go. Hope you enjoy my beginner playing, or not as the case may be ...

https://soundcloud.com/alexander-borro/

it also includes my November first recital submission.

All I can say is that I am really enjoying the adventure even if it has its ups and downs, This instrument is bloody hard I tell ya.

Thanks for this great forum and the useful threads here, all the more important when self teaching to have resources likes this and read about other experiences.

Also thank you Casio for a great piano and all that software to make it sound even better. That aside a Kawai VPC1 has really tempted me in future at some point, A few weeks ago wondered into a shop and had a go on that Kawai Grand action on a CA65, it felt loovely to the touch, something I could appreciate a least a little bit having played a little now, but that Casio is a great piano I feel considering the cost. When I felt I had that max budget of around 850 GBP to spend, for me it was the winner.

Thanks for reading, or even listening to some of my tunes if you got that far.

As pianomanchuck would say "Peace out"

Great story there, good to see a fellow 47 year old getting into piano. I'm the same age as you (but 48 in a few days) and recently got my first piano-same as yours-the AP450. Amazing keyboard it is too!

I will check out your soundcloud channel and hope to add my own pieces soon!

Congrats on the 6 month anniversary! I was 47 when I started also. Hopefully we have many years left to enjoy the piano. Finding the right teacher made a big difference for me in rate of progress.

Alexander, I enjoyed reading about your background, and the soundbites. They are very musical !!

Its never too late - I am in my 60s after being "too busy" or too preoccupied, for many decades, to play the piano - I preferred to play the gramophone: I was better at it!

Now I practice regularly on the piano every chance I get and I am making reasonable progress.

Good luck with your piano playing!

Andy

Alexander......congrats....

So nice to see what music and piano can do for people.......music is so lovely versatile......

Go on Alex.....enjoy, study, and have fun for music is good for man.

Best regards,
Johan B

48? A mere boy! Indeed, you're voice hasn't broken yet!

Took it up in my sixties, and I think we also have an octogenarian in the company. Sometimes I so regret not taking it up as a child, but then I think, would I have had the motivation then that I have now?

Oddly enough, my first experience in music, many years ago when I was a youth, was the recorder, like Alexander. I still love it, though, rarely get the chance these days to play it. So one ambition I have pencilled in to my 'to-do' list, is find a piece for piano and recorder, learn the piano part and record it on the DP, then accompany myself on the recorder.

Andy, indeed, it's never too late.......I was churchorganist from 1966 till 1988, left the church........and than there was a period of less actively making music........

After a burn-out in 2006 (at the age of 53) I restarted active musiclife.....purchased a new nice digital piano......and now I' m playing several hours every day.........so nice......so good to do....good for my brain and health......

And since three years I play organ for visitors in a big Catholic church three hours every wednesday-afternoon in the summerperiod........I meet organlovers from several European countries, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland.....and of course many Dutch people....

Best regards,
Johan B

Congratulations on your journey so far, having anniversaries I think are important. They are moments of reflection in a tireless practice cycle where progress is not always clear until we look back.

From my own experience starting at 54 may be the best time in life I could have started. Even so the journey is long and even more daunting if you are self teaching (which I am not). My recent two year anniversary reminded me of how utterly far I have yet to go to meet some of my ambition, but while we are making music and recording as you are, there can also be real satisfaction.

Earlofmar,

Nice signature....I like that quote........
I thought I understood endurance sport; then I took up piano.

Best regards,
Johan B

Congratulations on your six-month pianoversary! You are very lucky to be with a musical lady. Perhaps at some point the two of you could play duets!? (It's my wildest dream to meet someone who plays violin or some instrument to go with my piano playing. )

Thanks for all the replies.

@Silverkeys

For sure we plan to do that. My room is slowly turning into a bit of a music studio so we can record. To record the viola well will be bit of a challenge no doubt.

@Earlofmar. Riding racing bikes used to be another one of my hobbies when younger. I recently started again in my older age, only at a more casual level and not competitive, but I know about the pain barrier I had not endure doing that. great sig

@Purkoy still got the recorders, good quality ones, who knows, I may just do that at some point in future. I have a feeling though that the piano may well be switched to the harpsichord setting a lot of the time when that happens. All the repertoire I used to play with my teacher back then was Baroque. Perhaps why I got bored

Congratulations!