Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Can you play piano?

As long as I've been around this joint, maybe you do already...But you tell me what you think and I'll put my two cents worth in, too.

I cook but I'm not a cook.
I dance but I'm not a dancer.
I sing but I'm not a singer.
I play the piano (very bad) but I'm not a pianist.

On the other hand,

I speak so I'm a speaker.
I read so I'm a reader.
I drive so I'm a driver.
I dream so I'm a dreamer.

Hmmm.

What's in a name?

That which we call a rose stinks at piano playing.

LOL

I like piano nerd. Can I be a piano nerd too?

I really don't know your answers to these questions, but I am curious as to why you are asking them. I think if you give your answers I would better understand why you are asking. My answer is simple. Call yourself what you want when you want.

Sure - it can be my gift to Piano World.

I'm a hack. Sometimes it's fun.

They are one in the same. Anyone who plays the instrument - no matter how well, or how poorly and in whatever musical style - qualifies as a pianist/piano player.


All irrelevant.

When asked, I self-identify as either an amateur classical pianist or an amateur classical musician (pianist, chorister and choral conductor). I dabble with other musical styles as well, but classical music is my thing.

And while I've actually been employed/paid for doing all of the above from time to time during my life, I still consider myself an amateur because these activities did not ultimately become my primary profession/career.

I can play the piano when I am able to let the piano sound as I indeed want it to sound.

Expressive sounding music shall not appear so because I long enough trained a sequence of phrasing, pedaling and dynamics, but the audible appearance of phrasing, pedaling and dynamics should simply follow my momentary will. For this I for sure first have to learn, as a prerequisite, to hear the music in my mind in the very moment before the hands actually play it on the piano, and then have to be able to hear and judge what I am finally playing on the fly instead of doing so only afterwards when listening again to a taken recording.
At which point in a graded list of pieces will I have learned to master this, the hearing ability and the expression ability? With more musical talent maybe in the first year, with less talent maybe after many hard working years, and if cursed then maybe never and for ever staying with the replication only of rehearsed sequences of correct movements, whatever technical difficulty level the replicated pieces may be rated at.

I don't know why anyone who is not an experienced pianist even worries about the term. For me a pianist is someone who has a certain level of expertise, either academic credentials or performing and playing experience. A student is a piano student. An hobby piano player is just that ... There's no reason to apply the label or worry about it. It's all good. Every stage is good. And there's room for budding students, people who "tickle the ivories" as my mother did ... for fun. People who just plain love the piano and improvise or play by ear. It's all good.

Two or three years ago I started to read a bit about Quantum Theory ... and became fascinated. I added astrophysics and became completely hooked on the subject. Now I spend considerable time in the live NASA forums where we follow the International Space Station. And I do engage in banter with the other members. But at no point would I ever consider myself a physicist. When asked I happily admit I'm a passionate amateur. And no one has ever been less respectful or inclusive because of this admission.

I suspect it's the same with music. I am a pianist. I am NOT a physicist. It's a matter of credentials and experience. But the passion for both is there.

I like this one...

Ok, some thoughts...

A piano player is someone who plays the piano. It might be simple or complicated. It might be in one genre, only. One might be what the world considers a fine classical pianist, but personally, they may be only a piano player.

Not that there is anything wrong with that.

To be a pianist, I want to see technical ability, but I want to see musicianship. I want to see someone who can perform a classical piece, but could also sit down with a jazz trio and do their part. Or maybe accompany a Southern Gospel quartet. I want to see somebody totally comfortable with reading music, that can play what they want to, entirely by ear.

I want to see a performer move through music as effortlessly as a fish swims in the sea.

That's kinda where I differentiate. To each his own, as no definition is entirely right. Or wrong.

This requirement would mean that most/many of the greatest classical pianists in history are not pianists.

The guy (or gal) playing the Emperor Concerto has no clothes!

You are correct. At least IMO.

OTOH, we really don't know how much varied talent many of those people had, do we?

Would you then say someone who writes only short stories is not a writer, but a Word Processor user? Only someone who writes novels, short stories, horror stories, poetry, romance stories, fiction, non-fiction, biographies, screen plays, newspaper columns, magazine articles, political speeches and advertising, and all with a basic competence is a writer?

I think if someone plays the piano and wants to be called a pianist, fine. The better discussion would be what does it mean to be a versatile pianist, or a virtuoso pianist, or a concert pianist, or a great musician who is also a pianist etc.

And it's easy to be generous with someone else's practice time, thinking they should do, try, be, stick a toe in, other genres. 😀

"Piano players" are what jazzers tend to call themselves, not classical pianists.



To fit your criteria, there're only a few pianists in the world who can do that. Someone like Denis Matsuev.

In many countries in the world where classical piano is taught - and performed - to a very high level (including the country I came from), jazz hardly figures. Except in a few movies.

I know a handful of terrific classical pianists who made money with playing non classical gigs in jazz, pop, even country etc. I know several more who can sit down and play a handful of jazz standards quite convincingly. I know some good Jazz pianists who at one point were seriously trained classical cats. I don't think any of them would self define as a "pianist" based on this versatility, or not call someone else a "pianist" who played the piano well in one genre but not another.