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I bet most of you were forced by mom to play piano but if not: What or who made you say : "I want to play piano 'till I can't play piano no more!!".
For me it was just the way the piano sounded and was used on many recordings. The full, emotional sound. But as a person: Jerry Lee Lewis. He rocked and has such nice trills.
I can't think of many piano role models that I have now. Maybe Randy Newman.

I don't think there has ever been any particular "who" that was responsible for my beginning and continuing to play, although I am a pretty big fan of K.Jarrett. He's coming to Montreal this summer to appear in the 25th anniversary edition of the Jazzfest and I have the best seats in the house........YEAH!

I just happened to come with some talent and a passion.

And yes, I often want to "play piano 'till I can't play piano no more!!".

As a kid I was an ELP fan and that made me keyboard aware, but it was not until my mother made me watch 'Horowitz at the Whitehouse' on PBS in 1978 that really set things off.

Shortly after seeing the Horowitz concert, I happened to find a recording of his live "Pictures at an Exhibition" and bought it because I knew of it from ELP's version. This was my first classical album and influence it had on the direction my life took can not be overstated.

Though I abandoned the piano after brief lessons at the age of 16-17 ( I came back to it 10 years later), classical music has been the most important thing in my life since then.

I still have this album framed in my office/playroom. After all these years I still regard this recording with astonishment.

I have to say that it was not any one performer so much as a genre that made me want to play. I had taken two years of the hated lessons as a 6 year-old. It wasn't until I was in college and had read (and was enchanted by) 'They All Played Ragtime' that I went out and bought a folio of Joplin Rags and re-taught myself how to play.

To make a long story short, it is 18 years later and now I have a teacher and mostly play Chopin, Scarlatti, Mozart, Bach, Beethoven and Brahms.

I thank my Mom. She never made me play, but one day she decided on the spur of the moment (as most of her decisions through life were made) to buy a piano. I became pretty much connected to it from that day forward.

No one "made me" want to play the piano. In fact I think it rare that anyone can "make [anyone] want to" do something. Perhaps the question should be worded otherwise.

I was enamored from the start. I remember the wonder, shock and awe of fingers properly producing sounds when I started with that middle C piece.

BEN FOLDS got me inspired about piano again after I'd stopped playing for a few years after having many years of lessons. He's still my favourite pianist.

VLADIMIR HOROWITZ got me inspired about classical piano again.

OSCAR PETERSON got me inspired about jazz piano.

Bruce, the above pianists "made me" want to play piano in the sense that after hearing or seeing them, I thought to myself "Wow! I wish I could play like that!" and I became inspired to try to play like they do.

Liberace (but that was all he inspired me to do).

a-huh :rolleyes:

Dozens and dozens of pianists have touched me over the years, including my ex who was truly gifted.

A couple people put me over the edge:

Maria Tipo's piano rendition of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor.

The portrayal of David Helfgott in Shine.

Ray Charles in Blues Brothers and elswwhere.

Hearing Chopin's Ballade in G Minor. I immediately took up piano, and I still hope to play the piece some day.

Have to admit: For me it was also Keith Emerson. Oh how my tastes have changed.

OSCAR PETERSON !!!!That's the one. He didn't make me want to play piano because I dodn't know him at that time, but I wish I could play like him.
same goes for Ray Charles!!The intro on Shake your tail feather on the Rhodes (or is it Wurlitzer?) is so brilliant. Herbie Hancock too (not perse the electronic stuff).
I seem to steal a lot of the use of dynamics from classical pianists.
But I'm a little off topic now.

Point well taken!

Regards,

Yup! Those few bars at the start of "Shake Your Tail Feather", right after Ray says, "I don't think there's anything wrong with the action on this piano." That's what did it for me. I think it's a Rhodes. I just watched it again a couple weeks ago. When I was in college, we'd try to count how many cop cars get trashed in the movie.

Great!

In high school they offered an Intro to Piano class so I just took it as a joke and an easy A. What started out as a little bit of fun turned into a life-fulfilling passion... :-)

For me it was a recording of Artur Rubinstien playing Mozart's piano concerto no. 23. My dad bought it for me when I asked him to send me some "piano" music to play on my HiFi. I would sit on the couch with the lights down and marvel at how someone could be so expressive with the piano. The adagio was slow enough that I thought to myself, "hey maybe I could play this someday". Unfortunately, it took my son starting lessons for me to get motivated enough to start playing.
Jon

2 albums, yes vinyl, in my childhood home.

Arthur Rubenstein - Chopin Waltzes
Bill Evans - Peace Piece