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Hi

Hey there. I'm a new user, and saw the invite to reply so I thought I'd introduce myself a little. My name is Aaron and I'm an undergraduate student pursuing a piano performance major and am studying classical performance and jazz performance. I joined the forum to get to know some other people who are pianists or otherwise and learn more about the instrument and the career. I'm not entirely sure how this forum works so any pointers from anyone to discussions about technique, interpretation, and style would be really helpful!

Welcome! I'm pretty new here too, despite my obscenely high post count .....it's not hard to get started. Just look around at the topics -- judging from what you mentioned, maybe the "Pianist Corner" section would be best (that's where you are right now) -- look for topics that seem interesting, click on them and see if you want to say anything.

Seems like you'll do fine.

By the way, here's a link to the main page of this section, in case you don't know how to find it:
Pianist Corner

John - The prelude in g minor is really a beautiful piece and working on it is such a pleasure. I'm curious to hear what some of your interpretations are. I'm working on it myself right now, I played it before and am now working through it again to gain a better interpretation and improve certain technical issues. The way I've been practicing it is to alter the tempo and basic rhythm as this allows the mind to be opened to new interpretations of the melody which can really be ambiguous at times. You may have already done this but I'd suggest practicing at different dynamic levels than written in addition to experimenting with alternate rhythms. If its a new interpretation that you're going for, these ideas helped me immensely. I'm curious how you interpret the rhythm as far as the initial theme goes in respect to rubato and flexibility of rhythm. I've heard several differing opinions on this piece, some say to rigidly stick to the prescribed time values but a flexible interpretation seems so much more emotionally charged to me. Any suggestions?

Hi and welcome!

You might be interested in this thread . I think you will enjoy it!

I wish I had more time to read all threads here, but time is a big issue with me...

Welcome to PW, Chopin friend!

CA

Hey, I'm a new member!

I was just wondering if anybody knew of any schools that have application deadlines that have not passed. I'm just finishing up my bachelor's in piano-performance and am now looking to get a masters degree. Thanks!

Another new member here, well I've been playing piano since I was 8 and I'm 49 now. Mostly since H.S. I've been playing Jazz and Popular music, I've once again become interested in playing classical music again, and just found a teacher (a graduate Student at the Eastman School in Rochester, NY) to help me with technique. I need the lessons because I know I'm playing with too much tension and it's taking it toll on the joints of my fingers. I also think there is a benefit to having a teacher and paying for lessons that will inspire to to practice regularly. I play other instruments including guitar, and trombone (I'm a retired Army Reserve Bandsman), but piano is the instrument I have the greatest competence on, and I'm looking to improve on that even more. This looks like a great forum to discuss various aspects of piano playing and I'm looking forward to participating.

Just found this forum today and have already spent way too much time reading! I studied piano for many years and after a 20+ year hiatus, have started to play again. I play mostly classical, and am currently entralled with Bach transcriptions. Looking forward to participating in this forum.

DaleC

Hello Everyone! I am new to this forum and just thought i might give you all a bit of background on me.I got into this website after reading Grand Obsession by Perri Knize(a brilliant book by the way). I'm 17 years old and have been playing piano for a few years now. I used to play the guitar, but once i conquered the ability to play any jimi Hendrix, jimmy page, Robert Johnson etc. I basically got bored. and so i moved to the piano which has proved much fun for me in it's awe-full difficulty to master. Chopin is my favorite composer due to his complexity and his romantic dynamics. Glad to meet you all!

I'm sort of new, even though I joined in 2002 =p I posted a ton from 2002-2005 but disappeared thereafter...until now

Can't remember what age I started piano but I remember I played for 5 years and did nothing with it. I then discovered the love of classical music when my teacher introduced me to Alla Turca. After that I pretty much went berzerk with the piano, jumping from Rachmaninoff to Chopin to Liszt, entering several competitions in my school and winning 1st place and scholarships several times.

I cannot remember why I joined Pianoworld, but I do remember learning a ton about pianos from all the piano gurus in the subforum next door =p

Hello everyone,

I have posted occasionally and would like to introduce myself. I am a 55-year-old married RN with 2 kids in college. My piano is a Kawai RX-2. I did not have formal lessons until age 25 and it has been on and off since then, but I always loved music and played our piano at home as a little girl. I also love music theory would like to have the time to spend on composing. I play flute in a concert band and have also played trombone, trumpet, baritone horn, clarinet, drums, and guitar-folk and classical. A friend just lent me an oboe so I am teaching myself to play that and will start with an adult beginner's band on oboe on Friday- CAn't wait!!!On the rare occasion I have been paid to play(differing instruments) never made more than $50 a gig, but it is my fun, so I don't care!

I confess to not being constant in daily practice- but am hoping to change that!!!! The only thing I have memorized is Fur Elise and half of Chopin's Farewell Waltz. I am using Czerny OPus 299 to warm up as I would like to increase my speed a bit. I am crazy about Beethoven, love Romantic, Baroque and Impressionistic music the best. I also play some popular music- like Lennon's Imagine- and some Irish tunes.

Kathy

hi , i've been an ear player for quite some time playing piano , i'm a relative tune type ear player . i do not know any scales , or how to write music , or things like A-minor blah blah blah . i only know how to press keys and create nice dynamics that are very unique . i've come here to learn more about piano , although i do not exactly play a piano , i play a keyboard (yamaha DGX 220) . someday i would like to own a piano . thanks for reading .

Hey ho, everyone! *extends miserably small hand*

I'm new girl here, but I've been lurking about, prowling the posts for a little while, and I've finally decided to join. Nice to meet you guys and hope we'll have some interesting discussions in the near future!

Hello! My best dream (since my childhood) is to have a REAL PIANO!!! Once I tried to play my friends piano and I was charmed by the instrument! But the biggest problem is that I have not enough money to buy it(it costs about 300$).
The only pleasure is to read about other's pleasure and imagine playing the piano. Would you help me?
I will thank you greatly for 1$!
My wallet:z340140997648

My name is Scott. I am 29 years old, and I'm a lurker. It's been six months since I started lurking, and I'm making my first post today.

I've always been musically inclined ever since I was little. Music has always come naturally for me. I sang at church and was involved in all types of church music events.

I've always had an interest in the piano, and I've even had lessons at three different time periods of my life. However, I just wasn't disciplined enough to take the time to practice. I mostly blame myself, but in retrospect, I can remember disliking the material I had to play (John Thompson's Book 1, Alfred Adult Piano, etc.) because it didn't interest me and I got bored with it. I did semi-learn one or two pieces (the intro and first part of The Entertainer and the first part of Fur Elise, both of which I can still play from memory today, albeit badly), but overall had given up on lessons. As time progressed, I became a "church player", playing the chords off the guitar sheets to accompany the music team as a backup.

A few months ago, I became exposed (via YouTube) to the works of Bach by means of his work Well-Tempered Clavier. I've even been able to play the first Prelude (C Major), and I can play the first few measures (hands seperately) of the Prelude In C# Major. If I would've been exposed to this work earlier, I'm sure I would have kept up with my lessons.

Since I just completed my BS in Computer Science, I have a lot more free time on my hands, I had thought about starting lessons again. Since I work for a community college, I had thought about taking lessons there, especially since I don't have a piano or keyboard at home. I can utilize the practice rooms on campus however, so being able to practice is not an issue, and being that my job gives me 24-7 access to campus, I'm not restricted to selected availability like a normal student is.

My ultimate goal is to play for my own enjoyment. I love my field, but it can get extremely stressful at times. I don't have any grand delusions of being able to play before thousands of people. I just enjoy classical music and want to be able to play some of my favorite composers (Bach, Joplin, Czerny, Beethoven, Chopin, etc.).

New member alert!

I'm from the little peaceful country Norway, in Scandinavia north-west of Europe. I'm a male person, born in 1990, and started playing at 17 years old... I know, it's late... I'm also a dancer and Norwegian Champion in Bboying("Breakdance"). I know, it's a funny combination.

My story starts, when a friend of mine downloaded some Yann Tiersen music, that he had heard in a Break-show...I fell in love with the piece comptine d'un autre été, from the movie Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain. So I started learning it by ear, on a keyboard(NOT a Digitalpiano), with no pedal, and like 65 keys or something. Didn't need more. That was around April 2007. It took me about a month to learn it, and then I started learning some more music from that Amélie Poulain(Le Moulin, La Valse de Amelie and La dispute. Then I bought myself a Casio Privia PX-110 digital piano, which has been the best investment in my life. Then I tried some VGM, and I learned Piano Squall's arrangement of Tetris, Kakariko Village from The Legend Of Zelda - Ocarina Of Time(dont judge a book by it's cover), and To Zanarkand Piano Collection from Final Fantasy X(Another "book").

Then I for real fell in love with Those Who Fight, from Final Fantasy VII Piano Collections. I started practising it 13th april 2008, 2:30 in the morning, and memorized the last note 9th desember 2008. I know, thats a long time, but I was not at a high level! But then I was playing for real. Living of dance, and playing music by hobby, that's what I do. But I started High School in music last autumn, so I'm hoping to live of music when my spine is to bad for dancing (I have spondylosis).

When I started school I got a really good piano Teacher, so now I have started to also play classical music. I Play Chopin waltz 19, no.17 op.posth pretty good now, and I'm working on Gondola Boat Song Op 30 No. 6 by Mendelssohn. I have a long term project on the side, which I'm also working on, which is Rigoletto Paraphrase by Liszt, which is a really inspiring piece(But damn those Descending Chromatic Thirds!). One day around 2 weeks ago I learned the first part of La Campanella by Liszt, but I'm not going to start on the hard stuff before I'm done with Rigoletto.

Fore those of you who is judging me for playing pieces like the Gondola song and Chopin Waltz 19, but trying to play Rigoletto and La Campanella, my motto is "Nothing is hard, but some goals requires allot of time to achieve"
But I gotta admit, those Chromatic thirds is... time consuming.

Welcome! And I think it's all a funny combination -- I don't know how many people are into both breakdancing and classical piano.

But I think it's great.

Plus, being a country's champion at anything is great too. Even being the runner-up would be great, or 10th best for that matter. I think my peak was when I got 2nd prize in something.

Norway seems like a beautiful and interesting place.......hope to get there some day.

Thanx! And I didn't even mention my great knowledge for Energetic materials and chemistry and my Speed-ball-skills(Paintball).
I have also actually inspired two other Norwegian bboys to start playing the piano, which is kinda cool.

Hi, I’m a new member living in Oviedo, Spain.

I studied music and piano when I was a child and a teenager (from 7 to 17 years old). In Spain, the official studies for piano were based in an eight courses plan. I successfully completed six courses with the highest grades and then I went to the University. After playing in a pub for some months to earn some money I left piano playing.

In 1982 I suffered a neurological condition that left me with some reduced mobility, affecting my right arm and leg. This affected my abilities for playing piano, of course. Even so, in 1991 I bought a Yamaha Clavinova CLP-360 that I played until 1996. Then for other circumstances in life, I left playing piano for 14 years.

But last November, maybe spoiled by observing people playing in Youtube, I decided to start again. It was not easy: Reading notes for the left hand was difficult and the fingers from my right hand moved really bad. I decided to establish a goal for April, 2010: If I were able to play two classic compositions for that date, I would buy a new piano. The compositions were:

- Pachelbel’s Canon (using an easy version)
- Chopin’s Nocturne Op.9 No.2

Back in November it seemed like playing the Nocturne would be an impossible task: I wasn’t unable to read the notes outside the pentagram for the left hand and the accords were not easy. Meanwhile, my fingers in the right hand needed to learn to move for playing well the keyboard. “I think I’ll save money”, I was thinking then

After two months and a half, playing daily about one hour the Nocturne is almost learnt, and it sounds good! (Pachelbel’s Canon is not complete but I used it as an “Etude” for reeducating fingers)

Well, now I know that I’m able to play this Nocturne, although my right hand is pushed at its limits in some passages. My left hand is able to play at least the first one minute of Chopin’s Revolutionary Etude (my right hand uses a simplified version for now) and I’m absolutely happy of being come-back at piano playing. It’s something of a dream made true.

Last Saturday I ordered a new Yamaha CLP-370 PE, but as they say, this is another story for another post

HELLO. I'M NEW. INTERESTED PRINCIPALLY IN BACH, MORE PARTICULARLY NOW, TRYING TO LEARN AND MEMORIZE THE GOLDBERG VARIATIONS. HAVING TROUBLE WITH THE FINGERING AND HAND CROSSINGS. IS THERE HELP OUT THERE?