We have so many interesting people as members of this incredible forum, from all over the world. I've always wondered, where are all of you from, and what are your occupations? Do we have a lot of professional pianists/teachers/adjudicators? I'm curious as to how many of us actually play piano for a living and how many of us are amateurs who simply enjoy piano during spare time.

For me, I live in Winnipeg, MB, Canada (anyone else in this cold city?), and I'm currently a student. I've always believed that if you HAVE to play music (as you would if it's your job) it would take some of the pureness away from it, so I'm not sure if it will ever be more than a hobby (although a very beautiful one).

So what about you guys?

From Victoria, I can only offer you my condolences!

Cheers, and keep warm!

I don't have a life. I have a job and a piano. I'm a microscope jockey. I'm a cytotechnologist. That's a person who microscopically prescreens cellular samples for malignancy, weeds out the negatives, and sends any atypicalities on for a pathologist to review. I've been doing this for 26 years. Before that I taught high school math and English.

Starting my second semester at my University in Pennsylvania. Piano Performance major.

I have two jobs at my workplace, and I'm working on my Bachelor's Degree in Information Technology. At my job I am the resident geek, I mean network administrator/PC guy where I am responsible for Internet service, antivirus updates, server security, and end-user support.

My other job is customer administrator where I have to place orders for customers, and ship products all over the world.

For me these are just jobs, and don't represent any career path that I've decided to follow.

John

I have been IT manager for a large manufacturing company for about twenty-eight years. In fact it mostly boils down to having written enormous numbers of logically simple but sometimes very detailed programmes. The whole factory closed down last year and I am due for retirement anyway, but I shall keep going in a part-time capacity until the chop comes, which will certainly not be a negative event, I hasten to add.

I have never desired to be in the music business, although quite a few people, including my teacher thought I should be. I look forward to spending increasing time developing the plethora of strange musical ideas I cannot seem to stop coming.

Judging by the numbers and turnovers in the various Forums (Pianist Corner, Teachers and Beginners) the vast majority of the pianists are amateurs.

The PROFILES provide a fund of information to help put a handle on the poster ... from my corner ... "occupation, location and
interests" give a huge clue.

For instance ... we know that Classik15 is a wide-eyed student presently hibernating under ten foot of snow (Winnipeg) and wishing the spring would bring warmer weather ... the Forum is a newly found means of beating the isolation judging from 21 posts since registering on Xmas Eve 2007 ... interests limited to piano and reading
suggest a non-sporty type ... while the liking for classical music infers a novice party-line adherent still to be buffeted by the spice
of the many genres of music.

This is Sherlock Holmes from sunny South Africa ... now if I was marooned in Winnipeg I'd be out on the ski-slopes ... though, knowing how little snow falls in Pretoria (never)... and an aging awareness of my primitive skiing skills (picked up during a Norway jaunt)... the warning presents itself ... how on earth will I be able to play the piano with a broken arm!!

I used to be an IT professional, working for a Fortune-500 company - I got to do just about every aspect in the realm of "IT".

But that was a long time ago... For the past six years I've been a full-time musician, and I enjoy it very much.

It beats trying to do music AND another high-stress job (which I did for many years - it was crazy).

I accompany quite a few choirs, have a church job, and have a smattering of students.

Oh, and I also tune organs (once in a while).

London, but I'm Greek.

I'm a composer.

Public-school Choral Director by day

Private Piano Instructor by night

If it weren't for the medical/dental/vision benefit package, I'd given up on my day job a long time ago. That, plus the fact I need to make house payments. Teaching piano is not exactly a lucrative vocation.

how can you tune an organ? I thought the size of those pipes were unchangeable...

General and financial management for a 10 person company, (part of a group employing 150 worldwide), specialising in sale/rental of professional TV studio equipment. I've worked in that sector for the past 15 years, before that advertising/publishing sales and university.

classik51:
I've always believed that if you HAVE to play music (as you would if it's your job) it would take some of the pureness away from it, so I'm not sure if it will ever be more than a hobby (although a very beautiful one).[/b]

You sound exactly like me when I was 16-17 (flute was my main instrument, but I had similar capabilities/grades for piano.) I decided to study languages at university instead, though I did research a few music degrees and other musical further education options; I even visited some colleges/universities and had interviews with faculty members and admissions tutors.

Looking back from the age of 41, I do occasionally have a tinge of regret that I did not follow a musical career, as music is something that I love, rather than something that I "like a lot and find interesting." Then again, I have met lots of different people from various cultures and backgorunds, travelled to many marvellous parts of the world, have enjoyed reasonable financial comfort and security, and I do enjoy my day job, though perhaps more in the "like and find interesting way" than actually "love." I am toying with the idea of going 50% part-time (or even stopping completely) in 4-5 years time, and then teaching piano/accompanying for a living, and floating off into retirement on a wave of musical activity . It would be quite a pay cut compared to what I earn now, but by then some major financial hurdles will have been mostly overcome in terms of house and children, and our needs will be somewhat less substantial as well.

I have accompanied (on a professional basis) for churches/choral societies, recital soloists, etc, in the past, and even had a couple of late beginner piano students just before leaving England in the late 90s. Since passing my DipABRSM performance diploma last year, I am going to start research into teaching issues this year. My teacher is aware of my thoughts and is being very supportive and helpful. The fact that I could give lessons in English or French, which opens up quite a large market here in a francophone city with many international organisations and foreign company headquarters. I am mother tongue English, but have used French exclusively at work for the past 8 years. I have lessons with my current teacher (of Swiss-German origin, with whom I started in 2005) exclusively in French, with the odd bit of German thrown in if neither of us can think of the French word .

-Michael B.

Loads of people here in IT


Me however in school

Given that most of the area within a bird's eye view of Winnipeg is flatter than the proverbial pancake, you might have to go several leagues on your snowshoes - or in your dogsled - to even find a slope worthy of being called such. Cross-country, perhaps?

You could engage in the ultimate Canadian winter sport, however, outdoor ice hockey, something we can never do here in Victoria.

Regards,

Originally from NH, but have lived in NYC since 1978. Currently in Brooklyn.

Computer programmer, VFP for several years. Currently Ruby and Ruby on Rails, converting legacy progs into web apps for our clients.

I also have 4 young piano students at the moment.

Professional photographer for over forty years. Before that, and during part of that time, I was a semi-pro wannabe professional tenor about town. Along with singing goes acting, and I've done some semi-pro wannabe professional acting about town too.

Currently, I play piano a lot, with no ambition other than to get better and to please myself in the process. About a year and one half from now, I will enter deep retirement, and will no longer have to take photo assignments for money.

The next phase?: I am attempting to reposition myself as a serious fine art photorapher, having ressurected a photo book project I started more than twenty years ago on the Mississippi River, tentatively titled "Stream of Consciousness." As part of this project, I have recently spent a fair amount of time in New Orleans, photographing in the flood ravaged, post-Katrina, lower 9th ward.

I vow to not stop playing the piano during this next phase, but to enjoy music even more.

Tomasino.

You can tune an organ because the pipes have the horizontal slots where there is a piece of metal that can be adjusted, and therefore tuned. It's not only the length of the pipe that determines tuning - that's part of the reason why old organs can sound very bad.

I'm a high school senior, this is my second year working as a church organist.

To btb: yes, but looking at profiles is much less interesting than actually having people talk about themselves
Your description of me is very true. It actually would be exactly right except fortunately this year we didn't get much snow. (It's only -22 degrees celsius right now and it's JANUARY!)

To BruceD : I won't be jealous for long since I'm planning on moving to Vancouver in a couple of years to study law. Lots of rain there, though.

To Nikolas: I wish I could compose. However, I realized a long time ago that I'm not creative at all.

Now thanks to being non-sporty I'm not likely to break my arms (or fingers). Imagine breaking your fingers!

Auntie is in San Francisco. Work all day playing piano, in a wide variety of applications, for a first tier performing arts organization...dream job but very high energy...

Work with the absolute best in the business...

I'm a speech therapist in a hospital. I work mostly in an inpatient rehab unit with adults who have had strokes, head injuries, and the like. People come to our unit from the "regular" acute-care part of the hospital and stay for a few days to a few weeks. Patients work with me on regaining their speech and/or language abilities (speaking, listening, reading, and writing), swallowing abilities, and cognitive skills such as attention, memory, motivation, awareness, judgment, and processing. if it weren't for piano, this work could certainly absorb all my creative energies. As it is, I "like it a lot and find it interesting." I love having these two sides to my life--I go to work and interact intensely with people people people, then come home to solitude, using the discipline of practice to hammer out my own creative freedom. I love the way the two sides ground each other--working with people in crisis helps keep me from getting too artily high-minded and obscure, and the art keeps me aware of the other, more important, non-hospital parts of my patients' lives.

Medical device engineer in SF Bay Area and a piano teacher for lil kids after work. Teaching started as a volunteering thing in college for under-privileged elementary school kids and turned into a way to keep music/piano in my life for the past few years while I saved up and wondered how to get a piano. Finally bought a piano a year ago and trying to pick up on my own back where I left off when I went to college.

Telecom IT engineer, design and writing telecom programs, solving customer telecom system problems. I am a good IT engineer, much better than how I can play piano. (Learned piano because mother wanted me to and it was the thing to do )

Good move! And when the rain in Vancouver gets too depressing, you can always take respite from it in Victoria!

Regards,

(I wrote a reply and then my computer ate it - try again...)

Well I play the piano for my living - I freelance as an accompanist - and I don't think of it as having to play music, rather that I'm lucky because I get to play lots of great music and collect a fee. At present this is what I mainly do, though I have a few students as well.
I have spent a number of exhausting years teaching class music in schools (both primary and high school) - now there's a way to really earn your money!!
I don't envisage retiring any time soon, as I'm enjoying myself too much, but when I do it will probably be something like PoStTeNeBrAsLuX, "floating off into retirement on a wave of musical activity"

Currawong, a friend of mine suggested I think about working as an accompanist for exam students just two days ago - this was the first time I'd considered it, and I have to say I expect I'd need to be a lot less sketchy in my playing than I am now. Now here comes the stupid question - is it very difficult?

Currently I'm working on expanding my piano knowledge and ability so I can expand my student base (just one student coming into this year!!!).

And my plans too are to never retire but teach and play for as long as my body and mind holds out.

I am a clinical embryologist (i.e. test tube baby doctor).

Too right! I now just teach enough piano to pay the bills. Nice work if you can get it.

Stanza:
I am a clinical embryologist (i.e. test tube baby doctor).

So couples come to you when they want "a womb with a view?"

-Michael B.

I am a retired lawyer living is south-central Ontario. Two months ago I resumed taking piano lessons after a 33 year absence. I just wanted to be able to enjoy playing again. It's a bit of a struggle at times but definitely worth the effort.

Welcome to PW jehalliday! I grew up in Kitchener! How about that?

I forgot to mention - my main occupation would seem to be posting at PW (and I'm not the only one).

Well, I used to think this as well. Then I went into the finance business and longed to do music. One day, I decided to teach with the encouragement of my piano and voice teachers. I made the transition over time, and I've always loved teaching. I learned my limits, however, and now I can say no to other activites if need be. (You wouldn't guess that I do say no, but I often do).

I teach privately a studio of 20 students, hoping to grow to about 25-30. I teach Kindermusik in about 5 classes per week, I teach 3 group voice classes for young singers. I do accounting for my husband's web development business about 3-4 times per week, depending on my schedule. I wouldn't mind dropping all the classes, but it's good money and it's a change. I did do a church job for 3 years, but that became too much so I quit.

I'm from a town in Illinois located about halfway between Milwaukee and Chicago.
I majored in music/piano pedagogy in college and got my degree in May 2006.
For my main source of income, I work a full time office job. In addition to that, I teach Monday through Thursday evenings. I'm currently brainstorming ways to reduce my schedule so that I can do a better job of taking care of myself, my house, my cat, my puppy, my man, you get the picture.
My plans are similar to yours, Daffodil. I want to do this music thing for as long as I can. Hopefully I'll be exclusively teaching (and maybe performing/accompanying) before I hit 30. That would be great!

I work a full time job in London's financial district (affectionately called "The City"), but I'm not adverse to sneaking a peek (and posting) at PW during the day.

Otherwise, I'm on call as a substitute organist and occasionally work with singers on operatic and/or lieder repertoire.

How true! I just turned 30 and I wish I could have a lot more private students so I can quit my day job. It does take quite a while to get a music studio established and get the kind of word-of-mouth referrals. I have 23 students currently, but I still have room for 10-15 more. I tried all kinds of advertisement methods, but there are simply too many piano teachers in my area

Cool, I'm planning to be a lawyer! Loads of stress and pressure, though. Being in school and taking piano lessons is already busy enough. However, I would never want to quit playing piano. Would you say it's not advisable to keep such a time-consuming hobby with a full time career?

I don't know how all of you can do it.

Depends on how addicted you are to sleep. Me, I don't watch TV for a start. I have two adults at home who do most of the laundry, food buying etc. When I want to take a break from practicing I'm either here or deep in a mystery.

When I was at the height of my crazy period, I had a very stressful IT job (40+ hours per week, and had to wear a 24x7 emergency pager in rotation with my teammates).

I also had a 20 hour per week church job, which had its own stresses & responsibilities - especially during certain seasons!

Believe it or not, at this time I also worked at a movie studio from 6pm to midnight!

Oh well, I had the energy then. I also enjoyed my brief encounter with wealth.

If you love it enough, you'll make time. With a full time job and teaching on the side (usually ending up around 60+ hrs/week), I mostly only play on the weekends; run errands and practice.

I'm a retired senior exec. from a Fortune 100 company turned piano dilettante. Actually, I started playing well before I retired but due to travel & work demands was very inconsistent.

Full time network engineer, part-time forex trader,
leaving limited and precious time for my pursue of
music, especially piano performance!

My ultimate dream is to ditch my day job when I
can substitute the income with my forex trading
which surprisingly doesn't take up that much time
as I was led to believe in the first place ... then
I could afford more time on pursuing my loved hobby
of all time ... piano!!! 8-)

musician....going on 41 yrs.

administrate my husband's remodeling business

freelance organist/pianist
accompany a very cool church ensemble choir
a couple students
3 kids.. seems like i have 10.

I'm a production editor for a scholarly book publisher. I've been doing this for almost eight years now. At 50, I'm the oldest production editor in the place. It's not a goal job for most people, but I find it relatively interesting -- fitting all the different tasks together and fine-tuning other people's writing is like working on puzzles all day.

Piano was my first instrument, but I took up the cello in junior high and ended up majoring in it through to a doctorate in music. I taught and free-lanced but never had a full-time job or the equivalent. Fifteen years ago, burned out and broke, I gave it up and concentrated on earning a living. Starting about seven years ago, I slowly edged my way back into music, first trying to play the viola, then playing the cello more, and then about four years ago, taking up the piano again (hence my screen name). I'm determined never to quit again if I can help it. I'm still playing the cello, too (in fact, it's taken up more and more of time over the past year and I'm trying not to let it take over).

Husband, two cats, no kids.

I am an analytical scientist working in a research company. I get to work with a particle accelerator which is actually fairly cool!
My wife and I live in The East Riding of Yorkshire, not far from York.

I'm a poor, starving composer.

Though I've had a few successes here and there, it seems like my career has been doomed even before it has begun.

Wow, one of my favourite corners of England after Great Malvern. Big news at York Minster with Philip Moore leaving...

I forgot to say (in response to the OP's other question) that in my case, at least, trying to use music to earn a living took the joy out of it for me. There are some people for whom it all comes together and they are able to do what they love and get paid for it, but it doesn't always happen. I do occasionally toy with the idea of teaching again (cello or piano or both). Maybe it could be a semiretirement part-time job.

Retired teacher and currently working at a local college teaching "teacher hopefulls."

Oops, almost forgot...I returned to piano after many years of life in between...Was originally a music major in school but changed to education, as in those days, music ed teachers were a dime a dozen and no chance for a job. Taught for 34 years before retiring last year. Now studying piano again, painting, art classes and having lots of time off, except when I am working with my student teachers. Live on Long Island about 50 miles east of Manhattan in the burbs.

Best Regards,
Nick

Is there any relation between your profession and your avatar?

My profession? I worked for 30 years in all kind of jobs in education at highschools: teacher, career counselor, manager, coordinator....and still going strong. Living near Groningen in the Netherlands (Europe)

Best regards,
Johan

My paid occupation is writing books on UK tax for accountancy students taking professional exams. I'm not an accountant actually - I'm qualified as a solicitor in England and Wales and as a Chartered Tax Adviser.

I'm currently working on the ACCA range which is global (although some countries have local tax variants) so some of you might have come across my work. Look out for the names of some famous pianists in the questions!

Doesn't pay a great deal but allows me to work from home so I can do other things such as my Open University degree, organising my husband and kids (no guesses who needs the most input there!) and, of course, playing the piano.

I teach at a community music school, direct a few middle school orchestras, and fill-in at a local church (not your average Church gig - we're doing the Haydn Te Deum for Easter this year with me playing continuo and a full professional orchestra.)

I supplement my income by composing educational piano music. I contributed to three anthologies coming out next month and I have my own collection being published soon as well. I'm also hard at work writing music for my school orchestras.

I am an undergrad student, soon to become graduate student. I am a physics and Pre-Med Major, and will do medical research. I am hoping to attend Harvard, Stanford, or UPenn. I have heard back from one school of those so far, but I expect to hear back from at least one more.

I am an amateur pianist and would like to consider myself fairly well accomplished, considering that.

Daniel

I'm a Distinguished Analyst with a global IT services firm. I spend my work life giving advice to large corporations and government agencies on how to make better decisions in their IT organization and on stage in various locations around the world speaking at conferences. My briefcase/knapsack contains my ThinkPad, Blackberry, iPod nano; Bose QC2 headphones and the scores for the Debusssy Preludes (Bk I) and Shostakovich PC 2.

I'm a professional artist (www.peytonart.com) and a professional telemark skier nicknamed 'Biff' (www.netelemark.com). I make my money painting and lose it skiing.

My, and I thought my life was busy! It's amazing how you all manage to find time for music. I think I like sleeping too much for that .

Senior in High School.

But as a part time job I teach Taekwondo.

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by Stanza:
I am a clinical embryologist (i.e. test tube baby doctor).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Is there any relation between your profession and your avatar?

My profession? I worked for 30 years in all kind of jobs in education at highschools: teacher, career counselor, manager, coordinator....and still going strong. Living near Groningen in the Netherlands (Europe)

Best regards,
Johan

You picked up on that! I do try not to fry any eggs, or break any yolks...

I am an EIT (Engineer in training). When the state of Massachusetts deems me ready for the professional exam I will be a civil engineer (provided I pass the exam).

Interesting thread...Myself I am an electrical engineer working in a technology company in silicon valley.
Besides IT professionals, I am a little surprised there are not more engineers or people with backgrounds in physics/math in the forum. While in grad school, I would say ~10% of the students were actually proficient with the piano or violin.

Law originally, Chartered Accountant (former partner in a global firm: PWC), ex director of FTSE 100 financial services business, semi retired a few years ago and did property development. Accidently became CEO of an airline services business. Now trying to avoid doing consulting and trying to do some serious writing. Very tempted to run a restaurant!

Still teaching guitar for pleasure. Still trying to play the dratted piano, having started when I was about 5. Still cannot play violin worth a damn.

Pathologist, flirting with retirement. At one time, in the distant past, was an Indonesian language translator.

Physical Therapist with certifications in Hand, Spine, Sports Medicine, Cardiac Rehab and Balance Disorders; Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) Administrator in a Major Hospital, Adjunct Professor in the School of Physical Therapy at a major University, Piano Technician and Tuner

Engineering Manager and CCIE for a large Cisco Partner

I'm getting my doctorate in piano this semester and hope to work at a university. I play concerts, teach, and have a church gig. Wife does the same.

Recently, I've been thinking quite a bit about going to nursing school. If I can't get land a university job or make the concert pianist thing work profitably, I'd like to do something involving medicine such as becoming a nurse specialist (anesthesist, obstetrics, or oncology, although the latter would be very hard work from an emotional standpoint). That's a lot of school (BSN + another Master's for the specialty), so maybe "vanilla" nursing is a good place to start. Plus, it's more affordable than going to med school and having to pay back $300k of loans (I've been told by some friends who are nurses that hospitals will pay for your education).

Have you lost your marbles, Brendan? You
have a concert pianist's repertoire and you
want to be a nurse? You don't even need
to play the piano to become a nurse.

it seems a lot of people change career to nursing from their original occupation, but not much musicians though... kind of reality unfortunately.

me, IT programming, and hope to stay that way till the end...

Brendan,

I don't know you, but I wondered if you might be interested in being a music therapist who gives treatments in hospitals. I've seen some clips lately on news programs and such especially with children coming through surgery and recovery in hospitals, and cancer and other serious illness treatments, and recovering from anesthesia, too.

You can use your imagination to see how you could contribute and use your talents already established in music. It's another form of "reaching and communicating" with people through music.

Betty

Betty, music therapy doesn't pay much. It's probably more hours and less money than being a freelance musician.

Brendan, I completely understand where you're coming from, having been in the same situation myself.

It's all very well to say art is its own reward, but living a life of poverty or being completely dependent on other people is no fun.

OK, I'll fess up. I'm a professor of electrical engineering and applied physics at a large, fairly decent university in the midwest.

I've been managing and engineering construction projects for the past twenty-odd years, from Puerto Rico to Guam.

It the piano and Ludwig van Beethoven that have kept me sane during this time :-)

Marine engineer currently working on ships that lay and repair undersea cables. Still looking for that perfect portable keyboard to bring with me to sea: five octaves from F1 to F6 (middle C in the middle; what's with this middle F nonsense?) with fully weighted, hammer-action keys. Is that too much to wish for? Apparently.

Two years of piano lessons as a child.

This forum is a goldmine of information. Thanks, everyone.

Craig

Brendan may I offer you some advise?

I considered exactly the same career move at one point in my life, but before entering a nursing program I spent 2 years working at a hematology lab at Children's Hospital in Boston which got me onto all the floor in the hospital and interacting with doctors, nurses, PT's patients and parents. It is a wonderful teaching hospital connected with Harvard Medical School.

After 2 years I had a much clearer idea of what it would actually be like to work as a nurse, and decided that I just could not do it. I later studied engineering and I work as an electrical engineer - now if something doesnt work or dies I just take it apart and then throw it in the trash!

Was that in bad taste? Sorry but it's true. Arent you glad I'm not your nurse?

Think about a volunteer job for a few weeks on a floor - you might find you love it - many people do - when you have saved a child's life there is probably no greater satisfaction in life - but you need to personally experience what it is like - me I just had nightmares all the time

What great advice Schubertian!

I am a wafer fab process technician. We make computer chips, specifically memory. I work in the CMP area, chemical-mechanical-polish (or planarization). we remove and/or "flatten" films or metals deposited by other areas in the fab. It's my job to make sure the process tools are performing within specifications, and make appropriate adjustments when needed.

The work is in a "clean room" and we do wear those full body smocks. We call them "bunny suits."

mike

Mike - I am a probe test engineer - I am also of the Order of the Bunny Suit -

You havent lived until you have soldered a surface mount component onto a probe card wearing glasses, a surgical mask, hood and two pairs of latex gloves.

I am 8 days from retirement as a mental health professional. Will be free at last to really spend more time at the piano then my hour a day practice now. I am thrilled. Happy

LOL!! Work in medical devices... How do I join this (secret) society?

You have to be able to say you have worked in a clean room at a semiconductor fab. Can you look me straight in the eyes and say that?

Actuary with a large global insurer.

Used-to-be IT academic & subdean at a large university. Now free to indulge in my great love -chamber music.

General manager of a large bed & breakfast. I'm also a freelance marketing consultant and web designer.

IT professional.

Man there are so many of us IT/engineering guys on
this forum that the number speaks loud and clear
that we are no nerds but we do have an artistic
and possibly quite romantic life besides our work
8-))!

Brendan,
I'll chime in with more advice. Hospitals are begging for physical, occupational, and speech therapists. I find what I'm doing (speech therapy, see post above) complements the music side of life nicely. Someone also suggested I do music/art therapy a long time ago--boy am I glad I didn't follow that advice! It's the kind of service that is the first to get cut when budgets get tight.

Chalk up another one in IT.

I'm a web programmer to be exact. I did two arts degrees with music concentrations and then decided to study something a little more practical.

All the forums I've ever been on have been chock a block with IT guys. What that says to me is that they are interested in all sorts of other things, but what they actually do is mostly stay at their computers talking about the other lives instead of living them. :p

I speak as a 'computer tragic' and ex IT worker (briefly) who is trying to summon up the determination (yet again!) to ban myself from posting, and getting back to practice on the musical keyboard.

Cheers

Chris

Retired from mechanical engineering (original profession), house building, computer work, selling classical music, partner in graphic design and photography business, working on farms and fishing boats, architect's draughtsman, cabinet-making, designing making and selling own 3d wooden puzzles, working at the dish cleaning end of restaurants, plus too many others to list or remember. Not got around to playing piano in a whorehouse yet, but I'm learning keyboards, so you never know....

Now semi-retired and full time househusband, domestic maintenance man, self taught music student, and carer and educator for my disabled son. My wife works and keeps us all in the lavish lifestyle that we have come to enjoy...now and then...

Covered most of the bases one way or another. The composer Sir Arnold Bax said :

"You should make a point of trying every experience once, except incest and folk dancing"

I've been taking him at his word. And, to be honest, I haven't entirely ruled out trying folk dancing.....

I'm a IT and engineering girl, extreme nerd, and have no romantic life. I alternate between gaming and piano. Is this supposed to be a bad thing? =)

Very surprised at the numbers though as I do not know many in IT or engineering that are into piano.

It not that a big percentage of IT people are pianists. It's that 100% of IT people spend a lot of time sitting at computers, and are prone to a little goofing off on the internet when they get bored (which is apparently quite often). So on every forums for any interest at all there are always lots of people saying "Hey, coincidence, I'm in IT too!

Lots more women gamers now. I have friend pushing 40 who enjoys turning up at online car racing in a provocatively pink car, and then soundly whapping the boys (she's really good ). I'd see lots of women playing RPGs too, when that was my passion. Get a home LAN setup and invite some gamers round. One of them might be a romantic prospect, or even a pianist....

Folk dancing's fun

Cathy

I'm sure far from being a pianist having seriously started the piano 2.5 years ago, aged 45, but I'm proud our church organist recently mentioned maybe I would like to consider learning how to play the organ for church services ...

I make my money as assistant to a top executive who spends more time travelling than in the office, with a 40+ hour job and the need to be flexible (but which includes time for the PF). As my piano/music skills improve I would love to use them, in whatever paid and unpaid ways that might open up. At the same time I like Charles Yves' decision NOT to make music for a living as he said he could only make the music he really liked if he was financially independent - and thus became an insurance person.

Deleted after realising I'm in the 'wrong' forum - the silence was deafening