Share your piano journey

@Pallas Thank you, I loved reading your story too

Rubens Bought first house, decided it needed a piano, so bought an old broken baby grand Pease from 1911,

Rubens, I have a photo graph of my grandmother holding me when I was a baby and in the background is her Pease upright.

And thank you all for the kind words. Everyone's piano journey is different, but somehow we all find our way to sitting down at the piano.

For me, I had always wanted to play the piano from a very young age but I didn't have access to one until I was 7. My mom had an old upright, but it was at her parent's house a state away since our house was supposedly too small. But when I was 7, we moved to a larger house with ample room and so my mom was finally able to retrieve her piano. I was obsessed with it and begged my parents for lessons, but they said no. So I decided to teach myself. I dug through my mom's music books and found some beginner books and learned how to read music, and then I found the music for Für Elise, which I thought was the most beautiful piece ever, and I taught myself how to play it. At that point, my paternal grandmother decided that if my parents weren't going to put me in lessons, she was. She had a friend who was a piano teacher and started me with her. It wasn't a good fit - even though I was a beginner, I was already more advanced than she expected and she couldn't adapt her teaching style to my needs. Finally, my mom realized I was actually serious about playing and so she found another teacher who was a much better fit for me. I stayed with her for years, until she could no longer teach due to her old age. I had two more teachers after her, one was another poor fit and actually kind of killed my love of playing. I took about a year break from lessons at that point, and then found my fourth teacher who brought me back. I stayed with him until I moved out of state.

During this entire time, I played on that old beat up upright of my mother's. It wasn't well maintained (though it did receive regular tunings at least) and was in pretty sorry shape, but I was lucky to have it. I never would have had the opportunity to learn without it. That old Thayer will always have a special place in my heart.

I started guitar lessons when I was nine, but I was very drawn to piano and switched after 6 months or so. All I had at home was a cheap/small keyboard (Casio?) so I couldn't really progress too far...the following year I started learning clarinet at school and that became my focus (I still play, 37 years later).

When I was in the 7th or 8th grade the adult daughter of a family friend was leaving the state to go to law school. Her piano would be stored in a barn unless she found someone to take care of it. My mom volunteered - this is how I ended up with a huge old player piano (with the guts removed) in my bedroom for 4-5 years. I don't recall the make. I started piano lessons again but that only lasted for a year or 2. I did not have the discipline to practice much; I just wanted to play what I liked. This is why I crashed and burned as a freshman in high school when I accompanied the choir. I would procrastinate until there was no hope of learning the music in time for the concerts. It was a humiliating experience (and my own fault of course). 

My grandma played piano and ukulele in a professional Dixieland jazz band. At some point in my early 20s I inherited her piano, a Kimball Artist's console from the 70s (I later got the ukulele too). It was a fugly shade of brown that just screamed 1975, but I thought the legs and music desk had a pretty design. I had that piano until 4.5 years ago. I had finally started playing/learning seriously, and I was not pleased with the bright tone or the fact that it took over 3 hours to tune and didn't STAY in tune very long. It was a difficult decision to get rid of it (just because of nostalgia), but I like to think that she would have wanted me to have a healthy instrument. So I bought a new ED Seiler upright that I love. The only issue is that the action needs to be removed and lubed every year or so because it gets creaks/squeaks when I use the sustain pedal. I need to have this done soon; I'm approaching the limit of my tolerance again.

Stub
Pease pianos are practically all destroyed by the ravages of time, sadly. I remember all the love and care I put into refurbishing mine, only to realize that the proper repairs would cost more than a new piano. But it had character, and a beautiful tone. It was from the Golden age of american piano manufacturing, where dozens (hundreds?) of makers were competing to make the best pianos. I know for sure that had my Pease been maintained properly by its previous owners it would have been a superb instrument to this day.

brdwyguy I've noticed a 'common' thread in most of the stories
Has anyone else NOTICED that most of us were taught, maybe even slightly 'forced' into playing/learning piano.

Oh gosh. I have a lot to say about this and at one point in my childhood I hated piano so much. Don't be a tiger parent, folks! I'll share the full story some other day, there's a lot to talk about. On one hand my sister and I play well as adults, but on the other hand it really sucked to be us back then. I'm just glad I was able to reclaim piano for myself and start playing chamber music (my true love), where I feel like when you're with musicians who are on the same page and work well as an ensemble, something truly magical happens.

When I was a teenager, my parents decided we could all play an instrument. I chose the guitar, and I had lessons that were so bad that the teacher should have paid me instead. After a year of not learning much, I quit.
My sister had chosen the organ (a precursor to a digital piano) and I had taught myself some pieces, the most difficult one was the exposition to the Entertainer. Whenever I saw a piano, I played this piece.

Slowly, slowly, as I moved through middle age, a wish to learn to play the piano started to grow in me. During a Christmas dinner at work, I told a colleague that I would buy a piano when I had retired. -Why wait? she said, and when I told my husband, he immediately went online and found me a Casio Px150. I found Alfred's and started to practise on my own. I didn't think I needed a teacher. I could figure out myself when to play which note!

My work was very stressful, and I was too tired to practise much. Still, I made some progress and gradually, I started to wonder why everything I played sounded so ugly. I understood that I did need a teacher after all, and started with Peery on Artist works, and then with Piano Career Academy. I acquired Pianoteq, Kawai VPC1, new monitors, and I am still very happy with my set-up.

After PCA's curriculum, I wanted to choose my own pieces, and I got a private teacher. I have just changed to a new teacher. I am now early retired, and I practise 1-2 hours most days, except when we go out for a day trip. I am not much bothered about progress as in reaching higher levels, but very much interested in learning to play as beautifully and expressively as I can.

The short version...

Started pickin' out tunes on the piano at around age 5. Started lessons around age 6. Didn't initially like it all that well but someone gave me an old piano book of Mozart and I started pickin' stuff out of that. Teacher caught me doing it and we started into a more classical push. Practiced a lot of hours and it made a difference.

Played in church from about the age of 10 or so. Conservative, hymns mostly. Went to church schools through 12th grade and continued with lessons. Had a piano scholarship if I'd wanted it but declined, had other things I wanted to do. I got bored with classical. I felt like I was playing in a box all of the time and got scolded if I played something differently because I liked a chord with an added 9th or 13th or flat 5 or something else because that's NOT the way they wrote it. Screw that. (Sorry. I just needed more than just verbatim of what someone played 150 years ago and people repeat over and over and over and over and over even today.)

Joined a contemporary gospel band shortly after HS, and one of the names would be known by most everyone. Really just didn't like the music. (Still don't like contemporary gospel.)

Continued to play in church, sometimes piano, sometimes organ, up until about 5 years or so ago when I finally had enough with that particular church (some would say "cult") and have not been a part of church music since. (Long story, not really appropriate for this forum.) Most notable, and the last years of the significant church stuff, was probably a stint in New Orleans where I got to romp on an old Allen organ week after week. The local culture allowed even a conservative atmosphere to approach what might be "roller skating rink music", Cajun style, so long as it was a hymn tune. LOL!! Also got to play along side of a notable piano/organ player (Preservation Hall Jazz Band) numerous times, enjoyed that. He's a nice guy and I appreciated the time spent. A move to TN about 10 years ago put me in a much different atmosphere and I did play some church stuff, along with a band of sorts here but not the same. Much more of a bluegrass bend, which was OK. But that ended when I dumped the church denomination. Never picked up anywhere else church wise as most everyone is Bethel and Hillsong, which as I mentioned, I don't like, it's like fingernails on a chalkboard to me.

Started playing with a jazz group about 2 years ago. Some real sleazy stuff going on behind the scenes and I just didn't wanna be a part of that. Several of that band left at the very beginning of '23 for the same reason including the drummer that is now the head of our current thee piece band. Playin' some jazz now and enjoying it, meeting new people and playing on a few stages that are significant, at least locally, and along side of some people who actually travel in music circles in Nashville. Seeing where it all goes. Still learning new tunes and new riffs as I go.

I sometimes think I'd like to take some more lessons but have not found someone I think could really help me on my journey. I do watch YouTube tutorials and sometimes pick up something interesting. And I'm often asked if I give lessons. Nope. I'd be a lousy teacher. LOL!

This is a lovely thread! I would lose focus if I would read them all at once, so I keep it open, and every once in a while I read someone's story. So interesting.

At age 5 the family had a Yamaha upright at home. Mom got me & my sister a teacher. After trying lessons for a month, the piano was out of the house. Mom thought that nobody in the family had the talent for music.

At age 11 a cousin who had lessons for at least a year got me to try songs in a beginner book. The hands coordination wasn't there.

In my school years learned violin in strings class with others playing violin, viola, cello & bass. Didn't touch a keyboard until I decided to get one around 35. The first was a Yamaha PSR (61 keys) with a floppy drive. People used to carry floppy disks for storing computer files but not anymore. After a few years the keyboard broke down and I switched to a second hand Roland with 76 keys. The keys was semi-weighted but close to the feel of piano keys. The keyboard lasted for a few years and started to have problems so got a new Yamaha P-125.

For the past decade I started with beginner books without a teacher and eventually got a teacher from a local conservatory.

TC3
It's great that you have a picture from your younger days playing guitar. In my family many people had lessons including flute, piano, violin, guitar but nobody feel he/she is very musical to have a photo playing an instrument even at home.

In my school days me & my sister learned violin. We had year-end concerts for the parents but not a single photo for memory.