Share your piano journey

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!

Rubens
The Pease in the photo with my grandmother and me was an upright and it was a tank. A solid block of a tank. I don't know what happened to it. I have a cousin who lives in the old family home and next time I am there I will ask. Maybe it's still there??

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.

thepianoplayer416 Yeah, my dad was a bit of a shutterbug and a big fan of music, so I have a decent number of pictures playing sax and bass in various school ensembles. Good times!

So wonderful to read everyone’s stories and journeys! What a great thread and a great idea. I’ll share my own.

Basically, I always knew I was in love with the piano. Pianos were in my kindergarten and elementary schools, my family church, and mom’s social clubs - people would play for me, teach me little songs, and let me just “improvise” lol. Around second grade, my parents bought me a little RadioShack Casio keyboard and I realized I could play back melodies by ear.

Around seventh grade, I started taking it more seriously when I was introduced to Solo Piano/New Age music (think Yanni/David Lanz). My parents brought a 61-key Casio keyboard. I played along to them by ear, learned to play with both hands, and also began creating my own compositions. By freshman year, I was nearly at an intermediate level in terms of technique, but I couldn’t read music and didn’t know any theory.

Around February of 2001, I met my only teacher. She had studied with Rudolph Ganz, taught at my school, and also had her own studio. She introduced me to classical music and I was hooked. She took me under her wing. Sightreading, theory, Hanon, repertoire/scholarly study. I made really fast progress, and, in two years, by 2003, I was doing local, state, and regional competitions, and went from playing Fur Elise and Chopin’s Nocturne in C Minor to playing (sufficiently, not particularly brilliantly lol) La Campanella and Scriabin’s Etude Op 8 No 12. I also began writing serious short and long-form compositions (all of which are lost unfortunately). In my junior year, I auditioned and got a four-year scholarship to Berklee College of Music for Composition & Piano Performance. I planned to audition for Julliard and Curtiss in my senior year.

The summer of my junior year, though, everything derailed. Both my parents got very sick around the same time to the point of being home bound. I started suffering from depression and anxiety, partly from worrying about my parents, partly because those things are genetic on both sides of the family, and partly because of the pressure I’d put myself under. I pretty much fell apart senior year, could barely function, and basically dropped out of high school to be with my parents. The idea of leaving them to pursue dreams seemed impossible and my mental state was fragile.

Some dark years followed, but luckily we all survived. However, I didn’t pursue those dreams. I floated through life for a few years, fell into nonprofit work, and worked my way up to being an administrator for a fairly large company. I started pursuing the arts again in 2016, but for creative writing, not piano. From what I’d learned in the nonprofit world, I secured grants and fellowships to be an independent artist. My teacher, who I’d build a true relationship with and who I’d visit and talk to over the years, was happy for me, and, on more than one occasion, “wondered out loud” if I would also be returning to the piano, lol. Unfortunately, my teacher died in 2017 before I started playing the piano again. She wanted me to have her Bosendorfer, but her husband wouldn’t give it to me. That’s another story, lol.

Anyway, the pandemic came. We were all stuck in our homes. While watching Youtube, who should randomly pop up in my suggested searches but good ol’ Vladimir Horowitz! I remembered when that had been my dream, and before long, I was watching performances from all the old and the new greats. I thought about trying the piano again on my own terms, and bought myself a little Yamaha P-125. It all came back pretty quickly. Upgraded to a P-515. That’s around the time I joined Pianoworld. Learned from all the great minds there about VSTs and digitals/hybrids while also reconnecting with a classical community.

I’m back into it fairly seriously now. I’ve done local and regional performances and teach out of my home studio. I have a pretty solid repertoire of around 25 pieces, although my focus is on composition - I don’t have the desire, discipline, constitution, or stamina to be a concert pianist, and since I’m 37, by the standards of the classical industry, I’m “too old” to make a go of it anyway, lol. But luckily composition is where my heart truly is regardless. I’m working on my first piano sonata and piano concerto as well as some shorts. Will be starting a Youtube soon. I’ve successfully pitched my first classical album to a record company and hope to release it in 2024/2025, featuring some of my favorite pieces alongside my own compositions. And we’ll see what happens, lol. I have no delusions that I’ll ever be rich or even famous for it, but if I can do it on my own terms, and a few people out there like it, I wouldn’t mind that.

So yeah, that’s my story.

Pallas I have an art and music studio in my house now. I have two pianos, and I write, and I paint in oils.

This is so, so wonderful Pallas!!

BTW re @ brdwyguy ‘s comment about people who started piano as children, hated lessons or grew away from piano etc… in my case, my mother told me that at some point she asked me if I wanted piano lessons. We didn’t have a piano but she said if she got one, I would have to agree to take lessons and practice some cortina amount. She said I said “no thank you” so she decided not to force it because she didn’t want me to end up hating music. I have zero recollection of this! (The next time I talk to her, I’ll ask her how old I was). At some point, I got interested in guitar and she got me a classical guitar and lessons. (Which lasted until high school when I broke my arm most dramatically, another long story)

Also at some point before this, my parents had gotten divorced and there was no way she/we would been able to afford a piano, to say nothing of the fact that we were living in apartments for a long time. Starting some time maybe in junior high, I can remember feeling like “I always wanted to play the piano” but I never asked for a piano because in my mind, a piano would cost as much as a house. So I did other musical things (marching band, clarinet, guitar of course until I broke my arm etc.) But I was never forced to take music lessons, so I never had that complicated relationship with them.

When I finally started piano (at age 30),and said something to my mother about how I’d always wanted to play the piano, she said “you’re kidding!” And she told me the story about asking me if I wanted lessons. She said “why didn’t you say something! I would have figured out how to make it happen” As I said, I have no recollection of being asked about lessons, but in the end, I think it worked out for the best. When I was younger, I don’t think I would have had the disciple to stick with it. But as an adult, I treasure it and it means so much to me. And of course, at this point, I’ve now been playing piano for… 25 years. Wow!

So although I don’t usually believe that “everything happens for a reason,” in this case, I think things worked out pretty well.

Oh and btw when I first started piano and purchased a Yamaha digital piano, I never, in my wildest dreams, thought I would one day own a grand piano. And I had no idea if I would ever be able to play, if I would be able to play music that other people could even recognize as music… And yet, here I am, with my very own grand piano, and able to play not just pieces that are recognizable as music, but pieces that I love, music that I hear on the radio and can go and buy the sheet music for and learn and play it myself.

To me, this is an amazing gift, and one for which I am grateful beyond words.

Taushi

Wow, so much in common with my story. Starting on a Casio toy, then the fast progress, the musical career aspirations, the crisis, derailment, career switch, then reconnecting with the piano during the pandemic, way too late in life at that point to even consider musical career aspirations again. Thank you for sharing.

Ah, my first keyboard was also a Casio, Christmas of '84 if I recall: