Share your piano journey
Thanks everyone for sharing your stories! If you haven’t shared yours yet, please don’t be shy! It is super fun to learn about all the very different piano paths we have followed!
My journey is a STAGGERING… 6 months haha!
As a child, I always wanted to play music but instruments cost money that sadly my folks didn’t have to spare. Luckily I grew to love drawing and painting and made a career as an artist (mostly drawing portraits but a few illustrations and graphic design made it into the mix). Unfortunately, when you turn what you love into a job, it’s pretty easy to lose that passion you once had.
Well one day I was visiting a bookstore that also sold instruments and the keyboards were all too expensive… but not that electric guitar in the corner! That guitar phase was… oh I don’t know… 2 months long in my early 20s??
Fast forward through a short military career, medical retirement, a move to Germany… and attending several piano jazz concerts during Beethoven fest, I was that 20 something young adult fantasizing about playing the piano.
So, in January (at the age of 34) I bought a Kawai KDP120 and started lessons. I fell in love with that feeling of playing a tune and in April I started renting a upright Rösler (1977 109cm) which sounds… questionable at best 
. I‘m bow trying to decide between the digital hybrid NV10s or the K500 aures2.
Talk about hook line and sinker…
Oh, and after I started playing piano, I got that passion to start painting again 
GurkeSalat after I started playing piano, I got that passion to start painting again
It's uncanny how often passion for playing an instrument and passion for painting go hand in hand!
Welcome to the forum and thanks for sharing your story. There are many of us around who are at a similar stage of our piano journey (as well as many awesome knowledgeable seasoned players). You're in good company 
rogerch thank you for reminding me (in the recital thread) of your story. Now that I’ve heard your wonderful improvising, your story is even more meaningful! And by the way< in th recital, your piano sounded wonderful as well, so that restringing was definitely worth it!
Am I understanding correctly that you didn’t (and currently don’t) work with a teacher on improvising? Did (do) you use any books or pedagogical materials to learn to improvise?
- Edited
ShiroKuro Am I understanding correctly that you didn’t (and currently don’t) work with a teacher on improvising? Did (do) you use any books or pedagogical materials to learn to improvise?
I haven't worked with a teacher on improvising. My last piano lesson was 25 years ago! Once I retire I may try to find a teacher and/or take music classes at the local community college.
I have gotten some helpful tips from an experienced improviser.
Early on I worked on the material in the first few chapters of Improvisation at the Piano, which was helpful in getting me started. There is a lot to learn in that book that I haven't worked on and I will probably keep using it as I progress.
I've worked a lot on scales and chords. My routine for scales is to work my way through the major and harmonic minor scales, switching scales either every day or every week. I play two handed four octave Hanon scales, and I play them at various volumes with emphasis on playing them as quietly as I can for control. After playing a scale I play all the chords for that scale in sequence, while saying the flavor of each chord: major, minor, minor, major, major, minor, diminished or minor, diminished, augmented, minor, major, major, diminished. I go up and down the scale doing this until I can play each chord and say the correct flavor with no hesitation.
After working on the scale of the day I improvise in that scale. Sometimes I work on chord patterns while improvising, other times I work on playing melodies in both hands at the same time.
Lately I haven't been working on scales as much. Instead I've been working on a variety of skills:
- Play a melody line, and then play the same line again. This is really hard for me but I hope to eventually get good at it so I can repeat a line when improvising
- Hand independence: My hands tend to get bound together rhythmically, especially if I play a melody in my left hand. I do exercises to try to avoid having rhythms in one hand disrupt the rhythms in the other hand
- Non-diatonic: I work on breaking out of scale notes and chords. I've made some progress here but have a long way to go
- Use the whole piano: My hands tend to stay close together when I improvise, so I work on having them further apart
- Different styles: I try to play differently than what I've played before. I don't want all my improvisations to sound the same
My work on the above all involves improvising while keeping the skill I'm focusing on in mind.
Every day I play I also improvise freely with no agenda. That's the reward for all of the work!
That's kind of you to say!!
I ordered the book you linked (improvising for people with classical training), I'll let you know how it goes! 
Gooseberry I am a beginner, and will always be, I suppose. I started to learn too late (at almost 60) to become anything else.
So sorry to read about the selfishness of your father and the stunting of your early development as a pianist. As for your statement that you will always be a beginner, allow me to disagree politely. If you can study with someone who really knows how to work with people in your situation (returnees after long absences, adult beginners), it is entirely possible, if you work enough at it, to train yourself to be a more than "good enough" pianist. People can and do learn things after childhood. As an example, a former romantic partner of mine had never picked up a paint brush to do anything other than paint a door. At age 30, she enrolled in courses in Chinese Brush Painting with a master. Years later her paintings are in demand and command prices in the thousands of dollars. Keep playing and enjoying that happiness you feel, the more you do it, the better you will get. Offered in a Spirit of Helpfulness and in support of your efforts.
Seeker I’m deeply moved by your kind and supportive words. Encouragement coming from someone like you is invaluable. It also happens to come at a time when I especially need it. Thank you!
Gooseberry I went back and listened to some of your recital pieces again. You play beautifully! Your playing is delicate and expressive. You have a lovely touch and your playing is very nice to listen to!
rogerch I’m really, really grateful for the support I have always received from you 
Seriously, this is such a great community of kind-hearted people that I want to hug you all!
Hi
I've posted something similar on PW, but here it all is again.
I started playing when I was about 8 or 9 (1969/1970), because my sister (2 years younger than me) started playing! My parents were both musical. My Mum was a reasonable classical Pianist and a good singer. In the 1980s she sang at the Royal Festival Hall a number of times in a choir. Although my Dad didn't play or sing he was nevertheless very musical, and a big blues and Jazz fan. Both these interests I've inherited, though my singing is pretty awful.
I had a few months of classical lessons from a local teacher when I first started, but this didn't last and I wasn't inspired, at that time, to play classical. So I drifted for a few years and then at some point I heard my first boogie-woogie record, which I knew immediately was what I wanted to play. But at that time I had no way of knowing how to do so. Inevitably in my teenage years I gravitated towards the pop music of the day. And who was the biggest pop star of the mid 1970s. Elton John. He remains a huge influence on my non-classical playing. I bought books of sheet music of his most famous albums like Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. But none of these really showed you how he played. If you're interested in his actual Piano playing check out EltonsCafe.net, this is a treasure trove of transcriptions and analysis.
Then in about 1980 a friend of mine showed me that if you learnt to understand the chord symbols put in the music for guitarists you could effectively make up your own versions. After this revelation I spent several years learning chord structures, eventually becoming fluent at instantly translating these symbols, rather than reading the notes on the page. This was also my way into improvising. By this time I'd bought a home organ. These were all that rage in the early 1980s, but they didn't make that classic Hammond sound that I wanted.
In 1987 I was desperate to start playing with other musicians, but had no outlet, so I decided I'd take up classical Guitar. Fate and luck were with me. I took and passed grade 2 and grade 4 classical guitar with my Teacher. But once I got to know him I found out he was also an electric bass player, and after a couple of years I joined him in a band he was in. At this point I bought my first Yamaha Clavinova.
I also passed Piano Grade 6 Piano with him, and theory grades 5, 7 & 8. I stopped having lessons with him in the early 1990s, but we've remained friends ever since and he is depping in a big band that I play with (most recently on Sunday).
Since 1989 I've been in Rock, Blues and Jazz bands virtually continuously, and at one point was semi-pro, but that died a death when a recession hit.
I retired in 2020, just before the Pandemic and this gave me a lot of free time. So variously I tried Sax (for a 2nd time), Vibes and drums. For my 60th birthday I got a drum kit and I use these a lot and am good enough to keep time and play them in a band I'm in.
The Piano has remained my primary focus over all the years. In late 2022, having had some drum lessons and flirted with Vibraphone I decided I should return to serious classical Piano lessons for the first time since the early 1990s. Last year I passed ABRSM grade 7 and am working towards grade 8 now.
That's about it....
Cheers
Simon
All round average Jazz, Blues & Rock player.
Currently working towards ABRSM grade 8.
That's the oldest picture of me playing that I have. It's around 1980, in my bedroom at my parents house. I'm playing (or pretending to) an Elka 303 organ that I owned. The synthesizer belonged to the friend who initially taught me about chords.
Cheers
Simon
All round average Jazz, Blues & Rock player.
Currently working towards ABRSM grade 8.
