Why do you want to learn to play piano?
Mastery of a craft isn't all that it's cracked up to be.
Several decades ago I decided that I wanted to learn how to do high end custom woodworking. I started with the usual small stuff and progressed to bigger stuff, often from published plans, and eventually started designing and building stuff of my own. I got really good at it. I mean really, really, really good at it. All aspects of it.
One day I looked around and realized that none of it was a challenge anymore. I could wander out to my shop, grab some wood, and start cutting and assembling nearly anything that crossed my mind. No plans required and the end result would be as perfect as human hands can make it.
It wouldn't even take hardly any time to make something that once upon a time could have taken days or weeks. There literally wasn't any challenge at all and no purpose remained.
I quit. I still have all the tools and machines but haven't touched them in 15-20 years. Mastery of any craft has its desirable qualities. One of which is to teach. But mastery for the sake of mastery and nothing else is a dead end street.
Pallas Calling it a "fiddle" makes it easier to play, RIGHT!?
LOL be careful with the discussions this might start... Is it still a "fiddle" if you are only into "classical"? Etc etc. Just like the never ending discussions whether we are still learning piano properly if classical is not our thing or when we're using a non approved method? Good for many hours and long messages where those nuances are dissected into atom sized particles - thankfully not in this forum though 
thepianoplayer416 The instrument you learned as a child is the one you’re stuck with as an adult. My brother wouldn’t play anything except a guitar sort of thing.
TPP416 - but you learned violin as a child, and now you're also doing piano, so you have best of two or more worlds.
I'm now learning 'erhu' - as I had always wanted to play that - but had never got around to it. It's amazing to me. I love that one.
- Edited
Pallas There's a busker who plays erhu here and there around Boston. Whenever I spot him (with my ears, natch!) I just get frozen with wonder. What an amazing instrument!
Thanks for mentioning that Pallas! Fully agree! While I haven't played a violin before, I heard that --- like an erhu (in some ways, and vice versa) - both the erhu and violin require the person using it to find their own reference position, and then play the notes relative to that reference position. Although - for erhu - as there are no standard/regular sizes/lengths etc for them, and no standard/regular setup lengths between the bridge and the other end of the string etc, it becomes an interesting problem for each person to solve for themselves - if they can solve it - for getting the right reference note position.
It's very interesting how the experienced erhu players can take their hands away from the erhu during a performance, and put down the erhu, and then put their hands back on it - seemingly without looking at where they need to put their hand (to get back to their reference position) - and they just resume and hit the correct pitch (in line with all the other difference sorts of instruments playing - concert pitch) first time - every time. I haven't learned how to do that yet hehehe ... but that's all part of the intrigue. It's a nice problem-solving thing that one.
Thanks for mentioning Boston! I have been there once before - but driving through there only (had not set foot in Boston itself though) - on the way to Woods Hole (and back through Boston again on the return trip). Big city!!! Boston that is. Amazing. The impressive buildings and history etc.
- Edited
Pallas Because we're having this little moment, I know it won't shock you to hear that I built a theremin from a kit once. You have to find the pitch in mid air from the reference point of just your body and the xy space between two antennae. If I want to play it these days I have to check it out from the library, because I couldn't handle that much unknown, and donated it to their Library of Things. The only book I had on the instrument required that you already read music, and this was years ago before I realized I could, duh, learn that, so I guess I have to decide if I'm going to un-quit theremin now.
hahaha!!! Nice one Pallas!! Oh geez. I haven't ever used a theremin before. Wow --- yes indeed. I can see what you mean about getting a reference for that one. Thanks for mentioning theremin, and that you built one from a kit! That is indeed an amazing instrument - being able to pitch bend in real time to your own controlled/controllable profile.
That has got me thinking again - about theremin and our own voices.
You know how a lot of people in general - ones without perfect/absolute pitch - where they have to work on developing relative pitch/intervals abilities in order to become more at-one with the piano etc? I always think back to our own voice. The way in which we can think in our mind what pitch we want to 'sing' - and then a few seconds later - when we then physically sing what pitch we have in our mind --- it really does come out physically to that same particular pitch we had/have our mind.
So - basically - our body (brain/body etc) has somehow - however it did it - has perfectly tied 'mind/brain pitch/frequency' with physical pitch/frequency. That somewhat perfect link between mind pitch and physical pitch from our mouth --- has been mastered by our body - naturally mastered. As in - we have outstanding control of our own voice instrument pitch. It still amazes me. Astounding actually.
And I think that same sort of control is what a lot of people (playing and learning piano) want to achieve in the area of piano. They want to be able to think of what pitch (or pitches) they want to play - in their minds, and translate that directly to the piano - as if singing - like the way we use our own voice to sing what we want in our minds. That's one form of musical freedom. And when combined with music theory and composition techniques etc --- that builds on the musical freedom.
- Edited
Pallas But I do think I hear and note and try to sing it, and I can hear that I failed!
Interesting! Thanks for mentioning that Pallas! I previously assumed that everybody has that particular natural ability. Or at least most people have that naturally --- as in if somebody else sings a particular pitch like 'laaaaAAAAAA', then usually another person can immediately and directly sing - with their voice - the same frequency 'laaaAAAAAA'. I will have to look more into this - as in getting some stats on that. But - in any case - as mentioned somewhere else in the forum - it's piano and music that got us all to here to Piano Tell. That is amazing in itself. Internet plus modern computing and digital audio power, piano plus music etc, got us all here.
[update] - back again --- I just got this information here, and don't know how accurate it really is. I'll keep looking though. But I really and actually assumed that pretty much every body - toward the 100% mark - can/could naturally match somebody else's pitch immediately - right away. This article here reckons it's an approximate 50-50 split. Not that it actually matters. Just getting in there in any which way to play pianos is what it is all about.
- Edited
Pallas I think about that myself sometimes. I feel very lucky to have found piano friends who will come to this thread and tell us why they want to learn the piano. Interesting replies from top to bottom.
Fully agree. For some reason - I have to think back to navindra as well, after he took initiative and effort to actually start up Piano Tell. And this thread here about why we play piano or want to play the piano, or wanted to learn and keep going etc --- is quite meaningful, and is certainly very interesting to read. I almost forgot to put in navindra - as he obviously plays a vital role in all of this. The timing etc ..... this is nature and history. A part of piano history - and human history itself. I think it is significant.
- Edited
TC3 Yes, there needs to be a name for accordion that is analogous to "fiddle"!
The Dutch have a cozy name for it... "pull organ". Am I right @Josephine? 
I just googled it, trekorgel.@Josephine I fascinated myself into reading up on that. Apparently it's a word that's becoming rapidly obsolete (so is my knowledge of Dutch). But here's something interesting, according to this article, at some point the Dutch called it "pull piano" (trekpiano) too!
Yup, born and raised Until married life whisked me off to Canada.
and family lol 
Here all we have walk by the house are bears, raccoons, deer and coyotes. Luckily most are a lot more quiet than the average human - though it can be a little scary to open the front door and stare into the eyes of a startled bear 
. That's happened a few times!