He's pretty good. We have a nice sized Kuwai.

I've never heard him talk about Schaum levels......I'll ask him.

to my books. They're what I learned on as a kid. Classic songs like The Ostrich and Put Your Little Foot.

I have a Story & Clark.

I went back to get my RN license afterwards because I just didn't enjoy being in the classroom the way I thought I would. I have played the piano for 25 years. I play the lute too 😃

If you are playing at a level four you some of the early Clementi sonatinas would be approachable. What kind of music are you looking for? What period?

and the lute. That's pretty impressive.

I don't play classical. Instead, I do video games, movies and tv shows. Newest piece was this:

I can close my eyes and forget about all the crazy for a few minutes.

Thanks for the music, sakabatou!

Got plenty of more music that I play.

thank you for sharing this. I went to YouTube and checked out some more of your pieces - very nice!.

Full version:

both my parents played, and after asking my parent how to read sheet music, i taught myself from there. i was a bit of a prodigy at age 5, but i had my teenage rebellion at age 6 when my mother wanted to train me more formally. so i stopped playing for a year.

by then i had completely lost it. i keep going back to it, but it's horrible having this memory of being able to sit at the piano and just play and have it be easy and sound wonderful, and i always get really frustrated at having to start all over. so i never stick with it long enough to remotely regain any competence.

part of me really likes having a piano in the house, but i actually rarely play it and trying only annoys me.

maybe if i ever retire i'll be able to put in the time....

My mom was a pretty accomplished player, and I think I disappointed her terribly by my childhood refusal to practice.

I play now simply because I want to. If I get frustrated I just walk away and go back to it later.

Cad, I meant cad.

He claims to be a true halibut, but he's really an invasive hagfish, believe me!

They’re all interested in the bass player

Ragtime sheet music was so much fun after "classical" things. Not too difficult, but so cheerful.

And no big brother messing with the metronome while I was practicing Czerny and easy Chopin so very long ago.

Have too much fun. Nothing like it to "take you away" from current events.

and he has our old baby grand! The discipline just never caught on with me.

on DU before. Nice to see it come up.
I've played piano since I was 3. I picked up piano tuning when I was 10 from a blind tuner and used the trade to make some spending money in college. My career was in another field of music and now that I'm semi-retired I have gone back to piano restoration as a hobby.
Good luck on your piano studies. Whether you're a concert pianist or just plunk around, always play for the joy of it. That's all that matters.

I find since I don't have to play, I enjoy playing.

Piano tuners are becoming scarce. There is one in our city and she is always booked.

I play it a lot but don't feel like I'm fast enough, although I have read more than one article that says it should be played more slowly than it is in most cases.

I can play The Entertainer from memory. It's the one song I can't play from sheet music.

With my right hand, picking out chords. It’s a fun way to impress the grandkids. Wow Nana, how do you know Despacito! LOL. My left hand stopped cooperating a decade ago.

I love Despacito. I sing it all the time.

Actually, I should say I play keyboards since I have 14 instruments. I have a Yamaha Clavinova digital piano, a Korg Digital Grand, a Rhodes Electric Piano, a Wurlitzer Electronic Piano, and a number of synthesizers. It's been an ambition of mine to have instruments all over my homes and office and I guess my fetish is somewhat obvious!

I'm a professional musician and when I was young, I met Dave Brubeck at his home in Weston, Connecticut. He gave me a tour of his house and I noticed that there were pianos in many of the rooms. When I commented on this, he laughed and said he and his wife decided to put pianos all over the house so their kids couldn't say that they couldn't practice since someone else was playing the piano!

Throughout my career, I've had a piano in my office. In my first job at a music publisher, I had an old spinet that had belonged to Frank Sinatra. It had several cigarette burns on it and the ivory on middle C was so worn that the wood was exposed! Most of the musicals "Fiddler On The Roof" and "Cabaret" and many others were written using this piano. It probably wasn't a good instrument when it was new and since it had been hammered throughout its life, it couldn't hold a tuning. My technician actually tuned it about a quarter-tone flat so it would stay "in tune."

When I worked out of Warner Brothers, I had a beautiful Baldwin upright that had been the great lyricist Sammy Cahn's piano. I actually wrote several songs with Sammy who was a unique Damon Runyanesque character.

If you want to try some really fun contemporary music, get a copy of "Children's Songs" by Chick Corea. They are sort of in the style of Bartok's "Microcosmos" and they're beautiful and fun.

I noticed you're from NYC. Lucky. I used to work there quite a bit. Took my son there in the spring for a competition he was in and it brought back a lot of great memories. All the Koch renaming shit ticks me off but it's still the city. Oh well.. off topic.

Don't worry, defacto7. Everybody still calls the the Edward I. Koch Bridge the 59th Street Bridge. The RFK Bridge is still known as the Triboro Bridge, (it should be Triborough, but, hey, it's a New Yawk thing). Nobody calls the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel, (I didn't even know it had been renamed). And in spite of the governor's best efforts, the new bridge in Tarrytown is still called the Tappan Zee Bridge.

How about the New York State Theater and Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center? Those are the ones that bug me. I don’t like my best memories messed with. Next thing you know it will be The Koch Metropolitan Opera or The Koch Juilliard School of Music. Eck..

When I referred to the 59th Street Bridge, it was renamed in honor of former NYC mayor Ed Koch (pronounced KOTCH), not our ultra-nemesis, the Koch Brothers (pronounced COKE).

Avery Fisher Hall was the second name for that concert venue. Originally, it was called Philharmonic Hall as the home of the NY Philharmonic. Infamously, the acoustics in the hall were terrible for both audiences and performers. Avery Fisher, a wealthy owner of a audio company specializing in stereos, paid to have the interior of the hall rebuilt to improve the sound. In return, the hall was renamed after him. Sadly, the acoustics improved only marginally. A number of years later, David Geffen, the music mogul, agreed to pay for further improvements and he made a substantial gift to Lincoln Center so now it's named for him. I think there was a legal squabble with the Fisher family and the NY Philharmonic had to return some of the original gift, ($6 million sticks in my mind).

While I get your point, the Juilliard School is a private college and is controlled by its board of directors. Given its provenance and history, I don't think we have to worry about them changing the name!

An area of concern, however, is with the naming rights of sports venues. A majority of football and baseball stadiums (stadia?) are built with public funds and/or tremendous tax incentives for the owners of the teams. Then a private corporation gets to put their name and logo on these structures at the expense of the tax payers.

I remember the Avery Fisher Hall history now. I always knew it by that name although I don't remember what it was called on my first visits there in '72 as a kid. Working in Lincoln Center it was always Fisher Hall to me.
Sports venues and stadiums are changing everywhere it seems. NY has a special history I don't like seeing tossed around. Toledo, who cares. But NYC... we all need some foundation history to keep righteous, something to tie the generational tether to.

You've had some experiences! How cool to have met Brubeck.

We get to hear some really great stories on DU.

turned me on to him. Sort of a minimalist with heart.

but I haven't touched a piano in the last 30 years.

When I was in high school I played Beethoven's Sonata #8. I was passable with the first movement, pretty darn good with the second movement, and utterly awful with the last movement.

Here's what it's supposed to sound like:

I still remember my teacher's first question: "do you know where middle C is?"

I took lessons as a child but quit in high school. I wish I had continued.

We still have a piano. It makes a fine "display case" for family photos. One of my sons took lessons but gave it up for the guitar.

I hope my granddaughters show an interest and I will happily give them the piano!

I mean, my friend taught me a snippet of Heart and Soul in high school and I did play chop sticks at one time. I will not go to lessons but I inherited two keyboards (One big one and one smaller Yamaha) that I would practice on but I want to actually learn to read music - not just learn some songs by memory. I also inherited a Hammond M-2 or something organ - beautiful wood cabinet but it doesn't work and I think would cost more than it's worth to fix.

I seem to have a desire but not sure if I would stick with it. At least I can find out without spending much money lol.

goals: