When did everyone decide they would dedicate their lives to the instrument?

[pabst]

Hi, I am just really curious about the members musical history, when did they figure that piano was the way to go and that there was no turning back 

Seriously tho, what particular thing motivated you to go into reclusion-sacrifice-damnation for your musical instrument? Have you not yet made the decision to dedicate your life to the piano, or has it already been made by someone else?

I'll share my story - I started listening to classical music when I went for a 2 months trip to Canada to figure things out, and my host was a ballet and chopin fanatic (so yes, this was on Montreal). The time I spent there changed so much of my thinking that I decided to give classical music a try when I got back to my country - getting to be pretty acquainted with it, actually, listening to everything I could get over the internet. It was already taking over my life, and when I got into the Journalism school, just one year after the trip, everything started to overwhelm me really. I can't comment as to why, since Journalism is something one can only experience, there's no putting into words what that profession will do to your emotional q (there's that Antonioni movie with Nicholson, I forgot the name, but it sums up the trade). That's when darkness descended and I started messing around with cocaine, Nietzsche and Foucault, not in the particular order - in unhealthy amounts. I'll spare you the really wretched days and just say that when I first heard the Rachmaninov op. 39 etudes it felt almost as it was written for that precise moment, that state of being I was in, and it started to haunt me. The final blow was discovering Scriabin music, which made me drop off all the bad things, Journalism school included, such a different thing it was. It was inevitable.
I have just recently decided to take on piano forever, am practicing a lot everyday so I can hopefully enter college next year. I still keep my job as a journalism trainee and things are a lot clearer now, never has a decision seemed so right before. And the days are definitively better now 

Please share!

[perfect_pitch]

Sadly enough my parents pushed me into the piano... and I didn't have a choice. After playing for 3 months, I could play Jingle bells and I loved the attention. 300 people were there and clapped like crazy. I thought it was great and I kept playing.

The reason my dad pushed me into the Piano of all instruments is because my dad set a couple of goals in his life that he wanted to achieve. One of them was that he wanted to run the marathon - He did it. Another of those goals was to play a musical instrument and he went out and spontaneously bought a Piano - just like that. he then phoned my mum and told her all about his splurge spend.

Dad pushed me into the piano because he realised when I was 5 that I had damn good aural skills. Thats why they pushed me into the Piano. After 6 months of playing piano I performed Fur Elise (the whole thing) and I could pick up piece in a quarter the time that it would normally take most of the other students.

I like the Piano because it is seen as a gift to be able to play the Piano of all things (that and the violin). It is seen as a higher art and I respect people who take the time to perform beautiful music. The time and effort that composers put into writing these beautiful melodies is breath-taking. I respect them for taking the time to write it and their music has stood the test of time.

God bless them.

[prometheus]

PP? Can I ask a personal question?

Did you like the fact that your father pushed you towards piano?

I think that, if I were a parent, I would also have the urge to accomplish through my children that what I couldn't do myself. I am not sure if this is a really bad thing.


Personally, I never dedicated my life to piano.

[pabst]

Personally, I never dedicated my life to piano.

Thats an ironic Liszt quotation then 

[ted]

"Dedicate my life to the instrument" ? What, physically, a wooden box with wires in it ? Hardly. Even if you mean piano music it's still couched a bit too dramatically for me. I wouldn't be too happy if I lost the ability to create at the piano but I'm sure my psyche would remain intact one way or another. I choose to create and play because I enjoy it in the same way I enjoy many things in life. I embrace it often, consciously and rationally because it makes me feel good. I obviously do not see these things in quite the same mystical light as most pianists and musicians. Dedicate my life to music ? No, my love of music is an undying love.

[arensky]

When I was 15 I decided that I was going to be a great pianist or die in the attempt. I am still committed to this goal, getting closer every day and I'm not dead yet!    I've thought about going into a more lucrative profession (law, finance, they would be easy for me) but it remains that, a thought. I am addicted to music, I must have it all the time, it's like a drug, but much more than that, because drugs and alcoohol are merely a coarse substitute for a real spiritual experience. Music is one way of acheiving this, and my preferred one.

I may never be the greatest pianist, but I will never be the worst,  I am among the better ones, and I expect that I will acheive my goal, if I am not taken from the world before I get there...

[steve jones]

I never decided this -  I dont plan to dedicate my life to piano (there is too much life to live to spend it in one room!).

However, I decided after a few months of playing that I would dedicate the required time and effort to become reasonibly good. By that, I mean reasonibly 'able'. I doubt I will ever reach a standard where I can perform seriously. Right now, I just want to be able to play Appassionata! Maybe in the future I could suppliment my earnings by giving a few lessons.

No major aspirations here (atleast not with this instrument).

I do admire you guys though, who have the ambition to devote you're lives to become concert pianists. I sincerely hope you all do well and reach your potential.

[rc]

It's interesting to see where people are coming from.

Mine was rock guitar -> classical guitar -> classical piano. I had life-dedication ambitions, but being a hermit was making me weird . I decided not to become a piano-weirdo and made more time to socialize and enjoy the rest life has to offer, in addition to learning piano.

Although, in becoming a piano-hermit I really cleaned up a lot of areas in my life (for the purpose of learning piano ASAP). That's really cleared up my head and made my life better overall.

I've been told I would make a great teacher more than once. I'm undecided, but I would probably enjoy teaching piano/music. I like to think that my siblings and myself are introducing arts into the family.

[perfect_pitch]

here in Perth, Australia (and in most other towns in Australia...) Art has practically no place in most Australians and I'm sick of it. You need some form of art to let your creative juices flow. To express your self in a deep emotional way I think is healthy for the mind.

I'm going to do my best to become a music teacher and teach students the gift of music and if that doesn't work??? I'll move to Germany or London or America or something like that. Somewhere, where students strive to play music and take it seriously...

(I wish I could teach in a school like that in the program 'Rock School'.)

[prometheus]

Thats an ironic Liszt quotation then 

Well, not dedicating yourself to the piano doesn't mean you dedicate it to money instead. Plus, I think you didn't understand the quote. It means that with succes comes artistic sacrifice.

[arensky]

It's interesting to see where people are coming from.

 I had life-dedication ambitions, but being a hermit was making me weird . I decided not to become a piano-weirdo and made more time to socialize and enjoy the rest life has to offer, in addition to learning piano.

 

Sure, there's that period where you have to sit alone with the piano if you want to develop high level ability, but being like Glenn Gould is a choice, not an obligation. I've always had a social life, why be a misanthrope? It's not nessacary, if you know how to practice correctly you can then go outside and enjoy the rest of your life! 

[pabst]

I do admire you guys though, who have the ambition to devote you're lives to become concert pianists. I sincerely hope you all do well and reach your potential.

I also admire those people. I myself dont have the guts to sacrifice all for a concertist career, and whoever thinks that making a career out of public performance doesnt involve sacrifice and full dedication is clearly an amateur. Anyway I am aiming for a teaching career, and like my teachers once did I do go on for about 10 hours everyday, 5 on the piano and 5 away from it (hand, wrist exercises, reading and memorizing). I can't begin to grasp how much a concertist has to give in. One of my teachers is friends with brazilian-born pianist Cristina Ortiz (show up hands anyone who has heard of her) and we meet often - her story was: beginning piano at age 3, perfect pitch, from 16-23 time period she studied up to 14 hours a day, no room for nothing else. And still, how many people know her? (Well, money-wise, she does own a castle in southern France  )

It's interesting to see where people are coming from.

Mine was rock guitar -> classical guitar -> classical piano.

Hey that's really great, I still nurture some ambitions torwards classical guitar. Did you ever get to play some wikid Villa-Lobos? 

Sure, there's that period where you have to sit alone with the piano if you want to develop high level ability, but being like Glenn Gould is a choice, not an obligation. I've always had a social life, why be a misanthrope? It's not nessacary, if you know how to practice correctly you can then go outside and enjoy the rest of your life!

Hahaha the poor Gould. Even on my busiest days I can still manage to go outside to have a swim or a pint or something, really. But you never really dettach yourself from the thing, you know?

"Dedicate my life to the instrument" ? What, physically, a wooden box with wires in it ? Hardly.

As irritating as it might be hearing this from a 20 year old, I think I have accomplished and experienced quite enough outside the boundaries of the piano-weirdo world. I want to lay back and enjoy some nice 60 years of total dedication to the instrument. Or maybe i'm just a snob punk Either way, a life on the bench can be fulfilling in ways to some people and frustrating to others.

[pabst]

double post

[infectedmushroom]

I dedicate my life to music, not only for one instrument.

[arensky]

I dedicate my life to music, not only for one instrument.

You are right of course but I feel that evantually if you want to be REALLY good at a given instrument you have to give up the other instruments. There are exceptions (Awdagin Pratt immediately comes to mind) but I think you know what I mean. Of course we play MUSIC at the piano, not PIANO at the piano, hopefully....

[rc]

Hey that's really great, I still nurture some ambitions torwards classical guitar. Did you ever get to play some wikid Villa-Lobos? 

No, I don't think I've ever really given a listen to any villa-lobos. My classical guitar phase was when I was just getting into classical music in general. That was part of the initial appeal of classical music to me; it was a challenge on guitar. So most of what I played was transcriptions of popular pieces. I used tablature I found on the net.

Lesse here... There was a simple arrangement of Air on a G string (BWV1068) that was easy and sounded good. I got myself sick of Fur Elise and the Moonlight before getting to piano, the moonlight mvmt1 translates very well to guitar. A Handel Sarabande that was pretty tricky. I think the wikkidest thing I pulled off was the little fugue in Gm by Bach, that took a few months, I would take my guitar with me to practice on the can  .

By then I had enough of the transcriptions and decided to cut to the real thing and learn piano. I've hardly touched the guitar for the past two years and don't really miss it.

Hahaha the poor Gould. Even on my busiest days I can still manage to go outside to have a swim or a pint or something, really. But you never really dettach yourself from the thing, you know?

I know what you're saying. It almost seems that the more effecient my practice gets, the more I want to practice. It's a struggle between wanting to stay near the piano and wanting to be a social human being. Sometimes you've just gotta say "enough! take the night off and party with your friends... NOW!".

Still, it's a better way to spend your days than watching TV. Good to have another enthusiastic piano-freak aboard 

[m1469]

When did everyone decide they would dedicate their lives to the instrument?

Without knowing it, the first time I saw it. 

Consciously, when I was quite young, about 7 or so.