Why the Piano? How and why did you start?

[selsa]

Why are you playing the piano?
Simple question. I don't know your answers, but mine is:

-Why: it has beautiful sounds, the instrument itself is beautiful.

-How: I was inspired after hearing some Piano music in the movies Misery and the Silence of the Lambs. I was more inspired to learn to play after waching the Art of Piano.

What about you?

Selsa

[dskim]

How:  I started on violin and then added the cello.  To date, I sadly admit that I feel that the cello is the most beautiful souding instrument in the world.  I was actually getting good on them, and my first piano teacher was terrible.  Then I started with another piano teacher when I was about 13.  She scared me.  I started practicing piano only, and got serious about it in high school.  That pretty much explains it.

Why:  A few years back, I was even considering switching back to the cello, but really, it's a bit late for that.  Anyway, the piano has by far the greatest literature written for it, with an inexhaustable supply of repertoire.  Also, the piano is very fulfilling to practice alone without accompaniment.  I've become quite used to the idea that I am going to play the piano for the rest of my life, and I'm happy with it.  True, the cello has quite a soul, but there is a clean purity and great breadth of diversity in the piano sound.  And as a pianist, there is so much one can do with chamber music, lieder, and instrumental sonatas.

I guess the basic answer is that I just love to play.  Practice can be very exhausting (especially good practice) but it all pays off when one can play a Chopin ballade, a Mozart sonata, Schumann, Schubert, Ravel, Rachmaninoff.......

Anyone else?

David

[SteveK]

Why?  Because my mom thought it was important for me to go to piano lessons when I was eight years old!!

How?  At about 13, I realized that piano playing was lots of fun!  I loved playing difficult pieces, I played for hours a day, and I got the piano that I always wanted.  I feel this way even until today!!!

[Rosa]

Why the piano? Because it doesn't sound like a dying cat when I play it, no matter how little real talent I have.

Seriously, I love the sound of the piano. The better the musician, the more I love the sound.

I started learning to play 18 months ago when I was 45.
Why? To save my sanity I suppose. It brings me great joy to be able to play the simple music that I have learned. When I play it makes me calm. When I practice it helps me concentrate.

What greater joy is there than to learn to do what you love to hear?

[Nemo]

how : since I was a little kid i've always enjoyed classical music, i've heard and know almost all of Beethoven's works by heart. and have lots of songs by everyone! i just love it, but since I used to live in Cuba, I never got a chance to study, now i decided to take classes here in school , been at it for half a semester only though, so im just learnign, but i can play a couple of songs, including Beethoven's Für Elise, which I love.

why : because i get relaxed when i listen to piano, i just love its sound

[dinosaurtales]

Because when I was 7 we were at some friends of my parents house, and while they were talking I was in their living room trying to plink out Country Gardens.  My parents apparently thought I would like piano lessons, so the next school year I had a piano teacher.  What do you know when you are 7?  Answer is, not much.  I don't know any dedicated 7 year olds.  They mainly go with the flow.

[Pianosweety]

-Why: I play the piano because it is my comfort zone. I love to have the music surrounding me when I play. In a way, it releives stress. I've just started, but I think I'm doing pretty good. To make it simple... I just love it.
-How:When I was little, I used to have a small keyboard that was only an octave, and maybe a couple more keys. Pretty Funny. It had Greensleeves in it and i loved trying to play it. I've had music in my life ever since I was born. My whole family is dedicated to music.Yes, even grandma .I guess that's how I started.

I'm a new member, so I say HI to all those I hope that I meet.
And Nemo... Don't forget who taught you Fur Elise.  

[Nemo]

hey Pianosweety...dont take credit till you finish teaching me! hehe guys shes NOT new she plays really really good, believe me shes helping me in school everday during lunch

[tosca1]

It is a very inviting instrument to play with its keyboard and the impressive array of black and white keys.  As a complete beginner you can immediately make beautiful and even exciting sounds at the piano which is a distinct advantage it has over stringed and wind instruments where the learner must first find the correct pitch for the note before making a good sound. I have adored the piano all my life, primarily as a musical instrument but also as a beautiful object which always has a presence no matter how modest or undistinguished its pedigree may be.   I have obsessively frequented piano shops just for the pleasure of discovering pianos and being in the milieu of  the instrument that I love most of all.

[ludwig]

  my parents thought it'll be good for me to know a little music learning, for fun and artistic educational purposes, I detested piano practice, I started at 4, I liked performing but had no intentions of doing anything with it, until further on in life, when I was 18, I realised that I could make a profession out of something I liked to do, playing and performing. Although I must say I still don't really like practicing the piano that much, it is a treat and one of life's pleasures to listen to music that's produced by my own effort.

[veimar]

Well, I just fell in love with music and with piano especially
I started @ 5 and gave up @ 11 and thought I'd never play it again...
But then something happened to me when I was already studying (sucessfully ) business in college. I felt a need to play so much that I startred it again at age of 18! I gave up the business against the will of my parents. It was hard, very hard to begin, but now I'm already doing my master in piano performance and don't regret about anything.
I think music is the greatest thing in the world and I'm lucky to deal with it. I don't like piano sound very much (symphony orchestra is better!) but it's the closest to the orchestra.
And I would like to encourage the late starters: don't think your technique or hearing would't develop much! I started almost from zero @ 18 and now I don't have any big troubles with my technigue or musicality.
Good luck to everybody!

[tosca1]

It takes much courage and determination to give up the trappings of conventional life and commit yourself to the piano especially when you face family opposition.  Thank you for your story veimar which not only encourages the late starters at the piano but also shows us how far love and dedication to the piano and its music will take us.

All the very best.
Robert.

[Le-ackt]

I thought it would be cool to play piano
act like a romantic person i guess

[veimar]

Thank you, Robert, for your support! It' so nice to hear from somebody that giving up wealthy business pattern for unstable life of musician is not a foolish decision, but a right step!
(The only other person to tell me that seriously was Prof. Sergei Dorenski in Moscow Conservatory with  whom I had an opportunity to study a little).
Best wishes to everybody, M.W.

[amee]

Why: I play because I can express myself through the piano.  I like being able to let out my emotions and I enjoy playing.  It also calms me down when I'm sad or frustrated and I love music.

How: when I was about 5 years old we had a little electronic keyboard around the house.  I used to always play random notes on it so my mum decided to let me actually learn to play.

[frederic]

Why:
Because I think the piano has a good sound and the repertoire is huge.

How: One of my friends started to learn the keyboard and i often went to her house to play on her keyboard and gradually, by mimicking what she does, i became more interested than she was. So i started learning the keyboard. My friend gave up. Then i met this guy who played to me all these difficult pieces on the piano and i was so impressed that i decided to change to piano.

[amee]

I like what tosca1 has said about the piano always having perfect pitch, which gives it the advantage over stringed and wood instruments.  One of the reasons I gave up violin was because I could never get the pitch right and it sounded horrible...lots of screechy notes :-/

[lea]

i started because i was already playing the violin and as i was little i got bored easily so i really wanted to start a new instrument and now i have kept up both the violin and piano!!!!

the piano is a really great instrument!!!! and im really glad that i kept it up

[natasha]

well when i was 4 i did the yamaha method, the when i was 5 i went onto suzuki. i was already doing suzuki violin and i luved it!! i started because mi parents like classical music and they wanted mi 2 have an interest.

[amee]

Natasha -

What is the Yamaha method?  How is it different to Suzuki?

[lea]

OMG NATASHA!!!

i learnt da yamaha method 4 one ur, then i went on to suzuki!!!aswell!!!! we cud be long lost sistas!!!!


to help amee out on her lil question, here goes:

with yamaha when i learnt it ther were about 10 people on electric keyboards and there was only one grand piano(hehehe i used to hog it) in the lesson, the teacher is up da front and she makes everyone play simutaneously......thats beginner lessons

its not like suz. which is by ear, and u dont have heaps of peeps in a group.....so natasha whats ur opinion on da suzuki/yamaha thing?

luv from lea

[natasha]

yeah we cud b lea!!!
i live in nz wat about u?

[amee]

But with the Suzuki method, isn't it something like there are heaps of books and you just go through the pieces one by one and you have to have all of them in your repertoire or something?  

Sorry for my confusion.

[chopinetta]

When I was young, 4 or 5, I was enrolled to some piano lessones and i liked it. but my teacher scared me so i only got forced to practice and i didn't like it anymore.when i was six, i eventually stopped for years... and i played again when i was already 10. then i met a friend who also plays the piano and we really enjoy it now. she actually has the same experience like i do. being forced when she was still young...

[BuyBuy]

I was 8 when my parents put me at the conservatory in France, like many kids... One year of solfeggio before veing allowed to play the piano... pretty boring, but now I think it was useful, as I never had problems with notes or rythm afterward.

Then 6 years with 2 different teachers, one scaring me (I can still remember her voice on me plying the Czerny : "articulate your fingers !" : she never taught me how to relax and play with my weight for a round tone, so I still have that problem of tension when I play nowadays...), and the other one who never taught me anything technical (so my technique was very poor : unable to play octaves, thirds, fast scales, any bravura passage, and until today I have lots of technical problems... who said your first teachers don't really matter that much ?). I wanted to quit, but my mother made me stay.

Then I moved to Spain, stayed with no teacher, practicing by myself for a couple of years (not such a good idea), and then I enrolled into a private music academy in my town.

A wonderful teacher : she taught to love music (that's when I started to really enjoy classical music, buy CDs and so forth). I started learning about relaxing, playing with my fingers deep down into the keys, producing expression, understanding the composers' ideas... for 3 years till I moved to the US.

I still play for myself (although I don't have time), I love it more every day and now I'm a teacher.

[BuyBuy]

I was 8 when my parents put me at the conservatory in France, like many kids... One year of solfeggio before veing allowed to play the piano... pretty boring, but now I think it was useful, as I never had problems with notes or rythm afterward.

Then 6 years with 2 different teachers, one scaring me (I can still remember her voice on me plying the Czerny : "articulate your fingers !" : she never taught me how to relax and play with my weight for a round tone, so I still have that problem of tension when I play nowadays...), and the other one who never taught me anything technical (so my technique was very poor : unable to play octaves, thirds, fast scales, any bravura passage, and until today I have lots of technical problems... who said your first teachers don't really matter that much ?). I wanted to quit, but my mother made me stay.

Then I moved to Spain, stayed with no teacher, practicing by myself for a couple of years (not such a good idea), and then I enrolled into a private music academy in my town.

A wonderful teacher : she taught to love music (that's when I started to really enjoy classical music, buy CDs and so forth). I started learning about relaxing, playing with my fingers deep down into the keys, producing expression, understanding the composers' ideas... for 3 years till I moved to the US.

I still play for myself (although I don't have time), I love it more every day and now I'm a piano teacher (who would have known ?).

[Chiyo]

I started when I was 5. My mom likes playing piano, so she played piano when she was pregnant and when I was young (and I got perfect pitch - I think it's from that). She also gave piano lessons to kids, even though she did not major in Piano. Anyways, I envied that and started getting lessons from a piano teacher. I was on and off with piano, but I totaled 6 years of lesson till I was 12, then I stopped because of my loaded schoolwork. During that 6 years, I learned Hanon and Czerny for 4.5 years .

I'm 18 now, and I've been teacherless since then, cuz my family cannot afford lessons. But recently I feel this strong feeling that I need to start playing piano again, so I'm dedicating my leisure time to playing piano. I just love the sound! But I'm going to Pharmacy school for my lifetime job, then hopefully after graduation, I'll be able to afford Steinway Grand and college professor lessons. (I currently have a console piano that we got for $500. Sounds....bad).

[Mellbell57]

Why: It gives me an outlet for my emotions- it's my stress reliever. Also, it has a beautiful sound, and it's wonderful to create something you enjoy.

How: When I was 5 or 6 I wanted to learn how to play piano (don't remember why), so my parents bought an upright and I've been playing on it since. However, I haven't really gotten serious about it until a year or two ago.

[Jezzica]

I started the piano because my mum made me ! (hey, I WAS 6 yrs)

but then I started to like it after a while

so right now, i LOVE the piano  *muah*

[Yoad]

When i was 8 years old i asked my paretns to play the violin, an my brother asked to play the piano. For some reasong they thought that we both wanted to play the piano. (There as more to it, but that more is boring).

Now i wouldnt change to the violin, i like the piano better.

[rachfan]

As to how I started piano, when I was eight years old I was sick with a fever.  In a delerium, apparently I kept repeating, "If I had a piano I could play it."  My parents dismissed it, but my grandmother insisted they they buy me a piano.  I've been playing ever since.  

[10Fingers]

Why the piano? : When I was 6, my parents took me to a concert where Halina Czerny-Stefanska (winner of a chopin competition in warshaw) played Beethoven's concerto no. 4.  
It was like flying in heaven, so I begged my parents to let me take lessons. However, we were not the richest either, so that I took my first lessons at age 8, practising on a keyboard. But I was lucky to have brilliant teachers right from the beginning. I got my first piano at age 10.
Now I'm 18 and did not lose one bit of my enthusiasm!

Thi

[A-Flat]

Why - It is the most versatile instrument, it can sound  amazing playing somethign by Bach or somethign by Tori Amos.

How - when i was little i think my mum used to ask  siblings and I if we wanted to learn piano. I apparently always said no, then one day when i was  9 i just said to mum, i want to start piano.  I have been loving it ever since.

Piano is so cool. A band at school recently got me to play with them as they played a metallica song and it sounded really really good.