Are your parents pianists?

[Shagdac]

I know it has been discussed what role parents have played in our learning piano. Just wondered if anyone has a parent/s that are serious pianists themselves?


S

[Tash]

my mum sent me to piano lessons as a child and that's about it. she played when she was a kid but hated it and quit. my dad has never played an instrument in his life...

[faulty_damper]

No, my parents know nothing about the piano other than
1) they don't want to pay for tuning
2) they don't want to pay for maintenance costs
3) they don't want me practicing when I want to practice
4) they don't even want to hear me practicing
5) but they'll gladly listen to Lang Lang on the TV.

 Yeah, he's really good.  

They are serious TV watchers, though.

[donjuan]

sad faulty, sad
My mom played as a kid, but quit due to lack of improvement. (smirk) No one in my family history has ever been involved with music, and are surprised to see me interested in it.
donjuan

[dj]

i think i had a great grandma who played a little......all in all, i think it's kinda cool to be able to say that i am possibly the greatest musician in my traceable family line.  

[bizgirl]

My mom played piano up through high school but she wasn't really interested in it; my dad never touched an instrument.
dj - I like your thinking.  Even if we never become world famous we could be the best in our traceable fmaily line.

[amanfang]

My mom played for a couple years growing up, but soon quit.  My dad pretends to play guitar.  My bro sings, my cousin is an excellent percussionist.  Otherwise the only other one in the family that ever did anything musically was my great-grandmother.  She took lessons from Van Cliburn's mother, and at 95 she would still play the piano in the nursing home "for the old people."  She just turned 99 a couple weeks ago, but she doesn't play anymore....  

[donjuan]

My mom played for a couple years growing up, but soon quit.  My dad pretends to play guitar.  My bro sings, my cousin is an excellent percussionist.  Otherwise the only other one in the family that ever did anything musically was my great-grandmother.  She took lessons from Van Cliburn's mother, and at 95 she would still play the piano in the nursing home "for the old people."  She just turned 99 a couple weeks ago, but she doesn't play anymore....  

wow....Van Cliburn's mother.....wow....99 years old!!
wish my family were more interesting..

[Tsegamla]

My mom has been a pianist all of her life.  At this point, though, she is teaching middle school music, which she absolutely hates (90% discipline, 10% music).  She used to teach piano lessons privately and I think she did a little bit of professor work at a private Christian college one time before I was born.  Her life isn't music though.  She doesn't play much outside of the context of preparing activities for school (like experimenting with fun, lively songs to get the kids involved in the lesson).  She spends more time calling parents than doing that, though.  But since I've started playing (3 weeks), I've found sheet music for pieces that sound hard to me and asked her to play them and she can sightread them almost up to speed, like Revolutionary Etude and Moonlight Sonata 3rd movement (she said she had played them before, but still, like 20 years ago).  Our piano blows, though.  Every key sounds like crap.  Slightly out of the middle area and keys start getting stuck.  Near the highest and lowest spots, keys won't even push down.  It's ridiculous.  The action is terrible, too.  I also have a crappy keyboard and I was amazed at how well I played on it after practicing on our piano for awhile.

[Askenaz7]

My mum played piano for a couple of years when she was young then quit but my fother only used to sing
bla bla bla...

[klavierkonzerte]

same as faulty here...

both my parent hate music. i lived a war to convince them to let me buy a piano (with my money)

and both of them are trying EVERYDAY to stop me from playing, they think i should focus on college,
what do they know..

i work at our college's library, it pay's really good, and pay for my lessons.

if my dad knew i'm taking piano lesson he might have a heart attack.

that doesn't mean my parent are horrible,i love them very much, they are just afraid that i might drop out of college to enter the high institute of music (which i almost did a year ago).

[Peachy_Keen]

All of my interest in music came from friends. My parents are totally nonmusical people... if you say classic i'll say "Bach" and my parents will say "Meatloaf."

*sigh*

[liszmaninopin]

My mom played for a few years, and got to about the level of Fur Elise and Anna Magdalena's notebook, at which point she stopped.

My dad played the trumpet, and he was in a band that won some state and regional level competitions, so he was pretty good.

However, neither of them know the piano repertoire very well.

[Motrax]

My mother played pretty much all her life, but never seriously. She took a lot of breaks and such, and she never could find a lot of time to practice.

However, my mom's teacher's teacher's teacher was Sergei Rachmaninoff! It's so incredibly awesome!


(My dad played piano for two or three years as a teenager, that's it)

[scrabble]

Neither one of my parents plays the piano or any other instrument, nor do they sing (ahhh! don't mention it). My mom can barely remember a tune for thirty seconds. The only reason I started piano at five was so I would be occupied and quit asking her what I should do.

[Swan]

My uncle (on my mother's side) was the one to get me interested in playing music.  (lots of different instruments).

Mum and my stepfather ALWAYS had music in the house.  It was my stepfather who liked to listen to Classical music.  But neither of them had ever had music lessons.

About a year ago, I finally convinced my mother to have piano lessons, and now I teach her!!!  And she is having an absolute ball.  Bought herself a nice white shiny yamaha upright and even performs in my recitals and joins my group theory lessons.

[ahmedito]

Sadly my parents are both dead. My dad played the piano his whole life though, and played very good Scarlatti and Mozart (I grew up on Mozart and Scarlatti), but he quit to become an engineer. All of my uncles and my grandpa had piano lessons some time or another and one is a profesional pianist. After graduating he decided to quit completely and is now doing a doctorate in musicology and medieval music.

I had an uncle who went crazy because of the piano, literally crazy (he was a bit mentally unstable though). He was going to be a BIG concert pianist (I mean Horowitz, Richter kind of big). He was that good. When he was 16 years old he did his graduation recital here in Mexico and was going to study with Claudio Arrau that very same year. There were many good musicians in the audience that day, including Ashkhenazy (who has a summer house in the Caribean and spends his summers in Mexico).
He played the 2 Brahms concerti with the national orchestra. The following day, he did a recital. He played Beethovens op. 101 and 106. The second half of the program were 8 Chopin Waltz.... the next to last was the e minor  posthumous one. He had a big mental block and couldnt finish it, he started it again and had to stop, the rest of the program had been played perfectly. He stood up and left the hall. Everyone raved about the concerts for days, despite the mental block. He went straight home and locked himself in his room. He did not come out of that room in 15 years. He did not talk to anyone, ate and did everything in that room. He died in there. If you ever mentioned the piano, he would have very wierd fits. I knew him, but I was really very little.

Wierd, huh?

[pianistsk8er]

My mother played piano for a few years, yet nothing serious.  All she play now is the easier movement of "Moonligh Sonata"    Anywho, my uncle is a great piano teacher, he has been really great during my whole piano learning experience.  

That's a very intriguing story above me.  :-/

[rph108]

My mom knows nothing about music, except for smooth jazz. My dad played in a rock band in bars.

[rph108]

The a very interesting story Ahmedito. Too bad he went crazy, maybe he would have been really big.
I wonder where he went to the bathroom?

[ahmedito]

My english is not that good, so Im not sure whats it called... a chamber pot?
in spanish its a "basinica"

[Swan]

When he was 16 years old he did his graduation recital

He had a big mental block and couldnt finish it,

He went straight home and locked himself in his room. He did not come out of that room in 15 years.  He died in there.

What an awful thing to happen to a person.   Did he do this performance at 16 and then die only 15 years later?  Or did I misunderstand?

[ahmedito]

yes, this was the last time he performed. He died 15 years later. Being locked up in a small room for 15 years has bad consecuenses to anyones health. Attempts were made to move him to a psychiatric hospital but his fits were so strong that it was better to just let him remain where he was. he had counseling, but never really got better.

[IllBeBach]

Nobody in my family for generations has been musical--all a bunch of engineers, medical, insurance, and military people.  

    When I was 5 I came home from school wanting to take piano lessons; a girl at school had played "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" on the piano for a talent show--it was the first time I had ever heard the piano played that I remember, and I cried because I thought it was so beautiful.  I told my parents I wanted to play the piano, but they didn't take it seriously, and also I think money was an issue for them then.  Every few years I'd hear I classmate play, and raise the issue with my parents when reminded, but they never did anything about it.  Finally, when I was 13, I found a College level textbook on harmony at the local public library by chance and started to teach myself how to read music using the appendix on music notation in the front.  I didn't even have a piano at home; I used a little toy with buttons that only played a C major scale.  I used the book to pick out tunes from the only only sheet music we had in the house, a Baptist hymnal.  After a time I got a small four octave keyboard and continued playing with it for a couple of years, writing little pieces and playing little excerpts of music printed in classical composer's biographies and by ear.  My parents decided at last that I was serious so they got a piano and found teacher.

    Those who have had parents who were pianists/musicians and who lived with music from an early age should never underestimate the impact and benefit that they have received from such early experiences.  I can't help wondering sometimes what I would have been able to do by now if I'd had that sort of training.

[mozartgonebad]

both of my parents arent pianists, but they support my doing music and everything, my mom wanted to be a violinist when she was about 15, but never had the chance.

[Spatula]

I know it has been discussed what role parents have played in our learning piano. Just wondered if anyone has a parent/s that are serious pianists themselves?


S

nO

My family is muscially illerate and musically challenged..nough said

[ChristmasCarol]

My mom taught piano and played in church a lot.  There was always a piano in the house.

When I got better than she was (I have only figured this out in retrospect) she didn't play very much at all.  

[mtmccarthy]

Neither of my parents play the piano.

My dad used to play the classical guitar, and he recently switched to the er-hu (a two stringed Chinese instrument, played with a bow). A classical music lover at heart.

My mom is musically illiterate, and she oddly has trouble remembering any of the names of the pieces which I can play. She's not really interested in expanding her musical horizons.

What's really nice is that they were both willing to help me when I randomly showed interest in the piano 19ish months ago.

[ViCoNiA]

None of my parents Play the piano.
We had a small keyboard when i was a kid and i used to play it or try ot when i was about 3. So mum put me into piano lessons to see if i liked it, and t had no idea about grades until the teacher told her when i was around 6. No one is musical in my family, They know nothing of classical music, they're all business people, Accountants, Doctors and what not.
Mum hated classical music till i got interested myself (chopin was hte first composer i heard and hey! is still my favouritest)
but now she finds it "Soothnig"  (hey at least im not playing eminem or something on the stereo...)