What brought you guys into playing piano?

[bejarinski]

Hi there, everyone!

I started playing the piano at 18 because, at that age, I discovered contemporary music and I felt a sudden urge to write my own, so of course piano is the ideal tool for composition.

I'm just being curious and want to hear some of your stories on why did you pick up piano instead of any other instrument.

[iansinclair]

Music has been central to my life.  For years I was an organist and choral conductor; now I'm retired.  But...

I don't have an organ in my house, nor room for one -- nor the cash to purchase a good enough electronic one.

But I do have two lovely Steinway grands which need exercise...

so... there you are!

[perprocrastinate]

One day, I heard Chopin, and since then, I've developed a profound appreciation for classical piano.

[bejarinski]

Music has been central to my life.  For years I was an organist and choral conductor;

Wow man! Organ is fascinating.
Also, it must be pretty awesome to have two Steinways. I only have one electric piano. But fortunately it is a good one.

One day, I heard Chopin, and since then, I've developed a profound appreciation for classical piano.

I've heard the "Nocturne in Eb major" by Rubinstein last year, and it was really hard for my level, but I liked it so much I spent 3 hours a day, during 10 weeks straight to learn it.

[cwjalex]

girls. women like guys who can play an instrument.  in all seriousness i just loved the sound of it and liked how full of a sound you could produce with just a single piano.

[alistaircrane4]

I printed out sheet music to Beethoven's "Pathetique" for a friend of mine who played piano. I decided to listen to it and when I heard the second movement I knew I had to try and play it. So the next day I taught myself to read music and I learned it rather quickly. That was about two years ago.

[j_menz]

I was dragged kicking and screaming by a team of wild horses and the promise of fame, riches and endless groupies.

[chopinlover01]

My grandmother is a professional piano teacher, so it was, "you're learning piano because it's good for your brain. Congratulations, you're practicing x y and z exercises" for 2 years, until I discovered the Rondo alla Turca, which I quickly grew to hate.
Then I discovered Chopin and first tried to learn the 64/2 Waltz..... Ah.... such... a bad... idea...
Anyways, I ended up learning 28/4 then progressed from there.

[bronnestam]

I think it started with a big fascination of the piano itself. We did not have any. At my grandparents', though, there was this huge, mysterious black thing in their dining room. Unfortunately, they lived 1300 km away from us, so I only came to see them a few days every year, when we came to visit them on summer holidays. To me, their apartment was like a palace. It was so nicely furnitured with polished floors and a crystal chandelier (which I happened to inherit many years later, so now it is in my own living room, haha) and this formal dining room and golden paint on the walls in the hall. My grandparents were teachers with a good taste in antiques.

Well, when I grew older I realized that it was not THAT big, but in the eyes of a 4-year-old, it certainly was. And so there was this huge upright piano. Somehow I learned that having a PIANO was the ultimate luxury. And that being able to play the piano was the ultimate musical skill. I could not play this thing at all, I remember fiddling a bit with the keys and having no idea at all of what to do with them. The adults were not too keen to let me play with the piano at all, by the way. I had no idea why.    On the other hand, I was an extremely careful little child, so it was not like I was abusing the instrument or something. I just could not make any music.

But from that period, I started to envy all those who had a piano back home. A friend had a beautiful brown grand piano in their living room, which I also thought looked like a palace. (They also had a lot of persian, handmade carpets hanging on their walls, and even some on the floors. Whoah!) And when I grew older and went to school, some friends got PIANO LESSONS. How blessed they were! I wanted to do that as well, I really really wanted that. But my parents did not quite understand how much I longed for doing that. Like I said, we did not have a piano. My parents were not poor or something, and they really wanted to encourage me and my sister to play instruments, but piano - no. My sister started to play the recorder at school, and I looked at her and her friend, when they were practicing together at home, with such envy and I stole the recorder whenever I had the chance and tried to play myself - finally my grandmother showed me some pity and give me a recorder of my own as a Christmas gift. Hooray!

And so my career as self-taught recorder player began ... they noticed at school that I had some "talent" and I went on to municipal music school to play in their recorder ensemble. My sister played the flute. My recorder, although it is quite a delightful little instrument, was so ... weak. My friends in the "preparation music class", where everybody started with the recorder, choose to play the guitar or the piano. And I went on with my recorder ensemble because I was good at it. Sort of. Sigh.

I used to sit at a friend when she was doing her piano homework and I kept on being jealous. I expressed clearly that I really wanted to play the piano instead, I mean, the piano was still the ultimate instrument to me. It had something that no other instrument had. They were beautiful, impressing, they could be a whole orchestra by themselves, they MADE A DIFFERENCE. I started to get very fond of piano music as well - Mozart of course, but also Scott Joplin. We had a record with Marvin Hamlisch, playing the soundtrack from "The Sting", and I believe I owe this guy quite a lot ... I wanted to play like Marvin Hamlisch. I really really wanted to learn pieces like "The Entertainer" and "Für Elise" and ... and ... I SO wanted it.

Finally my parents got it, and my grandmother promised to pay for a piano if I got lessons - there was a long queue to piano lessons, so you had to wait for YEARS. But my teacher in recorder ensemble helped me a bit, there was a sudden vacancy and they called me, one Tuesday afternoon in the middle of February, when I was 11 years old, and said "you will have a piano lesson today". When my mother came home, short after this phone call, I stood there and just gasped "I have got a piano lesson ... today!!!"

So, we went to that lesson and it was truly exciting, and afterwards we went to the piano store and said we wanted that book which I had been ordinated, and then we said "and we also want a piano".
For some reason I was not allowed to choose my own piano, my parents did. It probably had to do with the price. It came to us some week later and then we had to wait and wait for the piano tuner and THEN I was allowed to play it. And jeeez, I played like a maniac! My own piano! I played and I played and it went very well, I quickly surpassed all my piano playing friends.

Two years later, my enthusiasm had faded away rather much, I have to say. I had absolutely no intention to quit piano playing, but I did not practice that much because it was boring and hard. I had no idea that you could study piano in another way than I did, which was very much old-school. Hanon and scales etcetera. I was not the rising star among piano students any longer, because now I was compared with those who had started much earlier than me and they were much better and much more determined etcetera.
One day, in the period when I was struggling with Rondo Alla Turca, I saw a little kid, 2 years younger than me, who performed it on TV. D*mn, he was so good! I hated that kid, and I could not understand how he could play in such a secure way - when I had to perform, my hands were shaking and I always failed miserably. (I still hate performing.)
Little did I know that I would meet this kid for real some decades later, when he was a world class concert pianist and I became an admiring fan. I did not remember that old TV performance at all until he once mentioned it.

Anyway, by then I had quit piano playing since long. Or rather, I had a digital piano, formally I had NOT quit at all, I was just ... a bit passive, so to speak. But when I sat there in the audience, being a concert pianist fan, I sort of remembered my own old passion ... I became jealous once again, I felt I wanted to be a part of that piano playing. Not just being the audience. I became fond of Beethoven sonatas and ... I ... wanted ... to try myself.

So I got myself a new, better digital piano and decided to learn to play the Pathétique Adagio. I started to learn this piece. The first 10 bars took me a couple of weeks, because I had not learned anything new in 30 years ... The whole piece took me about 2 months to play in a satisfying way. I still work with the 1st movement, hahaha.
But by then I had taken off. I have been practicing like never before since then. I found myself a piano teacher, I have been to a piano summer school and I will go again this summer, and I am a hopeless piano nerd by now. I love to play the piano, I still love pianos (being in a piano store is close to heaven to me) and I constantly have different pieces "rolling" in my head while I hum and plan and get ideas about them.

I guess I'm lost forever.    And I guess that I, in fact, was born to love the piano. I will never become professional or famous or something, but I love the piano.

[perprocrastinate]

I was dragged kicking and screaming by a team of wild horses and the promise of fame, riches and endless groupies.

Oh come on, I'm sure we'd love to hear the real reason why you started playing the piano.

I guess I'm lost forever.    And I guess that I, in fact, was born to love the piano. I will never become professional or famous or something, but I love the piano.

That was a fascinating read. Thank you for sharing.

[thalbergmad]

Oh come on, I'm sure we'd love to hear the real reason why you started playing the piano.

It was either piano or sheep shearing, so not much of a choice for him really.

Thal

[j_menz]

Oh come on, I'm sure we'd love to hear the real reason why you started playing the piano.

I'd have thought the reason I continue to do so so many years later might be more interesting.

It was either piano or sheep shearing, so not much of a choice for him really.

Thal

No choice at all. The two are not mutually exclusive. My enthusiasm for sheep shearing was, however, extinguished about a third of my way through my first one. Of course, the same could be said for some piano pieces as well.

[iansinclair]

I'd have thought the reason I continue to do so so many years later might be more interesting.

No choice at all. The two are not mutually exclusive. My enthusiasm for sheep shearing was, however, extinguished about a third of my way through my first one. Of course, the same could be said for some piano pieces as well.

Te biggest difference there is that there is some variety in piano pieces, and precious little in sheep shearing...

[j_menz]

Te biggest difference there is that there is some variety in piano pieces, and precious little in sheep shearing...

You may be surprised....

[indianajo]

I'm fortunate, the nearest sheep is 100 miles from here.
But seriously folks- - -
I learned to play the record player age three, and loved my 78 rpm short versions of the classics by Tschaikovski etc.
Mother owned a piano, that she bought with her WWII overtime.  She played  a little, and took me in the little seat on front of her bicycle  to the elementary school where she played for the class sometimes.  
A piano was way too big for me, and my Bozo the clown record player was just my size.  I never thought of piano as something kids could do.  
Age 6 we moved to the city and I discovered rock & roll on the AM radio (1956).  After running down the battery on the car (you didn't need a key in those days to play the radio), my parents loaned me an old AM radio to indulge this new hobby.
Meanwhile Mother learned to drive, Dad bought her a Buick, and she took me to art lessons, and swimming lessons, at both of which I was a miserable failure.  
At age 8, somebody (probably teacher Mrs. Richardson) noticed I was "helping" my injured finger 3 (age 3 folding chair accident) everytime I used it, which was seldom as it was on the subordinant hand.  Some discussion, and Mother started me on piano,The  John Schaum pre-book was the curriculum that Mother had started on,  and she bought Schmitt exercises for the hand especially for me.  I agreed what I was doing with my finger was pretty weird,  and took it on as a remedial exercise.  Thirty minutes a day was the routine.  By this time I was about 36" tall and 4x? lb, just barely big enough to reach a piano keyboard.  The music was nothing I would dream about at night. Schaum is pretty boring, Schmitt was worse, but I was regaining use of my finger.
Oddly, I was pretty good at piano.  After a year with Mother Schmitt and Schaum, she asked around the schoolroom mothers, and took me to a lesson with a mother of one of the other classmates. (Mrs. Hinkle, sigh - ).  Two weeks of that and she passed me on to a lady who was actually a music school graduate and a member of American Piano Guild.  Mrs. Nikki Jelson found pieces that I actually enjoyed, some of them.    
In a year Mrs. Jelson was taking me to APG recitals, and I was doing pretty well.  I had a gift for steady rhythm, which few students seemed to have.   Some of those competition pieces were really fun.  I started winning little blue ribbons and gold flashed medals at the annual west city APG meets, and did that for about six years.  After some years I was in high school band, doing pretty well on a school loaned bassoon ($400!). The band director suggested I quit piano and concentrate on the bassoon, since they had loaned it to me and all, so I did.  Band had pieces like Holtz, Bernstein, Shostakovich, it was even more thrilling than individual piano pieces.  
There was no self performed music during college years or the required Army service, just a record player.  Then after two years in the Army, and trying out the awful beat up Kimball pianos in the Officer's club, I bought myself a Sohmer console piano.   I found the third movement to Moonlight Sonata I had played the first part of as a child, and in the vein of finishing things, I took off on that.  At the same music store, I found the piano original of Pictures at an Exhibition, and I've been fooling with that for thirty years. I've about got them down note perfect, now that I'm not working and have time to practice. I've learned to play a few pop songs  and some Tschaikovski by ear, anathema to Ms Jelson.  Piano is an art you can do without coordinating with anybody, driving anywhere,  or needing anybody's approval - just a little distance from the neighbors, which is easy out here in the middle.  

[ted]

My father was a very good pianist, and my earliest years were full of the sound of piano music. It was just a normal daily activity and I absorbed it. The creative drive was somewhat peculiar to me, I don't know where that came from. I was very fortunate with my childhood piano teacher, and in my teens and later with the New Zealand composer Llewelyn Jones. Both were highly individual musicians in their own ways, and my wayward musical inclinations were not only tolerated but strongly encouraged. Had I had a conventional music teacher or a normal musical education, I am absolutely certain I would have quit playing altogether and missed out on one of the greatest joys in my life. I must not forget to give credit to my parents, who tolerated my cluttering the house with grand pianos, playing at all hours, and hid their disappointment at my giving away a promising career to work on the waterfront earning the money for pianos.

To summarise, the creative drive is my own, but I owe almost everything else to a few individuals who encouraged me.

[iansinclair]

You may be surprised....

All I can say is eeeeek!!!

[pianoplunker]

You may be surprised....

That is one sexy sheep. I have heard the shepherds get lonely at times

[pianoplunker]

Hi there, everyone!

I started playing the piano at 18 because, at that age, I discovered contemporary music and I felt a sudden urge to write my own, so of course piano is the ideal tool for composition.

I'm just being curious and want to hear some of your stories on why did you pick up piano instead of any other instrument.

The main reason was that a piano was immediately available in our home. However, in my early years I also had fun with the Recorder Flute, the Auto-Harp, and the Cello. I wanted to play rock drums in the school band and when I told my mom, she got me piano lessons.  Dont know why but it worked out. In my teen years Guitar, and a brief stint with the Saxaphone. But I always remember walking to my very first piano lesson in a torrential rainfall wondering why I was going to be taking piano lessons - Carnegie Hall of course ! Never made it to Carnegie Hall, but did make it to my first lesson 

[stevensk]

My mom forced me at age 7  (my age,.. not moms)

[steven76]

Hi Everyone,

I first had the desire to learn piano when I saw the film 'The Pianist' (biopic of Wladyslaw Szpilman) about six years ago.  I fell in love with the sound of the instrument, particularly the beautiful interpretation of the Chopin Nocturne 20 in C# minor.
I felt totally inspired to learn to recreate these sounds, and whilst I will never be able to come close to producing adequately these sounds, I have gained a wonderful and rewarding hobby.  In retrospect, my life was certainly missing something before I learned to appreciate the gift of music.

Steven
Amateur Pianist/Cellist, north east England.

[deandeblock]

I signed up for piano lessons because I wanted to learn basic music theory so i could apply that to the production of electronic music...

Since then I actually have become quite obsessed with piano playing and music... So not much electronic tracks have been produced since

[rachmaninoff_forever]

Forced into it at age 9. 

[visitor]

Ninjas attacked our estate and I was the lone survivor as I hid inside a grand piano. I was brought to the head ninja and I was spares on the condition I learn to play and to incorporate the finger ninjitsu.
I escaped when I was 14.

No wait I think that's how an anime I saw a long time ago starts .  Never mind

[liszt1022]

Desire at age 7 to play The Phantom of the Opera songs, originally. Then it was Toccata in D minor, Für Elise, basic stuff like that. I bought a book of Chopin's preludes and etudes and CDs of the same, then started collecting volumes of "Great Pianists of the 20th century," and then like hundreds of books and CDs (and learned pieces) later here we are.