should i play or wait?

[waldo]

Hello,

I'm new to this forum and i have a question.
I Started to play music when i was 9, i had 5 years of music theory and i used to play french horn. I stopped when i was 14.

Now i'm turning 21 in a few months and i want to start to play piano. I went to my old musicschool and i can start in september and i can start the theory where i stopped.

Now i have two major problems.
First problem is, I have a piano at home...which is irresistible, so ofcourse i want to play it as much as I can. But the problem is, is this a good idea?  I might learn things completely wrong, since i still now how to read music i print the music that i want to play and play it from the sheet music, as good as i can. But i don't know how to put my fingers or anything. Should I wait? Or should i play? And is there a source on the internet that can tell me how to play right?

The second problem is, since it's been so long i forgot a lot...i can still read the music, but i don't know anything of scales and intervals , and lots of terms and their origine and stuff anymore...will this be a problem? should i review that? and how ? should i take extra lessons, or can i do that with a book?

It would be great if one of you guys could help me with this.
Thanx in advance...

Greetings
Bart

[pies]

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[rhapsody in orange]

Hmm I agree with pi. It would be best to do piano with a teacher around. You might not know when your movements are incorrect etc and it would be hard to correct once you realise it's wrong. You might end up with injuries as well if you're not careful.
Regarding the theory part, I think you'd be able to pick that up yourself since you've done that before. Do you have friends who do music? If so you can approach them if you have any questions, or you can always post them in the forum. There'll be people around to help.. that's the great thing about this forum =)

[TheHammer]

Hmmmm, there are several theory sites on the web which might help you to bring back all the forgotten stuff:

https://www.dolmetsch.com/
https://cnx.rice.edu/content/col10208/latest/
https://www.musictheory.net/
https://www.teoria.com/
https://www.emusictheory.com/

Have a look at them, it may help.

Your other problem is a bit more complicated though. First, I have to agree with the previous posters: it is no good idea to start new pieces after such a long time without a teacher, it may give you some fun for the next 3 months, but it may as well give you trouble for the next 3 YEARS.
However, of course we can understand how tempting a piano can be... My suggestion: 1. Read this forum. It is a perfect guide line to piano technique, practice methods, etc. You may have noticed the "Index of the Piano-Forum" at the "PF-Site" -board. Take also a look at the "Submit a Link"- thread in "Anything but Piano". You will find some very interesting threads, and it will cost you weeks to read through all of them (although it is VERY benificial). As a start I recommend you look at this list by Bernhard:

https://www.pianoforum.net/smf/index.php?PHPSESSID=b235195451d671dfff4841ef1de363e1&topic=5767.msg56133#msg56133

and the free and most discussed Piano Practice book by Chang:

https://members.aol.com/chang8828/contents.htm

Now, these will not substitute a teacher! They can be an inspiration, a guideline, a help, but they cannot replace the work of a good teacher (see various threads about selfthaughts, etc.). You seem to have understood this, and therefore I suggest that you take your old pieces you once played and very slowly, without any haste, with full control, concentration and self-dicipline, you try to relearn them. Start with the very easy ones, look at your fingers, try to apply what you read here, but again! If you are not sure about it, stay away from the piano and wait till you have your teacher around. On the other hand, if you only do very small practice chunks (15 min) and not too many of them, and if you pay attention to your body and your movements, if you do not exaggerate it, if you post your qestions and problems you are facing, here on the board, you could actually attempt to get a feeling for the piano.

Good luck

[Bouter Boogie]

I agree with the others 
Don't start before you have a teacher who'll guids you..
I know it's really irresistible if you have a piano at your house, but just wait.. Otherwise you might regret it in the future 

Good luck!

[happyface94]

I thought I could learn by myself after 14 years of piano experience. But with a teacher I can play much more difficult pieces and I turn out to enjoy it a lot more.

They are the one to guide you on technical difficulties as well as expression. Of course, sometimes they don't know too well, and my underestimate, or in my case, overestimate me (Rach 1 next year, SURE...)