I can't remember learning to play in the first place but somewhere along the line my reason for continuing and now returning to playing included certain pieces for which I could say "That's the reason I want to play"

My list includes Beethoven's Pathetique & Moonlight sonatas, Chopin's Ballades, Schumann's Etudes Symphonique, Liszt's Liebestraum No. 3 and Paganini Study No.3 "La Campanella". Along the way I have added to this list of "Wannaplays" (none of which I can yet play!!)

Does anyone else have a piece or list of pieces like this which are, effectively, the reason they play at all?

for me the act of actually playing a piano is the allure. To play a good piece well is a bonus.

You get into the mind of a genius, you send out beautiful sound waves to who knows who,
I get to come home from work and be soulful in the living room while the husband makes dinner,
the list goes on! My mother can't get enough of my moonlight sonata, bless her

I don't remember why I started learning, probably because my friend was. Now I play because I need to be able to for my teaching, accompanying pupils etc. I also find it useful when writing lyrics for songs etc, I can then add a piano part to it.

I just wanted to play the piano.

I first started teaching myself piano because it would be useful - However, as I've been able to play more pieces that I like, I've found that I like it more and more, and can get greater expression out of it. If nothing else, its great not having to worry about accompianists!

For me it was Freddie Mercury's fault.

If I remember rightly - because my brother was playing Fur Elise and I wanted to, because it was pretty. (I was 9 or 10 at the time)

As a sxophone player, I needed to learn an instrument such as the piano to get me through my degree course at University. Most cakewalk programs such as Cubase, Sonar, and Syballius, need knowledge of all different types of music theory to get the best use out of them! It really does help me with music theory! It's great

Yeah, same here really.

My parents asked me if I wanted to learn music and I said "Yeah!" and that was that.

Playing music relaxes me. Also I like learning stuff and just improving in general. That's always kept me going.

I started because all my friends were learning the piano, and I didn't want to be left out (I was only 4!). But now I like playing because everything's starting to come together - I can play what I like now, and enjoy it, without having to choose easier pieces.

I wanted to start when I was about seven because my parents had friends who were living in England for a year and they had a sixteen year-old daughter who sometimes used to look after my brother and I and she taught me how to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on her piano. When they went back to Australia they gave me their piano and then there was nothing left for my parents to do but to arrange for me to have lessons

Like others I find playing relaxes me.

I started because my brother plyed it.


After 6 years, I like the piano becuase of...

MANY pieces by chopin
1 or 2 pieces by liszt, greig, debbusy, mendelsshon, schubert, handel, mozart, beethoven

when I was about 6 or 7 I heard Mozart's Rondo Alla Turc, and I always wanted to be able to play it!
about 2 years later I started learning the piano ( by the way!)

My step-dad had a piano and it was frustrating not to be able to play it after many years of not playing or having lessons. (I had lessons for about a year when I was 12 then gave up!). Four years ago when I hit 40, I set myself the challenge of learning again.

Basically, I want to be able to play every bit of piano music ever written!! But for the time being, I'll settle for:

Beethoven Sonatas and Concerto's
Chopin Preludes and Concerto's One and Two,
Bach's "48"
Shostakovitch Assault on Beautiful Gorky

Plus contemporary works like Farewell to Stromness and the theme to "The Piano". etc.etc..

I can't ever remember not being able to play the piano. I feel like I learned to play the piano as I learned to read and write and it is as natural to me as that

As you are only one year old, not much to remember anyway...

My parents wanted me to learn the violin but as there were no violin teachers in the area, they settled for the piano instead!

When I was 5 my brother bought me a children's album called All Aboard. It had Sparky's magic piano on it which included Chopin's Revolutionary Study. When I first heard that I wanted to play the piano, my parents finally bought me one 7 years later and I took to it like a duck to water. The frustration of not being able to get near a piano for 7 years still annoys me

Snap.......my mum and dad both played, as did my grandad and aunt (she still does - we play duets sometimes at family get-togethers...) Plus the other grandad taught himself the electronic organ, and my great-aunts were both singers. My great-grandad played piano accordion (I think - he played something certainly.....) so it runs in the family, although my mum, dad and piano playing grandad influenced me the most......One of the best things through my childhood years was playing duets with my dad.......

I will be 2 in October!

I believe I started because my mum wanted to learn and I had no real objections...I continued because I liked being able to play songs I'd heard, be it pop stuff, old pub songs, stuff from musicals, pop classics...the list goes on. I now play for stress relief, for pleasure at making music, for the social aspects of teaching and accompanying and because I can't imagine not doing so.

I...have absoloutely no idea how I started. Honestly!
Me and my brother started at the same time but I don't exactly know how.
Ahh yes!! It's coming back to me...
There were free lessons being offered to the Chinese community and we went!
But I did want to learn the piano before that, somehow

NOBODY in my close or distant family is 'musical' so as a little girl I had nobody who inspired me or encouraged me to learn music or take up an instrument.
We did music lessons at school where we studied music theory (up to grade 2 I would say) and 'touched' on some instruments...so I started having an interest in the piano but I could not take lessons as I had nothing to practice on at home (yes, could have taken lessons but could not practice at home!), I remember always asking my parents if I could take up the flute, I remember asking them for a looooong time but they never did anything about it
Now as an adult it all came back to me all of a sudden, my interest in the piano has come back and now that I can arrange and pay for lessons myself I have started doing so, strangely enough I am no longer interested in the flute but am very attracted to 'strings' so have taken up the violin as well (with a view of one day doing cello or double bass LOL)

I can't remember a time when I didn't play the piano, or didn't want to play the piano!

My mum played, so that was probably a big factor, but I begged for lessons from the age of 4.

I could never walk past the piano without playing something, and am still the same today

I love the feel of playing the keys, the sound of the instrument, the look of it.... everything about it! Most of the time, it helps me relax as well - although that depends on the music

I can't imagine a life without it!

Absolutely

I think I got inspired to play the piano because my grandparents have a really old one, and I used to play random notes on it to try and compose something. Then I thought it would be better off learning it, and it's been worth it!

Car Expert

For the girls.

For the money.

(I have a friend who learned to play the piano at school specifically to impress girls, and it worked a treat. Unfortunately, all the cutest girls in my year could already play the piano )

I think if I'd got into it for the money I'd now be sorely disappointed

Carol, I think you have posted in the wrong thread! This thread is called "Why do you play the piano" you need to post in "Why do you play the piano badly"

I'm exactly the same. I've never 'not' played the piano. I remember being very young and playing TV themes to entertain my friends.

However, I spent far too much time playing what I thought I should learn - rather than what I wanted to play. I've just decided to learn a Piano Concerto - because I never have. I went through the list of repertoire that I thought I SHOULD play - and have decided on the Gershwin - purely because I LOVE it, and would love to learn it.

I just love playing the piano - I take out all my moods on it - physically I find it satisfying as well. I also love sitting down at a piano in a bar/hotel and playing by ear, fun stuff that people enjoy listening to.

Nina Simone's, 'By Baby Just cares For Me', fantastic piano line that turned me on to piano.

I started learning piano when i was 4 because i fell in love with the sound.....never to cease.

I wanted to learn so I could be like my big sister. She used to play Moonlight sonata and pull scarey faces at me. I also remember her playing Bridge Over Troubled Water.

Now she hasn't even got a piano!