My question is to all pianists is simply why piano ? What lured you in to play this instrument for me it was listening to Fur Elise and i desperately wanted to play it and now i can. Then it was the thrill and enjoyment of playing to others at school so i said to myself if i want to do one thing in my life , it's to master the piano!

Sean

When I was about 10 years old we had an old (and I mean old!!!) piano in the house. A friend at school who had lessons taught me what the notes were. After a short while the piano went on the bonfire (probably the best place for it actually ).
I always wanted to learn from then, but as one of 4 children with one manual wage coming in there seemed to be no chance.
Anyway, when I was 14 and in the church choir we got a new organist. the one who was leaving told us that the new guy used to be his piano teacher..
He didn't charge much for lessons so I finally got my chance
And I never forgot what my friend had taught me

Well for me it was jealousy! Pure and simple jealousy!

My big brother and sister wanted to play and I didn't want to be left out!

I'm the only one that's still playing.

I need(ed) to play the piano to accompany students and choirs, so learnt out of necessity.

QUOTE (SEAN @ Mar 26 2004, 07:19 PM)

Fur Elise and i desperately wanted to play it and now i can. Then it was the thrill and enjoyment of playing to others at school so i said to myself if i want to do one thing in my life , it's to master the piano! Sean

Hi Sean,

My reason is the same as yours too.

At school, I played violin from about 7 - 8 yrs old and spent all my breaks in the music room mainly listening to my friend studying for GV piano. Incidently, she played both Fur Elise and Moonlight which I absolutley love

I never got to play piano at school and when I left, I stopped playing violin too.

Many, many years later (and I mean many!) I decided to buy a cheap 5 octave Casio electronic piano 2nd hand.
To my amazement, I could still remember the first few lines of Moonlight and most of Fur Elise ! (w/o music though. I had learnt them by ear watching years ago)

Well there was no stopping me !

A year later I upgraded to a 1939 Collard and then a year ago a new Kawai.
3 - 4 yrs (?) later, I am studying for GIII in June and GVI theory Nov with quite a collection of pieces under my belt just like Moonlight !

I don't think there are many instruments I like more that piano - even though I have picked up violin again.

Fiona

I used to play the violin and my teacher told me it would be good to start the piano. So I did!! Ive played it on and off since I was 10(im now 17) and in the last year ive really concentrated on improving my playing and I love it now! I am doing grade 4 in june and 5 in november

Nat

Ever since I was five years old and got a keyboard (a really small one 4 octaves with small keys) I've loved playing the piano. Whenever I went to visit my great auntie who had a piano I used to sit and play that which I really enjoyed. I've always really looked up to people who can play the piano well.

I always wanted piano lessons but never managed to get them when I was younger: my parents didn't know where to find a teacher, they asked every year at school whether the school was doing lessons but the teacher always said 'we're thinking of starting next year' looking back it seems strange that she didn't recommend a private teacher at the time....

Then one day, when I was in my first year of university, I was sitting listening to my boyfriend practising piano (Szymanowski's Etude 3 Op.4; it's a beautiful piece and is very different to most of Szymanowski's other works). During listening I felt really depressed that I couldn't play; then I thought 'that's ridiculous, I shouldn't be sat here feeling sad because I can't play I should learn' so I asked him to teach me and he still does.

I've been learning 'officially' for nearly three years now; although I did spend a lot of time before that playing around myself: I enjoyed playing by ear learning by watching people playing things and copying and learnt the first movement of Beethoven's 'Moonlight' Sonata (I did get the music for that though...).

I guess I was just born wanting to play the piano: I don't know why!

I've only really taken to piano since my teacher said it would be a good idea to play it along with my clarinet so that i could possibly do some teaching when i'm older. I now really love piano, but im really not that great at it so i get really jealous of some of my mates.

my dad plays the piano and my brother (although my bro cant read music )and i guess i wanted to be like my dad and bro you know keep it going in the family plus i love playing it. lol.

t dles
frm sarah
xxx

when i first started, it was for my 6th b-day present. i don't know - i've always loved music, practically to the pt. of what's more than for my own good (but isn't that the case w/ anybody who truly loves what they're doing?)

i guess i find solitude in music. whether it's practicing aural, sight-reading, scales, pieces, clapping, doing theory, or closing ur eyes and just listening, i find a completely dif. world in which i can live in. it takes me away from school and all my problems. it's a family, friends, and home like no other b/c when u need it, it's there.

My mum made me learn was I was young because my Dad plays by ear - you know the you hum it, I'll play it sort of pianist around the pub on a Saturday night (before the advent of the juke box) He can't read a note of music and just bangs the piece out.

Mum didn't want us both being like that so made me learn properly and for years Dad wanted to be able to do what I do and vice versa - Now I can improvise most things and he still bangs away!

sounds like me and my bro he can play by ear but i cant and i want to be-able to play by ear(aswell as reading music) yet he wants to be-able to read music(do you get what im on about?lol)

I started piano because it is the universal instrument. It is the only instrument that is almost always played solo because of the diversity and range of the piano

I didn't know why i've chosen to play the piano... I think it's because i love the sound of it...

i used to hate practising the piano...it's too hard.... but now, i love it so much!!! i am now doing solos and other things in school.... FUN...really!!!

liebe_klavier

QUOTE (liebe_klavier @ Apr 16 2004, 07:38 AM)

i used to hate practising the piano...it's too hard.... but now, i love it so much!!!

I looooove practicing the piano it sooooo relaxing!!!!

Nat

I don't know.I loved singing and started on keyboard, got into highschool, sat at the piano and connected.it was just there!
Naomi xxxx

A piano is the most wonderful instrument that can produce so many different sounds. People of all ages can play it because it has so many keys (although it's not very convertable!), and nowadays people are using so many techniques, such as playing the highest or lowest possible notes, silently depressing keys with the arm and playing with fists. Also, if you know how to play the piano, you can play many other instruments as well. In aural, sometimes the candidate has to play an extract on the piano if they can't sing. And besides, it's far better than the harpsichord (no offence to those who like it)!

I just liked the way it could be played - it was just so simple, and so cool - all the other funky instruments like flutes and bassoons, saxophones and oboes all look so complicated.

Glad you said flute was funky

Well i have had a keyboard since i was 3 and i never left it!!!

One of the reasons I chose piano is because there was a piano at my grandparents house, and I always used to mess around on it and make up tunes, and that tempted me to learn it.

Car Expert

Because it's hard to play a boat.

In all seriousness, the parents were tossing up between spending money on a piano or a dinghy, and as my dad and grandad had both played, the piano won. The rest, as they say....

To be honest, suspect a degree of selfishness in their choice of instrument. I THINK I can say this on this particular forum , but a learner pianist, while playing some very simplistic and probably repetitive pieces, is probably less strain on the parental ears in terms of "finding" a note... (memories of two Christmases ago listening to my cousin's children practise their violins... shudder...)

Definitely....

You don't have to put it together to practise it, you don't have to stand and hold it up, you don't have to fuss around with music stands, you don't have to tune it every time you play and you don't need a lot of puff! You just go into the other room and sit down! On the minus side, all other instrumentalists get to play on a familiar instrument when doing exams, performances, etc. A pianist just has to hope for the best that the pedals won't bang, the stool will be ok, etc., etc.

my brother played, and my mum, and my dads a piano tuner so it was like a tradition to learn. sometimes i want to give up (like now) but dont, and i seeem to love the new pieces when i actually do them.

I am an adult learner and I began learning because my Dad didn't get round to teaching me as a child. He was a concert pianist before he had a family ( it's not a terribly well paid job I gather !!!) and said that if someone else taught us he would probably disagree with the teacher ( probably true as he used to disagree with our woodwind teachers and he only ever played piano!!!) and we would get stuck in the middle. He never got around to teaching us though. So when my youngest child started school, I began lessons. I got fed up recently (got to Grade V and finding it harder) but I teach clarinet ... and I know I need to improve my piano skills more to help me teach. So I have become re-inspired and have a new enthusiasm and determination to get my Grade VIII over the next few years. I get terribly nervous doing exams as an adult (they weren't a problem when I was a child). My dad is dead proud of me though....

I love playing the piano, because as previously mentioned it takes so little effort () but it also always produces the notes that I intend to, unlike string instruments (me + violin = was a disaster). On the downside, I can't join in with bands or orchestras at school because piano is a solo instrument primarily, so I don't have much ensemble experiences, and I don't really get to socialise much with musical people. Also I would have trouble keeping up piano at uni and perhaps in the future, because a piano is a bit too large to fit into my bag!

I didn't really ever want to play piano. Still don't want to now. but yeah i guess i kinda presisted and now i'm on g6 and still hated it ever since i touched the piano. I always wanted to do flute or something but never really got one. I mean I played the drums, guitar but hated both of them. I guess it's always my mum telling me to play all the time and stuff.

i couldnt work out how to get my mums cornet out of its case - but the piano lid i could get open

I was always bought up with a piano and organ in my house before I started to learn the piano, so I suppose it just came naturally that I would learn. I almost gave up at grade 5, but I got lurred on by my parents, and I am so glad they did - never looked back since. I think for me, I like the way that you can play absolutely anything on it, and it will always (within reason) sound nice

A piano was in the house, and lessons were organised for us....
Having said that, until you can get serious fees from playing serious concerts so that you can afford a grand, you're stuck with the upright, which in turn is stuck to the wall, so you play facing a wall.
I still play the carols at Christmas, though my playing is ropey at best.

I listened to Delta Goodrem playing the piano and thought it sounded really beautiful! I then got addicted....

I just picked up basic keyboard skills at school, then decided none of my schoolwork was really challenging me, so I (and my piano playing friend after trying to convince me it was impossible) challenged myself to teach myself piano. On a keyboard without touch tone. Good fun!

from a young age i had a keyboard but always wanted a piano, so i started to teach myself to play by ear. when i got to secondary school, i kept asking the music teacher to play the piano because i played the recorder which i hated. but he wanted me to continue to play the recorder. luckily he left the summer before my last year at school and the new teacher let me have lesson straight away. i've been playing for the last year and been loving it!

I was about 5 and i saw someone playing the piano on tv with their hands flying off the keys.Now of course i know that is staccato and i thought it was amazing-that was what inspired me!

i was about 5 years old when i started to move house, then everyday i heard my neighbour play the piano... she was playing fur elise... i love not only the sound of the piano, but also the song, so i was thinking of learning it but i dare not tell my parents... but at 8 years old, my mum suddenly ask me whether i want to learn piano so i juz exclaimed:"YES!! OF COUSE!!!" when i first started, i hate to practise the piano... but later on, i think that practising the piano is quite relaxing actually but though i started piano at the age of 8, the upright piano was only in my house when i was at the age of 9+......

ShArOn

I was inspired by a sudden movement of pianists at my primary school. We had never had anyone to play the piano before, and then 3 people came at once. I thought it was wonderful!

Since I was born, I was surrounded by an organ, piano and guitars so it made sense that I would play music. However, it wasn't my choice, my mum encouraged me when I was seven. Admitidly I almost gave up around grade 6, when I thought it was really hard, but I was encouraged to carry on and I've never looked back since.

I think for me, it's great as you can play anything on it, it's great for tuning the other instruments too. Most of all, it has a lovely sound and is relaxing to play. But at the end of the day, you can get a number of difernt types of tunes with a piano - a marvelous instrument, it's always been in my life, and it always will!

I don't remember why i wanted to do piano. i think my parents nudged me into it because they knew i wanted to learn violin so it would help me with that.

I remember seeing a pianist in Harrods, I was about 5. My parents said I refused to leave even when it was closing time, apparently I was mesmerized by the piano playing.

It was a beautiful grand piano, the player was in a smart tux and the sound of it was magical. I eventually took lessons two years after. My mum asked the music teacher/piano player (the ones that play while you sung songs in assembly) in my primary school about lessons. I had to wait a year though because she woudn't take anyone under 7.

My insipration was my best friend in Year 7 - Giles - he was an excellent pianist and when he played an arrangement of Bachs Tocatta and Fugue in D Minor - called Hooked on Tocatta, I was like, I wanna play that so when I moved to high school i was allowed free lessons - as in middle school they were charging like £200 a term !!

It was in the house, and there was a nice toeacher up the road who we knew. My sister started first and then she had to miss a lesson so she asked if I wanted to take it instead. And it went from there really!

Some interesting answers.

For me, it was on a whim. I've been a fan of Tori Amos for years and one night I went to sleep with my iPod on listening to one of her albums.

When I woke up I had an urge to give this piano playing lark a try, so I rushed out and bought one. Never looked back - I just love it.

In my parents' generation, the piano was the main source of music making in the household. Radio reception was scratchy. Recordings were also scratchy! When my school teacher suggested that I learn an instrument, the piano was the obvious choice. About 90 percent of teachers taught the piano.

I have been told that piano teachers still dominate. We have about one teacher per thousand population in New Zealand.

The piano remains the most useful stand-alone instrument for the classical musician - being a solo instrument, a chamber instrument and a concert hall instrument. It is useful for singers, teachers, church people (leading to the organ), popular musicians ..

My mum learned and she made all her children learn as well.

Her mother did the same...

The family's been at it for many a generation

I don't know why I chose Piano... Since I was so young , I just Loved it , It's shape, It's music and everyting...

I use to hate playing the piano too. but as i got older, i start liking it, and now i can't even stop thinking about it.

I now seem to be gravitating towards the organ...

Wooo! My 700th post!

Same is happening here!