Does anyone fancy a piano chat thread?

[LemonViolet]

I’m awaiting delivery of a new piano, squeee!!! I haven’t played regularly for 20 years. I got to grade 6 as a teen, failed grade 7, carried on tinkering for a bit but have not really lived anywhere with a piano since age 18 so am well out of practice.

Whilst I hope/plan to put a baby grand in our front room, once it is done up - which may be some time - at the weekend I just realised, what am I waiting for, I want a digital anyways for playing at less sociable hours, so went ahead and ordered myself a nice Kawai digital and it arrives on Friday!!!

There’s a music chat thread on the extracurricular board but that’s more parents discussing their offsprings’ exploits, I have seen on the music board it’s quite pianissimo but there clearly are other grown up women around here playing/learning/relearning piano for our own pleasure, entertainment, therapy etc! So thought I’d post to see if anyone else is interested in hanging out on a piano thread to chat about our piano journeys, successes and failures, pieces we like, what we’re practicing etc?

It could be called the piano bar or the pianist beaker, seeing as this is MN

If there is one I’ve just failed to find, please point me in that direction.

I'm not taking any exams so, technically, I'm not graded. I've been learning for just over three years and the music I've done recently has been grade 2. Gradually and hopefully moving towards grade 3 tunes.

My lovely husband is replacing my old digital piano that died a few years ago for my Christmas! I can't wait.

I learned when I was a child and got to around grade 6, but I'm not that level any more due to lack of playing over the years. Would love to get back to that kind of level again!

Hoping DD might want to learn when she's older too!

Need to dig out all my sheet music!

We've started our eldest (5) on keyboard lessons - is this ok do you think if they want to progress on to piano in a year or two? We can't afford/don't have space for a piano but have managed the keyboard - are keyboard skills transferable to piano?

Oh what a fab thread. I'm off at 2pm for my first piano lesson since 1994.
Started playing properly again last year, went to a weekend retreat at Finchcocks and haven't looked back. I've found it very heartening that I haven't lost any skills and am working on pieces far harder than my grade 5 working to 6 level I finished at when I went to uni.
Bought the complete Chopin nocturnes, got 9/2 under my belt and am currently working on this , a piano arrangement of a dance of the sugar plum fairy and some Scott Joplin, all way beyond my ability 😂

I’m learning “ june” by Tchaikovsky at the moment from my eBay 1981 grade 7 book
Also just got a Chopin book from the library and there are some 6/7 levels in there so plenty to keep me busy
I would say the Mozart sonata in cmajor would be a good 5/6 challenge

Tiger, keyboard will be fine for a 5 year old

@Chicchicchicchiclana a couple of the short Preludes by Chopin are grade 5
Have a look for past exam books on eBay and try the local library
I’ve googled to find approx grades as I don’t want to try anything above grade 6/7 ( yet!)
I’ve also just downloaded the sheet music for “ hymn a l’amour” which I heard on classic fm and loved, think it was sung by Edith Piaf

If I think of any others I’ll post them here

I’ve got a grade 4 book of nice pieces if anyone would like it free of charge. Bought it before the piano arrived as I thought that would be my limit after such a long gap but very very surprised with my muscle memory and think I’m almost back to my peak in April 1975 grade 7!!!!
I’m starting every practise with all major scales and arpeggios and Hanon still and now adding some of the grade 7 scales such as the thirds apart ones

@Knittingnanny you think the Mozart no 21 is grade 5/6? That's encouraging. I haven't actually got the music yet so haven't seen how difficult it looks!

@Chicchicchicchiclana the Chopin waltz in a minor is also grade 5- or 6 at a push but no harder than that. There are a few "waltz in a minor"s by Chopin though so make sure you get the right one- I can post a link if you're interested. It's a lovely piece.

I posted on this thread ages ago, saying I was about to start lessons and was rather pessimistic about my chances of improving (pretty much a beginner). Pleased to say that I like my teacher, and think I do have the capacity to make progress, even if very slowly. I'm trying to practice every day.

I think you will be surprised how quickly you can improve BloodyBridget.

I started lessons again 3 years ago. I wouldn't have been able to pass Grade 1 at that time (although I passed Grade 3 many decades ago and then gave up, stupidly, when I was about 13) as I had forgotten basically everything except the notes and could sight read a bit.

Now I'm working towards Grade V. I don't play every day but manage 45 minutes or so practice most days. Honestly, I think it got me through the two lockdowns with my sanity intact!

@LilaGrace it’s the k 545 one, part of it has been a grade 5 piece in the past

This is the book I have going free, any takers message me your address

@Bloodybridget good to hear from you- I'd love to hear what kinds of things you've been playing and how you're liking it.
@Knittingnanny it's strange how it all comes back, isn't it? I'm pretty much up to my old standard of grade 5- never expected that to happen so fast. I guess we must retain more than we think,
@DaphneDeloresMoorhead I'm heading to Finchcocks at the end of October, I booked it as an incentive back in June and I'm hoping it will inspire me further- particularly as I've now booked a further 4 weekends there for next year!

@Chicchicchicchiclana thanks for the encouragement, you have made fantastic progress!

@LilaGrace I'm just doing scales and exercises really - my teacher asked me to get another adult tutor book (I now have five, I think!) and I'm on page 25!

Name changed.

For lovers of Chopin, there's a really nice piece of his called Cantabile which is quite accessible. I learned it to practise some rubato (I tend to go in for very fast pieces normally so rubato was a nice change).

Quite short too.

No 21 is my favourite concerto of Mozart's.

Pointless factoid: my father gave me the middle name of "Elvira" after the bloody middle movement.

I've never forgiven him but the piece always reminds me of him. RIP my fantastic music-loving dad.

@absolutelynotfabulous what a lovely story- and how wonderful to be named after that beautiful music. I'm quite jealous! Your dad had good taste.

Thanks @LilaGrace.

I was so lucky to have music-loving parents. My dad was a music librarian and because of that, I got to hear lots of classical music from a very early age. My mother ran a choir, so there was lots of music in the household.

My dad could play the mouth organ (self-taught). I was the only member of the household lucky enough to have the opportunity of lessons.

Ah that’s so lovely, Elvira is a beautiful name to have

Argh I keep writing long posts and then messing them up before posting and then giving up!!! So writing a post in notes to copy and paste!

Wrist is healing ok so can play for 15-20 minute stretches now.

Still got the Chopin Waltz in A minor and Bach Invention in C major as “active repertoire”. Working on Bach Invention in A minor and then just playing lots of old stuff, I went to my parents the other weekend and discovered a batch of old music in the piano stool at their house - so rediscovering some old favourites Heller Study in D (Op46 No8), Gade Elegie, Jensen Romanze, all one after the other in “More Romantic Pieces” book 4, which is Grade 6, o think this was what I was busy playing when I gave up as a teen and failed grade 7!!!

Oh and the other night, came home in a bad mood, and I put on the headphones, cranked the volume up, put the piano into organ voice and bashed through most of Bach Toccata and Fugue in D minor. That is fun.

@Chicchicchicchiclana I have been looking for pieces around grade 4/5 as well, looking at the new ABRSM grade 5 syllabus I had 2 pieces in my collection, the Bach Invention in F and the Heller Study in E minor, and having had a rough play through each I’d recommend them both. The Bach is lovely, it’s presto so would get your fingers really nimble and I think would be really satisfying to perfect. Personally I’m using the Bach Inventions as my own little syllabus, I plan to tackle each one in turn - not in number order but in key signature order as apparently that is how Bach intended them to be used, to teach his sons. So the F is coming up for me and looking forward to it now! Heller Study in E minor seems really, really nice. Slow, beautiful minor piece with lots of arpeggios, some really nice interplay between the hands, and some fun triplets-against-duplets which are not a problem because it’s slow. Almost makes me want to work towards a grade 5 exam!!!

I’ve loved every Heller piece I’ve ever played, to be honest. He’s kinda like a more accessible Chopin!!

If anyone is looking for graded piano pieces, I know I am an ABRSM dinosaur but I love their books. I have several of the romantic series (Short Romantic Pieces, More Romantic Pieces, Romantic Sketchbook) and book 3 of each series is grade 5. Am also trying the Baroque Keyboard Pieces books although it’s not my genre overall I wanted to give it a whirl seeing as I’m enjoying Bach, and some of the pieces are nice to play. All very short. They also do several Keyboard Anthology graded series which are all ex-exam pieces at each grade level.

@DaphneDeloresMoorhead super impressed at you playing Nocturne 9/2!!! I found the sheet music for this in an eBay bundle that I got for pennies because I wanted another book in it. It is beautiful, I’ve seen it listed as around grade 7. Feels like thinks step up massively at that point!!!

Now what is this Finchcocks everyone is talking about?!?

www.finchcocks.com/

Finchcocks is piano heaven. I've got 3 more weekends booked, one in December then 2 next year

[quote LilaGrace]@Bloodybridget good to hear from you- I'd love to hear what kinds of things you've been playing and how you're liking it.
@Knittingnanny it's strange how it all comes back, isn't it? I'm pretty much up to my old standard of grade 5- never expected that to happen so fast. I guess we must retain more than we think,
@DaphneDeloresMoorhead I'm heading to Finchcocks at the end of October, I booked it as an incentive back in June and I'm hoping it will inspire me further- particularly as I've now booked a further 4 weekends there for next year![/quote]
@LilaGracewhich weekends are you on ? It's so lovely there.
I'm on the Baroque weekend and the Florian Mitrea in September