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.

Lovely tune

It's in A flat major which is proving tricky to get my head round, keep forgetting the D flat !

Ooohhh, please can I join you? I played very badly as a child to about grade 4 but never practiced and even failed O level music 😁.

But, as I got older I started to get an itch… I eventually bought a nice Yamaha piano and found a very nice teacher. That was 2.5 years ago and I had to learn to read music even. The only thing I could do was scales so muscle memory is a thing.

Anyway I got hooked very quickly. I progressed and have just ‘signed off’ Chopin Nocturne in G Minor. Very far from perfect but I will never sit an exam do don’t care! Also working on Faure’s Romance which is rather lovely.

So excited to have found my tribe.

Welcome @MatildaTheCat.

@MatildaTheCat which one are you learning? I like no 3 and might buy that next

@Knittingnanny I didn’t even notice it was numbered but yes, it’s no 3. Starts easy and as is mostly the case, it has a tricky section in the middle.

My next lesson is Tuesday morning. The Mozart Minuet in G major is slowly coming together.

This is a lovely thread. So inspiring!

I am a complete beginner of the middle-aged kind. I have an 88 key weighted keyboard and about 40 mins a day to invest currently.

Could anyone recommend an online course (I am happy to pay)? I'd like to go at my own pace, do the video lessons when I can fit them in ... but have a structured approach. I want to learn properly, to play and read music. I respond quite well to this way of learning and have been learning a language for a couple of years, using a paid for course where you buy each module (eg beginner 1, beginner 2 etc) and work through it. So I've got the discipline (if not much talent!)

I've looked on the internet but there's so much information. I'd love a recommendation.

Can’t help with an online video course recommendation I’m afraid, I haven’t needed that kind of thing myself but I have watched a few YouTube videos from “Pianote” which were friendly and easy to follow and I think might also do something like a paid course thing?

I’m still wiped out by whatever that bug was (not Covid, tested negative), but it’s been 3 weeks and I’m still struggling to find the energy to do anything outside of work.

When I have got to the piano I’ve been enjoying playing some things from the grade 5 syllabus. I have this idea at the back of my mind of properly learning 4 pieces to do a performance exam, but I don’t know if I’d ever have the patience/persistence to really properly get them up to scratch. I enjoy playing them rather than practicing them.

I asked this recently on MN, but can anyone recommend a keyboard for piano beginner 6 year old GDD? Space is limited so not full size at this stage - maybe 5 octaves?
Budget is flexible - I’d like the best within those limitations.
Thank you, anybody!

Ooh can I gatecrash this chat with a question please?

My 9 year old is preparing for grade 2 and currently practices at home with a 61 note keyboard.

My mother in law keeps going on about getting him a full sized piano. I don't play however so have no idea what I'm looking for.

Digital piano wise, any brands I should be avoiding, or recommended? Is getting a second hand upright regular piano of Facebook marketplace more hassle than it's worth when considering tuning and removal?

Thanks I'm advance

Thanks @LemonViolet I will have a look at that.

I hope you feel better soon.

@RedRosie I hope you find an online course that suits you. I'm an old beginner - well, a re-beginner, to be honest. I started weekly 1-1 lessons in September, am very slowly making progress; my teacher is kind, patient and encouraging. I'd be interested to hear how you get on!

Hi ladies, I’ve been ‘spying’ for a few weeks while awaiting delivery of my piano (due on Thursday) and I’d love to join you if that’s ok? Similar story to lots of you - I played as a teenager - mainly exam pieces, not a lot else - passed Grade 6 at 16 / 17, tinkered a bit for a few months after that but haven’t played since. Now my kids are learning music (not piano) which has given me the notion of getting back into it.
I’ve bought the book Play it Again Piano by Melanie Spanswick which looks lovely - a really good walkthrough of the pieces which has reminded me of lots of things I’d forgotten (or maybe even never knew!). I’ve also bought two of the Faber anthologies which are gorgeous books and arranged in progressive order so I should hopefully be capable of bashing my way through the earlier pieces. Now just waiting very impatiently for the piano to arrive (a digital Kawai model). Looking forward to comparing notes!

Welcome @FleetingMind!!! New piano day so exciting. Mine is a Kawai too and I love it.

I’ve got a few days off for my birthday - I’ve given myself the gift of time - so today was split between some housework, bleh but it’s nicer to relax in a sparkly house, some chilling with the dogs, and the rest piano. It’s been very nice this afternoon just tinkering at the keys. I do have a tendency to just repeatedly sight read pieces until I’ve “learned” them though…..which I am starting to realise perhaps isn’t the best way properly to learn a piece.

I am really loving today the Pachulski Prelude in C minor from the G5 syllabus. It’s just really pretty. The main theme earworms easily though!

Thanks @LemonViolet, and Happy Birthday! A few days off sounds idyllic.
I’m taking a note of the recommendations for when I (hopefully) work my standard back up again. I’ve no idea how long that will take. The first few pieces in the books I’ve got are about G2 standard so I’ll start there and see how I get on!

@Alm1986

Ooh can I gatecrash this chat with a question please?

My 9 year old is preparing for grade 2 and currently practices at home with a 61 note keyboard.

My mother in law keeps going on about getting him a full sized piano. I don't play however so have no idea what I'm looking for.

Digital piano wise, any brands I should be avoiding, or recommended? Is getting a second hand upright regular piano of Facebook marketplace more hassle than it's worth when considering tuning and removal?

Thanks I'm advance

@Alm1986 I fear that buying or even getting for free from FB or similar is likely to be a headache. People literally can’t give pianos away because most have been sitting completely ignored for years.

I’d honestly recommend either going to a piano shop and asking for a suitable piano second hand or ( and this was my preference) getting a fairly decent digital piano. They need no maintenance and can be played using headphones. Much as I’m sure my neighbours and family adore my playing I could see that going over the same few bars a few hundred times might begin to grate .

I do yearn for a lovely acoustic piano too but the digital one is very practical for now.

If I were buying a piano solely for Dd I would go digital. However I prefer the feel of an acoustic and love the tone and feel of my piano - we've been together since 1987 !
An entry level decent digital piano will cost around £500 - £600.
A cheap/free piano will cost you around £100 - £200 to have tuned initially plus any repairs and then needs yearly tuning. A digital piano allows the player to use headphones - very useful when you have a grade 1 player bashing out the same notes over and over.
Transporting is a pain in the neck unless you have a strong DH and suitable equipment like a sack trolley/van.

I'd go Yamaha or Roland, I've tried both their entry level digital pianos amd they were very good.

I have a whole piece I can play properly from memory!!!

Heller - Study in D Op46No8

Although it’s a “study” it is really, really lovely piece and around grade 6 standard (it’s in a grade 6 level anthology book at least). It’s a piece I played 20 years ago and recognised immediately when I found it again, I’ve been playing it most days and just this week found that actually, it’s memorised all by itself.

Just wanted to share achievement!

@LemonViolet, amazing! That’s an incredible achievement when you’ve only been back playing for a few months.
My piano arrived on Thursday and I LOVE it. I’m already struggling to find any time to play it but I’m planning to take tomorrow off to enjoy it. I’m also loving Play It Again Piano - I can play through the first piece without too much difficulty but there’s great advice (with video) about technique - movement of the wrists to give elegant phrasing - which I never knew. I think it will take me quite a while to master that.

I have been flitting between aiming to play just a little bit every day, and then ending up neglecting it for a few days, and then spending hours on evening/afternoon off playing ALL THE THINGS, and then cycle around again but I am so pleased at myself that I can properly play something - as in actual “Active Repertoire” (that is something you can play Without Notice, Without Notation and Without Embarrassment) that today I feel really spurred on to get other things to that standard.

The problem now is choosing a piece!!! What if I get bored of it?

@LemonViolet I’ve just listened to it it is lovely, well done for playing it from memory! I’m going to download it. It sounds very tricky for grade 6 though, I’d never be able to play it without the music.
I’ve been beating myself up about getting back to grade 7 and have decided to relax a bit as I’m finding it so hard! I’m able to play ( prob not exam standard!) a couple of pieces from an old grade 7 book and a Chopin waltz but some of the other grade 7 level stuff is proving beyond me.
I’m going to hide the stuff I’m finding too hard and have cxxx a few weeks playing just for pleasure

@Knittingnanny what my new teacher has got me doing is some midrange new material that I can learn fairly quickly, polishing up old material that I'd got into sloppy habits with abd then "challenging" pieces (Chopin mainly). It's nice to dip in and out of new material that I don't have to really concentrate hard on.