Instrument Players - Come and chat (Part II)

[CoteDAzur]

Previous thread is here.

We filled one thread, so here’s another

Why not just write the bar before in the bottom staff?

After a bit of a search I've found a piano teacher and have booked to have my first lesson next week. I think I'm in need of some specific guidance now rather than just exploring on my own.

Feeling a bit nervous since I've not had a music lesson for over 20 years and also feel like I have a bit of 'baggage' in that regard...but excited too!

Any other returners to lessons after a long break? How was it?

I did that a few years ago - after a break of about 20 years!

I get along well with my teacher and have a lesson once every month or so. I pick the music and she tells me how to play it better.

Tintini - Well done for finding a teacher & starting lessons. I'm sure you'll love it.

Your relationship with the teacher is everything. If you don't feel comfortable & inspired, don't hesitate to change.

Like Never, I choose the music that I want to play. That is one of the great things about being an adult student

Well I'll let you know how it goes!

Really good advice to make sure it's the right person and stop if it's not. I think at least as an adult I have a much clearer idea of what I want from it, and will know if it's not working. As a child I would have just thought I wasn't cut out for it.

It took me a while to track down someone who I think has the approach I want - ie including improvisation, playing by ear and all that side of musicianship that I never developed when younger. A couple of teachers just said straight out that they do not teach this.

Fortuitously, the teacher I've gone with performed a solo concert last week that I could go to - great timing! He didn't just play but also talked about his philosophy / approach to music in general so it was a nice insight, and seemed aligned to what I'm looking for. Of course only time will tell if he's also a good teacher for me - certainly a different skill. But his overall approach seems right (and his playing was excellent too of course).

Tintini how exciting! I started lessons a year ago after a 20 year gap. I did grades 2 at school and then stopped. In the last year I have done grades 3, 4 and 5. I love playing the piano so much! I'm now teaching beginner piano and electric keyboard, and class music teaching part time, all through my lovely piano teacher. I agree with others that finding the right teacher is critical. I get on really well with mine, he's become a good friend. He is very versatile - exceptionally good at improvisation and all styles of music, which is great for me as it pushes me outside my comfort zone. It has to be someone you trust - even then its a bit daunting playing in front of someone as an adult, but that gets easier! I hope this is the start of something great for you Tintini, as it has been for me x

I got a merit in my exam - so pleased as its been a rocky couple of months and I had a bereavement just before the exam, so I wasn't really as prepared or focussed as I should have been.

Congratulations Fluke. Well done.

Fluke, that's wonderful - very well done to you!

Well done indeed Fluke!

Congratulations on your exam result Fluke! That's brilliant.

And it's really encouraging to hear about these great experiences of taking music up again after a long break.

What's everyone playing at the mo? I've just got the first volume of The Liturgical Organist - its great for sight reading practise as I'm not good that good sight reading in keys with more than three sharps or flats and its grouped by key signature, so I can pick the harder keys and concentrate on them. The rhythms are easy so hopefully I can improve the key sig part of the exercise.

I'm playing Chopin (the fantasie impromptu and nocturne in B flat minor, op9 no1 I think), and I'm learning the last bit of Bach's 2nd keyboard partita, and I'm contemplating the Waldstein... Haha...

And I'm getting Philip Glass' Metamorphoses for Christmas.

Well done on your exam result Fluke!

I'm finishing off two of Mendelssohn's songs without words

• op 102 no 4 which is easy-ish (maybe grade 6) and very pretty, but hard to memorise, and with lots of "left hand takes some of the treble clef notes" which I seem to have a mental block about!
• op 38 no 2 which is solid grade 8 and a real hand-twister. I'm at the polishing stage. I really really like this one, which is a good thing because to get to "I can actually play this!" has taken a lot of work.

I'm learning the Mozart piano sonata in Bb major (K333) which is one of the medium-difficulty ones. I can play the first movement (badly and not fast enough) and am just starting on the slow movement. It's not difficult but there is a lot of it, and the nuance and phrasing are really important.

I like the K333 slow movement very much, despite not being a slow-movement person.

Just had another listen to the Songs without Words. They sound so good.

I'm thinking of buying the big Henle book with all the songs without words. None of them are horribly difficulty (or very easy) so there's a lot to go at for G6-7-8 pianists.

I went to the shops to see what the Henle edition of the Waldstein looks like but they only have the Barenreiter edition. I have the Schirmer edition but I don't especially like it.

(Do I sound like I know what I'm talking about? )

Hello everyone, I had my first piano lesson today (well, my first lesson for 22 years...!)

Still digesting how it went and whether I've found the right teacher...

I was pretty nervous, and I'm quite an...excitable person. When I'm nervous I talk a lot...so I was talking all the time, about my epiphany and all the things I've been finding out about in the last couple of months. It was a bit too much to cram into one session.

I played quite a lot but it was SO hard playing in front of someone else! That surprised me a bit and it really changed the experience of playing.

Anyway, the teacher was good in that he was very enthusiastic and definitely got where I was coming from. He was pretty excited too! In fact I think we might be quite similar in personality...but it did mean that the lesson wasn't exactly relaxing.

Perhaps if we get to know each other a bit better it could work being similar...and the nervous energy might translate into a good connection. But perhaps someone more relaxing / less like me would be better?!

Probably too early to tell Tintini - did he seem competent?

I'm losing my teacher in Jan :( Really good teacher too, who understands adult learners having stopped piano for some years (after a music degree) and then restarting.

It will be difficult to find someone as competent working privately round here. Not sure what I'm going to do. I'm not good enough to go it alone.

Hello, can I join your thread? I am adult piano learner. I started years ago as an adult complete beginner and had lessons for around 2 years. I passed grade 2 and was working towards grade 3, but then for various reasons I had to give up lessons and ended up with a 10 year break from the piano.

I started again with lessons last Spring and I'm considering taking grade 4 in March.

Just wondered if there was anyone else around in a similar position.

Hello lastbus!

@FlukeSkyeRunner just passed G5 and I think @Broken11Girl took G4 last year.

I haven't done an exam in 40 years but I did play at a recital last year. I quite like performing, I play better (opposite of most adults if my teacher's adult pupils are anything to go by).

Hi LastBus, go for it! I restarted lessons 12 months ago (I did g2 at school 20 years ago but never felt at all comfortable on the piano). I've done g3, 4 and 5 in the last 12 months and I love playing the piano now! It helps that I have a very good lovely teacher. I'm so glad I decided to have lessons again, it has brought so much happiness into my life! The experience of learning as an adult is so different - and, for me, so much better. I suppose that is because my heart is in it - practise is fun and not a chore.

Mistigri what a shame about your teacher. I hope you find someone else.