Do you play the piano?

Yes I play piano/keyboards along with guitar (acoustic and electric) and bass. I recently purchased a Korg Kronos and Yamaha MODX for my home studio. Both are phenomenal professional keyboards. They are now part of my keyboard/synth collection along with a Roland D-50, Yamaha Motif, Roland Fantom XR, Korg Trinity, and Proteus 2000. I still have my now vintage guitars and basses from the mid to late 70's. I play with other musicians every so often. I was jamming with a drummer I know and his kids after Thanksgiving dinner together. We had a great time. Los Angeles is a great city for music and it's a great hobby for retirement.
 
spncity said:
About four years after this post, a friend who was retiring/moving/downsizing gave our daughter his baby grand. But she doesn't have room for it at her place :)

It looks great in the living room.
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If only I had the room!! I would be so tempted to splurge.

We have a tiny home. I had to get something that took absolute minimal space, and could be easily moved if needed.
 
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audreyh1 said:
If only I had the room!! I would be so tempted to splurge.

We have a tiny home. I had to get something that took absolute minimal space, and could be easily moved if needed.
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As a note for others, these new digital pianos like audreyh1 and others mentioned are fantastic these days. The sound and feel is probably better than the kind of acoustic piano most people could afford, or have access to.

I recently was at a concert with a piano player who is a Grammy award winner multi-instrumentalist, and just kills it on piano. I made a note of the make model of his keyboard, it was a Casio, forget the model now, but I looked it up at the time, and it was ~ $1,000. I was shocked that this guy played a $1,000 instrument, that's cheap for anything a pro musician uses. Of course, add speakers and an amp to that for home use, but it gives you an idea of the quality you get for the money. A $1,000 acoustic piano will not be a pleasurable thing, and you will need to pay for tuning every year.

I've gotten back to playing again, not piano, but organ. I bought one of the new Hammond organ 'clone-wheels' (a play on words of the Hammond "Tone-Wheel" design), a Crumar Mojo-61, and used my old DX7 as the lower manual (MIDI in), and MIDI-fied an old 25 note organ pedal board. Man, this captures the sound of the old B3 and Leslie like crazy. Now, I have to work at playing better! Started on the Christmas tunes yesterday, I got a lot of work to do, I am rusty! Can still kick out a blues jam though - that's like riding a bicycle for me, that muscle memory is deep.

I also designed, built and programmed an expansion panel for my Mojo-61, so I've got a full set of drawbars, and a few other controls, so I don't need to switch modes to control the lower board and pedals. The Crumar people were great, they sold me the drawbar components so I could have this match the instrument.

-ERD50
 
38Chevy454 said:
Best investment my parents ever made was me quitting piano lessons :D :facepalm:
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:LOL: Sometimes, recognizing our limitations is the best/smartest thing we could do! No sense trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.

-ERD50
 
Wonderful to hear that so many enjoy the piano.

Despite mom's try to teach me, @ age 7, am currently adept only at "chopsticks"...

Left that possible career for the ukelele, guitar, harmonica, recorder and a special talent for humming.

:(
 
I've always wanted to learn how to play the piano, so I took lessons a couple of years ago for the first time. I enjoyed them, but my teacher moved after two years and I never bothered to look for a new one. I had a lot of trouble coordinating my left hand with my right one. I can do chords, but have a lot of trouble with different notes. Right now I can play basic pieces and that's good enough for me.

My kid takes lessons and doesn't really enjoy practicing, but I make her anyway. I'm not pushy about it, but I think it's a good thing to do if you have the opportunity. She is able to play separately with her left and right hands. I'm not sure if it's because she started when she was in kindergarten or because she is just more coordinated, but I'm envious! I think music in general is more interesting as a teenager or adult, so I think she might come around when she is older. We'll see!
 
Can plunk out basic chords, but never took lessons. A bit more accomplished as a guitarist... Do enjoy plunking around in the “studio”.

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The Yamaha P45 bundle including stand and bench was $399 pre tax after the Costco BF discount. Pretty amazing deal I thought, considering it matched what I wanted. But after testing the keyboard myself in the store, I did do some online research to make sure it really would be good enough.

And another $29 for shipping since once I decided I wasn’t willing to drive all the way back to Costco and brave the crowds hauling a large package on a big cart and take a chance that the one unit remaining was still on the shelf, plus reconfigure the seats inside Jeep and hope it would fit.

It shipped out of Houston so it didn’t have to travel very far.
 
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audreyh1 said:
W2R did you ever get yourself a Yamaha Digital Piano?
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Never did!! And honestly I am SO THRILLED to read that you got one.

As for me, for some reason I just haven't felt moved to actually put the work required into practicing, so I haven't bought a piano. Playing the piano is one of those things I thought I'd do in retirement, but ended up not doing after all. That includes learning Mexican Spanish, growing roses, volunteering, and so much more.

Oh well! Have a wonderful time with your new Yamaha!
 
It’s true that there are much-improved instruments over the options available not-so-long ago. But I remember someone answering a question I posted a while ago in a photography thread about what camera to buy. The answer was, “the one you’ll use”. The same thing is true of musical instruments (although pianos can do fine as beautiful pieces of furniture/craftsmanship!).
 
audreyh1 said:
There is plenty of sheet music available online that can be downloaded as PDF and printed. Lots of classics free as it is so old as to be public domain. Usually without the fingering though.

And it’s also easy to order. Even Amazon carries quite a bit.
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what are the websites you use to find the downloadable sheet music?
 
mn54 said:
what are the websites you use to find the downloadable sheet music?
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The recent Bach piano pieces I downloaded from here:
The Mutopia Project

There are tons of sites.

I’ve found free download classical guitar music from several locations, along with lots of free lesson videos.
 
I can play bass competently and guitar passably....I know well over 300 songs on bass and about 50 or so on guitar.


I can't play piano...I can fake a dumbed down version of Werewolves of London, and can also play simple background string patches or horn and synth leads. I once thought about learning to play piano but after seeing the keyboardist in my band play I realized my time was better spent getting better on bass.
 
It seems that the key thing to getting a big payoff from lessons as a kid is to be in a household that values music. In my case, my parents thought that music should not be taught in school, and that music lessons were for spoiled rich kids. Needless to say, I didn't have any lessons.

I took my first (and only) piano lessons when I was 22. DW and I already owned a harpsichord and we had DW's old spinet piano. DW grew up with piano lessons and could play pretty well. Over the years we have acquired a high quality Yamaha upright, a better harpsichord, a fortepiano, a clavichord and a reed organ. We also owned a pipe organ for about 5 years back in the day. I probably spend about 10-15 hours each week playing the various keyboard instruments - mostly the harpsichord. I use the piano mostly to accompany myself singing old Irish tunes from the turn of the 20th Century. DW loves it (really). The reed organ gets used for some 19th century parlor music. I play a little Mozart on the fortepiano and the clavichord gets used rarely.

I also play baroque flute and spend about 15 hours each week practicing on that, as well. I play the flute much better than the keyboards, but it is more fun to play the keyboard by myself than to play the flute. I sing in church choir and with a group that sings 15th and 16th century polyphony - we give two concerts a year.

Retirement has provided a wonderful chance to improve all of my musical skills. Although I engaged in all of these activities when I was w*rking, there is no doubt that I am a better musician now, after 4 years of retirement. I am still very jealous of my friends and acquaintances who took lessons as children, at times I have felt like I've been fighting an uphill battle to catch up for almost 40 years.

Sadly, DW's rheumatoid arthritis took away her keyboard playing several years ago and her eyesight is making it much tougher for her to read music and sing.
 
This thread made me remember a movie I’d placed on my Amazon Video watchlist but hadn’t yet watched: “Oscar Peterson: Keeping The Groove Alive”. It’s about the man and his career as much as his skills as a jazz pianist with a strong classical background.

He’s probably my favorite since I first heard the live album “The Trio”, recorded at Chicago’s long-gone London House. Verve released a multi-CD set “The London House Sessions” that includes “The Trio”.

I had the chance to hear him solo once, in the early 80s. Oh, my!
 
audreyh1 said:
There is plenty of sheet music available online that can be downloaded as PDF and printed. Lots of classics free as it is so old as to be public domain. Usually without the fingering though.

And it’s also easy to order. Even Amazon carries quite a bit.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I will go look. Most of my music was classical so should be easy to find I hope.
 
Well, it only took a day to restore my ability to read the base clef. That’s a relief!

Found some pieces I had completely forgotten about. Was able to play most of the way through one that I knew well as a teenager. Really surprised myself. It’s been like 40 years!!!
 
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When I was 9 I got an accordion and some lessons before I quit for various reasons.


50 years later...


- I noticed how much my mom (89) likes to play the piano in her assisted living place even though she can only play by heart due to her bad vision.


-I got the idea to take some lessons but was reluctant to buy or rent an instrument given my history with the accordion.


- I thought that I might have dragged the old accordion with me for so long for a reason, if only to give it a final try before selling.


- Found a teacher in February and take weekly lessons since then.


- Surprised myself (and probably my teacher) how much I enjoy practicing almost every day. Yes, it is difficult to learn something almost completely new at my age (60). But it feels so good to play a piece today which was just chaos last month.


I will hardly ever play in front of other people (except DH, who is extremely supportive) but I have fun each day when I practice.


Yes, it takes longer to learn a piece than it had taken when I was younger.
But it is never too late to learn!
 
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chris2008 said:
- Surprised myself (and probably my teacher) how much I enjoy practicing almost every day. Yes, it is difficult to learn something almost completely new at my age (60). But it feels so good to play a piece today which was just chaos last month.


I will hardly ever play in front of other people (except DH, who is extremely supportive) but I have fun each day when I practice.


Yes, it takes longer to learn a piece than it had taken when I was younger.
But it is never too late to learn!
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I can relate to these. While the stuff I have resumed playing includes no new material, I still find it tough at times to (re)learn some of it. I surely agree with you about it feeling good to see the 5 rags I play coming together after a month of practicing. Sometimes, I go several days without playing, but when I can get a few days in a row of good practice, I am noticing the improvement. The toughest parts, even individual measures, I am now getting through without error or hesitation.

I am still having some trouble remembering the music so I don't have to refer to it, especially in parts where I simplified it a little bit. I have become more diligent in noting on the sheet music where I made changes compared to before where my notations were sparse and inconsistent. I am finally getting able to play entire songs without the sheet music in front of me but sometimes my brain freezes up and I have to get the sheet music out and figure out what dang notes I was supposed to play!

I am also trying to rebuild my stamina. A month ago, I could barely get through my small set of 5 songs without getting worn out after 3 or 4 of them in 30 minutes. Now, I can get through all 5 of them and practice for a full hour without getting too worn out. I recall back in my college days I could practice for an hour or more without betting worn out at all.
 
I may do some performance just for friends and family though. After a couple of years there are a couple of pieces on the guitar that I would be OK playing. One reason for the long time is that I insist on playing pieces that are technically challenging for me, but that’s what keeps me inspired and motivated. I could easily perform easier pieces, but those don’t motivate me enough to spend the time to memorize and polish them up to performance quality.

I really do enjoy the time spent practicing. And if that’s all I ever did that would be good enough for me.

Yep, stamina is a big one. I have finally gotten to the point where my left hand isn’t exhausted after 20 to 30 mins on the guitar, and I can actually get a couple of hours practice in during a day if I want. And I often do want.

It’s going to take a while on the new piano as my right wrist starts complaining. Patience.....
 
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People who are interested in a more free-form style of music notation might have been exposed to the “Real Book” series (as opposed to “fake book”). I bought several of them in music stores in the 80s and 90s. They are a collection of charts that are generally pretty accurate and represent a wide variety of songs.

We used them a lot in small group settings as a quick way to get up to speed on a song.

A few years ago while on vacation a good friend of mine who’s an excellent pianist told me of an app equivalent called iReal Pro. Unfortunately, it’s not free and there’s not a trial version but I bought it today ($13 on iTunes) and will take it for a spin.

http://irealpro.com

Still have my original Real Book hard copies, though!

[ADDED] While searching for iReal I noticed a few other related apps that seem like good resources for traditional sheet music. Fun to browse.
 
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