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Post by HenryJ on Jan 22, 2020 15:37:19 GMT -5
Did anybody else have piano lessons as a child? If so, what age did you start? For how many years did you take the lessons? Did you have a recital in front of other people at the end of the year?
I started taking lessons at age 9. I came home playing a 3-note melody that was an actual melody, with words, even. My 8-year-old brother got so envious he insisted on having lessons himself. We took lessons (separately) until our piano teacher moved to Ohio to live with her daughter after our teacher's husband died.
We had a recital in May of every year. It was in the gymnasium/auditorium of a local high school. My teacher had a lot of students, who had parents, siblings, and friends, so that was good training for getting in front of people and playing music. Everybody played one piece of music.
There were several smaller recitals held in students' homes during the year to get us all accustomed to playing in front of people.
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Post by TonyM on Jan 22, 2020 18:11:55 GMT -5
I studied the harp when I was a teenager and it was mandatory Where I studied that everyone also take at least some piano as it helps understand music theory that is otherwise hard to grasp on harp. I never got particular good, but I can manage playing lower intermediate stuff if I have to. And I can improvise from fakebooks pretty well.
I never had to do a recital on piano, only harp. Mostly in front of other students and their parents.
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Post by rickyguitar on Jan 23, 2020 0:49:40 GMT -5
No, I wish I had.
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Post by larryguitar54 on Jan 23, 2020 18:37:19 GMT -5
I had some piano lessons well as some classes in music theory. I believe it gave me an appreciation for music that stuck with me the rest of my life. Even as a guitar player I still think of measures and meter and rests melody.
In other words for the rest of my life at some subconscious level anytime I hear or play music I see a score sheet.
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twangmeister
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Age: 72 and fading fast.....
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Post by twangmeister on Feb 2, 2020 11:22:42 GMT -5
My 9 year-old granddaughter has been taking piano lessons for a few years interspaced with guitar and violin lessons. She surely is no prodigy but she can read music.
I just hope this doesn't turn out like it did for my father. He took piano lessons for years as a kid, walking some miles back and forth to his lessons (including in the snow).
It seemed to immunize him for playing music. Other than noodling on the flute and recorder he played only a handful of times as an adult
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Post by ninworks on Feb 2, 2020 11:50:10 GMT -5
I started classical piano lessons at 8 years old. She taught music theory as part of her curriculum. I took piano until I was about 11. the last year was a waste because I got a guitar at age 10 and it absorbed all my attention from there forward.
We did recitals at the end of each year. My teacher was a part of a regional association so there were students from all over the area at the recitals.
I'm glad I took piano because it introduced me to music theory and harmony. I continued that education all the way through high school and college. That has made me a better musician than I would have been without that introduction to the science of music.
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Post by leibniz on Feb 9, 2020 11:31:39 GMT -5
I took lessons for a few years starting at 8 yrs old. I can't remember exactly how long, maybe six years. We had recitals once or twice a year and "auditions" where someone came and scored our playing annually. I'm glad I took lessons, still have the piano but my wife plays it a lot more than I do. Once I started playing guitar at 16 the piano lessons made the process of learning a new instrument a lot easier. 35 years later and I just started playing drums. I'm sure the piano lessons are helping out there as well.
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Post by HenryJ on Feb 9, 2020 17:27:41 GMT -5
...Once I started playing guitar at 16 the piano lessons made the process of learning a new instrument a lot easier... Oh yes. If you learned piano first, you can learn to play any musical instrument you are physically capable of playing. |
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Davywhizz
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"Still Alive and Well"
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Post by Davywhizz on Mar 12, 2020 2:53:27 GMT -5
I had piano lessons for a year or so from age 7 but didn't enjoy it. I think it helped a lot, though, when I started guitar at 11. Despite my slow start, I've played some keyboards in all the bands I've been in, any time we couldn't find a keys player.
My grandmother was the proper pianist in the family: she had a few lessons (a penny a session) in 1911 and when I knew her she could sight read anything you gave her. As a girl she'd spent some time in the early cinemas, playing along to silent movies.
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Post by LTB on Jan 26, 2021 18:23:21 GMT -5
No piano lessons for me but daughter did starting at a 7. She was doing so good the piano teacher gave her a piano as we couldnt afford anything but an electric piano. Wish she had continued but she She stopped from stage fright at age 9 I believe
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Post by Stinger22 on Jan 28, 2021 21:42:48 GMT -5
My mother's family had a very prodigious musical history so I started piano in the 3rd grade which would have been 1962. My teacher came to the school once a week and I took lessons on an old upright in a storage room for $2 a lesson. Did all the John Thompson books and she liked Rock and Roll and swing so learned a variety of songs through the 6th grade. Some of my recital numbers "Coming from the Jam Session" a blues number, "The Theme to The High and the Mighty" and a ragtime duet with my teacher "Canadian Capers". I took to music right away. Then the Beatles and guitars came along but I have NEVER missed my piano instruction learning to read music and chords and scales. Had each of my kids take two years but none took to it and at that point if they don't don't push it.
I've had some kind of keyboard around or a midi to DAW but have recently added a Yamaha Digital Piano and a PSR-SX900 Workstation and been playing more keys trying to get my hands back together more and my chops and having a blast.
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MJB
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Post by MJB on Jan 29, 2021 6:31:04 GMT -5
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Post by Stinger22 on Feb 4, 2021 21:20:35 GMT -5
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Post by Stinger22 on Feb 4, 2021 21:30:52 GMT -5
I had piano lessons for a year or so from age 7 but didn't enjoy it. I think it helped a lot, though, when I started guitar at 11. Despite my slow start, I've played some keyboards in all the bands I've been in, any time we couldn't find a keys player. My grandmother was the proper pianist in the family: she had a few lessons (a penny a session) in 1911 and when I knew her she could sight read anything you gave her. As a girl she'd spent some time in the early cinemas, playing along to silent movies.Some in my family going back to then had music stores selling books and sheet music. Sheet music was HUGE back then. They were like huge record/cd stores. Now the funny thing is I can sight read piano music but need to work on my improvisation which I am currently doing  . But on guitar I can improvisate all over the darn thing but put a score in front of me and I'm struggling. Go figger. |
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Post by Joe Potts on Mar 20, 2021 10:49:11 GMT -5
I started lessons at age 6, took them for a year and a half. No recital. It was an OK experience, but when my teacher took the entire summer off I lost interest. I told my mother I wanted to quit, and to my surprise she let me. I now wish she had made me continue. My older sister was taking lessons also, and she continued. She became a piano teacher.
Ironically enough, my daughter took lessons as a child, ended up majoring in music, and got a masters degree.
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mikem
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Post by mikem on Mar 21, 2021 19:54:43 GMT -5
My mom (a high school music teacher) taught me piano for a couple of years and then in 3rd grade brought home a clarinet for "sentencing me" to a life playing woodwinds - lol.
FWIW: Both of our children took piano lessons starting in 1st grade (our son for 6 years and our daughter for 5 years) after which my son switched to percussion and my daughter switched to violin. They both practiced piano 5 days a week (yes, I am a music dad) and I truly believe that their foundation of piano helped them focus academically in school.
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. But on guitar I can improvisate all over the darn thing but put a score in front of me and I'm struggling. Go figger.
