How do you feel when you play the piano?

[idea_steed]

I don't play the piano but every time I see somebody do, it seems to me that they are imagining themselves in another world in which music is the only thing that matters. I asked my friend Linda but she is not so good at words. She just said she enjoys it.
DP posters, how do you feel when you play the piano?

 

[ecofarm]

I feel like Chopsticks is the greatest song ever.

 

[ttwtt78640]

I feel that I can play the radio much better.

 

[Van Basten]

Like the next Mozart.

 

[idea_steed]

I feel that I can play the radio much better.

I don't get it. You mean you can be a better DJ who can select good songs?

 

[Superfly]

I don't play the piano but every time I see somebody do, it seems to me that they are imagining themselves in another world in which music is the only thing that matters. I asked my friend Linda but she is not so good at words. She just said she enjoys it.
DP posters, how do you feel when you play the piano?

It's easy to get lost in it, that's for sure. I love to play, and my daughter has shown an interest, so I am happy about that.

 

[ttwtt78640]

I don't get it. You mean you can be a better DJ who can select good songs?

I don't play the piano and never had any training or desire to do so. When I want to hear music then I mostly rely on playing recorded music.

 

[idea_steed]

Like the next Mozart.

Mr. Next Mozart, tell me more:2razz:

 

[LaughAtTheWorld]

I don't play the piano but every time I see somebody do, it seems to me that they are imagining themselves in another world in which music is the only thing that matters. I asked my friend Linda but she is not so good at words. She just said she enjoys it.
DP posters, how do you feel when you play the piano?

To be honest, music affects people so differently (and the type of music also matters) that it's impossible to say. I used to play the piano and now play the violin (an amateur but a serious one who hopes for much further improvement) and will take up the piano again in the near future.

Sometimes I'm completely immersed in the music, sometimes I'm trying to keep my head when I'm sight-reading/in a difficult passage, sometimes I feel like I'm in a different world, sometimes I am in a very introspective state when I play. Honestly, there are no words to describe music fully and trying to explain music in words beyond a certain degree is futile. The best would be to actually play an instrument (preferably a classical one, the violin would be the best )

 

[Serenity]

I don't play the piano well at all (I've played guitar since I was a teenager.) That being said, there's one piano piece that's played as the standard intro at my favourite bands concerts that has always given me chills. Love it, really moves me and like LATW said, that piece in particular takes me to another world.

 

[nota bene]

It's easy to get lost in it, that's for sure. I love to play, and my daughter has shown an interest, so I am happy about that.

Yay! And I agree; like reading, you can become "lost" in the notes. There was a time in my life when I practiced at least four hours a day, including Hanon's exercises. (Other pianists will no doubt remember this suffering.)

 

[Superfly]

Yay! And I agree; like reading, you can become "lost" in the notes. There was a time in my life when I practiced at least four hours a day, including Hanon's exercises. (Other pianists will no doubt remember this suffering.)

I never took formal lessons. I taught myself how to play. I'd like to get my daughter formal lessons, if she'll stick with it. I'm just afraid that it will end up like the flute and the violin. :lol:

 

[LaughAtTheWorld]

I never took formal lessons. I taught myself how to play. I'd like to get my daughter formal lessons, if she'll stick with it. I'm just afraid that it will end up like the flute and the violin. :lol:

Find a teacher who can instill the motivation in her to play. One thing I always regret is that none of my teachers had instilled that kind of love, the motivation for me (which is why I'm such a horrible player right now and why I gave up for many years). Then again, not everybody has the love for classical music that is required to have that kind of motivation. Then again, the piano is a more versatile instrument twisted so classical music isn't the only type she can learn to love.

While the piano is "easier" to learn and to teach oneself, if one wants to properly learn how to play it, lessons are pretty much essential.

Edit: I probably forgot to mention that the best way to make your daughter motivated (well, it was for my renewed interest in the violin) is to have her listen to good recordings. Recordings that make her want to play those pieces. Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, and Brahms will be good starts, but make her understand that she's probably years of hard work away from even attempting those works :lol:

 

[MaggieD]

I don't play the piano but every time I see somebody do, it seems to me that they are imagining themselves in another world in which music is the only thing that matters. I asked my friend Linda but she is not so good at words. She just said she enjoys it.
DP posters, how do you feel when you play the piano?

I finally got rid of my piano . . . Sold it to a family with a 10-year-old little girl who could best afford a used one...much like my parents when it was originally bought years before. I occasionally miss it.

I would turn to the piano when I was moody. Worried about something, perhaps. It was comforting and mind-absorbing. Another world? Yeah, I think one could say that.

 

[Superfly]

Find a teacher who can instill the motivation in her to play. One thing I always regret is that none of my teachers had instilled that kind of love, the motivation for me (which is why I'm such a horrible player right now and why I gave up for many years). Then again, not everybody has the love for classical music that is required to have that kind of motivation. Then again, the piano is a more versatile instrument twisted so classical music isn't the only type she can learn to love.

While the piano is "easier" to learn and to teach oneself, if one wants to properly learn how to play it, lessons are pretty much essential.

Edit: I probably forgot to mention that the best way to make your daughter motivated (well, it was for my renewed interest in the violin) is to have her listen to good recordings. Recordings that make her want to play those pieces. Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, and Brahms will be good starts, but make her understand that she's probably years of hard work away from even attempting those works :lol:

Sweetie, I'm years away from hard work getting her to listen to classical. She views classical and opera as punishment. :/ My first daughter has a love of classical that you would not believe, but my latter 2 absolutely hate it.

 

[LaughAtTheWorld]

Sweetie, I'm years away from hard work getting her to listen to classical. She views classical and opera as punishment. :/ My first daughter has a love of classical that you would not believe, but my latter 2 absolutely hate it.

I hate to be so flippant, but it sounds like classical music isn't for her (or perhaps she hasn't matured enough for it? That was kind of the case for me). One thing I learned is that an instrument should never be forced. It will never be successful and may actually have the student abhor the instrument. God knows how much grueling exercises and practices it takes to even moderately play an instrument well. You can't go through that without a love for the instrument , and even then it takes enormous discipline and iron will to even adequately play it, much less master it.

 

[Gaius46]

When I play piano I think to myself "I really wish I learned how to play piano"

I can noodle but that's about it.

When I play classical or Spanish music on guitar though I do get totally lost in it. For me it's a very solitary "for me" kind of thing. On the other hand when I play bass it's more about interacting with others - the other musicians and the audience.

 

[Dragonfly]

I don't play the piano but every time I see somebody do, it seems to me that they are imagining themselves in another world in which music is the only thing that matters. I asked my friend Linda but she is not so good at words. She just said she enjoys it.
DP posters, how do you feel when you play the piano?

Why would you restrict this topic to piano?

What about guitar, drums, flute, or harmonica?

Music is so much more than "just music" to many people who play. It truly is a vehicle to another realm of consciousness.

It can swiftly take you away from any "reality", and transport you to wherever you wish to go.

 

[Superfly]

I hate to be so flippant, but it sounds like classical music isn't for her (or perhaps she hasn't matured enough for it? That was kind of the case for me). One thing I learned is that an instrument should never be forced. It will never be successful and may actually have the student abhor the instrument. God knows how much grueling exercises and practices it takes to even moderately play an instrument well. You can't go through that without a love for the instrument , and even then it takes enormous discipline and iron will to even adequately play it, much less master it.

No, you didn't come across flippant at all. Classical and Opera are definitely not for her. Unfortunately. I tried to expose them to it like I did my oldest, and they just didn't latch on.

 

[Gaius46]

No, you didn't come across flippant at all. Classical and Opera are definitely not for her. Unfortunately. I tried to expose them to it like I did my oldest, and they just didn't latch on.

May come with age. I didn't start to appreciate classical music until I was in my 30s and just started enjoying in the last couple of years. My dad got me guitar lessons when I was kid, he wanted me to learn classical guitar music but I was more interested in 3 chord rock.

 

[Superfly]

May come with age. I didn't start to appreciate classical music until I was in my 30s and just started enjoying in the last couple of years. My dad got me guitar lessons when I was kid, he wanted me to learn classical guitar music but I was more interested in 3 chord rock.

Hope so. My oldest wanted Mozart on tape when she was 3. She actually put that on her list to Santa Claus. And today, she has a healthy respect, and love, for classical. I hope my middle and youngest will eventually develop it.

 

[nota bene]

I so hope they will. I was very blessed to have been #1. My mom stood over me every afternoon when I returned home from 2nd grade and made me practice. I hated every single minute until...one day when I sat down and began playing one of Clementi's sonatinas. Everything just suddenly fell into place and made sense, and I never had to be forced to practice again. But I think my parents expended all their energy on me; when my younger sibs began music lessons, they were allowed to slide and then to abandon the effort. One of them, however, has recently begun taking piano and violin lessons, so maybe there's hope.

It's just that when you play an instrument, you learn to listen in an entirely different way. I didn't appreciate this until I was an adult. Having a trained ear makes all the difference.

 

[Superfly]

I so hope they will. I was very blessed to have been #1. My mom stood over me every afternoon when I returned home from 2nd grade and made me practice. I hated every single minute until...one day when I sat down and began playing one of Clementi's sonatinas. Everything just suddenly fell into place and made sense, and I never had to be forced to practice again. But I think my parents expended all their energy on me; when my younger sibs began music lessons, they were allowed to slide and then to abandon the effort. One of them, however, has recently begun taking piano and violin lessons, so maybe there's hope.

It's just that when you play an instrument, you learn to listen in an entirely different way. I didn't appreciate this until I was an adult. Having a trained ear makes all the difference.

I took a music appreciation class a few terms ago, and it made me look at my favorites in a different way, too. He spent alot of time with Vivaldi's Four Seasons (one of my absolute favorites) and picked apart each piece, each instrument, and why each instrument was used in the way that it was. By the end, you really heard the birds singing, and saw the flowers blooming, in Spring.

 

[nota bene]

I don't have words to explain this, but it's the ability to hear the instruments separately while at the same time hearing them in unison. (Somebody help me here.) And I also think listening again and again enables you to hear more (and differently) every time. I've been obsessing for two years over Albinoni's double oboe concertos (various artists), and now I can finally really hear the bassoon line distinctly and whistle it while I drive.

*For non-musicians who might be interested, there are only two double-reeds, the oboe and the bassoon. Albinoni is less well known that Corelli, Scarlatti, and Vivaldi, but he was the first to exploit the possibilities of these new-fangled instruments. Very few compositions focus on the bassoon; in fact, I can't think of a composer except Czech Jan Dismas Zalenka who even wrote for the bassoon. Bassoonists are like the bass guys in any band--essential, but too often underappreciated.

 

[Superfly]

I don't have words to explain this, but it's the ability to hear the instruments separately while at the same time hearing them in unison. (Somebody help me here.) And I also think listening again and again enables you to hear more (and differently) every time. I've been obsessing for two years over Albinoni's double oboe concertos (various artists), and now I can finally really hear the bassoon line distinctly and whistle it while I drive.

*For non-musicians who might be interested, there are only two double-reeds, the oboe and the bassoon. Albinoni is less well known that Corelli, Scarlatti, and Vivaldi, but he was the first to exploit the possibilities of these new-fangled instruments. Very few compositions focus on the bassoon; in fact, I can't think of a composer except Czech Jan Dismas Zalenka who even wrote for the bassoon. Bassoonists are like the bass guys in any band--essential, but too often underappreciated.

I really like Albinoni. Unfortunately, I don't get the opportunity to listen to my music as much as I'd like. For that reason, I'm always on the lookout for good pieces. Everytime I'm in the car alone, my XM Radio goes straight to either classical or opera.