I started learning the piano just over a year ago. People I know who have had lessons, taken some of the grade exams or not as the case may be. Have reached a reasonable standard, and then stopped playing. I love the piano and can never understand why anyone would want to stop. Perhaps life gets in the way and they dont have time to do it anymore, but if you love the instrument, you will make time.
I am talking about people who have simply got fed up with it. One friend of mine hasn't played in about 20 years and said they are now very rusty. I think sometimes if they were forced to take lessons as children, they give it up as an adult. I don't agree with forcing children to play any instrument. It is up to the child to want to do it. I know someone who is a professional pianist and went to an exclusive music school, and started learning when they were 7.... but they wanted to and thats why they have carried on to make a career out of it.
For me, I used to love it long time ago but now, I would say I sometimes like piano. It's because I can't tolerate sitting more than half an hour. It gets annoying.
Piano is beautiful and I am grateful that I know how to play piano. But I guess there are things more interesting such as "sports"? There are also sports which are so cool. :S I don't know.
If you did not like your piano teacher, why didn't you find another one? I guess it is easy to be put off by a piano teacher you cannot get along with and some people if they are young, think that the next teacher will be just as bad. I am fortunate enough to have a good teacher. As mentioned, doing concerts can put you off. I belong to a music academy and we have one summer and one winter concert every year. I have just taken part in my first concert and enjoyed it. It was 'different' playing to an audience, but I think in some ways better because you are not being judged on your technical ability as you are in an exam or lesson. In a concert, you are simply giving enjoyment to others who come along to listen and if you play a couple of wrong notes, it is not the end of the world. It takes years and years to play to absolute perfection. Even Chopin had to start somewhere lol. As for getting bored with the piano, who knows, but at the moment I love trying new pieces and giving myself a challenge. I am currently trying to learn to play Moonlight Sonata
i LOVE piano...giving up piano (especially after i had to beg my parents to pay for lessons for almost THREE YEARS before they let me take them) would feel like cutting off a leg or and arm. it would be just the same for either oboe or clarinet (my two other main instruments). right now im learning ballade by burgmuller (well technically ive already LEARNED it... now im just perfecting it-i hate only playing a peice halfway if u know what i mean). im very fortunate to have a really nice teacher.
Pals, you can teach yourself to play musical notes by yourself. I mean you know how to read notes and if there are small things which need to be fixed or understood, you can search for anyone for help or ask through Internet.
Maybe, this is a crazy idea I guess.
i have been playing piano off and on for about 10 years i think folk dont play is much prolly coz they cant be botherd practicing and sitting doing scales.
i'm kinda fed up of playing the now probably because i have out grown the piano i have and want somthing a bit more mello and with a lighter touch i was grade 7 but due to lack of playing and practicing i dropped 2 grades and now re doing grade 5.
if i had stuck at it and i think most of us kick ourselves i would probably be far far better than what i am now and through the 10 years will have reached and gone beyond grade 8.
am looking for a new piano so may be that will give me a bit more enthusiasm i do love the piano theres a thing about it dont ask me what lol pacients and practice pays off in the end i hear some of the 5 to 10 year olds who are playing grade 7/8 and think omg wish i could play like that lol.
I think that many children start playing at a young or relatively young age. Then, when they get a little older and enter middle school or high school, piano gets left behind. It becomes just another one of those things they "grow out of." Also, if the kids never really liked it to begin with, and felt like it was imposed by their parents, they'll probably run as soon as they get the chance!
I quit back in 3rd or 4th grade, and a few years later started again with a different teacher. I'm not going to quit again because I love my teacher, she makes me want to practice and do my best. Playing piano put me at a great advantage compared to my fellow band students who didn't. Also all the other piano players and I learned all the songs for recorder in music class before everybody else did. If I didn't have lessons, I probably wouldn't practice.
I know a lady who is about age 70. She started learning to play piano as a young child. She continued all through her teens, twenties and thirties. She went on to become a music teacher in a high school. She would play at home for enjoyment as well. When she retired when she was 60, she decided that she had spare time and devoted it to doing new things. The piano went on the back burner. The more she got into new hobbies,the less she felt inclined to play piano, and now she has lost interest. She felt that she wanted to try completely new things which took up her time. She said, the reason I love the piano is because I have only been doing it for about 18 months and it is still a novelty. She on the other hand did it from early childhood, to age 60 and felt enough was enough by that time.
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She sent her daughter to piano lessons and would sit at home and they would play duets together, and when her daughter used to practice, she would help her along a bit. I guess 70 years is a long time to sit and religiously play the piano week after week, but I recently saw a dvd of a concert and the pianist and conductor was Leonard Bernstien who wrote the music for West Side Story. He played the piano until he died. He was about 80 I think.
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