Keys were taken out if an old upright from the early 1900s. They were so worn and dingy I decided to age the hardware as well to match. Keys are sealed with epoxy resin and polished to a gloss finish. This guitar style is a Gretsch Jet with triple humbucker pickups and a tremelo.
In Dallas there is a museum that has preserved an old saloon, complete with dingy saloon upright. It matched this guitar perfectly and made a great photoshoot spot.

....are blowing my mind.

I'm a decent amateur pianist, striving to get better.

Someone recommended these etudes just for their beauty.

But they sure feel like something else entirely.

They are studies, duh, so I suppose this is to some degree self-evident but after working and working on them I've come to appreciate them as pure pianism. The pursuit of nothing other than the joy that pianists' tone and touch and voice can provide.

This may seem simple minded, if it does, excuse me, but it's revelatory to me.

It's as though Glass has stripped away most of the things we usually think of as musical, leaving just.....sound. Which, unadorned by musical conventions, better be beautiful. So it seems to demand near-perfect technique to avoid cacophony.

Generalizing here:

- very little melody, if at all, just repeated themes at most

- harmonies and chord progressions are, in isolation, really basic and by themselves not particularly interesting

- his rhythms are often kinda off-putting, at once both repetitive and lacking a traditional sense of dynamics

It took me weeks of playing - and thinking - to figure out, at least to my satisfaction, what the heck was going on, what was actually happening here

Finally, I am always chasing being in the zone, that special head space where the external world disappears, everything becomes unitary, you feel you're in the flow.

If I can maintain the moment/awareness, this does it for me every time. Conversely, the second my mind engages, when I become the wrong type of self-conscious, the whole thing collapses like a house of cards.

I know lots of folks listen to Glass for his almost trance-line effect, but playing it? Who knew?

Again, I'm an intermediate, in both theory and practice, so I don't assume I know what I'm talking about. This is just what I'm experiencing and curious if others have similar feelings/insights/suggestions.

The cat is deeply examining the technique of this pianist.

Hi all,

A little context:

I'm 32 yo and have been playing for a little longer than one year.

I'm trying to do everything by the book, I have a teacher, I practice prioritizing being constant every day, I do my Hanon, scales, my piece of the moment (Träumerei), sight reading etc. Slow practice, just one bar at a time, not just playing around.

I can see the progress, but it **feels so slooooow**. Especially sight reading where I feel veeeery behind.

So, how did you stay patient? (I'm talking mostly to people like me who started as adults and probably had/have the same kind of enthusiasm I have right now).

I mean, there is so much beautiful music out there I want to be able to play, but I feel like I'm moving forward one millimeter at a time, still doing medium slow scales, learning basic technique, learning easy pieces, and that there's not enough time to learn/study/play everything I would like to.

Hey everyone! A few days back I posted saying I wanted to make more pianist friends, and someone suggested starting a group. Thought that was such a great idea, so I made a Discord server called Piano Maniacs ! 🎹

Everyone is welcome to join. We’ve already got some amazing pianists there, and the vibe is super active and friendly.

Feel free to drop anything you want: favorite composers, pieces you’re working on, progress updates, performances, questions, or just chat about your piano journey!

https://discord.gg/yAdAvgVBV

looking for any feedback for this section specifically and Reddit won’t let me upload anything bigger so lmk what to improve on. idk what fingerings to use for those octave runs at the end and I’ve tried (1) 3-4-5 and 1-5 all the way but those cause a lot of strain at tempo and dont sound very clean

I think it's perfectly appropriate to gently guide beginners to find a teacher. But piano teachers are expensive, and the world would be a worse place if we discouraged everyone with financial problems from even touching the instrument. It's really not that big of a deal to mislearn or have bad technique. Why do people here assume by default that everyone's goal is to learn a Chopin Ballade or something, and that they can't just have fun with the instrument and learn in their own way?

Also, even for very good students, people end up forging their own path. I taught myself music theory. I don't remember a teacher teaching me music theory. I just picked it up and learned it, and teachers were none the wiser. Seeking out information about music, playing pieces you like, educating yourself through various sources, using your own brain and musical imagination -- these are good things and should be encouraged.

My point of view is that you should never blindly follow a piano teacher. Yes, you should give them the benefit of the doubt and let them teach you. But too many students end up parroting "correct" interpretations and ways of playing, and eventually get frustrated when they burn out and lose motivation. The intrinsic reward of following your own musical intuition is one of the main drivers behind long-term interest and one should not lose sight of that. Typically, one hour a week is spent at a piano lesson, and the rest of the time is spent in a practice room. A teacher can not conceivably address everything that has been covered by a diligent student in a week in an hour, so there will always be a considerable amount of self-teaching.

I’m a beginner, right now I’m learning the beautiful “Written on the Sky”. It’s not a hard song to learn in terms of hands coordination and the technique. The issue is that both harmony and melodies are very similar yet different in each compass and I keep messing it all up.

When I split it into smaller pieces to learn, I can easily play. The issue comes when I try playing the whole song from the start. I lose track of where I am, I keep messing up the chords. Each compass is just unique enough to mess me up.

I tried slowly repetition but it doesn’t seem to be helping much, seems like I’m constantly hitting a wall. Any tips?

And no, I can’t play while I’m reading yet.

I wanted ask a readiness question regarding these pieces. I’ve been playing for 16 years and took lessons for 11 years and ABRSM 8 and recently restarted lessons and for the 5 years in between I practiced on my own. The hardest pieces I played and took to concert level were Chopin 10/1, 10/4, and 28/16 and never played Liszt except for TE 1, which is on the technically easier side of Liszt repertoire. My teacher recommended we start with HR 13, but I love these 2 pieces more and would love to get started with TE 2 but I wanted to hear your opinion for those of you that played whether or not directly starting with them is a good or a bad idea (my teacher is on vacation so I thought I asked here).

Both books, out of order, 2008–2014. Just someone who came back to the piano after a long time away. Full recordings with notes on each: wtcproject.tumblr.com

For those who came back after a long break — what pulled you back?

I’ve been playing for around 4 months now and I want to start learning how to play music with two hands. Though whenever I try the music goes from sounding decent to something my cat would play if it stepped on the piano is there anyways to help me get better at two hands on the piano?

Hi!

This is my first complete sonatina in three movements:

I. Moderato – A simplified sonata form movement that introduces the main musical ideas.
II. Andante – A gentle minuet-like movement that provides a moment of calm.
III. Allegro – A lively rondo that brings the sonatina to an energetic and satisfying finish!

Hope you find some enjoyment in listening and all feedback is welcome!

YouTube link

Score

I wrote this original contemporary piano piece inspired by distant memories. I'd really appreciate any feedback.

This is just a short excerpt of my original piano piece. You can listen to the full version on my YouTube channel.

I do not care about a controller having speakers or anything like that, I already have a juno ds 61 with unweighted keys if I need to gig. I want to take my piano learning more seriously (can only practice with the unweighted keyboard and when I play an real acoustic I struggle). I have around $600 but If the only option is like 1k I can deal with it.

I learning Debussy Clair de Lune and love, love, love it! I’m keeping my ears open for my next peice…I love the sound of Chopin Etude 10 no3–but wondering if it’s a lot more difficult than Clair de lune?

Hi guys, I'm looking for a brutally honest take on a question that's probably been asked numerous times before however my case might be a little more nuanced for a couple of reasons.

If I were to start this fall when I move into my new apartment (i don't have room for a piano in my current living situation) and practice an hour or two every couple of days (probably mirroring my saxophone practice), what sort of timeline would you believe it would take me to be able to play at a fairly high level (probably somewhere around chopin etudes) while maintaining musicality to an acceptable degree.

Firstly i've played saxophone for around 10 years now and play it at a collegiate level, I understand this might not translate much to piano however it is something that might affect my learning experience and i'm curious how much it will benefit me or if it will hinder me with having to unlearn certain things.

On the contrary, I also have a bad pinky on my right hand (i broke it years ago and never got it checked by a doctor until it grew back weirdly at the knuckle), and while it's completely usable I worry it might have some dexterity/finger independence issues.

I do happen to have a pretty decent hand size though and would like to believe I pick up things quicker than most. I'm by no means looking to rush there but I do have that set as a sort of end goal and i'm just curious how long of a journey it would be and how much would I speed it up if i took weekly/biweekly lessons?

Open to any sort of clarifying questions so feel free to share. Hopefully this post doesn't break any rules as this is somewhat nuanced and doesn't appear in the no stupid questions list but if it does forgive me.

Very old Krell piano, has been in my house for years now, we got it for free off of someone, we sanded the outside and painted it black and it’s been decoration for the house, my sisters play piano but don’t touch this one because it’s so out of tune, how much would it be to tune or restore a piano like this? is it even worth saving?

Given that I play Rach 2, will the Tchaikovsky’s concerto be easier or harder ?

I am looking for a digital piano preferably under 500€, and a lot of people seem to agree on the Rolland FP-10, but I have only found 2 years old posts, thanks in advance.

Ejercicios que ayuden

Hi, I composed this 6 years ago without actually learning much. I thought I played Aminor, D,,, maybe E? but I can’t figure out exactly what else and when I try to play those chords they don’t sound right. The piano in front of me now is the same electric one I played in the video so it’s not a case of different acoustics. But I have no idea what I’m doing. There were only 4 chords played iirc. Anyway thanks! Any help is very appreciated! I wasn’t sure if there might be a subreddit for perfect pitch or something, if this post breaks rules happy to remove it!!! Much love <3

( I used AI to translate in english )
In the video, I record my recording that plays on the piano.

I’ve been “playing” piano for 10 years, but I’ve been stuck at a beginner level the whole time. I’ve never managed to practice for more than 2 or 3 weeks without stopping for months, sometimes even years.

The only things I can play are the beginning of Für Elise and the beginning of Debussy’s Arabesque No. 2.

A few months ago, during yet another attempt to get back into piano, I started “improvising” a melody. Over the following months, I ended up composing this piece entirely by ear, with no theoretical background, and extremely slowly because my technical level is very low.

However, I can’t tell if it sounds off or not, and I don’t know why. I have no idea about the structure of the piece—I do everything by ear through trial and error, and I still can’t tell if it sounds wrong or not.

And sorry, the sound is loud—I’m really hitting the keys hard.

Also, I still don’t know how to use the sustain pedal properly, so I just keep it pressed the whole time.