Classically trained players here?

[CyberCobre]

Any classically trained pianists around here? Come on. I know I'm not the only one to have suffered decades of frowning concert mavons telling me, "No. Lift the hands, now drop them...stroke the keys as if massaging your lover...striking the keys with emphasis does not mean pounding on them! You're a pianist, not a pugilist."

[62' Jazzmaster]

Yep that's be me. I took classical lessons from 5 years old until upper middle/early high school. Like most goody good prep academy kindergarteners, it was important to my parents that I play an instrument. My mom chose piano for me. My sister started taking at 4 y/o the same time I did.

We were supposed to practice an hour a day, we had an egg timer to make sure we practiced the right amount... My sister would always cheat and wind the egg timer down. I would slave over the piano for hours and my parents would have to pull me off so they could get some sleep.

Then they bought me a nintendo and that kind of lured me away from the piano a little bit, but after I got tired of that I was back on it. I literally could not get enough. I think it was more a competitive thing back then than it was a creative thing. When picking a recital piece I would always pick pieces that looked complicated on paper. My teacher would go "Oh no dear you just aren't ready for that" and I would be like, "uhhh, wanna bet?" Then go home and slave over the piano from the time I got home from school until my parents pulled me off. Then I would go back the next week and play the first page of a ridiculously hard piece and be like "Yeah I didn't get much practice in this week"

When I picked up the guitar, I lost alot of interest in piano, guitar became more means of emotional and spiritual expression. I still play piano quite a bit though.

EDIT: One thing I did not agree with was how the entire piano lessons were dedicated to learning other people's work. For 10 years I seriously never created any piece of music myself.

[CyberCobre]

My whole ability to pick out pieces by ear and to improv were completely "trained" out of me. Now, of course, Stone wants me to do that...and it's terribly hard. I'm so dependent on the written note. It's a terrible loss, because I was very good at ear playing and a natural on the piano before two decades of classical then concert pianist training beat it out of me. The techniques I learned, though, are priceless. I get questioned a lot by keyboardists when I'll play something and it has that certain "ring" to it on the same piano they just played the same piece on, and they want to know how I got that "sound." It's all in the percussive treatment of fingers laid to keys just so. People just don't realize that piano IS a percussion instrument -- hammers to strings. And played right, with the right techniques, magic happens.

[62' Jazzmaster]

My whole ability to pick out pieces by ear and to improv were completely "trained" out of me. Now, of course, Stone wants me to do that...and it's terribly hard. I'm so dependent on the written note. It's a terrible loss, because I was very good at ear playing and a natural on the piano before two decades of classical then concert pianist training beat it out of me. The techniques I learned, though, are priceless. I get questioned a lot by keyboardists when I'll play something and it has that certain "ring" to it on the same piano they just played the same piece on, and they want to know how I got that "sound." It's all in the percussive treatment of fingers laid to keys just so. People just don't realize that piano IS a percussion instrument -- hammers to strings. And played right, with the right techniques, magic happens.


Yeah, there really are an amazing amount of techniques when approaching keyboard, things you wouldn't even think would make a difference. Like laying your fingers flat on the keys vs. having only the tip of your finger touch the keys. Personally I love the Jazz Piano way more then I like classical. Jazz Pianists seem to bring out more character and expression than classical. Thats not to say that classical pianists aren't brilliant, they are, it's just a personal preference.

[CyberCobre]

Jazz piano is, in fact, a very interesting technique and "feel," but I find that, once I get into it, I have a hard time getting back to classical. However, there is a sloppiness that creeps in with Jazz piano -- that lazy, loose hand feel that makes it so successful as a method of playing the instrument. It's addictive to the hands, and returning to classical when you suddenly have to perform Prelude in C# Minor or something that absolutely requires classical technique suddenly feels like work, where if you hadn't gone and done the Jazz style, it would just be "usual." Had that happen?

[MobBarley]

Yeah, classically trained... took classical theory... I still write most of music with the little black dots. I have to say, though, I rarely play classical pieces at all anymore. I use classical-ish motifs and stuff... mainly Bach/Beethoven-esque.

[coolguitar]

I'm Classically trained too, Ive been playing for a long time now :D

[Neur0t0xin]

Class-ey-kully tray-ned?
I think I've heard of that once. ;)

I considered taking lessons, but I don't think my style of learning meshes with...pretty much anyone. So I'm self taught through and through. I hear something, I guess the key, keep trying and looking 'til it sounds right and roll from there.

Like I say, not really meshing with the classical way. And the way I play, I could probably bring classical tutors to tears or violence, keyboard and guitar both. ;)

Still. It works for me!

[Scali]

I just wish I was.
My parents were never interested in music, so we didn't have any musical instruments around the house, and I never took lessons.
When I was about 12-13 I think, my neighbour had this school friend who played keys (they both played some guitar aswell), and they'd write and record some music together.
From them I picked up some of the basics of making music, and I went out and bought a keyboard of my own. I tried to teach myself to play a bit.
I later caught the guitar bug from another friend, and now I play both.

However, I'm pretty much all self-taught. I can't read notes, and I'm not very good. If I had played from an early age, I'd probably be able to sightread without a problem, and I'd probably have good piano technique and be able to play pretty much anything.
But it just seems that at the age of 32, it's going to be incredibly difficult to learn how to read notes and study piano in a serious way. It would take far longer to pick up than if I were young, and I have far less spare time aswell.

I think it's a great enrichment to anyone's life if they can read notes and play an instrument.