My piano story... should I give up on it ?

I had a friend that liked to go sailing. It was his passion, so he bought a house near the shore and a boat. For a few years he took the boat out regularly. But, then what happened is he started losing interest. Why? Because he owned the boat it was always available. There was no need to go sailing this weekend, he could do it the next weekend or the weekend after that.

After a few years of barely sailing, his wife convinced him to sell the boat. After all, it cost money to maintain and keep in the dock. If it wasn’t being used, it was only right to sell it.

Then what do you think happened? Yep, he suddenly regained interest in sailing. Why? Because he couldn’t!!! It wasn’t that he was actually interested, rather it was that he couldn’t that made him begin thinking he wanted to start sailing again.

If you get another piano the same thing will most likely happen. For some time you will be happy, but then the piano will once again start gathering dust.

And there is an easy way to prove me wrong. If you truly have passion to play, go to a music shop and buy a used keyboard for $50. If after a year you are still regularly using the keyboard, then start saving up for a piano.

Dear Richard@DecisionSkills ,
Thanks for your answer, it really helped me ! In fact, I didn't think about buying a used piano keyboard before but it seems to be an excellent idea ! Thanks to it, I'll may be able to afford it myself, without making my parents spend their money for me once again. Then I'll see if playing piano is indeed a real passion for me or if the fact of not being able to play just frustrated me.Thanks again! Have an excellent day

I play a bit of electric piano. It seems to work best when I avoid rigid routines or seriousness. In fact, playing keyboard relaxes me most of all. Have you tried writing songs or riffs, or melody? A lot of decent piano players were self taught. Barry Manilow started on a cheap piano and Gilbert O Sullivan taught himself in a shed. The thing is to enjoy playing and focus on harmony. Also, try some singing perhaps.

Dear davidbanner99@, thanks for sharing your experience! I have never tried writing songs or riffs in the past because it seemed a bit difficult to me, but I'll might give it a try ! And as you said, I think that enjoying playing piano is of course the most important thing and that's why I'm not feeling like taking piano lessons anymore, because I think that having to go at the conservatory every monday even if I did not wanted to was one of the main reason why I ended up dropping it off. Or maybe wasn't I motivated enough ? I don't really know...
Anyway, thanks again for answering to my story, have an excellent evening !

dizzymindgirl wrote:Dear davidbanner99@, thanks for sharing your experience! I have never tried writing songs or riffs in the past because it seemed a bit difficult to me, but I'll might give it a try ! And as you said, I think that enjoying playing piano is of course the most important thing and that's why I'm not feeling like taking piano lessons anymore, because I think that having to go at the conservatory every monday even if I did not wanted to was one of the main reason why I ended up dropping it off. Or maybe wasn't I motivated enough ? I don't really know...
Anyway, thanks again for answering to my story, have an excellent evening !

Music is about "feeling" and thrives on inspiration. The feeling comes and goes. I can think of scores of great musicians who experienced lapses and loss of interest. For example, John Lennon after The Beatles just baked bread and chilled. Yoko, by the way was a trained classical pianist. So, it's normal for musicians to have off periods. Play when you feel like playing and don't force things.
One way to write songs is to mess about with chord sequences on your piano. Here, you need to seek runs of chords that "move" you. That is, playing for yourself. Then, hum or sing to those chords. The more you have fun experimenting, the better you'll get. At the same time, listening to other musicians allows you to see how they made simple hooks to develop their songs.
I think you have a yearning to do music and I say, go for it and have fun.

Here's a self-taught piano player and songwriter I always admired. Gilbert has his piano set up with a simple cassette player to record his song-writing. This is a really terrific song he wrote back in the 1980s.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hP3MzuUmY58

Dear davidbanner99@,
Thanks again for your advice, what you said made me
feel better about that dumb decision I've taken in past, which was of course to stop playing piano at all. I'm now sure that it was just a period of time and I'm glad I wasn't the only one who experienced it. I'm just craving to play piano again and I'm really grateful you're encouraging me to continue ! Also, I watched the video you sent to me and as you said, Gilbert O'Sullivan was indeed really impressive. The fact that he was self-taught makes it even more amazing ! It's motivating me even more to continue and I'm sure I'll enjoy it a lot, just like when I started playing piano ! I'm extremely grateful to you, your advices really helped me to confirm my decision. So, once again, thanks a lot !

Just found out Lyle Mays passed away, relatively young. His keyboard and synth playing used to inspire me. Mays was also an architect and mathematician. Here is the news item:

"Lyle Mays, the keyboardist who spent a significant portion of his career recording and performing as a member of the Pat Metheny Group, died Feb. 10 at Adventist Hospital in Simi Valley, California. He was 66.

While the specific cause of death was not made public by press time, Mays’ niece, jazz vocalist Aubrey Johnson, said in a social media post that it came “after a long battle with a recurring illness.”

“Lyle was a brilliant musician and person, and a genius in every sense of the word,” she wrote. “He was my dear uncle, mentor, and friend and words cannot express the depth of my grief.”

After the news of Mays’ death was reported during the second full week of February, Metheny had the following message posted to his website: “Lyle was one of the greatest musicians I have ever known. Across more than 30 years, every moment we shared in music was special. From the first notes we played together, we had an immediate bond. His broad intelligence and musical wisdom informed every aspect of who he was in every way. I will miss him with all my heart.”

Mays was born in Wausaukee, Wisconsin, on Nov. 27, 1953, to a musical family. While his parents held steady day jobs, both harbored a deep love of music and played instruments: His father was a self-taught guitarist, and his mother played piano and organ, mostly in church. Mays followed suit, taking piano lessons from a local teacher, and eventually began playing organ in his hometown church as a teen.


Mays’ jazz studies landed him at North Texas State University (now the University of North Texas), where he studied under the direction of Leon Breeden and joined the school’s prestigious One O’Clock Lab Band, alongside bassist and future collaborator Marc Johnson and future Freddie Hubbard drummer Steve Houghton. Mays became the group’s chief arranger, with his distinctive touch and impressionistic piano solos heard on the band’s Grammy-nominated album, Lab ’75!

While Mays’ first professional gig out of college was playing with Woody Herman’s band, it was his work with Metheny that defined the next 30 years of his career. The two first met at a jazz festival in Wichita, Kansas, during 1974. But it would be several years before they regularly began performing and recording together, starting with Metheny’s 1977 album Watercolors. From there, Mays became the longest tenured member of the Pat Metheny Group, co-writing much of the band’s material and blending acoustic piano with an ever-growing array of synthesizers to add misty textures and whimsy to their sessions. "

I've been playing piano since I was a kid but I've never been, like really good. I actually quit for a number of years because I got frustrated. You just got to be really patient with yourself and take things slowly. Piano takes time and practice and it's not gonna be easy, that's a fact!

RMont25 wrote:I've been playing piano since I was a kid but I've never been, like really good. I actually quit for a number of years because I got frustrated. You just got to be really patient with yourself and take things slowly. Piano takes time and practice and it's not gonna be easy, that's a fact!

I use piano on synth so it's not in any way virtuoso standard. It may be arpeggios or chord sequences. I'm more into what sounds "nice" than raw skill. Another angle is singing because that in itself is a whole science. More so, finding your voice. I discovered that at lower keys my singing goes flat and not vocally defined. Put simply, I sound crap. Raise the key and it improves. The voice identifies somewhat. So, I'm not a baritone. I'd say mid tenor. Plus my voice isn't gutsy or strong so ballads suit me best.
A must is to record your singing and play it back. If it sounds bad, try another key. Or even accept it's not the right song. Also a lot of pop singers were never really that brilliant but were accepted. The whole point in pop music is, after all, to have fun with music.

I often use this track to represent a totally average singer who manages to still come across in a way that the song is a success.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VDJlFPGmLPc

Judie Tsuke I saw in the flesh many years ago. Lovely lady and a terrific voice.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dSws1HEBBUE