Hello from Washington DC

Hello from the U.S. capital!

I found this forum through Andrew's YouTube channel. I've been watching the "lesson" videos and it's definately given me some comfort. I am 50 and started piano around age 12, but I only had lessons during vacation times, at my grandmother's home. My lessons discontinued completely when I was about 14.

Nevertheless, it was enought to make me a lifelong pianist of sorts. I didn't play during my twenties, but when I was about 38 or so I purchased my piano and began again. Somehow, my basic training was enough so that I could fairly easily get back to playing. I play a great deal of Bach (WTC), but also Beethoven, Schumann, Mendelssohn (I love the "Variation Seriuses"), and Faure. Oddly, I am just beginning to overcome a lifelong fear of Chopin. I have a Baldwin (Artist) grand piano, their 6-foot-4 model; not the best equipment artistically, I suppose, but solid as a Range Rover.

I'm a dilettante in my playing, so I am striving to bring one or two specific pieces to some sort of technical level, I guess. Thus far in my adult playing, I have taken a "spiral" approach to playing better, always "playing around" my different music books but never settling in for some serious work. So we'll see how I do putting some ore discipline into my keyboard days!

Best,
Bill.

Hi Bill and welcome ,hehe and good luck with your quest ..not that you need it

Hey Bill!

nice to have you!! the thing that amazed me the most is when you said you had a fear of chopin! I've never heard of anyone fearing chopin. What scares you about him? I'm very curious! I think he's one of the easiest composers for your hands, most notes fall right under your fingers and sound amazing. In my opinion at least.

I agree with everything you said about Chopin, Andrew. He is the most pianistic of composers and, in some ways, the most intuitive. But for me the other side of the coin is the unapproachability of, for example, the etudes. One piece I have really tried to work up, to really gain proficiency/fluency in, is the nocturne, Opus 9, number 3. You can get really hung up in that piece. I find it quite difficult.

Nevertheless! I have been dismantling my "fearful" attitude regarding the technical challenges (and virtuosity) of Chopin compositions, so I am improving there. I'm reading "Evenings with Horowitz" by David Dubal, and the author quotes Horowitz as saying that the fingerings and style of a piece of music can tell you how the composer played the piano, how he or she approached it. I know that when I am done playing a bit of Chopin, my hands feel like they can do anything, and my improvisation is always richer

Thanks for the note!
Bill.