Musical Fossils

I came across this website: Musical Fossils

It is a series of articles about adults learning to play piano, and the issues adults have as opposed to children learning. Very interesting reading indeed.

Here is one fossil speaking to another, hoping to learn some piano before being put to a museum.

This site has been placed in my (already too long) piano bookmarks folder. Had a quick glance at it, will take a closer look later.

There are downsides and upsides for us the late starting fossils. We usually have more discipline and are serious about our study, though time is not on our side. Family and career also make it difficult to find enough time.

But keep going, Pianoted, it doesn't matter, not to worry about time, doing it when you can, it's all about going ahead and enjoying it, no matter the age.

Was reading about the differences between kids and adults myself, and it's true that adults are more decipline when it comes to it, but don't like to make mistakes. I always believed when it comes to schools, that kids or anybody should be free to make mistakes, and not fear about getting told off by teachers, sometimes a student might not do all their homework or something, but maybe they didn't know, but the teacher would still tell them off, as longs someone tries, there shouldn't be any problems, but help.

Some kids might be forced to play piano or an instrument by parents too, some sadly quit because they're not enjoying it even if they are playing for years, the thing about being that bit older is that you're there because you want to be.

Haven't read anymore but i'll get back to it.

I particularly like the way he talks about "getting the feel" of the piano, and playing with your eyes closed (I've tried that, and that works really well). In general he has a lot of interesting observations, makes for good reading and some pointers as to how to approach your playing.

When I play with Synthesia I find that I have my eyes on the computer screen and try to guess where the keys are (can see it on the screen if I hit the right ones.)

So it practises blind playing, better than reading from sheets. Because when you have the sheet the notes are always there, while in S. they stay on the screen for a short time. Means that using the sheets I tend to look more at the keyboard.

But I can of course play a passage from notesheets or PDF, by first knowing what notes to play. Requires good sight reading abilities, which comes with practice. Better to have the MIDI-file as well (or a recording of a good pianist) in order to know how the song should sound.