Happy New Year From India

Hello everyone.

My name is Aneesh Karayil and I am really glad to be a part of this forum (and am greatful to Andrew for setting up such a forum). I am from India. I had grown up in southern most part of India (in a small town) and now living in central part of India (which is a city). Learning piano was a child hood ambition of mine, but as I was in a small town, I never had seen any teacher and probably my parents could not have afforded too.

I now work as a software engineer, and as I had moved to the city (Pune), I decided to take up my ambition seriously and started searching for teachers. For two years, my search was never fruitful, because all the teachers (two to be more precise) was teaching me to how to play Bollywood (Hindi music industry based in Mumbai) songs with just one hand (right hand). I knew this was not it, I had definitely heard of scales and chords (but had no idea what they were) but the teachers were not able to completely teach me these areas (But please dont get me wrong they were good in what they did, it is just that it was not what I wanted ). I was disheartened, and thought there may not be any teachers who can help me. I started to learn online and bought some books, and started self study. I had a small stint in US, Portland- where I bought a book called Piano for dummies with CD. I started practicing with the key board I had, once I reached back to India.

The MD of the company where I was working (it is a small company by the way), once saw me watchin youtube videos on how to learn piano and called me to his cabin, and asked me about my piano ambitions. And interestingly, his daughter was also learning piano. He told me, here you will be learning western notations, and will have good grasp on theory of music, sight reading etc and I jumped upon the opportunity. And started learning from last December (2007). The teacher required the students to also give Grade examinations of Trinity College of Music London. I appeared for Theory of Music Grade 2 last May and got 93% marks, and then gave Theory of Music Grade 4 and Practicals Pianoforte Grade 2 last November. Theory results are awaited, but practicals I just passed with only 64 marks (minimum required -60). My sight reading and aural tests did not get as well expected and I was under tremendous tension. (Moreover I could not fully understand the British accent of the examiner).

I am a passionate learner of piano, and I thank Andrew for all the lessons he had posted on youtube. And when I went through the first few lessons, even though I learned more there, I was happy that I already knew a lot what he was saying. This gave me a confidence that I am finally on the learning path which I always wanted and moreover the path is the right path. As they say "When the student is ready, the teacher appears!"

Thanks very much.

hey m also frm india.......hi..