Do you play the piano?

Yes, but not very well anymore. My mother had me take lessons for a few years, starting when I was around six or seven. Then in college I had to take keyboard theory and minor in piano for my music major. I haven’t played in any serious way for over a decade, though.

@SavoirFaire -Nice!
My mom tried to teach me but I wouldn’t participate.XD
I have her piano in my living room and the only time I hear it played well is when one of my sibs stops by.
What kind of music do you play?

No, I didn’t. No one in my my family did. I don’t think any of my friends did.

Yes, I can play the piano. I have no special talent for it, but I can read music and am competent enough to play a simple piece. I took piano lessons as a kid. It is the only instrument I know how to play.

@Demosthenes…and a good one it is! I’d be happy to play something more than Chopsticks.

Indeed I do.
I sound rather like this beautiful huh?

@ucme -It is! He really sells it.

Yes. I am self taught, and it shows.

@filmfann -Still nice! If you can play a few decent tunes, that’s alright in my book.
Playing this would make me happy.
or this
Not asking much. XD

I took piano lessons from around 8–15. After that I taught from 15–19. The stroke killed my ability to play as I never figured out how to play one handed!!! I was never that great at it as I didn’t enjoy playing in front of others.

@LadyMarissa Stiill, it’d be nice to be able to do that. What kind of music do you play?

I used to, a lot. I took lessons for 5 or 6 years as a child, with indifferent success, and hated to practice because I hated putting all my mistakes on display. I did learn to read music well enough and enjoyed playing from hymnals and song books, straightforward, unornamented four-part harmonies of traditional songs such as we sang in music class in school. Here’s one of them: The Blue Book of Favorite Songs.

But when I was about 10 my mother showed me how to play by ear: the basic chord structures and their relationships to one another. She played beautifully by ear, and I took to it straight off once shown the essential principles. I had a very good sense of chording—how one chord leads into or resolves in the next, where to use a diminished chord, how to use a seventh, how a given chord in one key follows in a circular relationship (in both directions) to other keys. I could pick any tune I knew and place my hands on the dominant chord in any key and play it right there. Some nights I’d spend the whole evening at the piano, experimenting, working out the chords to new songs, and revisiting favorites.

Once away from my parents’ house at age 19, I never lived with a piano again until we inherited my mother-in-law’s spinet about 15 years ago. I never got all the way into it again, and my hands are stiff and unpracticed, but I can still chord my way through a good many songs—and play old tunes from the Blue Book that nobody sings any more—preferably when no one else is home.

@Jeruba That’s awesome!
I clicked on a random page in that book in your link and saw a little pen scribble/drawing :)
I am dealing with some loss of dexterity due to MS but find applying heat usually helps.
As for the piano and I, my lack of nimble, ivory tickling digits will be my built in excuse for playing with no skill whatsoever.XD
Try a little heat and see if it helps:)

I was trying to find a link that shows sample pages. I can’t seem to link to them, but if you search on the title you’ll find some. My copy is yellowed like these. I bought it online some years ago, but it’s the same as what we had in school. Music classes in the public schools I attended used to involve choral singing from printed music, up through ninth grade, and as an elective after that.

I do use an arthritis glove on my right hand when it acts up, especially in cooler weather. I have about six unused left-hand gloves.

@Jeruba -We had choir in elementary school but I don’t remember there being a middle school or high school choir.

@lucillelucillelucille, there were several choirs that students went out for, comparable to band or sports or clubs, and they performed at assemblies. I was referring to ordinary scheduled classes in between, say, geography and algebra, where the whole class sang from these books as the teacher played the piano.

@Jeruba -We did have music class and were forced to sing, whether we wanted to or not.
The choir was for kids who liked to belt out a tune. Like my husband

Not really. I used to be able to play some simple songs, but I was never very dedicated. My grandmother played the organ, so she taught me the basics when I was a kid.

I took lessons when I was in middle school. The songs that my teacher taught me were not relevant to me. The teacher was a sweet little old lady who was a friend of my grandmother’s.

I might have enjoyed it more if I could have played something that I understood better. I got to where I never practiced and then quit. Now, I can still read music so I could probably play something simple but that’s about it.

Yes, proudly self-taught.

@lucillelucillelucille After the simple songs of my early lessons, it was all classical piano. I really liked playing Erik Satie, but I could never quite get Scriabin’s Vers la flamme to a place I was happy with (the ending is quite difficult, and I have a very specific interpretation of how I wanted it to sound).

@ANef_is_Enuf -Mom mom played the organ as well.That is in my sister’s house but as least she can play it.

@jca2 -Maybe it’s like riding a bike?

@dxs -What kind of music do you play?

@SavoirFaire -I like Erik Satie very much.

I used to. I haven’t played in many, many years. I used to play cello as well. But again…not in a loooong time.

@seawulf575 -Cello too? Nice!
I turned down a chance to see these a few years ago. I regret that one

@lucillelucillelucille Nice! Yeah, you screwed that pooch. Should have gone. It would have been a good show, I bet. I notice the one guy’s bow was breaking hair like crazy. I saw Charlie Daniels one time and he was sawing on his fiddle so hard he broke ALL the hair on his bow and he finished the song using only the wood. THAT is skill!

@seawulf575 – Wow! That’s something else!

@lucillelucillelucille I play new age, but more the lively energetic kind of stuff. Jon Schmidt is one of my favorite pianists.

@dxs -I will check that out.

I can play some. Used to take lessons as a kid.

@Coolhandluke -What kind of music?

Songs like Louie Louie (50s) and Copperhead Road. The wedding march, all the kid songs. I can also do Chopsticks.

Silly things mostly. Later I picked up a geeeeetar so I’m better with that.

@Coolhandluke – What songs on that?

@lucillelucillelucille nosey ass! LOL

I first learned Smoke on the Water. I can do Ozzy’s I just want you, GnR’s Sweet Child of Mine, and half ass version of November Rain when Slash nails it in front of the church! I can do Zelda theme music. I don’t know there’s quite a bit I do.

@Coolhandluke -I need some inspiration! lol
Any Stevie Ray Vaughan?why not XD