SOLVED! My upright piano has these streak marks from I suppose wiping, and we think that the cleaning lady might have used the wrong chemicals for this when she came by. I did ask the piano service man if I could fix it DIY and asked him what kind of polish do I need to reverse this "damage". He mentioned it will have to be taken back to service centre for coating and polishing again. Which costs $300. I think I'm fine with the charges given that it's the entire piano, but does anyone know if we can still do it ourselves/how? And how much (ballpark) would it cost?

PS Won't blame the cleaning lady since it's an honest mistake. So any solution would be out of our pocket.

My great grandfather wrote and played music for the piano but nobody in my family plays. I have pictures of the music but the scan apps just don’t work. Would anybody be willing to turn these sheets into pdfs? I want to play it to my grandma cause this is one that was significant enough for her to keep and it might actually be recognizable for her through Dementia. Don’t actually know if this is one he wrote or just played.

I am in the market for my first acoustic piano and have been keeping a close eye on the local market for a couple months for a used upright in good condition. Last week, I finally saw a very good deal on one of the models I'd like, went to play it, and found it to my liking. To be on the safe side, I hired a piano tech to go inspect it and let me know if there were any undisclosed issues. The tech went today and shortly afterward emailed me that the piano was in great shape and was worth about 75% more than the advertised price. A few minutes later, I received a call from the seller, apologetically informing me that my piano tech had told her the same thing and that she was going to renege on the offer and try to get a few more grand for the piano.

I will obviously be asking the piano tech I hired for a refund and sending him some choice words. Do I have any other recourse? Any recommendations would be appreciated!

Ok this is a really bizarre question, but every time I sit down and play the piano for a significant period of time, I smell… poop!?

I’ve been playing the piano since I was 4 years old, and I remember first noticing this phenomenon in high school and being confused and annoyed by it. I had played the same piano my whole life, a wonky Wurlitzer no doubt, but it’s been in the family its whole lifetime and always kept inside, no rodent or mold problems or any unknowns like that. I then took several years off from playing regularly as I went to college and settled into adult life… recently I was thrilled to buy a secondhand Yamaha and have gotten back to playing for an hour or so at a time, and… it’s happening again. Before getting this piano I played my electric keyboard, and I’m pretty sure that the same thing happened with the electric keyboard, but I can’t remember very well since the times I played it were few and far between and my memory sucks in general.

But anyway, the consistency of this is weirding me out, since time/place/piano doesn‘t seem to have anything to do with it. I’ve seen some things online about synesthesia and wonder if I have some sort of weird crosswire in my brain that makes this happen?? But I’ve also wondered if sitting and working/concentrating/sweating/relaxing somehow makes me leach some sort of odor through my skin?? The weird part is, the smell is ALWAYS exactly the same… I do have some gastro issues / IBS and have my whole life, but that comes with a lot of variation if you know what I mean haha, where as this odor is always exactly the same no matter what I’ve eaten or what. I probably need to co-opt my roommate to sniff around me and around the piano when this happens to see if I’m hallucinating or if she can smell it too. I think the smell is general and not coming from a specific location on my person, but I need to do some closer… investigation on that too. But I was just curious if this has happens to anyone else and if anyone ever figured it out?

I’m pretty sure this has happened when I play my cello for a while too—but I haven’t played it very regularly so I need to start making notes or something when it happens to help my “crappy” memory.

It’s not going to stop me playing, but it is unsettling, and a little stinkin’ weird. 💩

My husband and I both took piano lessons for 12 years. I ended up minoring in music as well. Anyway my kid just started piano lessons. I was messing around on the piano playing Chopin (nocturne and waltz) in minor keys and she starts bawling. She said that the pieces scared her because they were in minor keys.

How is she supposed to ever learn how to play an instrument if she's scared of minor keys? She only recently started taking piano lessons. Any advice?

This is my first time using Reddit, or any Social Media, honestly. I am myself an old man. My grandson suggested using Reddit. Apologies if this is not the right place for such request. In that case, I would greatly appreciate if someone redirected me to the correct site.

My dad is a 98 year-old man in his deathbed. He is a Spanish pianist, but unfortunately due to old age and memory issues, he has forgotten most of the things he has done in his life. We show him his past recordings and he greatly enjoys them. There is one piece we cannot find, and it's the one shown in the Comment's Section. It was his own request, to hear Der Wegweiser. My grandson is very handy with technology, licensed even, and has checked every site and no recording of this piano solo is found. We have listened to the original piece, sung by the great Fisher-Dieskau, but we cannot find a piano solo of Der Wegweiser.

It seems to me that this might not be a very well-known transcript. We have only found Lizst's transcript that does not include the whole cycle.

Our family would greatly appreciate if a pianist found in Reddit can play this piece for my dad. I know Der Winterreise has been his favourite cycle ever. He even attempts at singing, though he has never been good at it. But at the piano, he was the best. He loved this particular piece, he held it close to his heart.

Thank you in advance.

I'm an adult self taught pianist for a couple of years and I have a degree in music theory. I've tried two piano teachers so far for about 5 lessons each, and neither of them have taught me anything. I'm not sure if this is normal or if I should fire the 2nd one and try a 3rd one.

I go to the lesson, I perform the stuff he told me to practice, then we either continue practicing that or we start practicing the next thing, which is currently a bunch of scales and chords. I know what scales and chords are, I know how to practice them, and I know how to finger them or how to look up fingerings. No other lesson is imparted. When I ask for critique on technique or articulation or anything personalized, I'm told it's "good" and we can "worry more about that later". Sometimes he tries to explain about the chord theory basics like what the circle of 5ths is or what an inversion is, until I remind him I have a music theory degree and already know that, so we just go back to practicing.

So basically I'm paying these people a dollar per minute to tell me to do the next page in a workbook and then watch me do it. This is not worth money. What I want to know is if this is a typical starting plan that will likely improve later, or if both of these teachers are just bad.

Looking at posts asking about sheet music, and everyone is just talking so much crap about Musescore, but why? I've used it for years, for writing sheets and mostly for getting sheets, and it seems fine. Are there better alternatives?

Hi everyone
I’m especially looking to hear from people who started playing when they were quite young but all opinions welcome please!
I have a 4 year old daughter who has incredible memory and has been labelled as gifted by her school. I know she is gifted but she does not have a good attention span and cannot sit still for long. I know she’s not super genius but she’s definitely smart. Around 7 months ago I started taking her to piano lessons one on one with a teacher she absolutely loves. The teacher has also said she is gifted at piano and thinks she could be very good at it one day. Apparently her note reading is advanced and she can remember a piece after only playing it once or twice (only basic pieces). But here’s the issue…

When I take her to the lessons (which are very expensive btw!) she gets bored and just wants to chat to the teacher. When she tries she does an excellent job. The teacher is lovely but gets frustrated as she has to keep reminding her to play. She also will not do any practice between lessons no matter how hard I try. She gets very excited to go to lessons but I can’t tell if she actually enjoys playing piano or just loves her teacher

So here’s the dilemma. I don’t want to force her to keep going and waste our time and money if her heart isn’t really in it. I don’t want her to resent piano. But I don’t want to give up easily and waste her talent. I think piano has been great for her and it’s a lifelong skill, but I think people can only be talented at things they enjoy. I asked her this weekend if she wants to give it up and she said yes but I am just not sure what to do.

I’m writing a short story for class involving two characters who heavily dislike each other; since they both play piano, I thought it would be fun to have them disagree on a lot of things about it.

Music choice is the first thing that comes to mind, but I’ve never played piano so that’s about as far as I’ve gotten lol. If anyone has any other subjective / technique-based things that two pianists could argue about, it’d be much appreciated. Thank you!

I came across this on reels, does anyone know the name of this piece?

I’m an adult learner and appreciate the work I’ve done with my piano teacher. However recently I started detecting alcohol on her breath when she would lean in closer to point something out. It’s not like she’s outright drunk, and her behavior hasn’t outright changed (though sometimes I wonder if a little more impatient/forgetful??)

Also I’m an adult learner so it’s not like I’m a super serious student nor are our lessons that rigorous. So not sure it matters other than being distracted when I’ve noticed it, but I can probably get over it. But also is my playing really THAT bad haha.

Anyway just wondering what others would do.

I want to just play something sad and let myself feel through the music, anyone know anything that fits that? All I’ve got is Mozart right now and that just isn’t hitting right.

They don't fit in my regular bookshelf. (Links welcome)

When discussing the acclaimed question of whether you can live as a professional pianist, the answer always seems to be black or white. You either are part of the 0.00001% that make it to the top and make millions playing hundreds of concerts around the world every year (which is understandably never an encouraged possibility), or end up having to live always on the edge, playing gigs you don't like and spending most of the time giving lessons to just barely make it to the end of the month. Is there nothing in between? Is it not possible to become reasonably good, acknowledged locally so as to give one or two concerts every month, maybe join a university as a professor and save just a few hours a day to teach select students, charging what your experience is worth, and live a comfortable life?

I'm trying to increase my repertoire of songs I play in the hospital. My current line up is honestly starting to bore me and I'd like to switch it up. Here's a couple of the songs I currently play, none are too advanced and they're all fairly easy to sightread:

- Massenet Thais

- The Debussy trinity: Reverie, Arabesque no. 1, Clair de Lune

- Mendelssohn Lieder Ohne Worte

- Tommy Dorsey swing music (Manhattan Serenade, Stardust, Sleepy Lagoon)

- Henry Mancini Days of Wine and Roses

- Fauré Sicilliene op. 78

For context, I play for an hour non stop and the waiting room is generally SILENT. I am not allowed to play any pieces that showcase any "virtuosity."

But please drop any recs, anything you think would be a good fit, or anything YOU would like to hear if you were in a hospital waiting room! I'm

For a gift, my boyfriend offered to learn/play any three songs of my choice on the piano for me, no questions asked.

I know next to nothing about the piano, but I would guess his level is pretty high. He took piano lessons from age 6 to 18 and can play most common classical pieces and pretty much any pop song I put in front of him.

He's a big classical music fan, and admitted he thinks I'll pick some random pop songs for him to learn.

I want to surprise him with some really off the wall requests. Something that would be fun to learn to play, and that you wouldn't expect someone to recommend you.

What would you suggest?

Hi, I've been getting into classical music (I've been listening to lots of different recordings of the Beethoven sonatas lately), and I'm having a blast.

But I've noticed that classical music critics seem to lay into, I guess, "flashier" performers like Yuja Wang and Lang Lang, claiming their interpretations lack "depth" or "nuance", especially when they're performing work by pre-Romantic composers (in this case, Beethoven).

What exactly does a critic mean when they say these interpretations lack "depth"? I can't really hear it, but I'd like to at least understand what it is specifically they're critiquing, even if I decide I don't agree that it's a fault.

(Note that this isn't an anti-intellectual "any critic who dislikes a performance I liked must be Wrong™" kind of post; I have more experience with other art forms, and often find critics point out interesting things I might've missed on my own. So I'm not looking to be reassured "all famous performers are great"; I'm just trying to understand what it is, specifically, critics are responding to—like, is it about deviation from previous interpretations, is it a matter of dynamics/technique, or whatever else.)

It's pretty much always guaranteed that non players wish they can play piano and this annoys me on the inside as I know they can play piano. None of us players were born with a music book in our hands.

I just need help being able to explain that it does require serious dedication to learn without putting them off of learning altogether so a nice gentle way to try and encourage them to play.

They also always ask me about learning with an app.... I'm extremely against that as it doesn't have any instant feedback on problems and mistakes. Do you think these apps can be useful in any way?

Thank you for the help and happy playing.

Hello my fellow piano players!
I just recently got this book about a month ago. So far I’ve learned about 8 pieces out of it.

I chose the easiest ones I could find to start, but also ones that interested me. I love the waltz’s especially by Chopin, since growing up I never had any of his sheet music. I’ve played piano on and off for over 20 years, started when I was about 5 or 6. My mom’s Sonatina book I had was mostly Khulao, Clementi, Mozart, etc.

Can someone recommend my next song based on ones you’ve maybe had fun playing or based on difficulty level, these have been FAIRLY easy for me to learn and I want something more challenging but not crazily so. Help!

So I've been offered $100/hr lessons, but it is by my fave pro pianist and I feel grateful to work with them. I know that a year ago though, that would have been too much of an expense for me.

So now I'm curious about everyone, especially hobbyists, rates and levels. So my questions are:

-- How much do you pay for lessons? -- How long have you been taking them/playing? -- What level are you?

Optional: would love to know how it's helped your playing.

<3

I used to have a subscription to musescore and let it lapse because screw them for swindling me into a 2 year subscription in the first place.

So now, how the f*** do I download the supposedly 'free' music anymore?

Both before and during my subscription I was able to download music. Now? Nothing. In no way have I been able to download anything from musescore.com without it wanting me to pay.

I don't get it, its really maddening. Does anyone have any info they can fill me in here? I swear I'm losing my mind.

Watch my main middle vain as I twist my arm. When I twist back, it becomes super interested in the world to my left, but goes back to normal and straight when I bend my fingers. What is happening?

I have had to learn some serious over tension and overuse lessons in the last couple months. I have been playing on a semi weighted keyboard for about 20 years, then got a Roland FP30 about two months ago. About a year ago, I started playing about 4-12 hours a day. Not only did that not stop when I got the fully weighted keyboard, but I began learning Patrik Pietschmann's version of Interstellar, which has rapid left hand 10th arpeggios (I can only reach a 9th comfortably).

With the 10ths being arpeggios, it shouldn't have been too big of an issue with strain. The problem is, all this time, I did not know piano wasn't one of those, "no pain, no gain" kind of things. I had no idea about tension and how I should be completely relaxed. 20 years, 20 years man and I never knew this basic thing. I was trying to keep my hands and fingers stretched and pre-ready to go for the 10th span, and I was abusing my hand. I think the bulk of the injury came from doing the large left hand arpeggios up in the high octaves, but definitely was injuring myself from the lower octave variant as well. I stopped playing with my left hand about 3 weeks ago and have been working on proper techniques with my right.

Thing is, my pain doesn't even come from the weird vein thing in the video. It hurts mostly about 4 inches down from the bottom of my wrist toward my elbow.

With your knowledge and experience, what would you do if you couldn't go to the doctors? I feel like this is the wrong subreddit to ask this because if you're here, you can probably afford an acoustic piano, lessons, and doctors. If that does apply to you, what would you do if that wasn't the case? What should I look out for and how would I know when I can start playing again? I do not feel stiffness and do have full flexibility, but I feel a weird snapping/clicking/popping in my hand/wrist/arm. Is there hope for me to be able to play again?

Thank you for your time.

Update:

Totally normal. It is called "Rolling Veins," or, "wiggly" veins if you're cool. This post was intended to be about my overuse with poor form injury, and turns out this is completely unrelated thing. Weird timing on my discovery. Thank you to everyone for trying to help me and others with piano injuries.

Hello fellow keys enthusiasts. I am a nursing student and I have been doing my clinical shifts at a Charlottesville, VA nursing home/rehab facility this semester. The facility has an upright but it is in need of tuning. The facility (like most such given the gutting of Medicaid by the present administration) has no budget for getting a tuner in (honestly I could have stopped at no budget—there is no way to adequately express the damage that has been done to the care of the elderly by the big shitty bill). I am wondering if any piano tuners in the area feel like donating some time to make the instrument usable. There are patients and staff (and people doing clinicals) who would be very grateful for your time. If you are interested, drop a comment and I will contact you via DM to get particulars and talk to the facility’s activity coordinator to get something scheduled.

Everytime I get drunk (very rarely) I get a massive urge to just sit at a piano and listen to the music I play. Problem is my motor skills arent the most accurate after consuming alcohol lol.

Was just wondering if this was a common experience?