Welcome to the tonebase Piano Community!

Hi, I'm Jeremy.

I have just joined and am very happy to be here!

1. I live in Hampshire in the UK, but my favourite food comes from nowhere near home - India and Thailand. I'm not sure this part of the UK is famous for any kind of food in particular, though there is a large Nepalese community in the town where I live and the restaurants are great!
    
2. I am still fairly new to the piano, so the pieces I'm currently working on are something of a cliche for newbies: Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27, No. 2, First Movement (the "Moonlight" Sonata) and Pachelbel's Canon in D.
    
3. I'm hoping to get inspiration from this community and support during those times when you just want to scream!

Hi, Tone community! Bruno Lopes here :)

 

•  I'm from São Paulo - Brazil,  the house of "caipirinha"
• I'm still working on the basics of theory, Hanon, Czerny and trying to learn Chopin Noturno Op.9 n2
• I'm hoping to get some inspiration and motivation. Sometimes alone is difficult to keep going.

Hello! My name is Tiago and I’m from Brazil.

 

well, my favorite food is apple pie, done by myself :)

 

to say the truth, I’m not working on anything yet. I studied piano last year, before the pandemic started and stoped due to that. Now, my wife started to learn violin, so I am grabbing this opportunity to play something with her in a near future. :)

 

I am a beginner and I hope I can find a path to move to a higher level with help of tonebase. It would be great if I could find a mixture of theory, practice  and history that could help me to develop as a pianist. Also, I would be really glad to learn from the community tips of music that could be played by an beginner pianist and violinist together :)

 

thank you all!!!

Hello,

 

I am Lucy, born and raised in Jiangsu China, now living in Vancouver, Canada. Favorite food is sweet sour pork ribs, made by myself :)

 

Currently working on some prelude and fugues from TWC book 1 by JS Bach, Mozart K310, some Rachmaninoff preludes (op 23, no 4&5), Rachmaninoff suit for 2 pianos op. 5, Schubert D940. 

 

I learned piano in China when I was 10yo, stopped at 15yo. When I got to university, I found myself into classical music and started to play again for 4 years and stopped again because of changes in life. And when Covid happened, I was 33 yo, I picked up piano for the third time more seriously than ever, and this time, I think music will always stay in my life no matter what happens. 

 

I discovered tone-base listening to one of the podcasts talking about "rubato", content was very extensive and well organized, and I felt inspired and found many interesting videos on the tone-base youtube channel. I do find valuable tips for my own repertoire but I also enjoy watching theory and analysis content, which I am not very good at now, same with jazz and improvisation; I enjoy very much the interviews with concert pianists. I also like watching how concert pianists teach beginner topics/pieces, as I am starting to teach students, and those content also makes me think about my own learning journey as how it reflects to my proficiency now. 

 

Happy to meet all of you here. Thanks Tonebase for this platform. 

Where are you from and what's your favorite food from there? ;) 

 

Greetings I'm Tian 

I'm a painter from South Africa. I'd have to say our "braai" (BBQ) is great! Nothing else like it.

 

What are you currently working on? 

 

I'm just starting out. A late bloomer. 

 

What are you hoping to get out of this community? 

 

It's always been a dream of mine to play the piano. I'm hoping to soak up the knowledge and make up for lost time only starting at the age of 32. 

 

Any suggestions on a good place to start?

Hi, new to Tonebase. As an older adult looking to relearn piano, but not a beginner, I have bounced around a few platforms. This is by far the best fit for me. Looking forward to improving my knowledge and technique, while staying away from the game style format that all the others seem to use.

Hi! I am from Taiwan. Favorite food is seafood. Currently working on Bach-Busoni Chaconne. I want to improve my knowledge/technique related to piano. I am also interested in getting started with Jazz piano. Thanks!

A) Hi, my name is Edmund Heng and I'm from Singapore. 

My friends call me a garbage bin because I love to eat everything and I'm eating almost all the time lol!! My favourite food would be a medium rare steak, lamb and barbecue chicken wings! I love grilled fish, squid, prawns, scallops as well. And CHEESE!!! Mmmmm. As you can see I really love eating lol!! It's 430am here and I'm having ice cream! =D

 

B) Pieces I'm working on are 

1) Ballet from Orpheus and Eurydice (also known as melodie de Gluck) - Gluck/Sgambati 

2) Liebeslied - Kreisler/Rachmaninoff 

3) Standchen - Schubert/Liszt 

4) Intermezzo In A Major - Brahms 

5) Chance Encounter - Kevin Kern 

6) Blind Film - Yiruma 

 

As you can tell, I'm a sucker for expressive and romantic music. 

I am a massive fan of new age music and I used to transcribe them and share it on my YouTube channel for free. Because of that, I got to know many pianists from around the world and I still keep in touch with some of them via Facebook. It's amazing how music brings people from all around the world together. 

 

3) As for why I'm here on tonebase, I did not get a proper education in music. I got my associate diploma in performance but my teachers weren't very good. 

 

One was busy cooking for her dog during my lesson (my ATCL teacher) and my teacher for abrsm grade 1-8 didn't do anything except point at the sheet music while I played. Never have I once heard both my teachers demonstrate anything on the piano for me. It was only about playing the right notes. Thinking back, I wonder if both of them even know how to play the piano. 

 

Little wonder my results for my piano exams were mediocre. And I got forced to learn pieces I didn't like. 

 

I was a former stockbroker and decided to change my job to be a piano teacher 7 years ago and I've never looked back. I promised myself to not be the teacher my teachers were to me. 

 

I'm extremely patient, I always perform to inspire my students. I tell them the importance of playing from the heart with feelings and expression. I tell them the importance of singing in your head when you play so that you can play and express yourself in the most natural manner. It's impossible to play something without first hearing it in your head.

 

That performing a piece is like communicating with the audience and telling them your version of the story. I also tell them to use their imagination as much as possible to enhance their story. Also, sometimes having an image in your head when you perform can help you to focus.

 

I am envious of my friends who have good teachers. They go to famous conservatories to learn, they get to attend masterclasses with world class musicians. Whereas my teachers were random housewives who never played a single piece for me. 

 

And that's the reason why I'm on Tonebase. To learn from the best. To attend classes that I would have attended had I studied in a music conservatory instead of going to a business school and getting a degree in Economics. And I'm going to keep on learning. For the rest of my life! 

 

Some of my students parents ask me 

"Is my child still a beginner? When will they be advanced?" 

 

And I'll reply 

"Yes. They are still beginners. And I am a beginner too. Do not worry about the end goal of being advanced but rather to enjoy the journey of learning. In fact, the more I learn, the more I think I don't know about the piano. 

 

Isn't it wonderful that you can learn the piano for a lifetime, yet discover so many things that you still can learn? That's the beauty of performance arts isn't it? There really isn't a point to learn something that you can master in a short time. There is no satisfaction in it."

 

I'm here not only to study. But to learn how to be a wonderful teacher as well! 

 

I'm so happy to be here on Tonebase. You guys have assembled a great team of musicians here! It's like The Avengers. And Seymour Bernstein is like Master Yoda! Lol!!