Welcome to the tonebase Piano Community!

Greetings. I am 71, living in Virginia for many years though raised in New England, which I miss. I began lessons at age 7, left for boarding school at 14, where rock pulled me from more serious study, and I didn't begin my (mostly) self-education again until I was 25 and got a piano. My father Paul was an accompanist at the top of his profession in the mid-20th Century. The beauty of his playing and his love of Classical music are my unreachable north star, with Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms among others as my eternal guides. 

      Sight reading is my downfall; it was always easier to learn by ear as much as possible and memorize, something gained from singing with my mother from the earliest age. (It was still a time when we made our own entertainment -- what a concept!) I haven't gotten much better over the years, which is to say, pathetic. Fortunately, I can still hear.

     Lacking lieder singers in my environs in recent years, I have tackled a few solo pieces that sounded so easy -- HA! Brahms's Opus 18, No.2; Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words, Opus 38, No 6 and now Opus 19, No. 1. Like Schubert's Sch::one M:ullerin, Beethoven's An Die Ferne Geliebte, and Schumann's Frauenliebe (which don't, of course, sound so easy, and aren't), I memorize pieces whose beauty draws me in, sometimes simply because of that, and sometimes (as in the case of the later two cycles), because something about the typical performance enfuriates me and I am determined to get at what I am certain the composer intended. Same with Mozart's Anbendempfindung.

     My technique is barely worthy of the name, my practice schedule is a roller coaster, except when I have a mission to accomplish, such as an informal recital or other performance, which these days is almost never.  From this, it should be clear that I play pieces I have no business playing. But, with silent apologies to the composers, I keep at it.

Hi! I'm Ellinor and I'm new to Tunebase. I live on the west coast of Sweden and seafood is very popular in my region, especially in the summer months.

I'm currently working towards a grade 6 piano exam and the pieces I'm working on are Mozart K545 1st movement, Invention no14 in Bb (Bach) and Gnossienne no5 (Satie). 

I'm very exited to start learning with tonebase. I've followed the YouTube channel for a while and enjoyed it a lot. I'm feeling grateful that I was now able to join and getting access to all this knowledge. I've browed the membership page a bit and the content seems great. I hope to improv my musicianship and technical facilities. I'm also looking forward to learning from all the lessons on great repertoar available, that I'll be able to grow with for a long time. 

The live events and community activities you offer also seem interesting and I have to look in a bit more to these opportunities. 

I'm looking forward to learning and keep growing as a pianist and musician with you!

Welcome Elinor to tonebase! I can only say to you that I hope your expectations get fulfilled. It is a place to learn and to find the courage to start new ways of practicing the technical aspect or learn a piece by a composer you never imagine you would like. All the best in your exam and will see you in tonebase!

Hi, I'm Kim and I'm from The Netherlands. I played the piano for about 8 years as a teenager, was spoiled with a piano teacher that owned a beautiful Erard grand piano with a unique feel and sound that I fell in love with the first day, eventually disappointed my piano teacher and family by not pursuing an admission to the conservatory of music, and gradually stopped playing piano altogether.
Fast forward 20+ years and I now find myself drawn back in to making music at 41, picking up where I left off again (I wish, actually quite a few steps back from where I left off) playing the piano, and joined Tonebase as a motivation to get back up to speed. I'm already enjoying the in-depth videos about the pieces, and look forward to improving my skill.

Hi. I`m Sachi and new in the tonebase community :)

• Born and raised in rural countryside, Hida in Japan. Favorite food: I miss Japanese food, Matcha soft ice cream is in my mind right now.  I live in the south-west part of Norway for over the last 30 years. 
• Currently working on Debussy: Clair de Lune & Chopin etude op.10-3. Getting 2 pieces ready for coming soon home consert: Brahms Waltz Ab major & Chopin etude op.25-2. 
• From this community, I am hoping to collect inspiration and encouragement to persist own  journey.  I long for connection to like-minded people. I`m a piano lover, 4 th year into serious piano challange. 

My name is Alexander (Alex) Weymann; I joined tonebase in November 2020 but didn't really make use of it other than watching a teaching video here and there. Recently, however, I discovered this piano community - and I absolutely love it. What a wonderful, supportive group of people! This community provides just the continuity and the motivation I need as an eager amateur. :-) 

I was born and raised in Germany but have been living in the U.S. continuously since 2001. I'm a pediatrician and went to medical school in Germany but did all my postgraduate training in the U.S., most of it in New York City. I then moved to St. Louis where I lived for 12 years. Since 2017, I have been living and working in Columbus, OH. A few years ago, I actually attended a wonderful concert at the Columbus Symphony with Dominic Cheli as the soloist in Shostakovich's first piano concerto (with solo trumpet) - an amazing performance, and still a memory to treasure! In addition to playing the piano, I enjoy singing and am a Bass 2 in the Columbus Symphony Chorus; I sing bass in our church choir as well. 

My favorite food from Germany is hard to pick, but I do love our thick, fluffy, egg-y German pancakes. And I miss the many wonderful types of cold meats - all those delicious varieties of ham, roast and sausage... 

What am I working on? I am currently brushing up a piece I first learned as a teenager - Chopin's "Fantaisie-Impromptu". A very dear family friend is getting married in August; she loves that one especially and used to always request it, so I'll make a little video recording and send it to her as a surprise. A new piece I am learning (and enjoying tremendously) is Marc-André Hamelin's delightful arrangement of Zequinha de Abreu's "Tico-Tico no Fuba". And the most recent big, long-term project I've embarked on is Schumann's "Carnaval" which I hope to play for mother on her upcoming 90th birthday - it's one of her all-time favorites, a piece she heard her father play often. 

What am I hoping to get out of the tonebase piano community? Motivation, support, enjoyment of other people's music-making, learning how my peers cope with and overcome their technical and musical struggles. And, most of all: focus to help me learn new pieces "all the way", performance-ready. Like probably many of us, I have a demanding 60-80 hour a week day job and currently no piano teacher to keep me honest - so this forum, I hope, will help me perform better in what little I can do at the piano.