I have been passionate about music since I was a child: I wanted to be a composer, but I have to settle for being a skilled laborer... and I even have to be grateful
Due to various circumstances, I haven't been able to pursue regular studies: I took a year of lessons on an unweighted keyboard at age 8 (in the '75 it was easier to buy a piano than a weighted keyboard), the following year on the piano (but at home I always only had the 5-octave keyboard), then the teacher (rest in peace), who wasn't exactly a champion of friendliness, told me "either your parents buy you a piano or you change instruments". My parents' response was "the chapel is poor"...
At 18, as a coming-of-age gift and also for my high school graduation (I am an early graduate), they offered me either a used car or a piano as a gift. I chose the piano, but I had to realize that the train had already left... nonetheless, I started taking lessons, but after only 3 months, having to move cities for university studies (which had nothing to do with music), I had to stop: I could only play for 3 or 4 hours when I returned home, 3 times every 2 months, so I made the decision to give up technique and learn directly how to play what I liked, even if with a thousand difficulties and inefficiencies: for example, it took me more than a year to learn Etude No. 1 op. 10 by Chopin, but there are still a couple of passages that force me to slow down compared to the metronome (I also have "short hands")... I spent another two years learning Brahms' Rhapsody op. 79 no. 2, and even there there were a couple of things that never quite worked for me.
It's not that I had the idea that scales or arpeggios were useless; I knew they would shorten the effort of learning actual pieces (for example, Bach's Chromatic Fantasia, without knowing how to do arpeggios well, turns out like rubbish), but in my case, I considered them a lost investment, given that I could only play for a few hours a month...
In this sense, I consider myself self-taught, and as you will have understood, I play only for myself. When I practiced, I would make everyone leave the room and lock myself in... unfortunately, the piano could still be heard, but I have never played in front of anyone, let alone in front of people who understood classical music...
Much later, at age 28, I learned to read and write music without the help of any instrument, thanks to the so-called "movable do" method (or Goitre, or Kodály) which, in my opinion, is infinitely more effective than classic solfège (not just in my case... I have seen many people who by the tenth lesson were already able to do a musical dictation without errors; it took me even less).
I arrived at this forum looking for information on how "real" sounds (8') of an organ pedalboard are written, since I have an organ pedalboard to which I would like to apply sensors to connect it to a Roland weighted keyboard (I've been saying this for years, but who knows if I'll ever do it).
Another interest of mine would have been learning harmony, not so much "classical" harmony but so-called "functional" harmony. I have seen that there are manuals around titled "functional harmony," but at a quick glance they seem written for jazz musicians, therefore with many simplifications (and confusions, in my opinion... )
I, on the other hand, would like to delve into that which derives directly from Riemann's studies, which I learned about through a good book by La Motte, which however refers me to two or three texts that I have only found in German (a language that, alas, I do not know). I would be interested in order to develop the so-called "analytical ear," which would be another of my dreams. I then had to change cities again for work at age 31, and then I got married and had children... and since then I practically don't play anymore, meaning for 17 years. I have also developed very annoying tinnitus (I have about ten whistles in my ears from 8kHz up... it's like listening to someone continuously scratching chalk on a blackboard, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year... my interest in music is a bit tormented... surely my interest in Hi-Fi is completely dead).
For a few years now I have had a used weighted keyboard, which unfortunately I have used very little; then I thought that one day, before I die, I would like to try practicing with pedals as well, so I got an organ pedalboard... but getting the instrument is the least of it... finding the time to practice it is quite another matter...
I hope I haven't bored you too much, and I will certainly ask you for advice and suggestions on these and other topics.
See you soon.
