Welcome!

Welcome to Certainly Not Presto.  This is going to be a catalog of my attempts at learning piano, and the pace, so far, has dictated the blog title.

As a quick intro, I started playing a 5 years ago.  I had a small background in music with a few years in junior high band playing the trombone.  It certainly helped because I had had some theory, rhythm, and reading the music of course.  It let me get right into learning to play rather than learning to read.

My initial goal was to play Pachebel's Canon in D.  Two years later I played it at a recital.  Well, I thought I had anyway.  It was actually an easy arrangement of "The Canon" as my first teacher would have called it.  Since then I've gotten a couple more versions, and I really need to polish my most recent.

The next year I had a more ambitious goal with Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata.  It took me a year, but I learned it and felt pretty comfortable playing it with minor errors.  Unfortunately, playing it with pressure isn't the same as playing it for yourself and that recital didn't go so well.  But, I collected myself and finished it.  After that I left my teacher as I was in a rut and was neither adding to my library, nor making significant progress.  

Shortly thereafter I hired a new guy and he's been fantastic for my development.  I've gotten inspired again and have done well over the last 6 months.

My plan here is to share my progress for those that are interested, and by doing so build expectations such that I have short term goals as well as long term.

I should be able to host files up on youtube or podbean or whatever so that you can hear the pieces that I have learned.

I hope you enjoy taking this journey, even though it's pace is Certainly Not Presto.

edit:  One thing I should do is not assume my readers are familiar with music I reference.

Moonlight Sonata

Pachebel's Canon in D