1. Hi, I am 69 and started learning to play 11 years ago. I had moved to a new teacher 6 months before the first lockdown and we immediately moved to Zoom. I even bought a new iPad to make sure everything would work well. I have not suffered from the lockdown and all the restrictions, I have felt sufficiently busy, between the piano and some walking alone or with friends. I have probably practiced more, and more regularly. My teacher is very good and lessons always leave me with a good feeling and plenty of energy and motivation. Thanks to the piano I have suffered no boredom and no frustration. I wake up, I have my breakfast and then I have scales and arpeggios , plus pieces, to work on. I go back to it later in the day. It has been an interesting experience to discover what I need (and what I don’t need) to be content.

2. Piano lessons have continued – by Skype during the first lockdown, then a move to Zoom latterly. It has been enormously useful, if not essential, that lessons should continue as I consider myself a learner still and need guidance and feedback. The on-line experience has sometimes been frustrating because of technical hitches, but as lessons – not too bad at all. I have come to understand more and more how much I need other people around for stimulation and motivation in different areas of activity. The first lockdown – not too bad, but over this winter motivation has been very difficult to summon up. Certainly without that weekly lesson I would have stopped and regressed. The general pattern for pieces to focus on is one from the Baroque period, one from the Classical and a modern piece, plus shorter pieces to address specific areas of technique. I think we should all have a “clapping session” for teachers – they are amazing! And I am so looking forward to resuming face-to-face tomorrow!

   • Thank you very much for your comments, Ingrid. I will incorporate the various comments I’ve received into an article

3. I recommend Zoom lessons. They are great and intimate. Not much is missed. We can see and hear each other well and can see our respective keyboards. I think I am still making good progress.

4. Hi Fran,

   Your blog is busy and fascinating as always! I hope you get loads of interesting answer to this one. I felt tempted to add my thoughts, but couldn’t log in (expired user name somehow), but in case it’s interesting to anyone but me, I wrote:

   Interesting question, and I think amateur pianists have mostly had a better time of it during lockdown, compared to professionals who have had a tough time with performance diaries emptied by the pandemic, sadly.

   As an amateur though, lockdowns have meant fewer external distractions, such as meeting friends or family, or eating out, and it was an interesting challenge to have all those hours of free time suddenly available. I normally enjoy a lot of chamber music playing, but that has entirely ceased: so it was a good opportunity to learn some new solo repertoire, and attempting to learn some pieces that I thought were impossible. Some of them still are! I’ve enjoyed meeting new friends through online piano clubs too.

   In my case the big challenge pieces were mainly by Prokofiev and Ligeti, but I’ve enjoyed re-learning some Bach, Brahms and Bartok too. I’ve continued to have very rewarding piano lessons via Zoom, despite a few technical frustrations early on.

   Lockdown has reminded me how much I love playing with others, and also that even very hard pieces become almost possible with a lot of determination and time!

   Hope all’s good with you meanwhile,

   all best wishes

   Julian

   On Wed, 14 Apr 2021 at 11:01, The Cross-Eyed Pianist wrote:

   > The Cross-Eyed Pianist posted: ” Amateur pianists – how has lockdown been > for you? What have you been playing? Have you practised more or less during > lockdown? How has your motivation been? Have you been able to continue with > piano lessons? (If you have regular lessons.) How” >

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