**Do You Have Anything You Really Like to Do, But Hate to Start?**

[WritingIsMyReligion]

For me it's piano. I love piano--absolutely adore it--but for some reason every time I think about practicing I get this huge, horrible, dreading feeling. It's so damned hard to start, and yet when I finally sit down and do it, I'm on cloud nine for forty-five mintues. I don't know WHAT it is about the idea of practicing that makes me flip corners in the attempt to evade it, especially since I know that once I sit down and get started, I'll have a blast, and continue to progress musically.

:shrug:

[Misunderestimator]

1. Working out... I love it, but it's so damn hard to motivate myself to ...

get on the bike, or the treadmill, or whatever. Once I start, and the endorphins start up... I love it.

Playing piano... now that's something I hate to Stop!

[WritingIsMyReligion]

2. I too also hate to STOP playing....

I'm just really weird about the whole thing, it seems!

:D

[lukasahero]

3. I hear that

Actually, it's not the getting started working out part so much as the getting my ass out of bed at 5 am to go work out part that gets me... :yoiks:

[WritingIsMyReligion]

4. 5 am?

That would be murder for me....

:yoiks:

[lukasahero]

7. Oh, yeah, it sucks, but it's the only time I can fit it in

since I don't want to go to the gym after dinner (that whole eating/exercising thing...)

BTW - When I was a kid, it was torture for my folks to get me to practice. Then when I got in college it was torture for them to get me to stop. :) I think it's difficult to get started at anything if you consider it a chore.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

8. Were you on piano?

Or some other instrument?

:D

My parents have nothing whatsoever to do with my musical education, except for....uh....paying for it. :D But they wouldn't know a quarter note if it slapped them full-on in the faces.

[lukasahero]

13. Oh yes, piano

And my folks were big into my musical education. My grandfather was a concert pianist. My dad played in jazz bands. I started the piano when I was about 6. Majored in music in college. Now I'm old and injured though so my oldest nephew has taken up the helm.

How long have you been playing? Are you studying classical?

[WritingIsMyReligion]

16. I've been in love with the piano for, well, as long as I can remember---

always, always, always wanted to play, but never was allowed to. After a while my passion for it began to wane, but was eventually jumpstarted again when, out of the blue, I got an electric keyboard for Christmas--I was in 6th grade. I screwed around with that for a long time. I can sight-read treble clef music easily, but I didn't know bass clef notation then, and was shy and horribly unconfident about ever putting the two hands together--I just flew off with the right hand.

New inspiration to play hit me in the summer of '05, and begging on my part eventually produced formal piano lessons in late November of '05--I was (and still am, obviously) a freshman in high school. With the inspiration for piano came a blazing desire for jazz, but I was told in no uncertain terms that I would learn "regular" (my mother's terminology, not mine :eyes:) piano before jumping ship to jazz.

Now it's March 24th, 2006, and, after a yearning for the ivories my entire life and four months of formal classical piano lessons, I am on a third-year technic book and have nearly finished Hanon's first book--20 exercises--of "The Virtuoso Pianist in 60 Exercises." Admittedly the Hanon is a "junior" version, but the only thing changed is that it's 8th notes instead of 16ths and the hands are placed two octaves apart instead of only one. My teacher says I am as advanced after not even 6 months as his 1 1/2-year students are, and that I am utterly a natural at the keys.

I just started private music theory lessons with a local guitarist/theorist as well, with a focus on jazz theory, this past week, and I am still waiting to jump ship to jazz piano lessons. My mother is determined to make me take lessons with my current teacher for a full year, at least, before looking at jazz ivories. I've decided to wait, as well, for by then my knowledge of both jazz/jazz theory--in addition to the private theory lessons, I play baritone sax in the jazz band at my school--and piano will be much more advanced.

I have a specific jazz pianist in mind from whom I want to take lessons, and I think I can "get" him some time--his wife is a beloved ex-teacher of mine with whom I am still in frequent contact, and she has begged me to go to her husband for jazz piano when I can. Her husband prefers to work with students who "already have some piano background," so I figure a year or two of classical piano, especially considering the level I already allegedly play at, should qualify as "piano background." In any case, I definitely want to do specifically jazz piano for at least a year before I get shipped off to college.

This post was WAY longer than I intended it to be....Sorry. :blush:

:D :D

[lukasahero]

28. No worries about the length

Sorry, I would have responded earlier but I lost this thread somehow. (I was hoping you would fill me in so I've been looking. Apparently my eyesight could use some work. :) )

You're going to hate me but I agree with your mom. The only difference between classical piano and jazz piano is the theory. The physical technique you learn in classical music will serve you well in jazz but you absolutely need the jazz theory so that's where you should focus your efforts. Learn the technique from classical, get the theory from jazz and soon you'll be able to put them together yourself. :)

Sounds like your longing for it served you well also - we're always better at what we love than what we "have" to do.

Oh, and for the record, you will be playing (or should be playing) Hanon or some variation of it for the rest. of. your. life. Get used to it. ;)

I hope you get in with that jazz teacher you want. Sounds like he wants to teach you jazz (not necessarily the piano) which is sort of what I was saying up above. Sounds like he'd be a good catch.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

29. I don't hate you at all.

It's irritating to wait, but it makes sense. So does the Hanon, which I don't really mind so much---a necessary evil. :D

Yes, he's definitely the one I want. His wife adores me, so maybe she'll put in a good word.

:D

[anarch]

21. I second that

I think it takes me longer to psych myself up to go exercise than it does to actually work out.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

5. Writing and working out

I don't know why it's so difficult for me to get started on these two things.

And there's really nothing that similar about them at all.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

6. I also do sometimes have issues with getting started writing....

Usually I don't try to force it, though.

:D

[windlight]

10. I'd agree with the working out part..

I'm by no means a heavy weight weight lifter, but i do enjoy the rush of lifting. (btw i only bench 30lb dumbbells and squat lift 140, so it isn't that much... but it is so fun once i'm going) It is just getting going that is so hard....

[Patiod]

14. I get an endorphin rush from the eliptical, but I hate starting

Lifting I don't enjoy at all ever, but I couldn't bear the flabby tricep thing a day longer, and it HAS helped firm up the arms a bit (although eating less would probably help even more...)

[ScreamingMeemie]

9. Working on my scrapbooks...I love being immersed in it, hate getting

the stuff out. :hi:

[WritingIsMyReligion]

17. MrsG! Haven't seen you in a couple of weeks now!

How have you been??

:pals:

[ScreamingMeemie]

22. Hi WIMR!

Just a little bogged down right now. I'll get back up on that horse one of these days. :hug:

[Katherine Brengle]

36. Me TOO!!!

I have all this great stuff but it is such a pain to make a space for it and pull it all out and get organized... I think scrapbooking was designed for people with looooooooooooooooots of time and space to blow lol.

[BigMcLargehuge]

11. annual Lawnapalooza spring lawn cleaning

I dread it until I actually have the tractor out and a rake in my hands, then I am unable to stop until it's too dark to see what I am doing.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

18. LOL!

:D

[LSK]

12. yeah, visit GD

:scared:

[WritingIsMyReligion]

19. Very true.

:D

[slide to the left]

15. yupper

running, gardening, cooking, cleaning, sex

[WritingIsMyReligion]

20. !

:rofl:

[slide to the left]

27. glad you liked that

[InvisibleTouch]

23. Ironically enough, writing.

I get all kinds of ideas. Throughout the day I sometimes have intense flashes of "I wish I could sit down and write" syndrome, but only, of course, when I'm in the middle of having to work on something else. When I actually have the time for it, I can't seem to bring myself to start. But on the occasions when I do start, it's a total adrenaline rush during and after.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

30. That's exactly it.

:D

[Momgonepostal]

24. Painting...as in walls

I like doing the actual painting, and love the effect and look of sliding a roll of color over an old, drab wall, but hate all the prep work. The masking and covering takes long than the actual painting.

[leftofthedial]

25. recording

I HATE starting a recording project.

That's probably why my new CD is so long overdue.

Procrastination is a double whammy because I write faster than I record and new songs keep overtaking the old project, which helps me rationalize procrastinating.

[Ariana Celeste]

26. Cleaning.

I will procrastinate and procrastinate, but once I start cleaning, I get way into it and just love it.
Well, except dishes. I never enjoy dishes. :P

[zanne]

31. Planting my garden.

I love planting the little seeds, watering, even weeding, but I hate breaking up the ground in the spring with my big old tiller.

[silverpatronus]

32. laundry

love doing it. starting it is a bitch.

[smirkymonkey]

33. Everything...

except sleeping. I love to start doing that.

[eleny]

34. Fiber Art Projects

I'm so afraid of screwing up, cutting wrong or my sewing machine going wacky. But once I get into it and inspiration conquers perspiration, I can surmount any obstacle.

Frankly, I'd almost rather shop for supplies than do it! Like today, for instance, I shopped at the thrift for wool sweaters to make into felt in thew washing machine. Such fun! But now I have to felt them and don't know how they'll turn out.

/end of hand wringing.

[Katherine Brengle]

35. Working out, painting, playing my violin, writing sometimes...

I am a First Class Procrastinator.

[LostinVA]

37. Running... but once I do, I love it -- especially afterward

Endorphins blasting through my blood...

[osaMABUSh]

38. Federal Taxes

I always put it off. But with Turbo Tax it's so damn easy and fun to play with the numbers. Plus I always get a huge refund so why I put it off is beyond me.

[samplegirl]

39. upholstering

buying old chairs and giving them a new look.
Decorating projects of any kind.



http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e196/samplegirl







crazy fun

[samplegirl]

41. I've got this one started

[windy252]

40. Working out for me too

I hate starting it because the routine seems daunting until I start.