[Hey_Porter]

My piano playing experience is in many ways the story of my life: lot of natural talent, not much ambition. Started piano when I was 7 or so from the teacher that was considered the best in town. She made you practice non-stop, and had no qualms about "benching" you from recitals/performances if it was obvious you didn't practice. When she left I went to another teacher who was way more laid back, i.e., I didn't really practice. She was a good teacher, but even without the practice I was still her top student, which I still feel guilty about (meaning, she probably deserved better from me than what I gave). Being in highschool at the time, I thought it would be a lot cooler to play jazz piano instead of classical, and not having learned ANY productive theory, I had to pretty much start from scratch.

Went to college, took lessons as a class, again never practiced, still second-best student.

Barely play at all. I poke around enough to know that if I sat down and tried to learn a piece I could play it almost as well as if I had played it at my "peak" (I'm more disciplined now). Sight reading has gone to hell, but I can sit down and bust out about five of my old performance pieces without even thinking about it. The mind is a crazy thing.