You have wanted to learn piano since childhood, but you never had the resources. Now that you have the instrument and the support you need for lesson, you feel that you’re too old to begin. If this is so, please read on. I have taught many adult students and have learned a thing or two about how they learn and their limits to learning.
- Many skills can be gained and improved with age. Unless we are gifted or talented in our craft, we all do things poorly when we are young.
- Adults can understand patterns in music, intervals and measurements between notes and tones more quickly than grade school children. After six weeks of music lessons, an adult is playing pieces that require higher skills than his seven year old counterparts.
- Because you are most likely the one who is paying for your own lessons, you will appreciate your own hard work. A child who is signed up for lessons by his parents often looks for ways to get out of his lesson or dawdle during the lesson. Stretching every minute that you have with your intructor and paying close attention to the quality of your practice between lessons will give you more bang for your buck, which you’ve worked hard for!
Before you rush into piano lessons, keep in mind that you have an adult’s schedule filled with work, appointments, dinners, and other responsibilities that come with being a grown up. Be realistic about the frequency of lessons, the amount of work that you want your instructor to give you to work on between lessons, and the pace at which you want to learn. If you have a 40-hour work week, volunteer as your children’s soccer coach, and sing in your church chior, you probably won’t have much time between lessons to practice. Consider one lesson every ten to fourteen days.
