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Piano lessons for adult beginners:
It's too late not to start
As a professional musician and teacher, I meet so many adults who express regret at not having learned to play piano as a child. Worse, they believe it's somehow not possible for them to learn music. It's as though there's some unwritten law that makes it impossible for a person to learn anything at all about music once she or he reaches maturity!
This is pure myth.
On the contrary, adult beginners are highly successful learners who possess an abundance of advantages for learning music. I teach a number of adult beginners who not only have experienced great success, but, most importantly, create joy every moment they sit down at the piano. (My own adult students can correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm assuming their mommies and daddies aren't sending them to me kicking and screaming every week to their temper tantrum protests!)
Advantages of adult beginners
Adult beginners have so many advantages for learning to play piano. To name but a few:
- Adults have highly developed logical and critical thinking faculties.
- Adults can "connect the dots" far more easily than can children. They can grasp concepts quickly and make relevant analogies with ease.
- Adults have the ability to quickly absorb sophisticated theoretical and historical concepts.
- Adults have a mature base of experience from which to draw for musical expression.
- Adults are highly familiar with a wide range of music.
One of the reasons adults make for such great learners is that learning music is predominantly a mental and emotional activity, and adults have far more highly developed minds and emotions than do children. Since with proper training the mind and emotions are actively engaged at all times (which is so often tragically neglected since it is almost invariably misunderstood), adults are in an ideal position to benefit from this training. What's more, since the ultimate goal of music study is emotional fulfillment, adults can simultaneously express more and receive greater emotional rewards.
A confession...
I have a confession to make. I was also an adult beginner. That's how I can speak with authority on this topic. I started playing the piano at seventeen, having suddenly and passionately discovered classical music. (Mind you, there was an early attempt, upon which my incompetent teacher exclaimed to my mother, "Take your money every week and throw it in the garbage -- Albert will never be able to play the piano!")
Nothing provides greater motivation to me than the claim that something is impossible. It's true that there was latent talent, but believe you me that by no means precluded intense work. I set about to prove that "physical" limitations are ultimately psychological, and I was driven by my desire to make the "impossible" possible. That led me not only to become a concert pianist but to explore corners of the piano repertoire that most professional pianists consider unplayable, and to perform it with great success after only a few short years of playing. I'm not saying this to boast; rather, I see it as my artistic duty to set an example of what's possible and to encourage you to realize your own true musical potential.
If you twist my arm... here's a brief example of one of my early performances of one such piece. It's one of Polish composer Leopold Godowsky's (1870-1938) Studies on Chopin's Etudes, in which Chopin's original right-hand part (of the sprightly "Black Keys" study) is transferred note for note to the left hand:
(I'm left with some amusing anecdotes from those early days, like the conductor who kept insisting that I correct the misprint in my biography leading to our performance of Ravel's Concerto for the Left Hand:
"It says you just started playing four years ago."
"Yes, that's correct."
"But this is one of the hardest concertos in the literature.... That's 'impossible!'")
There were two fundamental factors to the equation that supplanted merely innate talent and led to my success: (1) a winning psychology, and (2) outstanding teachers. If either is missing, I promise you won't begin to see what you're truly capable of. If you acquire both, you will consistently astonish yourself!
I was very touched recently to have received a kind letter from a young pianist, Jason, who was encouraged by my work:
"I'm sure you realize that your progress is pretty much an anomaly in the world of piano playing, I'd say greater than even Godowsky's self taught achievements (he had decades of more time!). I really think that your early recordings are very important as a historical document. It is countless how many times I have heard and read that once you are past a certain age (usually 12 or 13) piano mastery is next to impossible. Just the other day I saw the BCC documentary 'Imagine Being a Concert Pianist' where one of the interviewed professors states, 'If one's technique isn't really sorted out by 15, 16, or 17, they may progress, they make get good, but will always feel hang ups and uncertainties; they aren't naturally virtuosic.'
"Your early recorded performances completely dispel that myth twofold. Not only are you playing well, but you are playing music that many professional pianists never dare touch! I truly believe your early playing provides a great indication of what the human spirit can actually achieve when freed from dogmatic ideas and attitudes. If anything you show that great playing can be developed at any age!"
I'm at least as encouraged by Jason's words as he is from my story. (For the record, though, I don't believe my humble achievements are worthy of Godowsky's remarkable exploration of what the piano is capable of.) I thought about keeping my story a secret, but it's really part of my personal mission to help others overcome the psychological myths that are presently keeping them from experiencing the profound joy of musical expression.
If you're an adult beginner or regret having quit piano lessons as a teenager, I dare say you owe it to yourself to explore your true musicality. Dial the studio now at +43 (699) 81 31 26 57 or fill out the form below to make an appointment at the studio!
Wishing you tons of musical success,
Albert
