Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum About to begin...What to do, what to expect?

Hi everyone,

I'm new here. I'm proud to say that after wanting to learn piano since I was FOUR (I'm 37 *gulp* now) I'm starting my very first piano lessons on Wednesday!

I'm extremely excited, but a little nervous. I am not sure as to what to expect, how fast I will be taught things...will I spend months just learning scales?

I have a keyboard and am planning on getting a piano soon...so what do I pick? I'm thinking of an upright but depending on what site you go to each one seems to bash one brand and praise another. Then there's "grey" market pianos....

I'm so confused....

I'm just a bundle of questions and any suggestions you can provide will be greatly appreciated.

Hi Sneezy. Welcome to the forum.

As for what to expect -- it's going to depend on your teacher. Most use methods that start with simple songs that demonstrate progressive techniques, so I doubt you'll just do months of scales (if you do, you might want to reevaluate the choice of teachers). I would say the main thing to expect is that it's going to be harder and take longer than you think. If you're at all like me, you'll find yourself going over simple little songs again and again and wonder why in the heck you can't get through them without mistakes. But believe me, it will come. If I can do it starting at 50, any one can do it at 37. (Heck, if I can do it there are probably some higher primates that can! )

As for choosing a piano, I would say as long as your keyboard has 88 weighted keys, you're good for the first 6 mos to a year. If not, check out the inexpensive Casios or try craigslist for used digitals -- I wouldn't suggest spending too much at first. After that you can re-evaluate and decide what you might want longer term.

We are now living in the Digital
Piano Age, and so there is no need to
"upgrade" to an acoustic piano, in
my view. If your digital is a weighted-
key one, then it is already a grand
piano-like instrument, with sound
sampled from a concert grand and
an action modeled upon a concert
grand action. You cannot outgrow
a grand piano, and so there is really no
need to ever upgrade your piano.
In fact, I personally consider acoustic
pianos, particularly uprights (grands
are still viable as furniture), as
all but obsolescent today,
essentially, 19th-20th century
period instruments that
have outlived their usefulness.

Nevertheless, you should never tell
a piano teacher that you have a digital,
because many piano teachers, even
20 yrs. into the Digital Piano Era,
have never played one, know nothing about
them, hate the idea of a non-acoustic
piano, and will discriminate against
students who own them.

As for lessons, you need to go into
them with your eyes wide open. The
dropout rate is high and the
instuction is often incompetent, and
so don't expect a teacher to turn you
into a young Franz Liszt in a
couple of yrs. With this instrument
you typically need about 10 yrs. just
to get your feet wet.

My best advise it NOT to listen to GYRO...

Welcome to the forum, sneezy. You've gotten some good advice here, and some, er, idiosyncratic advice.

If your teacher wants you to spend the first few months doing nothing but scales, get a different teacher. While you should not expect to be able to play complex pieces from the beginning, you *should* be playing some (simple) pieces in addition to technical exercises from the very start.

My best advice would be to communicate clearly from the beginning with your teacher about what your goals and preferences are for learning piano, and making sure it's consistent with what the teacher proposes to do.

And it will not take 10 years "just to get your feet wet" in piano. You should be able to play some very beautiful sounding pieces by 6 months or a year.

As for the piano itself, as you do your shopping you may want to start a thread over in the main forum (which is where most piano shopping questions are posted). Click on the link to the "Piano Buyer" site (on the right hand side of the page) to read the latest edition of the Larry Fine book (it's free online). You'll find more information than you ever dreamed of about the various brands and issues like gray market pianos. (Bottom line: gray market pianos can be risky, but they can also be good deals. You just need to make sure to have any used piano inspected by an independent technician before purchasing it.)

Good luck, and be sure to let us know how your first lesson went.

Well first off hello and

I wouldn't say I was 4 but I had "always" wanted to learn to play the piano. I've always loved listening to instrumental music, kind of like Movies & TV, + of course Billy Joel, Elton John (who are AWESOME in concert together), Nora Jones + many others.

At the ripe old age of 37 I finally got off my ass and started. Of course this was after having a digital piano collecting dust along with my Alfred books for almost 6mths (!) However I then got a teacher which basically gives me accountability each week. She's great so that's my first piece of advise. If you can, find and get a good teacher. You have to be confident of their ability to teach you but you also have to get on for sure!

Next up I would recommend the Alfred Adult Series. There are others on here for sure but these are the most popular and will yield you lots of support and help. There are many links in the first page of this ABF which will help guide you. There are separate "support" threads on each book 1,2, 3 etc. Combination of Videos and MP3s to listen to.

Of course there is also MOYD (think Seinfeld) and combined with all of this you'll be having a blast in no time.

Biggest piece of advice outside of the above that I can offer you is HAVE FUN! You have to enjoy this or you won't succeed. Second and probably more important is get to grips with the notion (right now) that there are going to be people out there who are seriously talented. Even at the very beginning, we've seen some people take part in the online recital after on 3mths and we're all blown away.

You yourself are going to be better than others, it's just the way it goes. Sounds easy and pretty obvious yes? Believe me, I struggled with this for approx 3mths but then I just "went with the flow"

Fast-forward to just over 1yr later and I've got 3 online recitals under my belt and 2 live ones. Of course I had some help since I just found out my Great Great Grandfather was a published composer!! yep, it's in the genes

Have fun and enjoy!
SC

MOYD?

thanks everyone......it's good to know I'm not "too late" to start...I'm more excited about my first lesson than I am about the long weekend!

almost wish I could skip it and go right to the lesson!

Go and take a look here (Mater of Your Domain) ABF Tips, Details and Guides..
- SC

My best piece of advice:
BE PATIENT
Expect improving to be a loooooong and slooooooow process. Then, if it's not, you'll be pleasantly surprised. If it is, well, then you're a mere mortal like the rest of us!

A note on lesson books: My teacher gave me 3 to take home the first week. I played out of all of them before choosing one. Make yourself familiar with a variety of options.

Well, good teachers are hard to find...my advice is to give them a couple of months and if it doesn't feel right move on.

As far as your first piano, I'd rent an accoustic upright for a while, they're inexpensive, and here we have big music store where you can try out the rentals.

Or, you could get a decent inexpensive digital, which for a beginner might be a good option since you can use headphones and practice in privacy.