Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum My new term for adult beginners!

accordong to his yt channel, he's 26yrs, started piano @ 24yrs, uploaded this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RciWa8eG4z0 2yr ago

Think I'm gonna try the Clayt piano method, after practicing the first bar 100 times, you can start to "play with" time! lol

I like the actual forum's name, maybe because I'm an adult and I am begining to learn to play piano. It just describes my situation.


However I understand those who prefer other term, because they have already got a large experience playing piano. If I had been playing for a long time, I would not like to be called "beginner". It's clear.

Regards.

Talk about unfriendly pianos - wouldn't want to be bit by one of those It could also represent a piano teacher having a bad day. "WHAT ? You didn't PRACTICE your assignment? " GRRRRrrrRRrrrrrr

Great sense of humour, Benpiano

J

That piano might be incentive to keep the cats from wanting to climb inside and strolling (or lounging) around on the strings.

I believe Shiro is referring to the special and specific challenges most all adults face after starting to learn to play the piano as an adult without appreciable piano exposure as a child. It's quite similar to other language acquisition efforts by adults with no appreciable exposure to the foreign language as a child. These challenges (and frankly, limitations) are often quickly jumped upon by people here, who are reluctant to consider or talk about such seemingly negative concepts while engaged in their own personal monumental efforts to learn to play the piano.

I dissagree with Charleslang. It DOES make a difference where we started. That is neither bad nor good. It just is. Adults with appreciable piano training as children, and who return to piano playing after years of not playing are not adult beginners (as being defined in this thread), and have many advantages over the adult with no appreciable chilhood exposure.

When I listen to the online recitals in the Adult Beginner Forum I can usually always tell when I'm listening to someone who's had lots of piano lessons as a child.

Shiro, you are on the right track. There should be a better term for piano students like you and so many others who have accomplished so much in learning to play the piano without the benefits of having learned as a child. Adult beginner doesn't quite capture the whole concept.

If you mean that it makes a difference in terms of presenting special challenges, I agree with you and, in fact, I've argued for that point elsewhere on these forums.

But it looks like in the above passage you don't mean that. It looks like you're claiming that there is a ceiling beyond which adult beginners cannot climb. This may be true in some cases, but in other cases it is just false.

When an adult reaches a truly intermediate or even advanced level, they are just intermediate or advanced pianists, period. That was my point in my first post. If they don't, they are still adult beginners (if they don't work hard enough or don't have a good teacher, they may stay adult beginners for 20 years or their whole life).

The idea that there is a lingering 'accent' (using your language metaphor) for those who begin as adults is false, and to claim this as you do is not helpful.

There seem to be two common mistaken attitudes towards adult beginners: on the one idealist extreme, they are supposed to have no special challenges, while on the other, they are ultimately only ever going to get so far and they'll never really be good.

You appear to have pigeonholed me into the former slot -- which is inaccurate, as I've explained -- but you yourself fall into the second slot. The truth is somewhere in between.



I disagree. As I said above, either you are a beginner or intermediate or advanced. The term 'adult beginner' does justice to the special challenges faced at the beginning. If an adult is not a true intermediate pianist after ten years, he or she needs to work harder or get another teacher. But if he or she is an intermediate player, then there isn't a need to accompany that information with the information that they began as adults. They are intermediate pianists, period.

I'm really glad that my silly idea has sparked some serious debate. (I mean that sincerely). In the ... 7 years (wow) I've been on this forum, this subject has come up a lot, and it's because it's such a complex issue/question that it keeps coming up. Unfortunately, the only thing about me that's working today is my grammaticality distortion field (having just gotten over jet lag and the first week of summer school) so I'm not to contributing anything coherent right now. But I will soon, because although this thread was inspired by silliness, it's based on some real questions.

P.S. Opus45, long time no see

I think shiro has been hitting the sauce. Sake to be exact!

Benpiano, awesome pic. That piano will eat you alive if you mess with it. Just imagine what the tuner must think when crawlin' into that beast. I'd be nice to it.

a D ult begINNERS : D+INNERS = Dinners. mmmmm Dinners, one of the only things that may stop practice, a good dinner?

How about Adult begoners?

or just Adultairers?

No, ABF users don't do such things.

Did you spot the pun of "air" ers?
Adult air ers. we are adults and play airs,

And we are adults that "air" our opinions (possibly more often than playing airs)

oh come on thats probably unbeatable at this time in the morning!

I am an Adultairer and not ashamed.

Actually I am very proud of that: Adultairers.

Can anyone here play "Crocodile Rock"?

(Another perspective on "beginner" is the idea of "beginner's mind":
Shoshin (初心) is a concept in Zen Buddhism meaning "beginner's mind". It refers to having an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when studying a subject, even when studying at an advanced level, just as a beginner in that subject would." <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoshin>
It hardly ever happens anymore when I'm making pottery; I've been doing it too long. I'm glad it still does with piano.

Not sure what you're talking about when you mention your first post. This is the only thread i've read here in quite a long time. In fact, I thought S-H was referring to a famous pianist or someone who wrote a book for adult beginners when he was referring to charleslang, otherwise i probably wouldn't have used your name in my quote since i'm usually such a naseatingly polite person.

Bottom line. I think I'm right and you're wrong.

Uh oh...another attempt at a shakeup?

Let's see.. we've had name change shakeups, mixing up the ABF recitals, spinning off the ABF with an intermediate forum, and most recently a competitive recital.

We ain't budging this time, although if you think about it, at least 90% of us here are re-beganers (intermediates).

Well, I for one am a re-tread. I did take lessons for many years as a child....but never learned to play well (might have had something to do with not practicing). According to my current teacher, the experience nevertheless was beneficial, putting me way ahead of piano-naive adult students.

However, my status is not to be confused with those who were actually pretty good when they were young, and then quit! Maybe in some ways I am better off, since I don't have the frustration of: "I used to be able to play all this advanced stuff really well..."

Really?? I honestly wouldn't think it is that high.
There are a lot of people who started piano in their 40s and 50s.....

I'd be really curious to do a poll(which doesn't seem to be an option on this forum)...
1. previous musical experience before playing piano ? What?
2. Started as adult - at what age ?
3. Had lessons as a child ? For how many years ?

Originally Posted by Rostosky

Did you spot the pun of "air" ers?
Adult air ers. we are adults and play airs,

And we are adults that "air" our opinions (possibly more often than playing airs)

oh come on thats probably unbeatable at this time in the morning!

I am an Adultairer and not ashamed.

Actually I am very proud of that: Adultairers.

Well, after just playing a sonatina which did have a few mistakes, I'm considering that at 58, I'm an "Adult-Error"!