Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Teachers Forum is it possible to teach an old dog new tricks?

how much does one's age impede/handicap them when starting at age 42 on classical piano lessons?

It won't be easier at 43.

Serially, my biggest problem -- starting at age 58 -- was impatience. I have the disadvantage of knowing what these pieces are supposed to sound like, and it's frustrating when I can't get there instantly.

With time and application, we can get pretty far -- if we're patient and don't succumb to frustration. And the journey is really fun along the way, so be sure to stop and enjoy it.

It depends on your intelligence and physical abilities. You need both. You can be very intelligent and understand everything your teacher tells you, but if your fingers don't respond, there's nothing anybody can do for you. If your fingers respond, but you can't process the information quickly enough, then you won't progress very far, I'm afraid. Playing the piano is a multi-tasking activity. I think my multi-tasking ability peaked when I was 18, and it's a big downhill slide ever since.

Age does not have to be an impediment especially if you've had other experience in making music. Have you learned to read music? Do you play another instrument? Do you have any dance background? Ever sung in a choir?

No one likes the word 'talent' so much, so let's just say 'natural ability'. I think the results you get will largely be determined by your own natural ability, and your ability to commit to daily practice.

The main thing is that if you enjoy learning to play music, then the whole adventure is worth it.

Piano is a technique like driving and golf. You can pick it up at any age and expect to progress at the same rate as any age except the very young when memory is so much more efficient.

my 62 year old is quite the challenge.. she sure enjoys it tho and really is learning right along.

Imho, if a beginner is willing to work with a good teacher who knows how to guide beginners, then he will learn to use his body well (technique) which leads to physical abilities. He will also learn a way of thinking which especially at the start comes from simple things, and often sensations and actions will lead the way. Surely we are capable of doing what a 6 or 7 year old is asked to do. It's not rocket science: it's a matter of pressing this note and the next and the next, and going one step at a time. The biggest thing that gets in the way is overthinking - a wrong kind of intelligence - worrying about where one is etc. As far as abilities are concerned: these get developed by the teacher. We don't start off with them anymore than a child begins with them.

but if your fingers don't respond....
If my fingers don't respond, then I want to know WHY they are not responding, and what I might do differently. There is PLENTY that a teacher can do for me. I am also not convinced that intellectually "understanding" things is the same thing as the kind of understanding that we need when doing music. We're talking about beginners here - not someone trying to play virtuoso music at a grade 10 level.

supposedly the biggest problem for older people in memory. I agree with ClsscLib about patience, too. I seem to be doing better than my teacher expected. She's always saying things like she wishes she could get her kids to practice as frequently as I do.

i agree, but i believe that would go for anyone at any age. if you're 6 yrs old and you have no intelligence and are physically disabled, i'm sure you'll suck at piano just as a 40 yr old would lacking the same abilities. ??? just my thought.

i actually learned a little on my own since i was a child. had 3 months of classes as a teenager. and 2 months of classes last year. i can only play the following worth mentioning (i can read music but not as well as i'd like to:

moonlight sonata 1st movement
fur elise
intermezzo by manuel ponce
estrellita by manuel ponce
and random pop music
and i composed a 4 minute piece that sounds like a love-movie theme like love story (my last teacher had me do that but he moved ;o(

(chords) accompanied an estudiantina in college with acoustic guitar.

learned ballet folklorico and flamenco growing up from my mom and she also gave me voice lessons as well as a child.

danced in a performance in college and took latin jazz J.Lo style as a twenty-something yr old.

so maybe i still have a chance to excell in piano...i hope.

;o)

I think it is always possible to teach an old dog new tricks. But, only if the old dog wants to learn new tricks. Some learn faster or better than others but, I think that is probably the way it has always been for that person.

Jerry, yes and no, but I'll qualify that because I'm thinking of something particular. Until I was close to 50 I had never had one-on-one lessons in any kind of art-craft-science. However, I had taught myself to play several instruments, and done things in the visual arts. What I caught on to eventually during my period of lessons was that there was a different way of doing things and of "thinking". It wasn't just that I was learning to play a new instrument or learning new things about music. The way this could be approached was totally new to me. Eventually that filtered back to other things I did in life.

See, there are ways of learning and ways of achieving things. You are born with a certain potential and that doesn't change. But when you tap into better ways of doing things, then what you are able to achieve changes a lot. Especially given the kind of education a lot of us come away with, where the way we go about doing things isn't nearly as effective as it could be.

Hi Keystring,

I agree completely. I was actually thinking of myself when I said what I did and then, relating that to others too.

I had started taking piano lessons (again) about 5 years ago or so. I had 7 years of them growing up with the old biddies that only had one way of doing things, theirs. I disliked it immensely eventually quitting as soon as I could. However, I still wanted to learn so, I too, taught myself and enjoyed doing that.

As I aged, I wanted to learn more yet so I started with a teacher here who I thought was great but, he died of cancer. 2 years later, I found another teacher who I liked even better. This one taught according to what I wanted to learn, how fast I wanted to learn and with various ways of learning.

By that, I mean, he would make a CD of the songs (I learn best that way, by listening and memorization) that I was to learn for me. He would also write down the notes that I had to play (I'd forgotten how to read notes since I was a teenager) to help me recognize them and then showed me what I had to play and watched me attempt it. It was a 1 hour lesson every 2 weeks. After a certain amount of time went by he started to no longer write down what the notes were, as I was starting to learn them. He also has the patience of Job...

I LOVED IT! And, I learned a lot. I learned some faster songs too which we would play together. Him on one piano, me on the other for a part of my lesson. At first, I was scared of this but, I learned to look forward to it! It gave me incentive to learn the song better. We would really laugh together! Sometimes he would screw up, sometimes I would but, it was fun! I miss that!

The only reason I quit was due to tuning pianos all day long and having osteoarthritis - degenerative in my neck and back. By the time I was finished working for the day, I hurt to badly to always practice. Unfortunately, many times due to that, I didn't know my lesson and so, after 2 years, I decided to quit... regretfully.

However, now I am working on something new with my back hoping for the best on that so I can begin once again. I would love nothing more than to be not just able to play fun songs and fast songs like I can now, but, to be able to play better songs and to continue learning theory (which I always hated) but, I understand some of that be learned. So, that's my story...

Memory is only a big problem when you play from memory.

That's not a smart *** answer.

You know, I wish more of my adult students knew this about themselves! Impatience is a big problem.
Also, many adult students--but kids, too--have insane schedules. Practicing takes time--big chunks of concentrated, uninterrupted time. It's hard carving that out of a day that already includes a full- or part-time job, family demands, etc.
But unlike children, adults often come to their lessons with lots of diverse life experiences that become assets in the learning process.
If you're willing to put in the time; work hard; accept that a majority of the sounds you make at first will not be what you want but refuse to give up in discouragement or frustration, then you can learn at any age.
Memory is definitely a problem for some, especially older students. So it might take longer to fully absorb concepts or information to a degree that makes them easy to draw on--i.e., remembering various musical symbols; key signatures; etc.
But another thing I love about adult students is that they really want to learn. It's not "Mom's idea" or "something that's good for my daughter".
I hope you have fun and stick with it!

thank you, i will have fun (already am) and i will stick with it. i wasn't concerned whether or not i could learn. i think we can always learn at any age. (my friend's neighbor taught his 93 yr old neighbor to use the internet and now she's on facebook!)

i just wanted to know if there had been studies or from personal experiences on how much longer does it take us adults to learn to play piano. i'm going to learn it anyway, i was just curious.

btw, thank you all for your nice encouragement. i really enjoy reading your ideas!
;o)

... or shorter.

It's not uncommon for people to take up piano in their retirement and pass grade 8 before the age of seventy (five years). Most, but not all, have usually played before e.g. gave it up as a child at grade three to five.

There is more time to practise in retirement and it's a great way of countering the ageing process.

thanks! i'm not familiar with the grade levels in the USA nor the UK.
how long does it usually take someone under 18 to reach grade 8???

also:
what pieces are in grade 8?
what grade level would moonlight sonata 3rd movement be?
what is the highest grade?

i'm really curious to hear your answers!!!!!!
thank you!

Grade 8 (ABRSM) is called Final although there's the Diploma after that. It constitutes something like a Bach Prelude and Fugue, a Sonata up to the level of Mozart's K.576 (his hardest), and a Romantic or modern piece. It's not so much the technical difficulty of the pieces as much as how well you play them.

It typically takes 8 to 10 years to reach grade 8 starting at around half an hour a day up to about grade 5, and one to two hours a day from grade 6. A determined individual who can do an efficient two hours a day (of the right things and with teacher involvement) can do it in around three years.

It's not beyond the reach of any normal adult though Diploma is a much harder prospect.

Once you're there, there are very few peaks that are still unattainable such as the Etudes of Chopin and Liszt, the last five Beethoven sonatas and some of Brahms' work - unfortunately they're more likely to be the ones you want to climb!

Playing harder pieces usually means solving technical difficulties. Getting there shows that you can tackle and solve these problems. That's all.