Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum What made you decide to learn to play piano later in life?

I'm not exactly sure why or how I got so interested in the piano. I never went for lessons as a kid, nor did I care for piano or classical music.

Somehow, Muse and Matt Bellamy had something to do with it? Hehe but I had developed some interest in my early twenties I guess. I played guitar self-taught for a while, and used to play drums and trumpet back in the school band days. Anyway, I had heard a few classical pieces (and others) which I really wanted to know how to play.

At university studying engineering, I had some crazy guitar kid who used to pull me in to the Music department's piano rooms to just mess around. I thought it was time to just start, so I walked into a shop and bought some Casio 61-key thingy for $100 or whatever. It was great, because I had the acoustic pianos in the music rooms to keep me grounded on what a real piano felt like (whenever I could sneak in), while I learned and practiced fingerings and built muscle memory on the plastic Casio. It worked for me.

I taught myself random stuff for about a year before I left varsity and had no access to a piano. Playing that Casio for pleasure just doesn't work Family life took over, I got married with kids and four years later I found myself in a rut with work etc, not having played guitar or piano or messed about with any other of my many hobbies, so I put down the money for a Kawai CL-36 a couple weeks ago. It's all I could just about afford, but I am very happy with it.

I am looking forward to pushing ahead with my piano endeavour. When I taught myself during that one year, I never worked on any theory, not a single care for technique or posture etc; I just played. It was fun. I couldn't care about the complexity of a song, I just tried to learn it and had fun playing it. But I am now thinking long term and I am going to sit a lot more now trying to get a good foundation to eventually play properly. I'm sure this means I will need a teacher, but we will see how this goes.

Not sure why I am posting this, since it's pretty embarrassing, but I did post a couple of videos on Youtube back when I used to play. Technically they are terrible and I didn't seem to have much of an ear for what I was playing, looking at it now, and I think I've improved more in my 2 weeks of working on technique, posture and just *listening* to what I was playing than I have in that one year thanks to reading around on these forums and working on specifics. I guess I got over the novelty of being able to 'play' the piano, and want to work on being able to play it properly. http://www.youtube.com/user/floydthebarber71?feature=mhee

I look forward to being a part of this community in the following years!

I began with theory classes 2 courses ago, and this year is my first piano course. It's an old "nailed thorn" that no longer hurts.
Why piano? Well, I love the sound, I feel it more "natural" than a guitar for my hands and fingers to work at, and...I'm a smoker, so sax is out of the equation.
I'm 45, but it's never too late to be happy by learning anything. The piano is very challenging, and that matches with my obsessiveness (I prefer to think about music, instead of filling my head with nonsenses).
There's a said that tells we usually don't face our main habilities, in order not to be dissapointed if we can't match our dreams. What if I don't have that musicality I was supposed to have?
Well, I'm glad I faced it, at last. The beggining of this long road is being quite promisory, in therms of having a great time.

Yes I'm another who was too poor as a child. I asked all the time for lessons, but we just didn't have the money. I was always obsessed with pianos and would run up to any piano I saw and attempt to "play" it. I still get this urge now, haha. I had a friend who was having piano lessons and I used to visit her house all the time when I was about 7 and I used to have to go and play in the garden for half an hour during her lesson, but really I'd watch through the window. The teacher must have felt sorry of me, as she said I could go in and watch after a while. After that I used to draw keyboards on pieces of paper and pretend to play them at home. I have no idea where this obsession came from.

Well I turned to singing (because it's free) and used to sing all of the time, I mean really, all of the time. Like from getting home from school to going to bed, 6 hours a day. I'm not particularly talented, its more just that i have to be making some sort of musical sound much of the time in order to keep my sanity. Went through a phase of singing all my words and getting into trouble at school, drove my parents crazy. In the end they put a swing outside in the garden (to stop me breaking chairs, because I have to sway back and forth while I sing) and I would be out there swinging and singing whatever the weather. I carried on the constant singing through my teenage years and had given up asking for lessons by then as knew we didn't have the money. I had forgotten all about piano, so when I was 16 and got a job I used the money to pay for singing lessons. Not that it did me much good, as unfortunately she was a 19 year old university student who turned out to be very unreliable and rather uninterested in teaching me. It's a shame as I was really keen.

This all changed when I finished my education and got a job, although I still sing all the time, though not for hours a day every day as it would be a bit anti-social for my boyfriend. Then..... I went on a trip to London with work in July and came across one of those street pianos. And weirdly I still had the same longing I have always had whenever I see a piano, only i had forgotten all about it. A man sat down and played something really nice and I thought, "that's it, I'm learning to do that" and I went home and looked up teachers on the Internet. And my whole life is different now and by fortunate coincidence my teacher also has a choir, which I am now part of and everything has come together nicely. I don't know how I managed for so long without it.

Toastie's (very long) piano story xxx

P.S. the piano was outside the Tate, and whoever the man was I am eternally grateful to him for inspiring me.

51.


Mabraman - I don’t know if we have that saying in English, about not exploring our main abilities, but it sure rings true.

I really enjoy reading these replies. I started playing about 8 months ago--officially. I retired from the Air Force in late 2010 after 25 years and after a few months felt like a kid graduating from high school with the whole world in front of them. I decided to do those things that I have always wanted to do. I messed around with trying to learn on my own several times over the years and was on that road again about a year ago when I read a comment from someone basically saying---if you really want to learn then go and get some lessons. I thought that sounded like good advice. so I researched several teachers and their styles etc... found a great person who has been working with me for 8 months. Boy, what a great decision. I would have never got this far by myself. The books and online instruction are ok as I have done several of them, but there is no substitute for having someone sit down with you and push you along. I 47 and am loving learning to play. Had a break through a couple of months ago where I could actually really hear the difference between my digital and my instructors steinway (yes took 6 months)... felt good to actually say "I can hear what people are talking about". Bad news is that I hate playing on my digital now am in the process of finding a grand. I hope to one day play the classical music that I watch many on PW perform but certainly don't stress about it. Just enjoying the ride and the learning process. Thankful for the opportunity.

Hello, I'm new here (just registered for the MOYD 2013).
I started piano lesson at 12, and stopped 3-4 years later; I wasn't talented and interested, I was always playing volleyball and swimming instead of practicing. So my parents stopped paying for my lessons and gave back the rented piano. I didn't touch a piano for 25 years (without regret).
Then in 2010 my husband, after a 30 year long iatus, restarted playing tenor saxophone and one year later (mid 2011) gave me a digital piano for my 42nd birthday. I tried playing easy pieces, but I found it so difficult!
So, in september 2011, when one of my children asked for piano lessons, I started myself (different teachers). It has been difficult because my teacher is a couple of years younger then me, and at 42 I was not used to be an almost beginner in something.
But I'm happy now because I can play again and having lessons is a strong motivation (though, work and family are always in the way!).
One year ago we bought a 30 year old acoustic upright, and now both my children play it, and my husband as well...

Toastie that's so sad having to watch a piano lesson through the window.
Glad you never gave up your dream and are playing your shiny new piano.
I didn't know anyone who had a piano til I was a teenager- she let me tinkle on it and then I bought a small synthesiser ( this was the 1980s).

I love music and always wanted to play. When I was a teen, I knew my mother couldn't afford lessons and a piano. My kids are grown and I have a little extra money now. So hopefully I can learn to play well enough to play at family gatherings especially at the holidays.

It was already much longer on the todo list (I'm talking about tens of years) but other projects (that have been completed) had higher prio.

Edwardian Piano - I'm honestly not sure why I was so obsessed, but it seems to have remained. Though the girl whose lessons I used to watch... I don't think she plays piano anymore!!!! I remember she went to a variety of dance lessons too and lived in a big house. At one point someone did offer to teach me piano for free, but my mum said it wasn't for the likes of us and wouldn't let me go there - I was about 11 and remember sitting on the step heartbroken because I would have to tell the nice lady. I was too embarrassed to say my mum wouldn't let me, so I just avoided her and then said I didn't want to do it when she asked me again. I think I grew up in a Charles Dickens novel.

Warlock214 - good on you for doing it now!!!

It makes me a sad that so many kids who would benefit from proper music lessons don't have access to it. In primary school my enthusiasm for music was mistaken for bad behaviour and I used to have to sit outside while everyone else did music. Then in secondary school when the other 29 kids really were very badly behaved, as an interested student in music I was ignored and left to bang on a xylophone for an hour once a week, whilst anyone who was "musically talented"' i.e. already had private music tuition went elsewhere to learn proper stuff.

I think things are a little better today, but access to learning an instrument still feels very much social class based. As you can tell I get a bit mad about these things. I try to add a little bit of music education wherever I can for my own students, though as an English teacher it's limited!!

I'm 38 and just starting piano again , played as a kid but not for long.
In October we lost our 2 year old son jake to pneumonia and I would have loved to have been able to play at his funeral as I was not strong enough to speak , I did write a poem which the wife read out tho which was nice .
From that day I vowed to learn to play the piano .

Regards Carl .

Because youth is wasted on the young, and I was too foolish to realize the magic to be obtained by playing when I was young.