Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Realistic goals for a 20 year old beginner.

Hello!

I have just bought myself a Roland f-120 digi-piano(with weigthed keys and such) and would like to start learning the piano. I am not totally unfamiliar with music, as I have played the guitar for the past 4 years. And on the guitar i mostly play fingerstyle arrangements.

What would be the realistic long term goals for me? I wanna be able to play songs/pieces like the forest gump theme, Nuvole bianche, fur elise, covers of songs like my heart will go on etc.

I know for a fact that I am really motivated, and I got the spare time to play atleast 1-2 maybe 3 hours a day.

Will I want a private teacher, or are video lessons on youtube sufficient?

Am I too old to ever be really good?

Thanks in advance

Espen

Hi Espen,

Congratulations on starting the crazy and wonderful journey of piano

Many people enjoy learning without a teacher, but since you have a goal to build skill in a short amount of time, I think finding the right teacher is important. Think of it like building a house. Yes, we all could build a house ourselves with enough motivation, resourcefulness, and time. We might even find youtube tutorials helpful. But it will take a very very long time and the house we end up with might have serious problems (maybe even some problems caused by youtube tutorials made by people who don't actually know very much.) So most of us would prefer to look for a highly skilled contractor to work with us and build a much better house in much less time than we would on our own.

The beginning stages are the most important because that is when you are building the physical and aural habits that will be with you for the rest of your piano-playing life, so this is the most important time to work with a teacher. Look around carefully, get recommendations from people, check with colleges/schools of music if there are any nearby, and take a trial lesson from 3-5 teachers before choosing the one that is most knowledgeable and best fit for you.

Good luck and enjoy!

P.S. No, you are not too old to be really good. But be patient with yourself. Kids who start at 5 years old and work hard with good teachers up to age 20 can generally play advanced pieces reasonably well. If it takes you 15 years to get to that point with hard work and a good teacher, well then, you're just like them

I just want to emphasize this point.

Try not to have the illusion that in a year or two you are going to be playing all that stuff you described. Just keep building your skills the right way. Slow and Steady wins the race. If you try to move too fast you will skip skills that you will need later in order to play well.

And ... a teacher is paramount. That can make all the difference.

Welcome to PW Epsson you have made a life changing step so congratulations.

Perhaps read this Here it is a useful article which will explain some myths.

In my nearly two years on this forum a common question has been "how good can I get". My own (still a beginner myself) answer is long, formed over my nearly two years learning but I won't bore you with that. The short answer is you can get very far if you are dedicated, organised and put in the time. Piano is very demanding and progress can seem very slow but with the right approach you can optimize your journey. Yes a teacher is going to be a great investment for to many reason to go into here. Youtube, books and places like this forum are all helpful in the external research needed, but are not nearly as good as a face to face lesson where perhaps a minor detail or suggestion can change things dramatically.

The first year I found quite difficult,(even after 43 years of guitar), but none the less I was making music from the outset and that's a good thing.

I'm come from the school of: If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right.

My only advice is to just play and enjoy the discovery process of how harmony (chord patterns)and melody (scales) work together in different rhythms and tempos.

Eventually the right teacher will come along.


Enjoy

The good news is you are willing to play three hours a day.

It's good news because you are doomed to never be proficient if you start at age 20 but don't have strong commitment.

It will take your commitment plus very intelligent training, over a course of years, if you want to become musically competent.

The most important thing is that you find a way to make the process enjoyable.

It's difficult to be motivated by a goal that is years away, so you need a teacher or method that allows you to find joy within days, joy that will keep you practicing.

You can reach full competence. I started when I was nearly 18 years old, and now, at age 35, full competence is within sight for me. I think I could have gone faster with the right kinds of training.

My view is that for a late beginner the top three priorities are: transposition, transposition, and transposition.

In other words, learn a tune in one key, and then learn it in all the other eleven. This is hard, but it's the quickest way to musical competence.

If you want help, I would be available as a teacher, no matter where you live, via Skype. I've never taught so far, but I think my perspective as a near-adult beginner might bring you value.

I played for about nine months three times weekly at a hotel bar, when I was 27.

Now, I am more advanced and hope to make a living from piano before long.

More than half of my piano practice is mental; I am not sitting at the piano at all for that kind of practice. It is practice playing tunes in transposed keys.

Don't get a teacher who started young and who secretly believes you will never succeed. Find someone who believes you can do it.

Realistic goals for a 2h 0 year old? well it depends. If you put a lot of hard work into it, practice regularly and remain faithful to your (competent) teachers, then you can become a music /piano professional definitely. Not a concert pianist or anything of that level, but you can play for engagements, become a piano teacher, do all sorts of things and be fully immersed into the musical world.

Sad.

I'm available if you want lessons. If so, send me a PM.

oh, and youtube is not sufficient. Lot of good information out there but to get some real advanced technique nothing beats a bona fide hands-on teacher. Good luck .

Espen --

If you're a beginner, and you play 2-3 hours per day, you have a good chance of injuring yourself.

That's _especially_ true if you're not taking lessons -- it's easy to get excess tension in your fingers/ wrists/ arms / shoulders. And that can really mess you up.

. . . So find a teacher.

There's no _feedback_ from "video lessons". You won't have somebody saying:

. . . "Bring out the left hand a little more, in the chorus."

You could find a teacher using Skype to watch you, and hear you. But I think "in person" is better for most people, most of the time.

"How good can I get?" is a combination of:

. . . "How good is my teacher?"

. . . "How hard am I working?"

. . . "How much talent do I have?"

and nobody, here, has good information about (1) and (3).

So you start walking down the road, and see how far you get, and how long it takes.

. Charles

A million thanks for the replys

I am the first in my family tree to ever learn an instrument, so I dont think by any means im genetic gifted

But music is a big part of my life, and I'm motivated, and that has to count for something?

As it happends, my landlord is a very iconic piano teacher where i live, and she does private teaching, so I'm gonna ask her if she'd "take me in"

A million thanks

I am 25 years old, and I just started as well... so, cheer up! I too don't have a teacher, but I have a friend that plays, so, every now and then, I ask him to check my posture or my movements. A teacher is not necessarily someone you pay, anyone who knows more than you do is a theacher :)

Technically true. But not everyone who knows more than you do (whether you pay them or not) knows the right kind of things. Not everyone can explain key concepts in a way that makes sense to you, teach essential skills in the right order and with the right emphasis, see when and where you go wrong and tell you exactly how to fix it, or even accurately identify gaps in their own knowledge, or in yours.

Just because somebody knows how to do something doesn't necessarily mean they can successfully teach someone else how to do it. Most good teachers get paid for a reason.

That's very true. Maybe I should have said that you can learn something from anyone that knows more than you.
I have very little experience with piano, but I have been playing guitar for some years, both as an autodidact and with different teachers. Indeed, the ability to teach concept (or just to share them) varies incredibly from one person to the next, regardless of their ability with the instrument. I studied with astonishing players, but ended up non liking their teaching methods (each one for different reasons), so I started studying alone. Watching other people playing (even just videos on youtube) can represent a learning process, if you have an analytic enough mind. Trying to understand why that person does certain things.
Still, I don't think I'd have been able to do so without my previous years as a student, where I developed some sort of "critical eye".

Also, to the original poster, I'd say: "Record yourself". Record a video of yourself playing, every week or so. It helps you see your mistakes, and keep track of your progresses.

Feel fortunate and don't quit, you have your whole life to grow . Many re-starters in their 40's + that would love to turn back the clock to their 20's.