Even Adults Can Learn The Piano

Do you spend time wondering what life would be like if you had learned to play the piano and write music as a child? You need to step out of this kind of thinking. Instead, start thinking about how relaxing it would be to learn the piano now. Wouldn't it make for a relaxing evening four years from now to sit at your piano and play your favorite musical pieces? Unless you're naturally tone deaf, you can. And even if you are tone deaf, you can learn sight reading and rhythm. Music has something positive and relaxing for all of us to enjoy in playing and hearing it, regardless of how we hear and process music. You may not learn things as quickly as an adult, but you should have better study habits and discipline as an adult to make up the difference. All you need is a good piano teacher and sincere dedication to learn the piano at any age.

What makes the piano – whether acoustic or digital piano - a beautiful and unique musical instrument is the ability of a single individual to play complex harmonies. There are few other instruments that can play complex harmony in the hands of a single musician, and arguably none of them put out the pure tones of grand piano. Nearly all of the instruments capable of complex harmony under one musician are keyboard instruments that can be easily played by a pianist. With other instruments you can play a single part in a large group harmony, which is a rewarding pursuit of its own. But with the piano you can sit alone by yourself and make beautiful music into the night, or sit in a concert hall and make beautiful music for others. This is why most musicians, no matter what the instrument of choice, learn to play the piano as well. It teaches you to think in harmonies. Few successful composers were not pianists first.
I have one final thought to express on adults learning the piano. Go out and get yourself a good piano teacher with experience teaching adults. Do-it-yourself piano courses can teach you to play musical pieces on the piano, but later on if you continue to love and pursue the piano, you will find that you spend years in lessons unlearning bad habits that are inhibiting your growth as a pianist. Even many of the self-taught greats had to go through a re-learning period to get the fundamentals down to become better virtuosos. It is much better to learn the piano the right way at first so you will always be spending your time learning the piano building on your skills instead of rebuilding your piano skills.