Can adults learn how to play the piano?

Just like a young learner, learning how to play the piano as an adult is not impossible. It may be a bit tricky, because being an adult means having a lot of other activities and priorities, but as long as you put yourself into it by investing your time and effort in learning the piano, your progress and improvement will surely be just around the corner.

Reading this article will give you an idea how to go about learning the piano and guide you to a productive musical journey as an adult.

Have the Right Mindset

Some adults may find taking piano lessons intimidating because music lessons are usually offered to young learners starting from 4-year-old kids up to teenagers. They might think that it is too late for them to learn something new, particularly learning how to play the piano, but in fact learning the piano as an adult has its advantages. Learning the piano is not as hard as what most people think, because being an adult has the advantage of easily digesting information and detail unlike very young learners.

Music is like learning another language, as it has its own alphabet, the solfa syllables or commonly known as the do-re-mi. It can be something entirely new for someone who has never learned music notation, but adults have the advantage of adapting to new learning material faster. Adults are normally goal oriented and as a piano learner, it is very helpful to know what you want to achieve. Setting goals when you are learning the piano can help so much because it can motivate you to look forward to a certain result.

Learn the Language of Music

When you learn the piano as an adult, it is vital to know the foundation of music because having the knowledge with the basics will aid you and make it possible for you to interpret what is written in a music score. Learning how to play a musical instrument includes knowing how to read music notes and being able to play them. This includes learning the basic elements of music such as melody and rhythm. Music theory is like the language of music, you need the basics in order to decipher and understand notations, as well as being able to perform the impression that a composer wants to convey to those who are studying the music and to its listeners as well.

Being able to read music is like understanding directions written in a different language; You will be able to go to different places and destinations. Learning how to read notes will give you access to countless musical pieces, because you will be able to read and play them on the piano.

Make Time for Piano Practice

Music is like a sport; you must train, not just your mind to read notes, but also your whole body in order to improve your skill in playing the instrument. Playing the piano is a whole-body workout because aside from pressing the keys with your fingers, you will also need to get used to planting yourself on the piano bench for balance. When you play the piano, the keys are pressed individually by each finger. As our fingers naturally do not have the same length and strength so it is essential to train and improve the dexterity of each finger, especially the 4th (ring finger) and the 5th finger (pinky finger).

As an adult learning the piano, developing the strength of each finger of each hand is important as the fingers can get rusty in time. It is advised to begin a piano practice with finger warm ups which involves doing exercise pieces for the piano. Practicing as often as possible is strongly advised, and for adult beginners, at least 15 minutes per day is recommended, because practicing regularly is essential in helping develop muscle memory for the fingers.

Listen More to Piano Music

Being exposed to something frequently helps develop familiarity. When you listen to piano music regularly, it opens yourself to be acquainted and familiar with the sound of the piano and how it is produced. Listening to different piano pieces from different music eras is advisable when you want to learn the piano, especially for classical piano pieces. It will make your ears become familiar with melodies and chord progressions from that period, which will help you with your piano learning as you progress.

It is also advisable to listen to other modern genres like pop, jazz and so much more as it makes you knowledgeable of the different styles of different players and composers. You don’t only learn the piano by reading books and pieces, but also by listening to recordings and performances. It will provide a lot of information and insight and will help you with your piano education.

Take Piano Lessons from a Piano Teacher

Nowadays, there are a lot of advertisements to be seen online saying that you can learn the piano through watching a video or from a mobile application. These methods are still not very effective because when you try to learn just by watching a video, the information you will get is not complete and certainly cannot be suited for you, because the piano is learned differently by every individual. Taking lessons from a piano teacher is still the best way to learn how to play the piano because it is a piano teacher’s role to teach what is best for a student and guide them with their piano learning. The piano teacher will know what the student needs to learn and what method should be used for the student to make learning more effective and efficient.

Learning the piano is not just for the young, but definitely also for adults! You just need to know the right steps and to have the right mindset to help you with your learning. Keep in mind that it is best to learn from a piano teacher as they are the ones who are equipped to teach the instrument to every individual.