Why Taking Adult Piano Lessons Can Help You Win in Life
There are many challenges in life and as you transition from childhood to adulthood, those challenges can increase exponentially.
This is true even from birth, where we learn to eat and communicate without words, then crawl, walk, use real words and comprehend their meaning and relevance to our lives.
Then we start playing piano.
And no matter what age we start playing this magical instrument, we always gain a broader, wiser and more open-minded sense-of-self, a proverbial lead sheet full of new skill sets that not only help us in everyday life, but help us win in everyday life.
- If you’re interested in learning how to play piano or keyboard in a fun and interactive fashion, then look no further then Piano for All. This course features 10 in-depth eBooks that contain 200 video lessons and 500 audio lessons. And best of all, the course works on PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, or any Android phone or tablet. Get your copy of Piano for All today while supplies last!
If you’re in the market for a brand new digital piano, then check out the table below, where you can compare some of the best digital pianos on the market against one another:
Photo Model
Yamaha P-515
Casio PX-870
Yamaha YDP-165
Roland RP-102
Casio PX-560
How Playing Piano Enriches One’s Life
I have played the piano for 40 years. I started taking “official” lessons at age 7, but had been teaching myself on my grandfather’s old player-upright, since I could reach it.
I have taught piano, music theory, composition, recording, and more for over 23 years. In fact, I’ve taught students that ranged in ages from 5 to 85 years old.
You read that correctly, I had a student START taking lessons at age 85. We’ll get to her amazing story and reasons for taking lessons below.
But for me, playing the piano was (and still is) a unique form of expression that I could experience both in isolation, and in the company of anyone wanting to listen.
Everything I played, I played in as many ways as I could think of just to see what the differences and similarities sounded like. Even if it sounded bad, I’d do it just to understand why it sounded the way it did.
I was also different than most boys my age. I liked sports and played baseball, football and tennis, but piano quickly became what I did after school every day until I was literally asked to stop by my parents (for things such as food, homework, and sleep).
It became my identity.
Believe it or not, practicing piano was also a highly therapeutic form of meditation for me. Thoughts and ideas hidden or trapped in the back of my mind would be unveiled or set free while I was practicing Hanon exercises, scales or improvising. It was like a musical counseling session, and let me tell you, as an adult I now cherish the moments of practice time I get that set loose new ideas and help me leap over the many mental or life-based roadblocks that can obstruct adults from enjoying themselves.
Now, that won’t be the same for everyone, but for me, it was a way of life and a way of having my own way of being noticed in what just happened to be an awkward social/educational 12 years of elementary, middle and high school.
To sum it all up, the 5 biggest things learning piano did for me are:
Expand my mind and open my thought process.
Learn that even at my experience level I still acquired knowledge from EVERY student I ever taught. This opened my mind even further and gave me new respect for all that every person has to offer.
Appreciation for diversity in sounds and cultures.
A serious, focused, determined and winning work-ethic.
Friends from all over the world due to shows performed on cruise ships, at friends’ weddings in Australia, and even impromptu jam-sessions near Prague.
Why Is Playing Piano Important?
There is a “long-and-short-of-it” summary answer to this question. That answer is (for my part): 40 years of playing and teaching the piano has kept my mind active, my fingers loose, my hands strong and my work-ethic intact.
A more elaborate answer is that no matter where I choose to live or travel, as a professional piano player with 40 years experience (32 of those years on pro stages) I can find work, make new friends and bring on new students.
For those without professional aspirations, there are many brain-function and general educational reasons why becoming an adult piano student is a winning idea.
Some adults are looking for new and entertaining ways to keep their brains and hand-eye coordination active and constantly expanding. Some, however, are interested in the pure nostalgia and the sheer enjoyment of hearing themselves play the songs they grew up on and/or that had special meaning to them in their respective lives.
I do strongly recommend daily piano practice under all circumstances. I also understand that is not always possible for adults.
Either way, as long as you apply a mixture of discipline, entertainment, open-mindedness and focus on your real, personal/musical goal, playing the piano is an asset that keeps on giving and giving.
If you’re interested in learning how to play piano or keyboard in a fun and interactive fashion, then look no further then Piano for All. This course features 10 in-depth eBooks that contain 200 video lessons and 500 audio lessons. And best of all, the course works on PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone, or any Android phone or tablet. Get your copy of Piano for All today while supplies last!
Why Learning The Piano Can Be Challenging
First of all, let us please debunk the “impossible” myth. Learning to play piano is not impossible, but it is a challenge.
But we like how it feels when we overcome challenges, don’t we?
Trust me, after all the years I’ve spent teaching piano, I’m telling you, you can do it. Not only that, but you will learn more about yourself as a person than you initially think.
Transitioning from teenager to young adult has its own volume of information to discuss. But in the transition from young adult to full-blown working adult, life seems to add more and more obstacles to overcome.
And not only that, but obstacles that, if they’re not met and/or overcome adequately, cause even more stress in one’s life.
The concept of winning in the face of life’s challenges really focuses on stability, reliability and financial security. This, for most adults, requires a job. Jobs take time and energy and require maturity and personal consistency to maintain.
So between all of your personal and familial responsibilities, not to mention the time and planning involved in one’s children’s extra-curricular activities, where does an adult find the time, energy and patience to learn to play the piano?
And further (as most adult students – if not most adults in general), what will playing the piano offer me? How will I benefit from it?
Well, remember, playing piano can be an outlet. It’s a source of personal expression. It’s something fun and beautiful, but it can also be a way to unwind and relax.
And most of all, it’s yours. The notes you play – they’re your notes. They’re your emotions, voice, creations and musical adventures.
Every note you play will always teach you something and help you grow, not only as a piano player, but also as a person with an expanded way of thinking, hearing and seeing the world around you.
Excuses for Not Learning the Piano as an Adult
Here is a list of reasons many adults feel they can’t or shouldn’t start learning to play the piano:
-Thick fingers
-Adult priorities
-Children
-Bills
-Available time
-A working man’s hands have a different strength and shape than the hands of a student that has played since childhood. This is a challenging aspect for adult, male students to overcome.
-An adult woman’s hands have similar issues as stated above, although I have found they do have more flexibility…but not as much stamina.
-Adult hands are already shaped/fully-grown. A young piano student’s hands will grow into piano-playing shapes and sizes over time if they continue lessons/practicing. This challenge applies to all students because, at the time one begins lessons one must use what they have. A young student will struggle with reach and strength, for one example. An adult male student might struggle with the specific dexterity required to perform certain exercises/pieces.
Or, an adult male student with larger hands might be frustrated by being “flat-fingered” which results in hitting two notes at the same time. Adult female hands/fingers tend to be groomed…longer nails which can get in the way of progress. In that specific case there will be clicking noises and perhaps an inability to strike a key to get proper tone and volume. Also, many adult female students want to play piano for fun. Many of those students become deterred by the initial amount of work involved in making a song sound like a song.
-Desire to learn faster than younger students because adults tend to expect more of themselves and also (at times) grow jaded and impatient, or, throw away quickly things they think don’t work fast or have expeditiously visible benefits.
Why You Can Learn the Piano at Any Age
1. Ricky (whose name has been changed for the sake of anonymity) was a 70+ year-old, retired college professor. He found me (as a teacher) through a series of strange but brilliant mutual acquaintances and began taking lessons from me with great enthusiasm.
His enthusiasm for learning was so high that he inspired (more like nudged) me to create and record an entire series of exercises and CD’s just for his specific goals.
One of those goals was to re-create and record a song from his old basketball camp days (Hank was also still 6’4” at 80).
This was a song they sang at every camp gathering and they were having a reunion that was mightily important to him. If I recall correctly it might have been the last one he’d be attending.
Either way, he was driven.
Ricky not only learned to play that song, but he learned to tell me how he wanted it orchestrated/arranged. Next, he played not only the piano part, but a good handful of string and brass parts to go with it.
Ricky was able to start from no-lessons-ever and get to where he was able to arrange, perform and record his basketball camp song on to CD.
And it was wildly successful for him, to the point where he was able to walk away not only a winner, but a winner that left an eternal gift to his camp.
2. Ethel (whose name has been changed for the sake of anonymity) started taking lessons from me when she was 85 years old. She had saved some “small-change” piano lesson money from when she was a child, which grew in interest to a couple thousand dollars over her remarkable life.
As a child, she could not take lessons but she had to work to help her family. She just didn’t have the time. However, she persisted and continued saving money, and at 85 years old she had learned and went through as much material with me as fast as many of my best students.
Conclusion
Learning piano at any age is a winning scenario. There are challenges to overcome, yes, and those challenges do vary with age.
But whether you’re the 7 year old boy who didn’t fit in and piano changed his entire life, the 70 year old professor who quickly learned, performed and recorded his camp theme song or the 85 year old woman who saved her piano money for more than 75 years until she could finally keep her promise to herself; you’re a winner just like these three aforementioned people because of your commitment to learn and be successful, while also understanding the road to success won’t always be smooth.
If you’re still interested in learning how to play piano or keyboard, get your copy of Piano for All today, which features 10 eBooks, 200 video piano lessons and 500 audio piano lessons!
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