Why do you want to learn to play piano?

I enjoyed Classical music when dad played Beethoven Symphonies, Mozart & Haydn records. My exposure to music was limited and I wasn't drawn to a specific instrument. At 5 had an electronic keyboard with 2 octaves and songs for absolute beginners. It's just a toy and not much learning. Then a Yamaha upright arrived in the living room. Mom got me & my sister a teacher. After learning "Twinkle" and performing it in front of relatives, mom thought that nobody in the family showed talent for music. After a month the upright was gone and the family would never own a piano again.

At 11 a cousin showed me a few beginner songs on a "Made in Canada" Heintzman piano. Tried a few songs and decided the hands coordination was too hard. Wouldn't touch a piano /keyboard for a few decades. My sister started violin in strings class (with viola, cello & bass) in school. A year later I followed. Violin became my main & only instrument. The music teacher said that in order to get further in music, it's a good idea to pick up piano playing. We learned music theory in strings class including intervals & chords but they're not easy or possible to play on a violin or cello.

After graduation, I listened to piano music on radio frequently. 1985 was the tri-centennery year since the birth of Bach & Handel. Enjoyed listening to the 6 French Suites and especially Keith Jarrett's performance of the "Sarabande" from Suite #3 and mvt 1 from the Italian Concerto in F. There was no immediate plan to start learning piano.

Sometime ago met a man who started teaching adults to play piano /keyboard. At the time I considered myself too old or passed the prime (before age 10). Got myself a keyboard and started self-learning for the first few years. I needed music for stress relief as well as brain exercise. My sister suggested that I take music appreciation class at a local conservatory. I got myself a teacher instead.

After starting piano as an adult, much of my music knowledge came from the violin teacher. I learned all the major & minor scales, intervals & chords when the teacher played them on a piano. Between age 5, 11 when I tried piano and the present there is a big gap. I didn't learn enough techniques at a young age to consider myself a restarter. On the other hand, I knew a lot of theory from before so I wasn't a total beginner either.

My knowledge of music expanded further. In my school days trying to master violin was hard enough. I had no plan of learning piano. Back then the teacher got the students to perform in groups at a year-end recital for the parents. Up to 100 in the audience at most. Playing at friends' gatherings or on a public piano occasionally isn't a big deal. I also make recordings to post on social media like Christmas tunes & "Happy Birthday" when someone's special day comes up.

At the moment I'm playing the pieces assigned by the teacher & some online sheet music downloads. Many people here play as a hobby than training to be a professional musician. Playing music is not only about doing things properly or perfectly but also having fun experimenting in the process... if you hit the keys a certain way, you get a certain sound sort of thing. There are pieces I liked to learn. Some of them are orchestral pieces or for other instruments. I'd use a computer notation program and make a piano arrangement for me. I'm also flexible with the repertoire. After hearing the old Disney theme from 1940 "When You Wished Upon a Star" on radio, downloaded a copy.

As an adult I’m aware that a few people in the family had dementia before they died. Their quality of life suffered. Regular brain exercise is good and necessary.

Playing piano as a challenge wasn’t my goal when I started piano. Early in life I’ve decided I didn’t have the hands coordination for it. Me & my parents had many plans early in life but many did’t happen.

I tend to take life’s many surprises day by day. Be happy to embrace opportunities that come along… go with the flow. Sometime ago met a teacher who said adults can learn piano… that we don’t have to start young. Gave it a go and never looked back. Ask me if I play piano 3 decades ago I’d tell you probably not for the rest of my life.

A while ago I was in a piano store trying different keyboards. I played a shortened version of a movie soundtrack. Another visit I played a Bach Sinfonia that I arranged for piano. Wasn’t too concerned with the technical aspects of playing including big jumps, playing melodic lines at the same time and using foot pedal. The only thing on my mind was that certain things in life are meant to happen. 20 years ago I did not plan to include either piece into my piano repertoire. When I was ready, I started learning them.

Adagiette
Definitely find playing piano (keyboard) everyday comforting. There is so much negativity in the news including conflicts all over, climate change like heatwaves, floods, etc. Sometimes I'd be playing for more than an hour to take my mind off the problems in the world.

A lot of what I do today wasn't planned years ago. When learning violin in school I didn't anticipate playing challenging pieces like Bach "double" conerto in Dm as violin duet, Bach solo partitas, Paganini Caprices or Vittorio Monti "Czardas". I would play the assigned pieces and try to make the best of it.

After starting piano, I didn't anticipate playing anything challenging or specific pieces. When I'm ready, I just learn them. Coming from a non-musical family, my knowledge of piano music growing up was limited to "Twinkle" and Beethoven "Für Elise". Much of my knowledge of music was picked up in the learning process.

My life experience is like the song sung by Doris Day in 1956:
Qué será, será.
Whatever will be, will be.
The future's not ours to see.
Qué será, será.
What will be, will be.

I mentioned something like the following in another thread - or other threads. Like lots of people, I love music. And also wanted to try my hand at either making new music, or playing music in certain ways that I wanted - musical freedom etc.

Piano is one instrument that allows one person in real-time to sound sort of like a mini-orchestra. Ok -- not 'literally' a mini orchestra, but provides enough sound and activity in the instrument music to express ourselves in a very nice way. Sure - it can't pitch bend in real-time with a desired profile like we can with our voice or bow-string instrument, and can't change volume level of a sustained note like selected bow string instruments or own human voice etc. Although, the piano has features that makes it a force in music. A musical force that produces musical magic.

I foresaw that if I put in enough time and effort - hard yards (ie. learning, developing etc) - then I would eventually reach a self-knowingly, self-awaringly special stage or stages with the piano and music, even though I know that music is within us, and much of that has been accumulated through learning from people's music, and from teachers (directly and indirectly).

Spend enough time, regardless of weeks, days, months, years, many many many many years - in not only playing script music, but also in areas of music theory, composition, listening, relative pitch piano playing, finger drill exercises, music sequence memory work etc, and we usually do know that we will eventually get to some very special state in piano/music. And there are various (infinite) special states. The main thing I have found is - no matter how long it takes - just keep learning and practising, and developing in piano and music - and we will keep progressing. Just playing even a few notes of tunes that we really like a lot - with 1 finger or one hand on the piano is special and fantastic already in my opinion. And people will just keep building and building. That's what naturally happens.

Patience - is generally important. Patience, and simply - enjoy working on things that we don't yet know how to do. That's part of my enjoyment actually. I like the feeling of not (yet) being able to do various things - and then those amazing feelings that follow when certain things eventually start coming together. It's quite a special feeling that people keep encountering at various moments in their piano/music adventures.

I play the piano (play piano) every day because I (like a lot of people here) love pianos and music, and know the unbelievable 'power' that a piano gives us in one form of music expression. I just say one form, because there are other amazing instruments too - those other ones, eg. bow-string instruments, guitar etc, which are very very very expressive too. But it does also go back to one feature of the piano - where a piano has that polyphony that makes us -- in real time -- sound like a 'mini orchestra', plus has its own incredible nuances, timbre, range etc. Piano -- very very formidable indeed. It lets me play tunes in a way that I find to be very very enjoyable to do. And I have heaps of enjoyable activities - and piano/music is among one of those very special enjoyable ones that I love to do.

At PW - I did mention there is a 'dark' side - but not because of me, as I'm not on the 'dark' side. I'm honest in that a long time ago - although it sometimes still does happen -- you know such as at dinner functions, or gatherings etc, with other families - which can be family, friends, unknown people etc -- where we used to always get the inevitable, where there would be at least one family - and I don't mean relatives or acquaintances (although it can be too) -- it can be just unknowns, or newly-introduced people, at the gathering/function etc, where they just cannot wait to initiate their own talk about their kids etc and say - 'they did their grade so and so in piano and/or violin etc, and they just finished dancing and drama lessons, and won swimming/athletic comp etc, number 1 in everything/school/math etc and they're really good at piano'. You know -- the can't wait to skite, brag, show-off, 'dominate', centre-of-attention etc -- you know - the 'status'/narcissist/class thing. I just listen - and don't even mention piano at all, and don't even say that I play piano or into music etc. But that 'dark' side actually gave me a secondary reason (which isn't actually important of course) to 'practise' and develop. It's not an important driving force, and I have never had to use it in local life - as I really don't want to. And that secondary driver or motivator is for making a statement (if ever needed) to say that - they're not the only ones that are 'good' at playing the piano and music etc. It's somewhat 'dark' (not sinister of course) - but it's something that some people might even relate to. And once again - I'm not that sort. I'm only just mentioning it.

First and foremost in my case is ... love of piano and piano playing and music.

For that guy in the article - we don't know enough about him. But he does reckon this -- 'And playing wasn’t giving me the same satisfaction I felt when I heard beautiful music played by others.'

From the article itself, it does look like he gained quite a lot of experience in playing the piano.

At the end, it just looks like he is/was not doing what is/was required to keep progressing/advancing/building - which is simply to keep going (no matter what) - with the help of relevant resources (teacher/information/tutorials/practice etc). So maybe a case of - if he hasn't got the time and effort or drive etc, and not put any more time etc into it, then nothing is going to happen, and he won't know what nice breakthroughs he could actually make in the piano and music area.

The nice thing is -- just because he says he quit, and the piano is silent, it doesn't mean that the piano will remain that way, or that he won't start up again later, even if he implied permanent quitting. He's always welcome to un-quit later.

HeartKeys I could go on about my thoughts on above. Anyway thanks @SouthPark for bringing up the instrument-capability aspect of the piano.

You're most welcome HeartKeys. Thanks for adding those other very relatable and excellent comments about piano. That comment about ease of sounding 'not terrible' was so excellently-put. Piano is certainly one of those somewhat self-intuitive instruments - where a beginner can indeed just hop on, and have fun working out and remembering what sequence of keys to push in order to get something going - such as a tune they like. The one-to-one finger to note mapping/translation - and the repeated 12 notes pitch pattern along the keyboard - is quite convenient! And which is quite unique. That gets the foot into the door of the piano/music world very nicely.

The ease of 'not sounding terrible' is accurate.

Going back to the man in the article a lot of people can relate to his experience. People would get a teacher and attend weekly lessons for a while. They learn the assigned pieces. The progress is slow so they eventually quit.

Like learning a foreign language. The people who go to class every week and do all the assignments would go so far. People who watch TV, videos & listen to music in a foreign language would go further. Some would find a language partner and talk to each other regularly become fluent much sooner. When it comes to learning music, there is a lot of listening to others’ recordings and comparing them. Learning different things off videos online by teachers. And download the pieces you like to get more fun during practice.

People like myself realized from the beginning not to practice like exercises. I started recording from day 1 not just to track my progress but to experiment with sound like a Rock band making soundtracks. I think of wrong notes as not getting the ideal sound than mistakes. After a while you start sounding better in recordings and your techniques improve.

The first year or 2 we’re beginners. Many struggle to read. Once we get passed the first stage playing gets a bit easier and we’re less likely to quit. People like myself can read sufficiently. The things to focus on include learning the beat patterns & finger sequences.

People who tried playing but quit not only due to talent. A large part has to do with efficient & effective practice to achieve results.

The nice thing is that people that did/do quit can have their chance to un-quit later. People definitely do make choices in life, and they say that with certain choices come 'consequences'. So basically - if somebody does quit for many many many many years, and then comes back to the piano (unquit) - there can then be a time-constraint consideration, and other considerations - such as what they intended to want to achieve (considerations). And that happens/happened due to choice. And that's a part of nature and life - because as we know -- there are many cases where in the future - at least some people will say that 'if I had known ...... then I wouldn't have made that choice ....'. That's a part of life/nature of course. This just means - if someone does quit for ages, then that's just what happens, regardless of what happens.

But on the other hand - once they do un-quit, they can certainly still keep progressing and/or enjoy what they do learn and apply. Beginners and resumers can and will and do make pianos sound nice - with whatever they are learning or playing. When somebody is at the controls - at the piano - the piano comes 'to life' - both piano player and piano - together - come 'to life' - and that is very special indeed.

Also - being 'good' at playing piano or even learning to play pianos is certainly not a requirement in life. So just un-quitting and continuing is nice already. And it is definitely not an issue if somebody doesn't want to learn piano. There are lots of things in life to keep people occupied and happy too of course.

Pallas I think it's really important to support the notion that it's ok to try things and move on if it's not meeting your needs. I've tried and abandoned several activities, and it's but necessary or great to carry those things around as failures. That's just a bunch of baggage you can choose not to carry! (I loved the orchid photos!)

So right and true Pallas! I couldn't have said the above any better. Actually - I could have --- but. No ... haha. I could not. Was only kidding. That is so true what you mentioned. If a person has trouble with particular burdens - that option for reducing the burden is always there. It can make their life more nicer or better etc. Excellent comment you made Pallas - and thanks so much for letting me know you like the orchid pics! Best regards.

thepianoplayer416 The people who quit because of a busy schedule or other commitments are more likely going to return later. The ones who had bad experiences are less likely going to un-quit unless they change their expectations.

Know what you mean there TPP416! Cue Piano Tell forum and get them to come to talk to us, and we'll see what we can do to inspire them to 'get back in the saddle' --- like in Top Gun hehe

It is true that the statistics are always there - as in there really will be a number that won't get back in the saddle. But hopefully if some really want to resume, then they can join for example Piano Tell to start with. Or - even without joining anything - just sit down at a piano and begin - to start up again.

WieWaldi
You’re more in tune with the times as more adults like myself get into playing as a hobby.

Many people in my family think we need to start an instrument at a young age to make progress. The instrument you learned as a child is the one you’re stuck with as an adult. My brother wouldn’t play anything except a guitar sort of thing.