Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum New member - what advice would you give?

Hello, my name is Madalaine. I'm 19 years old and I live in the UK.

I've wanted to play the piano all my life but could never afford to pay for lessons. I tried to teach myself but lacked motivation. Now that I'm earning money I can pay for a tutor. I have even bought myself a Casio Privia px800 digital piano.

If you could only give one piece of advice to a beginner what would it be?

Thanks for your time!

Whenever you feel that you are getting nowhere, at a dead end, remember your goal.

This does happen to all of us.

You will pull through, with great results.

Practice does not make perfect, but it helps.

Above all patience..... enjoy every step of the very long journey.

Find music you love and play it.

Very important.

just be patient with yourself, knowing you're not going to become advanced in less than 5 years. i agree with others: it's a long journey. have fun!

Practice is the only way...

Umbrella Sky,
Welcome to this wonderful community.

My once piece of advice would be to find a mode of learning (be it live teacher, method book, online course) that suits you and guides you to play the kind of music that you want to play (is it jazz/improv, classical, play-by-ear, or ...?)

Most of all, don't lose sight of the enjoyment and fun.

Only one piece of advice??? Oh, man, that's tough, what with my little brain scrambling with thoughts for micro-seconds before moving on the the next one....

I guess I would advise someone just getting started to enjoy the trip by laughing once in a while. The more you know, the less shock it will be when you discover you cannot count to 4 or do two simple things at once, so I would make educating myself a part of the "enjoy the trip" process. This forum is a great place to "uncover" what happens to seemingly normal people when they start out on this journey.

I can't help it....one more.

The very best thing you can do is go slow. Do not rush to the next lesson. Linger a day or so, and really absorb the lesson you are on.

So, that's it - enjoy, and go slow....and practice every day, even if only for a few minutes.....and and and...

Told ya I could'nt stay on one thought....

Hi Madalaine,

If I had to whittle the advice down to one point, I'd have to say:

"Work out what motivates YOU to play, and then make sure you don't stop".

We're all a bit different, so the same things don't work for everybody. Some people work best with time-tables and like to have external discipline (course, teacher or whatever), others prefer a freer and less structured approach. Some focus on fun aspects, others enjoy a more intellectual style, or whatever....

But the point is that most people start learning an instrument with a burst of enthusiasm which often evaporates when the progress isn't as fast as they hoped, or they hit some sort of problem, or they just get bored. There are a great many different paths to successfully gaining musical skills and having a lot of fun along the way. But the ones who fail all make the same mistake - they stop playing. So put some thought into what sort of things motivate you personally and when things get a little stale, or seem a little tough, then know how to pull yourself back on track and rekindle the fire that made you start in the first place.

It's a wonderful journey, so be sure to enjoy it. There's some fairly steep hills along the way, but the view from the top of them is well worth the climb.

Cheers,

Chris

I've only been at this for a few weeks myself, so I don't have any great advice except to have fun and be patient.

Spent a lot of time here.

You'll soon discover that this is going to be a very, very long journey. You will look for improvements, but from day to day, you won't notice any. Keep your chin up, in time, they will come. You will find that the more you learn, the more you will realize how little you know. Develop a natural curiosity about your journey and ask as many questions you feel are necessary to give yourself every possible advantage. Learn from others' mistakes. There's no point in making them yourself, just to learn a lesson.

Welcome to the forums and congratulations on your decision. You're in good company. Good to have you here, Madalaine.

Don't get discouraged. I agree with everyone else who's pointed out there will be times when you feel you're getting nowhere. And there won't be just one of these - it's a recurring theme in learning to play the piano. But then you'll reach a watershed where you notice that you're reading better, and things that would have been diabolically difficult 6 months ago are suddenly almost easy. I'm going through one of those phases at the moment, and it's just so much fun, you find yourself looking at music you've been picking up and setting aside for months and realising it's within your grasp.

I find it helps to keep a practice log. Some people use the online log, but mine is just a spiral bound notebook I keep on top of my piano. At the end of every practice I make a note of everything I've worked on and anything else that might be relevant - for instance if I'm working on getting something up to speed I make a note of the metronome setting I used for that piece. Then when I hit one of those "going nowhere" phases I can look back through my practice log and see that I am making progress, even if at times it seems infinitesimal.

You will learn more about yourself in music lessons than in any other activity in your life. Your musical responses will come from deep within, it is just not about playing notes from the music page on your keyboard to project sound.

The outer production of the music is a reflection of the inner you. Enjoy this long-awaited experience of learning to play piano. It is a wonderful opportunity and the benefits of it are uncountable.

My advice is: "Begin!"

Betty

Thank you so much everyone!

This is a really great idea!

This is something I've been thinking of. I'm so enthusiastic and impatient at the moment! I need to resist overloading myself by trying to learn the hundreds of songs I've already listed.