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Hi Tom,

I have to say "ditto" to the above statements. I gave myself piano lessons at 50 and there are those times that I can't seem to play anything right. All of the advice I have received has been to go slowly, in small doses, keep at it, and it will occur.

You sir inspire me.

I'm still young and I had to muster up the courage to take lessons. Kudos to you for going after what you want!

Hi Everyone,

I need some encouragement. I am getting a little discouraged, feeling that I am not progressing fast enough. I feel some days, I don't remember anything. I have to practice things over and over again to finally get it.....I just get a little discouraged and feel incompetent with my piano teacher at times....but I know he understands.....does anyone else get this way? I sometimes think it is my age.....

Tom

Hi Musical Tom. I started learning to play at 60. I've been at it for 5 years now. I think you play the Joplin piece very well. I think I hate you. Not really, but I love ragtime and only wish I could play that piece as well as you. I am working on a easy version of Bethena and have only gotten down parts A and B. And I have played it a million times and still make mistakes. So keep up the good work and keep your chin up. Yes my teacher gets on me from time to time about my progress and my practicing, but hey thats what I pay him for.

Welcome to the forumn, its a great place. Keep sending us those videos.

Wow.....I was just going to write an encouraging statement..I'm 58 and I am about 1.5 years into piano playing. Then I listened to your WONDERFUL youtube.....YOU DON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT ANYTHING!!! It was AWESOME! Now, I feel like I don't know jack!!!!

:-)

Keep playing those keys!!!

Nancy

Well, I’m 54 and have been learning to play the piano for about 5 years now. I’m having a ball!

I really can’t play all that well, but for some reason it has inspired me to write about 30 original songs, lose 50 pounds and start body building. My blood pressure is 120 over 80 and my total cholesterol is almost in the below normal range. I feel better, younger and more vibrant than I have in years!

And, I’ve mentioned this here before, but I’ve noticed that when I’m at the grocery store shopping, the women I meet in the isle will turn around and take a second look at me! That has never happened before!!!

So, I’m thinking that taking up learning to play the piano late in life has more positive effects than you might think…. I’m thinking that if more older, middle-aged individuals would take up learning to play the piano, there might be less of need for convalescent homes!! (Wishful thinking maybe )

Rick

Wishful thinking maybe, but quite accurate! If more people took up something meaningful (like playing music) instead of remaining passive in front of the telly or the internet, they sure would feel better about themselves. I can attest that learning an instrument has many, many positive "secondary benefits" that add quality to (my) life.

John

Thanks to all, I think I "should be" much further ahead than I am. The Joplin piece is the "only" piece I can play by heart with minimal mistakes. The rest of the music I struggle with......I probably should be playing much easier ones. I am way to hard on my self......and that is probably why I get so discouraged......

Tom

Tom, I was surprised at how well you played this! You have nothing to worry about and you should be very proud of your progress. Playing faster will come with time as your technique improves which will come from scales, arpeggios, some hanon, and from practicing pieces. Speed is nowhere as important as musicality and your playing has that. I too have moments when I feel I want to quit a piece. Some of my pieces have taken me four months to master and even then I still make some mistakes and they are far from perfect. I expect it won't get easier soon , we just have to be patient and to learn to enjoy the little victories. They are what keeps us going. If you can, play your pieces for as many people as possible, maybe ask youf teavher if you could take part on one of her recitals if she organizes such, or do a family reunion thing and prepare a couple of pieces to play for a larger group of your relatives. Personally for me, knowing I will play a piece in front of an audience, pushes me to go further and keeps me motivated. I don't like playing just for myself. I love sharing that. Otherwise I feel like all the hard work goes to waste. Of course I still don't play good in recitals but that will come too. It's very enjoyable nontheless.

I am impressed at how supportive everyone has been. I do get discouraged, but, have new hope, as I hear that I am not alone. I feel so incompetent at times, and still get nervous even playing in front of my teacher....

Thanks again to all for the heartfelt encouraging words....

Tom

40 years old and started playing piano yesterday (when I got an electric piano from my wife as a 40 yo present).
Seeing Your YT clip makes me wonder if I'm ever going to get good at this, but as long as I'm having fun with it I'm happy...

Hi Tom! ,
I'm just a smidge younger than most of those who have posted their ages (except of course Teodor.... I'm way older than he is )

Having high expectations of where we should be is something that adult learners of just about everything go through.
My teacher and I were talking about this just this week. I teach adults English - and had one student in tears this week because she is so upset with what she perceives as her lack of progress.... and I was feeling a little low because I was having trouble getting my fingers around my Beethoven piece, which "seemed" simple enough on paper...

Adults are their own worst critics. We are used to being able to do the things we want to do without too much frustration. We then pass 50 (ouch. It still hurt to write that....sigh).... take up piano, and feel like 2 year olds. We know how everything is supposed to work but we can't do it the way we see others doing it.

We also seem to lose any sense of perspective on how long it takes to really learn something that is physically and mentally demanding.
Those of us who have played other instruments tend to think "well, how much harder can it be?" Ha! I was stunned at how tired my brain was after trying to read and play very very simple pieces of piano music.

The other thing we tend to forget is that we "plateau". We make a certain amount of progress and then it feels like we are standing still. Those are the times we have to pull out pieces that one or two months earlier seemed challenging. It is exciting to see that what was really hard before, has suddenly become approachable.

I can not imagine playing the Maple Leaf Rag right now. Kudos to you!
I just know it is beyond me.... for now, maybe for the next year, I'm really not sure.

The other point I wanted to talk about is sight reading - there are a lot of mixed opinions about this - and why not ? There are alot of very differnt musicians here, with wonderfully eclectic tastes in music.

I think sight reading is fun - I do sight reading duets with my teacher and it is a blast to year new music come alive - I laugh outloud at musical surprises. It helps me with note recognition in general (I'm fine with treble, still a wee bit shaky on the bass clef) - and it gives me a sense of progress. Some of my sight-reading is true "prima vista", some is material that I don't play enough to "know", but that I have seen a little bit before.
I think it is good to learn to sight read, because one of the things I really want to do is to play with others. For example, at Christmas we had friends over for a musical evening - we were from Canada, Brazil, Ireland and Sweden..oh and Italy too lol.... and we all had our favourite Christmas music. It involved a lot of sight reading, and I was NOT great at it, lol.. but I had such great fun!

Personally I think developing your sight reading skills just speeds up the whole process as you approach new pieces.

But hey - to each his own!

I feel the same way. It often so happens that I sit at the piano and I feel as if I can play anything and on these days I play quite well. But there are other times when I see no progress or I just feel tired from all the lessons and from practicing and I get frustrated like this:



I have been at it for weeks, I know it by heart but on some days I can't do a clean playthrough no matter what.

Originally Posted by Musical Tom

I am impressed at how supportive everyone has been. I do get discouraged, but, have new hope, as I hear that I am not alone. I feel so incompetent at times, and still get nervous even playing in front of my teacher....

Thanks again to all for the heartfelt encouraging words....

Tom

Musical Tom - When I started to read your original post, I immediately identified with you. After a year and a half of playing I sometimes feel the same way. Then I watched your video and I thought "Is that his piano teacher or him"? When I realized it was you ... I'm thinking to myself ... "Holy Moly ... If he's depressed with that level of talent, I should be downright suicidal at this point

Tom - you are a very talented and musical guy. At the rate you're progressing, we'll be buying your music on itunes in a couple of years. Teodor, whose post is above mine is similarly talented too! You two guys could do an album ...Tom and Teodor at Carnegie Hall by the time I finish my Masterwork Classics Volume 3 book! I feel ...soooo inadequate now! Don't be so hard on yourself!! You got it!

Hi, all. I too am 57 (for a few weeks more, anyway...). I began a year ago, with a teacher who had only children as her other students, so she went very, very slowly with me. Also, she was very ill, and she has now passed away. After a month or so hiatus, I began with her teacher in January (2011). He keeps saying I'm doing great, but I still feel all thumbs, and can't really play much of anything yet. But I keep plugging away.

My goal is not to be a professional pianist, but to play well enough to teach voice, which I'm also studying. And to enjoy myself. But I'm still going on faith at this point! Have a demanding job (patent secretary) and can't always practice as much as I should. I live in an apartment and the hours I can practice without disturbing neighbors are limited; if I work late, by the time I get some dinner, it may be too late to play. But I keep at it...

Guess we all need encouragement.

Hi Thom......I'am still 57, within a week 58......one day I play every sheet I want....other days it seems my fingers are sitting in a knot.....

Playing by heart....mmmm...not me.....only Wonderfull world...and some fragments of classics......always need to have sheets with me....

Best regards and enjoy every moment on the bench...

Johan B

congrats Tom, Maple Leaf Rag is a grade 8 piece on my board, you obviously have a lot of natural talent to play grade 8 pieces after just 2 years. Well done.

I have been playing piano for just over 2 years. I am now 57 and am still having fun.

My piano teacher has me working my way through a series os grade school piano books. I can tell that the learning curve for learning a new piece is sslloowwlly getting shorter. From discussions with my teacher the improvement in sight reading due to practice is what happens. It is a slow painful process.
My challenge piece currently is a rendition of the New World Symphony. This is really beyond my current skill level. I am working on it over the course of a number of months.

Hi everyone.....I am still playing and practicing.....I can't believe how rusty one can get when we don't practice often.......I still wish I could site read a little better, but am getting better at it. Does anyone have any suggestions and/or exercises that might help?

Tom

Thanks for the compliment......I appreciate it, but still need much work to improve my skill and speed.......I still make plenty of mistakes on The Maple Leaf Rag.....

Tom