Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum New here

I'm new here and wanted to say hello. Also, I was happy to see an adult 'beginner' forum, but I would say it's more an adult 'self-motivated' forum. I've noticed that many of you had lessons as children or teens. To me, that means you are practicing 'continuing education', as you're not really beginning as an adult.

Splitting hairs maybe, but I see value in an actual beginner's forum for adults who have only played for under a year or so. In any case, glad to be here and hope to add to the conversation.

DutchTea, welcome, to the forums and to piano.

What advantages would you see in a forum for true adult beginners with less than a year experience? What disadvantages do you see in the current format?

Thanks for the welcome.

Let's see, for me, an advantage to a true beginner's forum would be talking with those who may be experiencing the same things that I am. There would be a feeling of 'we can do this' together, and encouragement to keep trying.

Don't get me wrong, the current forum is great except maybe it could be titled 'Adult Intermediates' or something like that. And I certainly see advantages to reading (not necessarily participating in) that forum. There is much wisdom there, but honestly, I feel a little intimidated reading about all the heavy duty pieces being worked on and/or recorded by 'beginners'! (my little Away in the Manger recording pales in comparison)

We all started somewhere! Please don't feel intimidated about where others are now. Everyone is very welcome here. Maybe you just need to start a thread for beginner-beginners to hang out. Ask the restarters to keep our noses out of it.

welcome to the forum DutchTea. We used to have a survey every year here at ABF, unfortunately a few of the old links are broken but from the 2012 & 2011 surveys 55% of the respondents started as adults and 45% had taken lessons as children.

I remember my very first piece like it was just yesterday (4.5 years), and how coming to ABF could feel a bit daunting. The good news is there will be someone new join in a few days time and you will have vastly more experience than them However, no doubt you have already noted the tone of this forum is never about being better than anyone else. Everyone was a beginner once and for some it is only a few years ago (insignificant in the scheme of things). This forum is a bit like what my teacher said at our first lesson, "this is a safe place, there are no questions too silly and absolutely no judgement".

There is an ABF quaterly recital coming up in a months time, please consider joining in. No matter how simple the piece there is nothing I and others like to hear more than someone just starting out. As time goes by we hear the person's development and enjoy the journey with them.

Sounds good! I will try to repress my perfectionism gene while I'm here. I want it all right now and when I see how long it will take to attain a higher level, well it's easy for me to get discouraged.

I actually began learning the piano about 20 years ago now. I gave up after about 8 months then because my young son could learn something that took me a lot longer. I have since realized that is just silly thinking. I now consider every day that I play an advancement of my skills and a victory of sorts. It's been about 10 months now and it is getting harder, but I'm still plugging along every day.

Adult Amateurs if you want sharp semantics. But don't worry, there is nothing too basic to get help on this forum as long as you aren't too shy to ask. We all remember life as beginners or restarters.

DutchTea
Welcome to the forum! You have already found the key to success: practice every day and be patient about what you could accomplish. Piano is a lifetime skill. ... and making your own music it's a lifetime love.

You might want to look at MOYD thread on which for members sign up with a commitment to play just a few minutes every day. If you skip a day you can have an excused or unexcused absence, And you need to go onto the form and report why you missed

It is very motivating to keep you going and the members that post on there are very encouraging

Welcome. I am like you, true adult beginner. Enjoy all the motivating conversations here.. I may not contribute all the time, but I have learnt a lot and you find u r not alone.

I'll have to say without the "Adult Beginners" that have more experience there wouldn't be much advice and help to be offered. I'm glad there are people here who know a whole lot more than I do.

Welcome to Piano World. The big problem with a forum just for beginner beginners is that it can become the blind leading the blind.

If a person wants to start a thread or two just for true beginners, that would be fine, and likely better than a separate forum. In the first post, tell folks to preface any contributions with their experience level to that thread(s).

Some beginners may have strong opinions. However, with less than a year in, they usually have close to zero piano skill, close to zero piano knowledge. Other beginners reading along often have a hard time discerning good info from bluster. This would tend to be a bigger problem with a forum just for true beginners.

Piano World can be a great resource. That said, many of the true beginners that are actively posting on the forum, are probably better off cutting their online time in half or more. That time can be spent practicing, or doing other piano related tasks (eg: theory, music history, music appreciation).