Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Start piano at 70 or older?

Is it possible to learn to play the piano if you a) have NO musical background and b) don't start lessons until 70 or older? By "play the piano" all I mean is ability to play simple pieces (e.g. Bach's Minuet in G; Clementi Sonatina Op. 36, No. 1; or Fakebook melodies) without stumbling for the notes or hesitating, i.e., without sounding like you're a rank beginner. How long should it take to get to that level? I would love to hear other's experiences, either personal or second-hand. Again: No prior musical instrument or training; and 70+.

I think the answer is yes. I’m an older beginner, of several years now. Some Bach minuets, no problem. Some simpler Chopin too. You need patience, sleep on the practice sessions, don’t expect instant results, don’t push it. If you have joint problems learn good technique from someone else, maybe a teacher. A teacher will be good anyway. Learn to read music but don’t spend too much time learning to sight read except for very simple pieces, like nursery rhymes, one clef, bass chords. This latter may be contentious, but you will move on to more advanced pieces quicker this way, quicker than you can sight read them anyway, as the brain is not quite so elastic enough to do this quickly. The downside is you will be memorising, good brain exercise, but limits pieces to, let’s say 3 or 4 minutes or less depending on repetition, and may limit your repertoire although practice time limits this anyway. Go for it and enjoy the journey, as they say.

As someone who started from zero at 60+, I would say that diligence, determination, and patience play a far larger part in the outcome than the age at which one starts.

How long it will take to get to the level you mentioned is impossible to say. A good teacher will help it happen faster. Good practice habits will help. Good genes will help, too. You want a solid foundation in the fundamentals, learned from the start, so you don't have to waste time later unlearning them.

Learning to play the piano is not easy. My own opinion is that you learn faster and better and with greater peace of mind if you realize that learning to play is an ongoing process--you might set your sights on a particular level or piece, but when you get there, the horizon shifts and you aim for something further along. You have to enjoy the process.

If you are there to enjoy the journey, come what may, you'll be pleasantly surprised to how much you can achieve. But if you put expectations on yourself - like being able to play said Clementi sonatina within one year, you'll be disappointed. If someone here told you that you should be aiming to play the Bach in six months, and you can't, would you give up? (FWIW, I played that Minuet in the Anna Magdalena Notebook after some nine months of weekly lessons. I was ten.)

I have a friend who started from scratch at 60, and - several years later - he's now playing Chopin nocturnes very well. But he wasn't in a hurry, and he wanted to learn everything starting from the basics (note-reading, rhythm including counting beats etc), AND he had (and still has) a good teacher. The way he looked at it was, he'd just retired, he had lots of free time and money to spend on himself, and he'd always wanted to learn to play the piano but never had time until now, and he was intending to enjoy every step of the journey. Therefore, he wasn't going to take short cuts just to 'get to the big tunes' which would come back to bite him later.

He's surprised himself - and his teacher - in what he's achieved with regular diligent practice, lots of patience, never forcing the 'pace' of learning, and no setting of unrealistic goals.

The music you are looking at are in RCM Level 3. Everyone comes to the piano with different skills. It takes a young child between 1 to 3 years to reach RCM 1. Most adults could finish RCM Preparatory levels and reach RCM 1 in months. After that, perhaps another year or 2 to reach RCM 2, so it is reasonable to expect reaching RCM 3 in about 2-3 years from scratch for an adult. Some adults reach RCM 3 in one year, but I think that's pushing it too hard. Ironically, the harder you push to play harder music in the beginning, the more you limit yourself in the long run. The difference between those who sound bad and those who sound good is the good players are able express thoughts rather than notes that have become second nature, which takes time. One cannot cram musical skills. There are no real short cuts, and it takes however long it takes.

Stumbles and hesitations has more to do with the way something is learned rather than age or whether or not one is a rank beginner. Beginners will sound like beginners whether or not they stumble. Playing in a polish manner takes a lot of work, and a good teacher who could share many tips and tricks to learning properly makes a substantial difference.

In my own struggles in the last 8 years to learn piano is that I've realized having sufficient rest, a clear mind, good nutrition, and reduce stress, all play their part in learning increasingly more difficult repertoire. I went through a period of 2 years of what seems to be no progress, but with grit, a good teacher, and willingness to do what isn't necessarily interesting (written theory, lots of technical etudes, aural training) I'm making progress once again. I think it was the famous pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy who said something to the effect that piano is the easiest instrument to learn at first, but ultimately the most difficult instrument to master.

I think I've heard every musician I know say this about their instrument.

On topic, you should go for it and see for yourself what happens. As we grow older, we tend to romanticize things we wish we would have done in younger years. It has happened to me before that something I had always wanted to do wasn't really what I had thought it would be. In terms of progress, we're all different. You may find a certain aspect comes naturally, while another takes hard work. Every learning experience is unique. You should find someone to guide you on your journey and decide for yourself whether or not you enjoy the ride.

If you are retired and looking for an activity that you can enjoy …. learning to play piano can be that.

The best is if you take lessons and purchase a reasonably nice instrument.

Then practice what your instructor works with you on and just enjoy yourself.

You may get farther than you think …. or not. Who knows.

Much of it depends upon who you are inside.

If you take pride in practicing and getting better and better …. very slowly …. but steadily ….. it might work.

If you get ANGRY that you are not learning fast enough …. then it will not work …. you may quit.

Learning to play piano will test your will to stay at it …. day after day ….. with no promises of success.

If you keep going …. you probably will eventually emerge successfully ….

Good Luck

I think if you get a good teacher and can practice an hour a day you will reach your goal in 1-3 years. If you do this for 5 years you will probably be able to play pieces that are considerably more advanced than the ones you mentioned.

But without a teacher progress is more difficult. If you cannot afford weekly lessons take them every other week. If you have 10K to spend on a piano and lessons don't spend 8K on the piano and only have a little left for lessons. You can get a nice digital for 1K and a really good one for 2-3 K.

No time to lose I'd say! I should know. I'm turning 68 in a week, and I've been playing for 60+ years!

It's all about the process, the enjoyment, the feeling of achievement. Why should age be a consideration? If they are eager to learn, go for it.

"without stumbling for the notes or hesitating, i.e., without sounding like you're a rank beginner." Why is this so important? I think anyone starting at the age of 70 might sound like a rank beginner for a while. The repertoire played might be a giveaway. As for stumbling or hesitating. Happens to the best of us.

Why not?
Anyway, you'll never learn anything at all if you don't try.

I'm 64. I hope I never get to the point where I think, "I better not try to learn anything new, I only have X years left."

Here's my thread Back to School - at 62?

Sam

Actually, anyone who starts at any age might will sound like a rank beginner for a while!

On a serious note, the best thing you can do to learn quickly, in addition to getting a good teacher, is to learn how to practice correctly, which is an art and a science unto itself.

I started at 61 just trying to learn from an adult beginners book. That didn't work well for me as I found I was easily distracted. So I got a teacher spent a lot of time learning basic fingering and timing, and I am still in the adult beginner book. But now 3 years later I can learn and play simple pieces. My teacher gives me lots of advice and encouragement but I think the main thing for me is having those weekly lessons. That way I stay focused on continuing to learn. It helps to want to show somebody some progress on a weekly basis.

Who knows - the gods of longevity might smile warmly upon you - you could live to be a distinguished, honorable centenarian, to which the following limerick applies:

It's a rare feat that is not elementary
And for you it's quite complimentary.
Seems you just turned around,
And to your surprise you found,
You've lived thru an incredible century!

So, with 30+ years of practice, instead of being passively entertained in your retirement home by one of the young, nice volunteer wippersnappers here at PW you could be The Entertainer yourself...

If it is something your really want to do, then GO for it!

I started 3 years ago at 70 with only one goal in mind and that was to enjoy my journey with the piano, even if that meant only playing a scale, a couple of measures from a favorite piece, or a tiny blues lick. It has been so much fun and I have progressed farther that I ever imagined.

In the past people assume you need to start piano at a young age. Some still do. A man has 2 grown daughters who took music lessons before and after they left home the piano became a piece for furniture. He enjoys listening to music and has a collection of CDs but wouldn't touch a piano himself. On the other hand, came across retired people who are into playing music.

Depending on how far you want to go, passing conservatory exams or achieving certain grade levels may/may not be something to anticipate. I've been in an adult keyboard class with a group of 10 people through the local board of education. This is for people who want to learn keyboard playing as a hobby without getting into Classical music or moving up the standard conservatory grade levels. Everybody in class was an older adult beginners. We used Bastien Piano Basics Level 1 & Level 2 which is like the Alfred's series. It is a different direction than going into Bach minuets, Chopin nocturnes or Beethoven sonatas. The instructor gave everybody a simplified arrangement of "What a Wonderful World" by Bob Thiele made famous by Louis Armstrong and the Titanic theme "My Heart Will Go On" made famous by Celine Dion. In the beginning, nearly all the pieces required the L playing just 1 note at a time and the R doing the same.

Personally I started playing piano in my mid-30s. Took a few lessons at age 5 that didn't get anywhere. Can't say I'm a total beginner because I played violin for 5 years in a high school band and also played timpani (kettle drums). In the process learned to read both Treble & Bass clefs. Back then our music teacher included simple arrangements of Classical pieces with a few Beatles Pop tunes and Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals in our repertoire. When I started piano, the main issue is getting both hands to play at sync. Over the years, I've learned a few songs by ear.

There is an excellent book about Alice - Herz - Sommer called "A Century of Wisdom." She was the oldest living holocaust survivor at the time the book was published a few years ago. She played piano every day until she died at 108 years old. She had an excellent career as a concert pianist, teacher and survived the Theresienstadt concentration camp by playing Chopin Etudes among other pieces.

An excellent read and very enlightening. She kept learning until she died at 108. Those that are in their 70's are very young these days! You can start learning piano at any age.

https://www.amazon.com/Century-Wisd...RL&preST=_SY445_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

Steve

Wow! It has been many years since I was the youngest participant in a conversation for the last time! I am 54, started from zero at 52.
I can sign every word Stubbie, spanishbuddha, Finfan and Meaghanw wrote. Being youngest here in both absolute and piano live ages I am not pretending to improve other answers but want to add my 5 cents:

1. Don't expect fast results. Get prepared that some of your goals will be reached much later than you imagine now.

2. GET A TEACHER. It is not (just) about getting things better or quicker. It is about not going to a wrong direction and be drowned there, finding yourself not only without real progress but rather with fatal regress. I know some self-learners will disagree with me but please know that if you meet someone who succeeded this way it is extremely rare exception - don't count on it!

3. EVERY SINGLE DAY!!! MOYD can be of a great help. Unfortunately, I myself often follow this rule just formally, i.e. literally 5 minutes (sorry, being youngest here I am still working 12-13 hours a day). But I can tell you that skipping a single day will cost you at least 3 days of your life - because you'll need another 2 days to restore to the point where you were at last day when you practiced.

4. Don't try to save money on the instrument! While I agree with pianoloverus that 8K might not be justified at this point, my digital for 1K (see my signature) didn't work for me well enough and I spent much more money (and time!!!) trying to improve it's sound. After all, I think for us, late beginners, the main (if not the only) trigger of being here is looking for ... you know... those sounds... Poorly sounding instrument will disappoint you and may even impact your willing to play...

5. Believe me or not, but when you'll start playing it won't really matter what exact pieces you play (Bach's Minuet in G; Clementi Sonatina Op. 36, No. 1; etc.). I also had my concrete target when I was at the phase of saving money for my first piano (in my case it were some Beethoven sonatas , and it still is but now I realize that I might not be in time...). Even a simplest piece when you play it by yourself will sound for you not at all like it sounds when some other schoolboy exercises it on youtube. I promise you will enjoy it! The danger of it is that with such enjoyment you might want to play it again and again... so you'll need to push yourself to leave this "comfort zone" and go forward - remember that Bach and Clementi are there waiting for you!!!

Good luck!!!

Hi Michaelvi
I totally agree with your post! And want to emphasize that the joy of learning to play is making music with your own two hands... feeling the keys as you play and the sounds you make yourself.

When I restarted Piano four years ago, I had a wish list a million miles long. I still have it and it would great if I get ‘there’, but I am much more content with playing what I able to play now rather than rushing to get ahead. There is Beautiful music to explore at every level