Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Will I ever be able to play some classical music?

1) I had 2-3 years of very laid-back piano lessons in elementary school. i haven't learned ANY music theory I just played some religious music pieces only (the teacher was very bigoted). I learned to read some sheet music.
2) Now, I am returning to the piano as a 35 years old. I learned for some months using Synthesia (only reading sheet-music and NOT the falling notes) since it could correct me if I played the wrong notes. I can play easily, flawlessly pieces like this:
[img width=600 height=167]https://i.ibb.co/hHM15yb/piano1.jpg[/img]
and play SLOWLY, with around 5 mistakes (although with practice I am sure I will play it without mistakes and faster) pieces like this:
[img width=600 height=160]https://i.ibb.co/P6X7gSg/piano2.jpg[/img]
I have completed some basic music theory course on Youtube and memorized 90% of it.
Now I found a piano teacher and we will start lessons in two weeks.
3) I only love and listen to classical music. My question is that will I ever be able to play at least the easier kind of classical music on an amateur level for my own pleasure?

Why not. How about e.g. this? Does it seem undoable with enough practice?

Of course you will be able to play classical music! You’ve taken a great deal of initiative to begin learning and now have a teacher. Bravo!!!

Just take one day at a time and appreciate the music. You may not recognize improvement on a daily basis, but if you look backwards periodically, you can see how far you have come. Celebrate the small successes: a measure, a scale, a new key signature, new music you have never played— and for Pete’s sake, avoid the YouTube videos of the cute 5 year olds. 😖

Definitely.

I'd just like to add a couple of points: patience - a lot of it - is key. Don't rush, and don't push your teacher into teaching you more advanced pieces than you can handle. Similarly, if you feel you're struggling, tell your teacher. Some teachers feel they need to keep giving "interesting" (& challenging) pieces to adult students to avoid them getting bored, and don't realize they are finding things too challenging.

Technical improvements come much more slowly for an adult learner than musical and theoretical ones. (For kids, it's the other way round.) And you definitely don't want to develop bad habits and tension-related problems that often result from trying to play stuff your fingers cannot manage.

Secondly, keep improving your reading skills. Play from the score. Don't waste time memorizing any pieces unless you want to keep them for some time to play for others. Much more than anything else for a classical amateur musician, it's excellent reading skills that make for long-term pleasure - when you can just pick up any score that's close to your playing level, and play it straight off (OK, slowly) without having to laboriously decipher what each note is, then look for it on your piano....

This will be the most difficult part.

It is tempting to "memorize" which keys to press instead of playing while "reading" the notation because initially you will be able to be able to play pieces sooner.

Avoid that temptation and keep "reading" while playing.

Eventually, you get so good at the reading part that it becomes a non-factor and the whole world of printed music opens up to you.

Good Luck

Sure you will. Many classical composers wrote music especially for their children or for their students, and therefore their easiest pieces are not very difficult.

I started from at 35 like you and now after a few years I can play some of the great classics like Chopin nocturnes and Mozart sonatas. There are many people on this forum who started at a much older age and can also play advanced pieces. I think with patience and a good teacher who doesn't skip over the basics you can definitely achieve your goals.

There is no guarantee you will be able to play classical music. OTOH I think your chances of being able to do this are around 99%.

OP - if you work at it, if can get some help from a good teacher (I do think that's important), I believe you can achieve, and even exceed your goal. Studying and practicing and playing piano will teach you patience (or CAN teach you patience if you're game). Progress is generally not linear, but if the general trend is forward, good enough.

I know somebody who took her first lesson in Chinese brush painting at age 30. To the best of my knowledge, she'd never painted, never even finger painted, prior to that. She went on to master the art and craft; her paintings sell for $1000s today.

Go for it.

It's inspiring to see older adults get into music. In my younger days nobody would encourage me to get into music at age 35 if I didn't start at age 10. A lot of older adults like myself are getting into music for stress relief or for fun.

Many of us are not pursuing a career as a concert pianist. You can go as far as you want. When it comes to repertoire, my teacher got her students into playing from a book with Jazz tunes for easy piano. Even if your main interest is Classical, you should be open to playing other genres of music. I listen to student performances online regularly and I'm well aware of the pieces they're playing at various levels including movements out of Bach "French Suites", Bach 2-part Inventions, Mozart & Beethoven Sonatas. A lot of beginners and lower intermediates play pieces out of the repertoire books like "Notebook for Anna M Bach", "First Lessons in Bach". There are also books with arrangements of Classical pieces for easy piano.

I download sheet music regularly. I don't limit myself to assigned pieces from a teacher or the ones in a computer learning program. We learn to read and we have access to the books in a library. You can try pieces on your own without guidance from a teacher when you feel ready.

Indeed, there are members here near or at retirement age that have just started learning the piano —- and they are learning and enjoying playing. The old refrain was ‘’I’m too old’. I’m glad that old barrier is being tested and broken.

why not? I started a year ago also at 35, now I’m working on my first Chopin piece (Op 69 No 1). I hope you enjoy your piano lessons!

Removed unhelpful negative comments

Rocdoc
The original post was removed by the mods and the member banned—- but now the original post has now been quoted twice, so the nastiness lives on 😏

Yes, you can. I saw a number of people in this forum and in my acquaintance develop piano performance skills from zero.

Sure, just keep at it. Every day - even if it's just 10 minutes. Regular practice is key.

Record yourself once in a while so you can look back and see how much you improved. Or pick up older pieces half a year later and you'll see the big steps you made.

I re-started a couple of years ago (2018 I believe) and man have I gotten better. It's so good to have this pile of notes where you can just pick an old one and it only takes a couple of hours to get the piece back to a level where I like to listen to it myself

An important discovery in the last months was to play pieces below my level - I realize that you might not be there yet - and it's just so much fun to just play stuff even if it's really basic. That and the simple Burgmüller Etudes.

Similar situation here: I would recommend a teacher for online lesson as they use to not taking a ton of money - it does help speeding up things a bit and avoiding taking bad techniques etc.
I searched for my teachers here: https://musicteachersdirectory.org/

Yes, of course! I'm sure your teacher will have good recommendations. I think you'd enjoy the "Joy of Classics" collection of fairly easy pieces.

When I first posted on this forum someone recommended to me the book Easy Classics to Moderns. They're all easy pieces, but in their original form, and not arranged. I love it! The pieces are way more interesting and fun to play than much of what I've found in other books of arranged material (like the Faber Adult Classics 2, for instance).

The Royal Conservatory of Music series takes you pretty much from the beginning with classical renditions. I have just started grade two and I am working on a piece by Handel. The books can be purchased pretty much anywhere.