Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Why did I waited so long?

I'm 42 and I played a bit when I was 13-15. I abandoned the music and started focusing only on computers programming, over work...until I recently suffered with burnout.

I restarted about 6 months ago to play the piano, and is awesome. I feel like I found an old friend that haven't seen in 30 years. I now suggest everyone that work on my same field, to spend some time also using the left part of the brain playing some music can be therapeutic!

Well I am 31 and never really played piano before then, now I kinda wish I started/took interest earlier, seeing my niece playing the piano in her home and university (they have a music/arts section there and she plays the piano herself for her singing as she's primarily a singer) and youtube videos of young pianists made me pick it up as a hobby.

She's been practicing the piano since before her 10's and her skills are amazing today, yeah makes me wish I took interest earlier but here I am now, I am glad I picked it up now though, it's a very fun instrument.

I made good progress on it within 2-3 months of practice with Fabers book, I am aiming to improve eventually, I hope to make great progress within the years of piano of course.

However then again I never had a piano at my home so I didn't had a choice and those portable pianos are a poor choice from what I've read about them, I now have a digital console piano (YDP-S34) to practice on.

I started late in the mid-30s. Coming from a non-musical family nobody around me knew much about music except what we heard on the radio and in recordings.

When I was growing up, the family had an upright when I was 5. Mom got me a teacher and tried a few lessons that didn't work out. It would be 3 decades later before I got myself a keyboard and pay for a teacher. Before that I played violin in high school for a few years.

I don't regret not keeping up with music earlier. In my younger days nobody at home had an idea how a piano works and that the instrument have 88 keys. I had no clue what a basic C-major scale is and had to rely on the teacher completely. There was no Internet & Google search to look things up. I wasn't ready for piano then. Today I'm having a much easier time. Many of the pieces I'm learning are student pieces that people would routinely upload recordings online so I can listen to what they sound like than playing by trial & error on my own.

well, I have played music my entire life and always wanted to play piano. Just never had the time to dedicate to more than one instrument at a time.

I am now 68 and have a year of lessons under my belt. I love it and wish I had started sooner. so you see, you didn't' wait as long as I did and you have many years of piano ahead of you.

I started piano in my sixties, I love it but TBH I don’t regret the delay. I had a great career in technology, and when I retired I thought I’d continue doing the same thing in some sort of reduced capacity. It was a bit of a personal surprise when I discovered I was apparently burned out and was glad to leave that phase of my life behind.

It took about a year of trying other activities before I stumbled on piano playing. Sure I’d be better if I started younger, but on the other hand it wouldn’t be as fresh and challenging at this age and doing something new was one of my goals. Maybe I’m just rationalizing what I can’t change, but I’m happy with the tradeoff.

fred768 - I don't hear it as rationalizing - I think that is a great attitude. It is very cool to be able to discover and get excited about new things even as we get older.

ignazoic, it warmed my heart to read that you re-found the piano.

I'm surprised at the large number of folks here who have come back to, or discovered, piano later in life. I'm in my late 60's and took it up on retirement. It is a physical and a mental activity that helps keep me young and well. It has enriched my life. I would recommend it as an activity for everyone.

I'm 68, restarted about 12 years ago. It's a great hobby!

We sometimes get posters saying they are frustrated and want to quit. But if you quit, where will you be in 5 years? Probably wishing that you had not quit. But if you stick with it, in 5 more years you will have 5 years of making music!

Sam

Welcome to Piano World ignazioc! It seems very common for people who learned playing the piano as a child to have stopped playing as adults, and resume it later. (I am not one of them - I started when I was well in my fifties.)


Just to inform you, you spend all the time also using the left part of your brain. But if you want to do something that uses the left half of your brain a bit more than the right half, do something with your right arm or right leg. Or close your left eye.

I'm 65 now, retired and love being retired! I started learning to play the piano about 15/16 years ago. Actually, it was not age that prompted me toward the piano, but a severe finger injury that impaired me a little when playing my stringed instruments. The injury messed up/mutilated my finger-tip on my left index finger (#2 on the piano finger chart), and you need those finger tips to play the stringed instruments.

However, the finger injury didn't seem to impair depressing a piano key. So, my piano journey was up and running, and more fun than I ever imagined!

As for playing the piano helping to keep us young, that reminds me of the lyrics to one of my original blues songs... "well, some people, they call me an old man; but that's alright by me. I said, some people, they call me an old man; but that's alright by me. Cause as long as I can play this piano, I'm just as young as I wanna be".

Okay, while I'm on a roll here, there's another verse that says "You say you're gonna leave me baby; well, you can go ahead on. I said, you say you're gonna leave me baby; well, you can go ahead on. Cause as long as I can play this old piano, I won't even know that you're gone." Sorry, I couldn't resist...

Rick

Congrats on learning the piano. Just remember it shall be a long journey but usually a nice scenic ride. Playing a musical instrument can be a nice way to meditate 🧘‍♀️