Why You Should Learn The Piano As An Adult

 When asked about regrets from younger years, many adults will list ‘I wish I learned how to play piano’ as one of them.

 The good news is that whether you’re 10, or 60, you can always do something you’ve always wanted to do. 

Learning to play the piano as an adult should be fun and challenging. Unlike learning when you’re a child, you don’t have to force yourself to play if you no longer find you want to. 

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Why should I learn the piano as an adult? 

As an adult wanting to learn the piano, the most important thing for you is to have the enthusiasm and enjoyment to want to stick to it. Discipline and talent will come later. 

There are a number of reasons you should learn to play the piano, or indeed any instrument you want to as an adult. 

Enthusiasm is the first thing. As an adult you already have the power of choice. You can stop or start playing the piano whenever you want to, without being told otherwise. Many kids are encouraged by the adults in their lives to learn, and stick to playing any instrument, and even when they grow up, can no longer hear certain tunes they had to play over and over again… 

You Can Learn any Song You Like

No more ‘Mary had a little lamb’ or ‘Old Macdonald’ around if you don’t want to learn to play. As an adult who has been exposed to more music (note- heard more tunes that you will recognize as an adult) you can start by learning the songs you want to right away. 

You can start with the classical favorite, ‘Fur Elise’ if you want to. If you’re confident in reading music, you can search online for titles such as the Lumineers song Ophelia piano sheet music with both vocal and piano parts. This is a great way of learning to either accompany yourself or others. 

You Have a Choice of How You Learn 

As an adult, you can choose how you learn how to play the piano. There are many options of how you can learn the piano; by ear, apps, or by getting a teacher. 

Digital pianos have inbuilt learning technology- which is a good way to learn, but may limit you with how many songs you can learn. 

Teachers are a good option as they can build bespoke lessons depending on what you want to learn, They also offer a range of ways to teach. One-to-one in person, or via video call. 

You Can Learn At Your Own Pace 

When learning as an adult, there’s no pressure to learn at a particular pace in order to get a place in the school orchestra. Learning at your own place can make you feel relaxed and keeps the enjoyment element in your piano playing that will likely make you want to keep playing for years to come. 

 For The Sheer Joy Of It

Another reason to learn the piano as an adult is to allow yourself to do something for the sheer joy of it, something Gerard Zappa Wooster’s bass guitarist strongly believes in. He says you should love the music you create, and play it well. It’s an opportunity to escape some of the drudgery of adult life and do something genuinely meaningful and valuable with your time. It’s an escape from all the work, school runs, and email writing that so often dominates your time. 

How To Stay Motivated To Learn A New Musical Instrument

 When it comes to interests and hobbies, learning an instrument seems to be one of the most popular options available. Having a musical hobby opens up a lot of unique opportunities and experiences. Whether you just play it at home in your spare time as a relaxing activity, or if you’re interested in joining a band or an orchestra, it can actually be difficult to stick to an instrument for a long time. So in this post, we’ll be looking at some practical tips to help you stay motivated when learning an instrument.

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Ask yourself why you want to learn an instrument

First, ask yourself why you want to learn an instrument. Is it because you find it cool? Is it because you’ve always wanted to play it? Is it because your favorite song has the instrument playing in it? There are lots of reasons why you might want to start learning an instrument and it doesn’t need to be for serious reasons either. It could just be because you wanted a productive hobby!

Don’t buy an expensive instrument to force yourself to play it

One of the more questionable things that people do is buy an expensive instrument to try and force themselves to play it. If they don’t play it, then they can feel like it’s a waste of money. That’s the sort of mentality that they’re aiming for. It helps to push them to play the instrument so they don’t waste their money. Unfortunately, this is a bad way to encourage yourself to play an instrument and should be avoided.

Try to learn simple songs at first

Don’t get too ahead of yourself! Look for simple and easy songs and use them to practice. You can practice reading tabs or sheet music, or you could look up tutorial guides on how to play specific songs. This will help encourage you to play since it’s a song that is familiar to you.

Learn songs that you want to

Once you’ve made it past the simple songs, you can then start moving to more advanced or complicated pieces. You can make this easier by getting a hold of the sheet music or books with the scores. You could even purchase the pieces individually. For instance, you can find items like the Clair de Lune sheet music online for a fraction of the price of a book. It’s a fantastic way to motivate yourself and it can also be used to track your progress at learning a song.

Get started with whatever you have to try and learn more about your instrument of choice

There are lots of different musical instrument apps that you can play around with on your phone, tablet or even your PC. These are excellent for trying out different instruments to see what they sound like. It also gives you an idea on how to learn the instrument, especially if it’s something like a keyboard or piano.

With these simple tips, you should be playing in no time! Do you have any tips to add?