How should an adult beginner start learning piano? (Please see description)

Lots of questions you have. You have obviously been considering this for a while.   First welcome to the world of performing. I wish you the best.   Just a few things:   I did not learn piano as an adult. I started when I was about five, and I still play classical piano. So, while I cannot speak exactly to what adults go through (calling Mr. Saito), I know from watching and listening to various folks that started lessons as adults that it does take time and effort, probably more time to master technique than it probably did for me as a kid. The skills required to play the piano are skills that you will have to develop. There really is nothing comparable in other areas of life that will compare to the skills you will work on acquiring when you start to take lessons. And kids learn faster than adults do since their brains are developing and still pretty elastic.   It does not matter if you want to be a concert pianist. Just want to learn. And know that every day you put into it is a day that you are getting closer to being able to play.   You say you have certain goals. Good. My advice would be to communicate that to your teacher so that he/she can guide the lesson in that direction. That is the most important thing to me-be on the same page as your teacher. The more you communicate with your teacher, the better your lesson experience will be.   Don't get discouraged if it takes you longer than you think (and it probably will). Give yourself time to learn, to not understand what the teacher is telling you, to have those day when it seems like for every two steps forward, there will be three steps back. Again. it's a journey. Just remember that whatever it is you can do, it's more than you could do in the past.   Don't take lessons with your kid. Fine to use the same teacher, no problem there. But have your own individual time. Your kid will have different needs and will have to be taught differently than you because he will probably not process information the same way you will, and he will move at a different pace than you. One on one with the teacher giving you his/her full attention is the best way.     Good luck to you. Stay with it. The piano is a fun instrument.

1. Don't take lessons with your kid. 2. Just start playing. It doesn't really matter what. Try to play whatever you want. You'll have to be a bit studious to learn to read music but you definitely want to. But just play a ton - I've seen people learn entirely on their own, just by playing songs they love all the time. It'll start hard and slow and sloppy and after a few months or a year or whatever it'll be fantastic and you'll be able to handle lots of songs. 3. You'll be fine starting with a keyboard, though, make sure it has weighted keys so you actually strengthen those muscles. It's probably a smaller investment 4. I started piano at age 6. It could've been sooner; it could've been later. I stuck with it and got good at it because I enjoyed it. That's what matters. 5. There is nothing wrong with starting at 27. It 'feels' weird because so many people start as kids but what does that mean? And I'm trying to start learning to draw now, anyway, cause I missed out on that as a kid.

Hello.  You may want to look at a PianoMaestro -- an electronic device that you place on top of your keyboard that indicates which notes to play.  It comes with the Moonlight Sonata as well.   Search within Quora or Google for "PianoMaestro" and you will find more information on it.   Best of luck on studying the piano -- you will not regret it.

One popular way to learn to play the piano is to register for an adult education class. Several cities provide continuing education classes for adult learners that want to master the instrument. Classes are generally offered evenings and weekends. The classes are held at recreation centers or schools. Prices for these courses are relatively inexpensive. You can find adults from a wide array of backgrounds in attendance at these classes.Nowadays this https://tr.im/AdultPianoLessons is the most recommended site for piano lessons for adults.Some adults choose to receive music instruction from a private music academy or school. They consult the local phone directory or search engines to find reputable music schools offering adult music lessons. These kinds of schools are sometimes more costly than adult education programs that offer the same type of lessons.People who desire private music lessons can pay a teacher to come to their home for private lessons. Private music teachers may advertise in the newspaper, online or in phone directories. Students who go this route enjoy individual attention from the teacher as they learn to play piano in their own homes. These students will need to own their own musical instrument in order to have private classes from an instructor.Remember that in https://tr.im/AdultPianoLessons you can find the best adult piano lessons online, for beginners and intermediate students.If you are an absolute beginner, on-line lessons contain everything that traditional books once had including learning to read the principle piano notes, piano chords and even piano technique to help get you started. When starting out, you can study basic piano skills like understanding the piano keyboard layout and fundamental music notation. More advanced subjects will include chord structures (root, inversions, and also polychords used in jazz and classical music), advanced notations, improv and proper piano technique.

You said you're interested, and very much so. Basically, you're already halfway there. You've got motivation. Learning an instrument primarily depends on consistency, motivation and determination, 'talent' can only do so much to kickstart your progress (and, additionally, if a person has true talent they won't know until they've worked their way up to 90% of their potential. Talent is unlocked in the first 10% and last 10%, in my and some other peoples' opinion).If you can afford one-on-one tutoring, that is amazing. It'll get you way further, much faster than if you were to teach yourself everything. Picking up the Children's and Adult beginner's courses in the meantime also sounds like a very good idea, but beware that self-tutoring that early in the learning progress will cause you to develop some bad habits that your future tutor will have to pick off of you. However, if you pay close attention to the placement of your fingers (the beginner's courses should show numbers above the notes indicating which finger to use on what note at a higher frequency than sheet music usually uses this type of notation; make sure to follow it closely) and whether you get any sort of wrist or hand pain, you should be able to prevent a lot of it. YouTube probably has videos on finger placement on the piano that you can use in addition to what is in the learning material you ordered. Else than that you will have to be cautious of bad technique, starting off as fast as you can while your motivation is going strong sounds good to me!Digital pianos are very good. You don't need one of the most expensive ones for it to feel and sound like an acoustic piano, either. My digital piano was at about $1500 new - 5 years ago. I bought it used from someone who no longer needed it and had treated it nicely, and paid $900. It's a Yamaha, and I've had personal experience with three other types of digital Yamaha pianos from different years and price ranges and they're all good. It's hard to cause significant wear and tear to a digital piano that just stands there, so I'd recommend you look around for someone selling a used one just for the financial side of it. Make sure to visit them and try it before buying it, just as you would if you went to a music store to get a brand new one. When checking out a used digital piano, bring a headset and a jack to mini-jack converter (one of these: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Adaptor-Premium-Quality-Headphone-Adapter-gold/dp/B002JP6JEK. Any music store and most tech stores will have them, and price doesn't matter at all. Get the cheapest one, or ask a gadget loving friend if they have one laying around). Preferably you should bring someone who knows how to play and know how to check that everything is working fine, but if you can't to that, just check for these things: Power cable for damage All in and outputs the piano has for visual damage. Some will have midi outputs, most only have two headphone jack outputs. Use your headphones and the minijack to jack adapter to check that both of these work. The speakers. Try low and high volumes, and play in the bass range, mid range and high range to try and hear if the speakers are damaged. There might be crackling or a vibrating or just pure ugly sound if they're blown up. Go on YouTube and find a more elaborative video on how to know if speakers are blown. Every single key. Press down each and every one of them to make sure that they all feel the same to press down and that they all produce sound. The effect buttons on the piano. You won't know how all of them work, but at least see if the different buttons work by changing the sound, transposing the piano, etc. Whoever is selling it should be able to show you how it works for a small demonstration, so you get to see that it actually works at the same time. The pedals. You'll most likely almost only use the far right one, and it's supposed to sustain the notes. Push down a key, press down the pedal and hold it down and then let go of the key. If the sound keeps ringing until you stop holding down the pedal or it has slowly faded out after a long time, the sustain pedal does its job. And that's important. That you like the feel of it. You need to like the feel of the keys, like how the piano sounds and like how it looks (looks are not a high priority, but after all a piano does take up a great deal of space in someone's home and if you find its appearance repulsive you'll get negative associations to it). Just the overall impression of it, really. You should like all of it and it should feel right. And don't buy the first and best offer. Before purchasing it, go online and google that model of the piano to see what price they normally go for. If whoever is trying to sell it to you wants $200 more than everybody else, confront them about the excessive pricing.It's amazing that you want to achieve a deeper understanding of music theory and the piano! Too few people value that enough. Prepare for headaches, music theory is as confusing as math sometimes, if not more because of the overall understanding it demands.I actually just learned the first movement of Moonlight Sonata. It's a nice goal to work up to, because it's such a relaxing piece to both play and listen to, while it still demands a lot of precision and tone and the player has to be able to pull off the melancholic mood in a convincing way. Don't worry about your age. It's never too late to learn a new skill, older age just might make the intuitive and technical parts take longer to develop. In terms of the theoretical aspect a more mature mind actually puts you at an advantage.When you get a piano and start playing, you'll be surrounding your son with music in the process. If he's interested, he'll want to try himself, and I definitely think you should let him do so - at his own pace. If he enjoys music, you should never ever push him to practice or talk about piano like he has to become world's best pianist. If he wants to play at home for fun, let him do that. If he wants to take lessons with you, let him do that. If he wants to take lessons, but not play in front of anyone else than you and the tutor, let him do just that. The second an adult makes a child's hobby seem like more than a hobby, it might be ruined. My little sister quit ballet because the fuzz about "I have a friend who danced at the opera, she could give you private lessons" and "in ten years you might be a professional dancer" etc. took the fun out of it for her.If he wants to take lessons with you, and the tutor is okay with it, I think it sounds like a great thing to do. Then he's also not obligated to go to every lesson, because if he doesn't want to go to the lesson one day you'll still be going. He's so young so I think that choice is very important. At home you can make playing the piano together into play time, music can easily be more fun than anything else!I don't think being young and not knowing letters and math will pose a big problem in learning notes. Notes are visual, and less complex than letters and numbers. I actually think it will be easier for him to learn to read notes than to learn to read letters at his age. And if he does learn how to read notes now and start playing the piano, I'm sure it'd benefit him when he starts school because his mind has had more stimulation and experience when it comes to interpreting visual symbols and translating them into meaning.This got really, really long, and I'm sorry if there's a lot of useless information or oddly constructed sentences (English is my second language and I mix up my languages both ways). Hope something was useful, haha. Good luck on your journey into the magical world of music!

Great question, and thank you for the in depth info.Great news, you already have the most important ingredient.... passion!  If you're not passionate about music in general, and more specifically learning to play the piano, then you'll never get good at it.More great news - you don't need to purchase an acoustic piano.  You can start with an inexpensive Casio type keyboard, easily under $200.  For starting out, it doesn't need to be a full 88-note keyboard.  61 keys are plenty to get started.You are on the right track with the John Thompson's children's books.  Don't be shy or embarrassed about continuing with children's books right through all the levels.Find an exercise book.  I recommend 'Hanon'.  I believe there is now an easier beginners Hanon, but if you can't find it, don't be intimidated by the Hanon published by Shirmer Library.  You'll see 16th notes all over the pages, but just play them slow.  Think of them as quarter notes.  Then as you gain ability, you can start increasing the tempo.Since your 5 1/2 year old son has an interest, you can take this opportunity to teach him while you're teaching yourself.The most difficult obstacle for you might be the amount of time you can spend practicing and playing.  For most players, it takes quite a while to even just get "pretty good".  So don't get discouraged.  Everyone learns at different rates, regardless of age, so don't feel disadvantaged by your age.  You're still young anyways.  And since you're not putting yourself under pressure to expect to perform masterpieces in record time, just take your time and enjoy the process.  Think of it as a video game.  Some games might take you a very long time before you can beat all the levels, but you have fun getting there.  Same with piano.  It may take a long time to beat all the levels and become a master, but you'll have fun getting there.Back to the issue of an acoustic piano, eventually you will want one, and the sooner the better.  I don't know what area you live in, sound quite remote if the nearest piano teacher is 30 minutes away.  None the less, Craigslist always has cheap (and free) pianos listed all the time.  You will likely have to pay to move it (usually about $300, maybe less).  If you know a few strong guys, and one of them has a truck, and hopefully you don't live on a third floor flat - you might be able to move the piano yourself.  But make sure it's a decent piano.  Don't worry too much about how it looks.  First, make sure all the notes work.  Make sure the pedals work (mainly the pedal to the right, for sustain - VERY important).  You'll hardly ever use the pedal on the left (damper - to play softer), and I can guarantee you'll never use the middle pedal (if the piano even has one - which is a sostenuto pedal, which sustains notes while others can be played staccato - no one ever uses it, unless your extremely trained in classical or jazz).  You don't want the piano if it's WAAYYY out of tune because it is likely that it'll won't be able to be tuned, or it won't stay in tune for very long.  If and when you do get an acoustic piano, this will greatly increase your dexterity and nimbleness in your fingers, as well as increase the overall strength in your hands.  It will also SOUND so much better that what's coming out of the cheap speakers of an inexpensive keyboard.  If you're never able to go acoustic, there are excellent digital pianos on the market.  You'll probably have to spend at least $1000.00.  Or again, perhaps you can find a great deal on craigslist.Good Luck!  Please feel free to correspond if you have any questions!

You sound motivated by the sound of the piano. Something like Moonlight Sonata is definitely a piano piece. Pop songs and video game pieces are not really piano pieces. Listen to the Video Game Pianist on YouTube. If you like what you hear, I'd suggest focusing on the pop songs and video game songs and forget about Moonlight Sonata or easier classical pieces for now. If you don't like what you hear, then maybe classical is better for you. Don't try to do both video game/pop AND classical at the beginning. They are very different and need different approaches. For video game/pop it is perfectly OK to play them by ear, and to learn them by rote (by copying what you see and hear on YouTube or from your teacher and friends, without using sheet music). For classical, the world is divided into those who think starting out by rote is OK (i.e. Yamaha School approach) and those who think it is NOT OK. It's great you are supportive of your son studying. Start him right away. Show interest in his lessons and be a parent, help him to practice on a regular schedule.

Welcome to learning to play the piano! I learned to play the organ and the alto sax from the ages of 14 to about 18, then I dropped music altogether. Now, at 58 (59 in June), I've become the owner of a Yamaha Key Arranger Workstation PSR710, which is fancy talk for a souped-up digital piano (or pie-nanner, if you want to annoy people). I'm using Alfred's Adult Course for my re-learning, the Hanon book, and First Lessons in Bach.http://www.amazon.com/Adult-All-One-Course-Lesson-Theory-Technic/dp/0882848186?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0793525446/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1423421922/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 You are not too old to learn piano. Others have mentioned the old saying: If you start doing something now, in a year you'll be a year older and be able to do X. If you don't try, in a year you'll be a year older. It's always better to be able to do something new. In your situation, private lessons are almost a must. I'm assuming you don't know any music theory, any technique, and can't read music. These are all things it's easier to learn to do with a teacher. The technique is especially important, because that's something you just can't learn from words or a video. How to sit, how to place your hands, how to prevent injury to yourself, how to get a particular sound -- all this is technique. Be proactive in your learning -- ask for popular music you can practice on. It's a lot more fun than just doing droning scales all the time (although those are monstrously important), and it will help keep you engaged. Make sure it's something you know so that you know how it's supposed to sound. Practice, practice, practice. Even 15 or 30 min here and there is better than no practice at all. If you're worried about disturbing other people, get a digital keyboard (ones like mine are on eBay for $50 to $100) and a set of headphones and go crazy. I think your son taking lessons is a great idea, but separate lessons. Don't let how long it might take you discourage you. Playing is a wonderful outlet for stress. I find when I'm practicing I enter that altered state of mind you get when you're exquisitely focused on what you're doing -- artists know what I'm talking about. 60 minutes or 2 hours can fly by when I'm noodling on the keyboard. Enjoy it! Have some fun piece you can bang out when you're just not getting what you're supposed to be learning today. Let off some steam. Even if it's just Frere Jacques with the right hand. Before you know it you'll have some chords you can add on the left hand and you can make it sound like a church hymn. Walk away when you get frustrated. A lot of piano is building muscle memory and learning to translate what you're seeing into finger movements on the keys. Give your mind and your body a break. Don't be surprised at how physically and mentally tired you get practicing. I'll get up from an hour's practice literally dripping with sweat. Making your hands and brain work together is hard, but oh, so worth it. HAVE FUN!!!!

Even if you’re an adult, you shouldn’t feel embarrassed to enroll in a piano class, either public or private. Or, if you decide to take the more challenging route, you can find plenty of resources online for fundamental knowledge or learning specific pieces. Always remember: Practice Practice Practice!