Expert: Pat G - 9/15/2010

Question
QUESTION: Hi,

I have listened to western classical music for many years. My daughter started learning piano 10 years back and now she is 18 and is an advanced student. To encourage her, I had also started learning in the beginning but then left it once she was on her own.

Now, I am 53 years old and wonder if I could learn piano. Secondly, what should be the approach. Would be grateful to receive your opinion.

With regards,

Pushpender

ANSWER: Hello, Pushpender,

It is certainly possible you can learn to play the piano at your age. If you can get a book called Never Too Late by John Holt, you may find it very encouraging. I don't know how readily you can get the book in India. Amazon.com in the United States has it. I don't know if you have a branch of Amazon in India.

Holt took up the study of the cello when he was 45. The cello has a couple of difficulties that the piano doesn't have. I figure if he can learn to play the cello, you should figure you can learn to play piano.

It would probably be a good idea to find a teacher who will teach you piano. I don't know how you might go about finding one who is willing to take an older student, but give it a try. Talk to some piano teachers in your area. If you can't find one, you may be able to learn from a book or some books. Again, I don't know what is available in your area. I can give you some basic pointers over the internet, but obviously I can't teach you that way. And some books won't be very helpful, while some will be excellent. I would have to do some research to see which ones I would recommend. But try for a teacher first. See if your daughter's teacher would be willing to teach you.

Good luck! It's a wonderful thing to do, and I wish you every success. Let me know what happens. Take care.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hello!  Pat,

Thank you very much for the reply. Daughter's teacher is not keen to teach an adult. She is well known and feels that younger pupils will benefit more from her.

I have access to USA for books etc. When I was in New York for three years, I had seen Alfred's Adult Piano lessons at my daughter's piano teacher. Please suggest some books or lessons with which I can start.

I have already started learning on my own with the help of my daughter whom I meet once in a fortnight or so.

With best wishes,

Pushpender  

Answer
Hello, Pushpender,

I wanted to do a little research, and I still do, because I'm not finding some of the books I used. I want to see if they are still available. As an adult, you will want to stay from the more insipid series designed for children, and indeed, these are not necessary.

I will give you some pointers to start with, along with some other recommendations.

Here is a good web site for buying music books:

http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/

One book you should be sure to get is Hanon - The Virtuoso Pianist. These exercises will provide speed and dexterity, and cover many of the musical difficulties you will encounter, such as scales. One point on scales. When you play an octave scale, you will start, for example, with the right hand, and play thumb, 2, 3, and then repeat the thumb and play 2, 3, 4, and then the thumb again, going up. As soon as you play 2, tuck your thumb rapidly under your hand to be ready to play the next thumb note. On chromatic scales, play thumb on white notes, 3 on black notes. When two white notes are adjacent to each other, play thumb, 2 on the white notes, and then 3 on the next black note. You can spend 15 minutes with the exercises in the first half of the book, and this will teach you a lot of different finger sequences that will be helpful. Fingering is very, very important, but rarely notated in a music book. This is where a teacher becomes helpful. Proper fingering can have a huge impact on how easy it is to play the piece.

When you play piano, always keep your wrists straight. Hold your fingers curved as if they are wrapped around a ball.

One misconception I had, that wasn't cleared up until I studied piano in college, is that the speed of a passage is not determined by how FAST you play a single note with a single finger. The speed of the finger determines the volume of the note. It's the sequencing and coordination of the fingers that gives speed to a passage. I read recently that one piano teacher would place a board in front of the keyboard and have his students rest the wrist on the board so that all strength came from the fingers. If you run into this idea, ignore it. It is total nonsense! Yes, volume comes partly from the arms, though mainly from the speed of the fingers. But the arms give the fingers speed. It is simply part of the physics. If the fulcrum of the motion is the elbow, the fingers will move faster.

I used a series called Technic is Fun. I don't seem to find that anywhere; it may be out of print. I will look further.

After that, I learned various easier pieces that were original piano works by well known composers. These days, it's popular to play pieces written especially for the piano student, by people you've never heard of. I don't see the sense in that. These usually have less musical merit and don't sound as nice as those by the well known composers. I have a book called Sonatinas which was published by Schirmer. I didn't see that particular book offhand at Sheet Music Plus. The reason I like it is that it has sonatinas by a number of different composers, including Clementi, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. I started with a sonatina by Clementi which is about halfway through the book. Another good thing to get into a little later are 2 and 3 part inventions and the Preludes and Fugues for Well Tempered Clavier, by Bach. You probably won't get to these for a couple of years, but it is good to be aware of them. There are a number of favorites that are also not difficult. Rondo alla Turca by Mozart is a well known piece, for example. Also, Für Elise by Beethoven. There are collections of short piano works that will include such pieces. A little later, Chopin Nocturnes and Etudes are very good. They are a little more difficult than some of the other works. Stick with the well known composers, and you can't go wrong. You may not be familiar with Clementi. But he is a good composer, just lesser known.

Learn to read music well. There are two methods for reading music. One is by identifying the pitches, and the other is called interval reading. I learned by pitches, and have never adapted to interval reading for piano, though I use it exclusively for singing. Being able to read music will open the world to you.

Don't give up on finding a piano teacher. Look around. I think the attitude of your daughter's teacher is not acceptable. It wouldn't hurt her to teach an occasional adult. But that's my opinion, for what it's worth. There are undoubtedly some excellent teachers who won't mind taking on an adult pupil.

I'll see what else I can find out. If you will respond to this message, I can easily do the additional research and get back to you. Good luck with your studies! :)