Am I too old to learn how to play the piano?

Ricochet J

Ricochet J

Ricochet J

Soldato
Joined
29 Jun 2004
Posts
12,957
Hello,

I'd love to know how to play the piano, and read pieces and play. I'm an absolute beginner and have a rubbish Casio electronic keyboard.

I've read it takes children anywhere around 10 years of learning to play with the upmost confidence.

I'm now 23. Am I too old?

Thanks!
 
Not at all.

The key thing is practice. If you learn at an older age, your neurons are not quite as adaptable as a young 'un, meaning that it takes longer to memorise movements, melodies and the relationships muscal notes have to each other.

Practically, this just means you have to work harder to achieve the same level as a sprog, but HOW much harder depends on your pre-existing talents. For instance, I'm truly rubbish at maths which means I have to try REALLY hard to learn anything, and even harder to make it stick. But music, to me, comes as naturally as breathing. However, I've found that the less I practice at the grand old age of whatever I am, the harder it is for me to remember certain things, whereas ten, fifteen or even twenty years ago, it would be as if I'd never stopped practicing.

Try it. You will surprise yourself.
 
Way too old! I'm surprised your fingers haven't yet crumbled to dust.:p

Of course you're not too old, get on with and stop procrastinatingnatingnatingnatingnatingnatingnatingnating!
 
People are conditioned retards, that's why.

They see intrusments as something you do in school and only the elite continue them farther. It's a damn reatrded attitude. Currently I'm learning C++ and SQL, once I'm done with C++ I'm moving on to Java. Basically as soon as I've got some actual disposable income I'm learning piano, and then once I can do okay on that I'm going to do guitar.

As far as I'm concerned some people ejoy getting amazing at one thing, others prefer to do it all average. I'm the latter, I enjoy doing everything to a 'good' level, perhaps at some point I might find my 'thing' that I take on to be an expert at.

Life is about experiences and learning. If you're not doing that and you're just working and going down the pub you're severely wasting the time you have on this planet.

Take every opportunity you have and just have fun tbh!
 
Dimple said:
I really don't get why you think 23 is too old to learn an instrument and why it's weird?
What's going through your head?
Click to expand...

Agreed. I picked up the guitar when I was 21. Not looked back! :D I've also had friends much older learning instruments such as the piano and saxophone and doing very well out of it.

There's no real reason you should take any longer than a child, just appreciate that to get where you want to will take time and dedication and you may not have that pushy parent forcing you to practice every day. It'll all be down to you, but you can easily get as much out of it in the long run as you put in :)
 
Alex74 said:
There's no real reason you should take any longer than a child,
Click to expand...

There's no reason AT ALL.
In fact the older you are the more experienced you are and you're 90% of the way there if you actually know what you're doing.
Let's take my 11 year old nephew as an example because ve is one talented lad.
From the age of 5 he was having drum lessons and at the age of 10 he got his grade 8 therefore being able to teach.
He has drum lessons from some of the finest drummers in the country but he hasn't got a clue about playing in a band and playing a song all the way through.
A year ago he picked up the guitar and is plowing through things like Enter Sandman & Sweet Child Of Mine but once again he doesn't know them in his head and can't play all the way through.
He's also got a talent for keyboards and I was sitting there last night while he was playing bits of Claire De Lune and Rondo A La Turk but once again there is no emotion behind what he's doing.
Compare that with my ex guitarist who took guitar up at 42 and he was playing classic rock songs all the way through within 3 months because the songs were already embedded in his head.
My current drummer in the main band is now 50 and took the drums up 5 years ago, 6 months before he joined us.
Being older can have a major advantage.
 
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