If you’ve always wanted to play, it’s never too late to start piano lessons. Regardless of age, learning piano is possible and also greatly beneficial for your physical and cognitive health. In my experience as a piano teacher, I’ve been lucky enough to see first hand adults of all ages start and continue (and enjoy!) piano lessons.
Often, my adult piano students tell me they’ve always wanted to play but never had the chance to. Or they had lessons as a child and wanted to come the piano again on their own accord as an adult.
So if you’ve been umm-ing and ahh-ing about piano lessons, this article can help you get started by:
1. Explaining the perks of learning piano as an adult (versus your child self)
2. Answering common questions adult piano beginners have
3. Outlining the benefits of piano lessons for adults
4. Sharing my tips for success
1. Benefits of being an Adult Piano Beginner
Having had piano lessons both as a child and as an adult myself, as well as teaching both kids and adults, here are the benefits I’ve noticed:
Adults learn piano faster than kids
We take it for granted that we can count and read and write much better than our child selves. We need all of these skills to learn music.
Adults know more music
Think of all the time you’ve spent at karaoke or dancing or singing in the shower! By virtue of listening to more music, you have a broader knowledge base for learning music compared to kids.
Adults approach lessons autonomously
In my experience, I see an amazing difference with students who come to music lessons on their own accord rather than being forced into the routine by parents. With intrinsic motivation, they build better playing habits at home which leads to better progress and music exploration beyond lessons.
2. Common Questions from Adults Starting Piano
Starting piano lessons as an adult can initially feel daunting. As a piano teacher, the most common questions I get are:
Q: “Will my fingers and movement be OK for piano playing?”
A: Yes! I’ve yet to encounter an adult student who couldn’t figure their way around the piano. For me, great piano technique focuses on ease and relaxation. Watch great pianists with long careers, like Martha Argerich, and just see how relaxed her body movements are. Plus, 1-on-1 piano lessons can move at your pace so you can strengthen and improve your technique in a sustainable way.
Q: “I’m worried I’ll learn too slowly”
A: Besides the fact that adults actually learn music faster than kids, I’m also yet to encounter an adult beginner who learns slowly. In fact, I’m often telling my adult students to slow down!
Q: “I can’t remember/I don’t know how to read music”
A: If you’d like to, you can certainly learn to read music notation in your piano lessons. And if you’ve learnt in the past, I promise it’ll come back sooner than you think.
For an alternative, there are many ways to read and write music. For example, there are chord charts/lead sheets, Hookpad, tabulature, or even drawing your own graphic notation! In 1-on-1 piano lessons, I can teach you traditional note reading or show you an alternative!
Q: “Do I need to do exams or perform?”
A: No, exams and performances are entirely optional. Prepping for an exam or performances can be greatly beneficial to progress, but you can learn for your own places and spaces to perform.
For example, some of my adult students learn a song for a loved one to hear. One student prepared a song to play at their friend’s wedding. I’ve had students who love writing songs bring their half written songs to work on in lessons. Some like improvising and jam with friends or in a band. Some are trying to figure out Ableton and wanting to bring a song idea to life. I’ve had students working towards accompanying their church or community choir on piano. Needless to say, there are MANY ways to “perform” piano besides exams and on stage.
3. Benefits of piano lessons for adults
Brain Health: like sports is exercise great for your physical health, activities like playing music is great exercise for your brain. Music educator Dr. Anita Collins describes the mental workout when playing an instrument is like “fireworks” going off in your brain.
Stress Relief: Learning piano can act as a stress reliever. Research shows that making music lowers cortisol and strengthens the brain’s emotional regulation systems. When students learn music, they’re not just expressing creativity, they’re practising recovery and emotional endurance. Learning music literally teaches the brain how to stay calm under pressure.
Active Routine: For retirees, weekly piano lessons and regular playing at home provides a lovely active routine to structure your week. It’s challenging yet accessible and rewarding.
Something For Yourself: As adults, you’ve most like been or are a carer, provider and responsible for loved ones around you. Many adults that start with me describe putting off lessons because they had to care for others or put other responsibilities first. Piano lessons are a little something you can do for yourself. Or as author Eve Rodsky puts it, your “unicorn space”. All it takes is 30-minutes for a lesson with 5-10 minutes of playing at home a day between lessons.
Ready to try a piano lesson?
4. A few tips for success:
Find a teacher experienced with adults
Not all piano teachers teach adult learners. The lesson planning involved is very different for kids and adults. Most teachers will let you know who their lessons are better catered for.
For me, I enjoy teaching both kids and adults. To start, students can book in and pay for one lesson. If you like it, then you’re welcome to continue with weekly lessons. But if not, there’s no obligation to continue! I invite all adults to try a few teachers before committing to regular lessons.
Commit to weekly lessons + regular practice
In my experience as both a piano student and piano teacher, I find that weekly lessons and regular playing at home works best as a routine and for piano progress. Practice can be 5-10 minutes a day, 4 days a week for beginners.
Be patient with yourself
Just because you learn faster than your child self, doesn’t mean that you’ll learn music fast.
For everyone, regardless of age, learning piano is unavoidably slow. Author Malcolm Gladwell claims it takes 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to master a skill. But in actuality, we have no idea how long it takes to learn piano. Understand that progress takes time.
Focus on sustainable piano habits
Instead of focussing on outcomes and results, I find it most helpful to focus on building happy playing habits. Find a way to sustain regular lessons and playing, even through all the bung notes you’ll inevitably play!
Enjoy yourself!
Enjoy the fact that you can follow whatever piano musical path you like. Sure the notes won’t always sound good, sure you’ll get stuck, but you’re doing it! That in itself is truly awesome!
About the piano teacher
Michelle is a freelance pianist and piano teacher who aspires to make music fun and accessible for anyone who wants to play. She’s been playing and teaching piano to kids and adults for over a decade, and brings good vibes playing piano for weddings and events at Michelle Plays Piano.
Michelle also plays drums in post-punk and indie bands around Melbourne, and has written about bands for The Music and EARMILK. When she’s not obsessing over music, she’s probably thinking about food.
