Who says that being an adult is far too late to take piano beginner lessons? It is never to late to cultivate an interest in music making. There is no time limit nor age limit. How long does it take adult beginners to learn the piano then? It is all up to individuals.

Understanding

It is easier for adult learners to understand when the teacher teaches. There is no need to use images and comparison to teach as compared to teaching younger children. For example, I can simply tell you what rhythm is all about, what are chords in general. For children, it takes a longer time to understand certain things because of their age and their speed of comprehension. Adult learners are able to comprehend things using a shorter period of time

Attention

Though adults are always busy, they are able to focus on one thing at a time. However, younger children’s attention tend to waver and they forget things that have been mentioned just a minute ago. This thus takes up more time in the learning process. Adult learners usually get things quickly without much repetition. With focus, the learning process is much quicker.

Time

The one difficulty that adult learners have will be,time. Due to workload, it is not easy to find the time to practice. However, if an individual could just find 5-10 mins a day to practice the piano, it will help them refresh their memory and revise better so that the next class will be even more effective.

Commitment

Adult learners must understand that learning the piano is a continuity. By stopping classes due to work and having classes only fortnightly will definitely affect the rate of progress because things can be forgotten and then students have to take the time to re-learn it all over again.

Hence, adult beginners must commit to their piano schedules and try to make sure that lessons carry on consecutively once a week and not just once in a blue moon or fortnightly.

Materials

Younger children tend to follow closely to lesson syllabus but for adult beginner learners, materials are usually more flexible as they can comprehend things at a faster speed and thus broader use of learning materials can help increase the rate of progress.

For example, children beginners tend to use the level 1 book at first then proceed on to level 2,3 and so on. However, for adult beginners, there is no need to do so. Explanation can be given and a wide range of materials can be used to help them speed up their rate of progress and also their foundation.

How long does it take adult beginners to learn the piano? Adult learners understand lessons at a much quicker pace, they are able to focus during lessons without letting their mind wander off every minute, every second.

If adult beginner learners commit their time to the lessons and adhere to schedules, it definitely won’t take long to get get the basic of the piano at their fingertips. By progressing further using a wide range of lesson materials, it aids adult learners to learn more things within a shorter span of time.

There is no confirmation of when adult learners can actually play the piano, it all boils down to the practice one has and also the commitment that they give. Piano is not that hard to learn, with hard work and passion, anything is possible! Find a suitable teacher to help guide you in your lessons now! Music is always evolving!

This article is written by Berlin Goh, a final-year student at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. Since 2014, she has been giving private piano lessons, and also teaching at Yamaha. Performing is what she does everyday, and teaching is what she hopes to do forever. She hopes to share her knowledge in piano playing and performing and also help more students to love the piano!