Obviously if you are keen to play the piano in retirement, whether it is as a beginner or you are picking up from where you left off many years ago, then listening to music is something you would enjoy doing and it will help you to become a better piano player.
Listening to music, any sort of music at all, makes you a better musician in a several possible ways: Listening to a variety of music will improve your timing and rhythm, especially if you listen to different genres of music. It doesn’t have to be just piano music, it can be orchestral, rock bands, jazz quartets, music with or without vocal parts. Listening to different sorts of music, but especially the type of music you are interested in will help you establish, develop or maintain a strong sense of rhythm. You should not only be able to hear the beat but be able to feel the beat as well. As an aside, if dancing is something you also enjoy, then this can definitely help with your rhythm and timing and it doesn’t matter what the style of dancing is.
Listening to music will help you to hear what sounds right and what sounds horrible when you are practicing because you build up and idea of what note combinations (such as chords) or what sequence of notes are frequently put together. This doesn’t happen quickly but rather over a period of time. While classical, modern and jazz music all use the same notes, they do use quite different combinations of notes at times, so listening to a lot of the type of music you want to play is very useful.
If you are a retiree that doesn’t need piano lessons, but rather you are picking up the piano from where you left off, then YouTube is a very useful resource for you. It doesn’t matter what you are trying to learn, there is probably several different versions of what you are practicing on YouTube (just be as specific as you can when trying to find a particular piece of music). Even music that is not commonly known will probably have at least a few different versions. I can’t guarantee this but I have always found something I was looking for, for either myself or one of my students. I think it’s worthwhile listening to a few different versions as this will help you discover how you would prefer to interpret and play a particular piece of music.
For beginners, there are some piano course books that come with CDs. These CDs are useful because you can hear exactly what you are aiming for and some of them have an accompaniment to play along with. This is very much a personal preference and I personally don’t like playing along with a prerecorded accompaniment because if I make the slightest mistake or have the slightest hesitation, I become all out of sync with the recording. I find playing along with other musicians is so much easier. During a piano lesson I am teaching, I would much rather play an accompaniment while my students are playing their pieces, rather than put on a CD. Some piano teachers would prefer to use the CD. It really does come down to a personal preference of whether you use the CDs or not.
Listening to a recording of yourself playing can be very insightful. When you are playing the piano, you can be so focused on making sure that you are doing everything correctly that you are not really aware of what you sound like. Listening to a recording of yourself playing will help you hear what others will hear and so you can be more objective about where and how you could improve with any given piece of music that you are playing. This is one thing that I don’t like doing but I have used when I was younger preparing for a piano exam or performance. Even though it is an excellent tool to help you discover where you could improve, it is only a tool and therefore you can make up your own mind if you record yourself or not.
If your interest is playing jazz piano and you need to, or have decided to work on improving your improvisation skills, then listening to a lot of jazz in general is very important. It is recommended that as well as listening to some solo jazz piano stuff, you also need to listen to a wide variety of jazz music featuring different instruments. This will then help you slowly build up an idea of what note combinations and different rhythms work and what doesn’t work. You will also discover various patterns of notes that are frequently used and maybe get to develop your own interpretation of them. Remember that improvisation doesn’t mean that you just play anything at all, its more about drawing on a personal pool of knowledge and playing something that will fit in with the rest of the music. That personal pool of knowledge will be increased with listening to a lot of jazz, not just casually but with concentration and intention.
There is no doubt that listening to music, all sorts of music, will help you become a better piano player. It’s a really easy way to improve your musicianship with little effort involved – and maybe you could make the task more enjoyable by sitting down and having a nice coffee or wine while you are listening!