You may be wondering ‘How long will it take to actually learn the piano?’. That is a really great question to which the answer is in the words of my mother-in-law ‘How long is a piece of string?’
Obviously there are many factors that contribute to how long it takes to learn. You could define being finished the learning phase when you have completed taking piano lessons or when you can play a particular piece of music or even when you can sit down and play some songs with the grandkids.
For me. I’m never finished learning, even though I started learning when I was 6 and continued until I had finished studying music at The University of Adelaide. I’m still learning and I always will be. Some years I have learned very little and other years I have picked up quite a bit. My goal for my retirement (I’m not there yet) is to learn 48 Preludes and Fugues by J.S.Bach. I have played some of the easier ones, but I want to learn all 48! This should keep me busy for at least a decade!
What is your plan to learn (or re-learn)? Are you going to take formal lessons? Do an online course? Get a willing friend to show you the basics and then you’ll take it from there?
You also need to decide for yourself what is YOUR definition of being finished learning, or are you like me where there is no end?
You also need to give consideration to how much time you are going to spend practicing and how regular you are going to practice. The ideal that I tell my piano students is to practice 10-15 minutes everyday to begin with and anything else is a bonus. This isn’t always practical – even retirees still have some time constraints, especially if they are regularly helping out with the grandkids.
The only thing I would say about practicing is that it should be regular. I know that life can throw curve balls at us and sometimes you might be forced to take a break for a few weeks or even a few months. That’s okay, just make sure that whenever one of life’s curve balls comes your way, that after everything has settled back down to normal (or a new normal) that you return to practicing regularly.
Whatever you decide is the learning phase for you – enjoy it! Enjoy the whole process of learning and the skills that you gain. Enjoy the pieces of music that you learn along the way. Don’t be impatient for arriving at your end goal, just enjoy the journey, the learning and the breakthroughs that are to come.
To sum up: Set your goals, practice regularly, be kind to yourself when things don’t go according to plan and enjoy the journey – I guarantee it will be worth it!