At what standard do you need to be able to achieve in order to be able to consider yourself able to play the piano? The answer to this question very much depends on how far you would like to progress and how much would be personally satisfying.
There are some adults that just want to be able to play one or two pieces of music and if that is all they want to achieve, then that is perfectly reasonable. Even if a person only wanted to play chopsticks, then that is a reasonable goal.
For those of you that desire to play the piano at a fairly basic level, then that is what they should do, but there are adults that have much loftier goals than that. There are people that want to learn to play the piano really well, but perhaps doubt whether they can actually achieve what they want. I’m here to tell you that your age doesn’t matter, when it comes to learning to play the piano.
I remember when I was in high school, that my French teacher was taking piano lessons. There had been rumors floating around that this was the case but I really didn’t pay much attention until one day I was walking into the music room at lunch time, ready for choir practice and my French teacher was sitting at the piano, finishing up her piano lesson, while all the choir members were filing into the room. I must admit I could not believe what I was hearing – despite her referring to herself as a piano student, my French teacher was playing very complex classical piano music and I was seriously impressed, because I didn’t realize until that moment that an adult could learn to play the piano that well. I found out a later stage that at that point in time, she had passed 9 piano exams, most of them with distinctions.
I’m so glad that I had the opportunity to find out about my French teacher’s hobby that started after she had turned 40. This French teacher proved to me before I could become a piano teacher, that adults are not limited in their ability to learn to play the piano. The only real limitation that adults have is in how much they believe they have what it takes to learn to play the piano.