I know that on this blog, I spend a lot of time encouraging those people that have always wanted to learn to play the piano, but for whatever the reasons, there just seemed there was never the opportunity. I have spoken to hundreds of people on this very topic over the years and the conclusion I have come to is that there are just as many people who did have piano lessons when they were younger, compared to those who never had the opportunity.
The interesting thing about those that I have spoken to that did have an opportunity to learn to play the piano when they were younger is that some of them intentionally quit but for others, circumstances changed and people could no longer have lessons. As we all know, sometimes life gives us tough breaks and it is not anything that we could avoid, it’s just what happens in life from time to time. The most common two reasons that people have no control over is when their parents move the family to a location where accessing piano lessons became impossible and the other reason is that parents could no longer afford to pay for piano lessons.
There have been quite a number of people that have admitted to me that they did have piano lessons until they decided to quit and now they live to regret it. Of all the people that have told me this, none of them were adults when they quit. The ones that quit and then lived to regret it are those that quit when they were either pre-teens or teenagers. Let’s face it, we were all once teenagers and I’m sure that we can all look back on our teenage years and regret some of the decisions we made – I know that I do.
I think it is important to let go of regrets and I think that there is only two ways to go. The first way is to start learning to play the piano again, especially if the desire to play the piano has never really left you, or the other option is to let go and make peace with what you decided. Sometimes these decisions we make that we regret actually end up being a blessing in disguise. Let me give you an example. When I was a kid, I was also very good at calisthenics and I quit when I was about 10 years old. I have spent many years regretting this choice, but earlier this year I found out that my hyper-flexible joints now have arthritis because damage was done because they were hyper-flexible. As a result of this knowledge, I now realize that quitting all those years ago has probably saved me from further damage and subsequent pain. My point is – what did you gain when you quit?
If you regret making a dumb decision to quit playing the piano before you had the sense of an adult and you are living with regrets, please either make peace with it or start again playing the piano – it truly is never to late to start again.