Over the years I have had so many people tell me that they have always wanted to learn to play the piano. So many of these people have followed up with a comment that it is too late now or that even though they would love to play the piano they just think they will never be able to do it. I must admit that these negative comments about someone’s perceived inability to learn to play the piano, leaving me feeling somewhat perplexed and frustrated.
It seems to me that there is a lot of people out there that think that you need to be some kind of genius or musical prodigy in order to be able to play the piano. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Learning to play the piano is a skill that needs to be learned, practiced and mastered. If you learn from some credible source like a reputable piano teacher or some recommended online piano course and you follow what is recommended and you practice enough, you will be successful. It is absolutely certain that you will be successful.
For instance, if someone really wanted to learn how to knit-they had always wanted to learn how to knit and wanted to be able to knit jumpers for themselves, we would all agree on the steps of firstly getting some good quality information either by a book, videos or a person. The next step would be to learn the basics and practice the basics. We would also recommend to the would be knitter that they don’t start on a fancy jumper straight away but rather start on a simple scarf and over time, with lots of practicing their knitting skills they could eventually knit the fancy jumper of their dreams. We can acknowledge the skill set as something to be admired and we can appreciate that the proficient knitter didn’t gain these skills overnight. To my knowledge, no knitter has ever been thought of as some genius.
The exact same process is needed for a person to learn to play the piano as the person who learns to play the piano. Exactly the same process. So this then begs the question: why does the mentality exist where learning a musical instrument like the piano, is considered virtually impossible , when learning to knit isn’t?!
One thing that really irritates me is when people who know nothing about learning to play a musical instrument will actually tell people that there is no point in learning to play an instrument because they are not smart enough, not clever enough, not gifted enough, blah, blah, blah… The truth is that no-one would say that to someone wanting to learn to knit (quite rightly, too). It also stands to reason that it never should be said to someone wanting to learn to play the piano at any age.
So if you have wanted to learn to play the piano, get the information you need, put in the effort, refine your skills and you will be able to play as well as you want. As for the discouraging comments – ignore them, they are lies anyhow.