What is your goal in learning the piano – what do you see yourself doing with your piano playing skills?
Over many years, there have been a lot of people that have told me that they would like to learn the piano in their retirement but they are put off by one thing – they don’t think that they would be good enough. The truth is that YOU get to decide what is good enough, not some arbitrary standard.
So what is your goal? Do you want to play some well known classical pieces of music, or maybe you’d like to play something contemporary. What about the music of your youth? Or is jazz more to your taste? Whatever your taste in music is good enough to learn. I currently have a young student that just wants to play music from Disney movies! She has learned other things over the years to build up her skill level to where it needs to be and she has enjoyed them, but her face literally lights up when she talks about playing Disney music and when she is actually playing Disney music.
What lights up your face? Is it being able to sit at the piano and play to your heart’s content? Is it to be able to sit down and play music with the grandkids or play for family and friends? Is it to be able to do amateur performances as a soloist or to accompany someone as they sing? Is it to play in church with a group of other instrumentalists? What is it that you would really like to do?
For me, it will be sitting at the piano learning new stuff and playing whatever I feel like on the day. I really have no interest in having anyone listen to me – this might change as I get closer to retirement and especially when my kids have grown up and left home. This might sound a bit crazy but although my husband plays the piano as well, I have no interest whatsoever in doing duets with him (sorry, husband!).
Whatever it is you dream of doing and achieving from playing the piano, it is certainly possible – you don’t have to be a prodigy or even highly skilled, you just have to learn enough so you can play the music that you want to play.
So set your path to your goals – do you need to take lessons for a period of time or do you remember enough from your youth to be able to practice by yourself? What time of the day are you going to devote to playing the piano?
Just remember that YOUR goals are valid and you absolutely can do this!
Also remember to enjoy the journey and not just the destination.