So when are you considered too old to learn to play the piano? That’s a really easy answer and that answer is never. You are never too old to learn to play the piano. It doesn’t matter even if you are learning in the twilight years of your life because as long as you have the desire to learn, then you should go ahead and learn to play the piano.
Obviously it would have been more ideal if you had had the opportunity to learn to play the piano when you were young but life is almost never ideal and it is certainly messy and complicated a lot of the time. The ideal might not have been possible because your parents couldn’t afford it or you allowed other things to get in the way during your youth or you were unaware that you wanted to play the piano. These things happen and you would be surprised how often I’ve heard these explanations.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter that you couldn’t learn to play the piano when you were young because you simply can’t change those facts. All you can do is make a start and just keep going.
Recently I met a piano teacher that only teaches adults and she informed me that her oldest piano student was aged 97 and that my impression was that he had been taking lessons for a while. Clearly this gentleman enjoyed his piano lessons and he wasn’t particularly concerned with getting to a point where he was finished with learning, instead he was focused on the journey of taking piano lessons.
So, to ask a very blunt question – how many years of life do you reckon that you have left? Is it ten, twenty, even thirty? Obviously no-one knows for certain, but lets consider the awful concept of only five years left, or two, or only one? Would it still be worth the hours of enjoyment and satisfaction learning even just some piano? I think that because you are reading this, the answer is yes. A great big definite YES!
You may be wondering if a piano teacher might be willing to take someone older, well the answer is yes. Why would they refuse to teach someone who would always listen and take on board any feedback and never come up with questionable excuses why they haven’t practised?! From a teacher’s perspective, I always enjoy teaching adults because they are very motivated and receptive students. If you ever found it difficult to find a teacher that was suitable for you and was willing to teach you, there are plenty of piano teachers online that teach through skype or zoom – you wouldn’t even have to have a piano teacher that lived in the same country as you.
If anyone hints at, or tells you that you are too old, just ignore them because it doesn’t matter how fast you progress or how far you get. What truly matters is that you enjoy what you are doing.
So what are you waiting for? Go ahead and do what you need to do so you can enjoy playing the piano for as long as you possibly can.