Down-grading expectations & intro

[capella]

Very nice forum.   Kudos.  I'm 50 years old.  I had a couple of years of piano lessons in grade school (obviously not yesterday ), then have played off and on my whole adult life in a made-up style.  Playing the top, cording the bottom.

It's been over 10 years since I have actually owned a piano.  Now try not to cringe, but I glomed on to 1964 Kimball Artistic Console a couple of weeks ago at an auction.  The tuner said it was in excellent condition and it didn't need anything done to it except the tuning.

I was horrified to realize how much my brain had hardened.  I couldn't sit down and play *anything* I used to be able to bang out, so knew I wanted lessons.  Then I started reading on-line forums.  While they are wonderful for broadening your understanding of how far things have come and how really GOOD some people are, it's also been helpful in understanding the kinds of things I most likely will never be able to do.

My current thought is to have someone get me through the third grade John Thompson books (which is how I was taught orginally).  Have discovered I can't read music well or count time well.  I'm practicing in the first grade book now.  Then, assuming that will take me a while, maybe just work on playing pieces I want to learn.  Not necessarily classical.  You think teachers would collectively have a heart attack??  Take on a student that really just wants to play for their own pleasure?

Feel free to poke endless holes in my train of thought.  Originally I had thought - oh I'll just keep going through the grades one after another until I could play them them.  I have no faith that I will actually be able to do that and question if I should even try.

Thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings,

Debbie

[gyzzzmo]

What do you think a teacher prefers: Somebody who likes playing piano alot and wants to learn.... or a 8 year old actually wanted to play rugby, but the parents......

[capella]

I guess I don't know what piano teachers want.  I do accounting.  I'm not a teacher of anything.  My only teacher eons ago was a high school kid.   I'm nervous, feel inadequate and am not even sure what to say to people when I feel so far out of my league.  Get me on my own personal stregths and it's a different story.  I no longer feel the piano is one of them.  I'll bluster my way through. 

[amanfang]

Capella,

I would find a teacher who works with a lot of adults if possible.  Generally when I have adults, I ask them their goals and work to help them achieve them.  I consider myself to be a "Classical" teacher, and that is the way I *primarily* teach children, teens, and college students.  I currently have 3 adult students (not including all my university students) taking piano "for fun."  One of them wants to learn classical music.  One of them wants to learn to play hymns for church.  The other wants to learn to play to help his kids, and then so he and his wife and aging parents can sing the old songs they used to sing.  I do not bother teaching classical to either of the 2nd two students.  It is completely non-motivating for them.  I teach them what they want to learn.  Basically I assist them in their own learning process. 
As for John Thompson, I think it works just fine for adults.  I would not use it to teach children, and modern pedagogical thought generally avoids the Thompson approach to reading/learning piano. 
Congrats on beginning to take up piano again.  I hope that it will become a source of enjoyment for you and NOT of frustration or guilt (as it sometimes tends to become with adults).

[thalberg]

Most teachers will be kind and patient with you.  If this is not the case, just quit and find someone else.  Kind piano teachers are far more common than unkind ones.

[capella]

Thank you so much,

I had come to realize John Thompson and his little fingers were not the norm any more, but it felt like semi-solid ground because I had at least been there once.  I'm already having a wonderful time just pushing along on my own the past couple of weeks.  I'll start looking locally for teachers who don't seem to mind my "little goals".  Who knows, maybe some day I'll have better or bigger goals.  I really appreciate the input.

[amanfang]

For someone who has already had some musical/piano training (especially an adult), I wouldn't have any problem with John Thompson.  A lot of the music is just fine.  I think it's the initial approach that I don't like.  The middle C reading method, the overall progression/grading, etc.  But since you have used it before and are coming back to it, I would not discourage you at all from using it.