Question about starting to play piano late.

[christian4_u]

I want to be a pro pianist, here's my situation.
I had a teacher for a 2 years in 88-90 (5-7 years old), didn't study for a long long time , and had a great teacher again for 3 years in 2006-2009 (23-26). Anyway when I left him, he said I can teach myself now, because I was learning "quickly". I left because I knew it would take me a long time to learn to play chopin etudes and each class I was getting better without too much help from him, so I figured I'd come back to him when I learn them all and play them well. I gonna be 27 in sept. Anyway, I am starting to get the hang of 8 chopin etudes (five from opus 10.. no 1 no 2 no 5 no 11 no 12) and 3 from opus 25, no 1. no. 2 and no. 8.) . My reading is good but not very good, not good enough to sight read chopin etudes. My reading is a weakness and to compensate I play all of them from memory, as it is easier for me this way. I want to learn all 24 etudes..   Since I started learning the notes in "2008"  for a couple of them, I estimate it will take me another 2 years to learn them all and play them quite well. Question is.. I want to enter some competitions now, atleast amateur ones and maybe in the future some serious ones... however there doesnt seem to be that many out there for people my age that started late. For pretigious competitions, I am pushing the end of the age limit, and am not ready yet. What options do I have? If I don't enter competitions but play very well, can I still make a living playing piano? Are there any competitions for older fellows?

[nanabush]

Get a youtube following!

I'm not joking... it's crazy what can happen with a simple youtube account.



There may be festivals near where you live with open categories, and non-competitive classes.  I'm 20 now, and have been taking lessons since I was young, and only did my first competition last year (and unfortunately had to compete in the open category against people 4-5 years older than me).  It was just a local one, but was a great experience.  That might be a start, just looking for smaller, lower-key things.  There are a bunch of amateur competitions that are pretty well known.

[peterjmathis]

It's still possible, you'll just have to go a non-traditional route. The suggestion about making youtube videos is a good one -- it can be your online music portfolio that you use to demonstrate your skills.

[napoleonspidgin]

Here are some helpful old posts on the subject

"Is it too late?"
https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=8706.0
You can go straight to Bernhard's post

"Piano starting age"
https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=17016.0