Is It Possible to be an Expert?

[ratihmaharani]

hi, i am new in learning piano. is itpossible to be an expert or professional pianist? i am now 18 years old. some people said 'if you want to be a professional pianist, you should study hard since you were a kid. younger age then now.' so is it possible to be a professional if i am starting in this age?
thank you so much. i need an advice

[musicioso]

 Do you mean a concert pianist? Or a pianist that plays in a band?

The first one is much more difficult than the second one.

[pianisten1989]

Everything is possible. You just have to try harder...

[jimbo320]

I'm gonna do something here that I'm usually not known for. A one word answer. lol Yes.

[becky8898]

Hi there.  Being an expert and being a professional dont always go hand in hand.  A professional is someone who gets paid for playing the piano.  There are plenty of people who get paid for playing and arent all that good. In fact some are just horrible. On the other hand there are amatuers who are truly great pianists. Dont believe that being a professional equals great pianist.

Cheers, Becky 

[pianisten1989]

Hi there.  Being an expert and being a professional dont always go hand in hand.  A professional is someone who gets paid for playing the piano.  There are plenty of people who get paid for playing and arent all that good. In fact some are just horrible. On the other hand there are amatuers who are truly great pianists. Dont believe that being a professional equals great pianist.

Cheers, Becky 

I start to believe that you lie about your age!

[nystul]

You are at an age where you have to think very soon about your career options, and as a beginning piano student you cannot possibly commit to that as a career right now.  It is great to be ambitious about learning and trying to become a great pianist, if that is a challenge you enjoy.  It is possible that someday that will lead to you being good enough to live off of your music.  But for the time being that is not something that you should rely on as your life plan.  Think of it as a very serious hobby and if someday it becomes something more than that, it is bonus.

[richard black]

International solo concert pianist with a good steady career - no. Practically anything else, with hard work, luck and a following wind - yes.

[jimbo320]

I'm sure there's a few people out there that would disagree with you Richard. Yanni for one. People told him that a self taught pianist could never be good enough. He got the last laugh on that one.

[gyzzzmo]

The problem isnt really 'working hard' or 'starting at young age'.
It's about the fact that potential concert pianists (the ones with really, really good technique) require a mindset of having no problems spending 8 hours a day practising, year after year.

If you think that that is hard work instead of a habit, you dont have the potential of becoming a concert pianist.
However, as mentioned by others here, being a professional pianist can have totally different requirements. Good technique isnt even one of them.

Gyzzzmo

[pianist1976]

I'm sure there's a few people out there that would disagree with you Richard. Yanni for one. People told him that a self taught pianist could never be good enough. He got the last laugh on that one.

Ahem... Yanni is a pop keyboardist, which is very valuable and respectable on it's field. But the so called "classical" repertoire requires some good foundations which cannot be adquired by self-learning. I respect Yanni (in his style) but I can't imagine him playing a Bach prelude and fugue, a Chopin ballade or a Prokofiev sonata. I think we are talking about different things. Different repertoires have different requirements.

[jimbo320]

Sorry Pianist, I still disagree. All forms of art are not so absolute in approach as well as execution.
To be classically trained or practiced should not be restricted in such a manner that we don't strive to be the best we can be. What came first, the classical style or the pianists who composed it? That's all I'm saying.....

[pianist1976]

Jimbo: I know you are not going to change your mind. But you only have one part of the story, the part of the amateur self-taught but you are missing, ignoring and despising the professional side. If you think that one person with no formal training can reach the same result as a professional with many years of formal education in music, you are in a big, big mistake. You can't realize it because of your lack of training (sorry, I'm not meant to sound rude) and this gap is preventing you from widening your vision.

If you take a look to the history of piano technique, you'll understand that cannot be reduced to the simplistic question "what came first". Modern technique is the result of many decades of investigation, instrument evolution, trial-error, knowledge sharing between colleges, hundreds of books and inheritance and perfectioning of piano schools from teacher to teacher. This evolution involves some great teachers and some great geniuses. It's just impossible and illogical that one individual will reach the result of this only by him/herself. Please, don't trivialize the Art of Piano. If Medicine and Engineering requires years of study to inherit the knowledge and findings of the former generations, Music isn't in a lower step.

And been a professional doesn't mean automatically been the best possible, it just mean bean professional no more no less. An amateur pianist with no teachers (I'm not talking about a pop keyboardist as Janny) is doomed to acquire bad habits, bad technique, lack of self-hearing and even bad music interpretation because of the lack of knowing what can be reached, what must be reached and, most important, how can be reached. My experience listening (and some times correcting real horrors and vices as a teacher) self-taught amateurs demonstrates this. I 'm still waiting to listen a self-taught pianist who reaches half the level of a professional. I listened no one until now. If this exists, please let us know.

[jimbo320]

Well said Pianist but I know there's more out there than we both realize. I could give you a list of "professional" pianist. All I was commenting on was the original post of this thread. It was asked if becoming an expert was possible starting later in years than childhood. My answer is still yes. The proper training is definitely better and under most situations a must, but it has been done.

[pianissimo123]

It's hard to say. I guess only time will tell. Work hard, practice lots and take all your vitamins!

[forgottenbooks]

I think it is possible, if you really want to be an expert. I started taking piano lessons pretty late myself - at the age of 15, two years ago. But I'm not going to let that deter me from learning. Currently, I'm working on Chopin's Scherzo in C-Sharp Minor and Ballade in G Minor. It's all a matter of practice and determination. When you're older, you would probably need more practice time to develop certain skills than someone younger. But it isn't impossible. 

[ratihmaharani]

You are at an age where you have to think very soon about your career options, and as a beginning piano student you cannot possibly commit to that as a career right now.  It is great to be ambitious about learning and trying to become a great pianist, if that is a challenge you enjoy.  It is possible that someday that will lead to you being good enough to live off of your music.  But for the time being that is not something that you should rely on as your life plan.  Think of it as a very serious hobby and if someday it becomes something more than that, it is bonus.

exactly since i was 7 years old i always wanted to be a concert pianist and designer, i really love musics and design clothes. but, my dad disagreed and he wanted me to be political people and another worker. so, i try to respect him and make him proud by following him. but now, i feel like i wanna be what i wanted to be. that's why i will try hard to learn and play piano perfectly.

[ratihmaharani]

thank you for your replies, everything you said are so valuable