Revisiting the piano after 11 years

[wendolene]

Hello there,

I'm an adult learner (29 years of age), who has realised that there has been a gap in her life without music and recently decided to find a piano teacher and have lessons again. My last lesson was in 2003 (I got my ABRSM Grade 6 in 2002), so this was quite daunting at first. I've now been learning for about 3 months and I'm currently working on:

J.S. Bach: Invention 4 in D minor
Beethoven: 'Moonlight' Sonata, 1st movement
Chopin: Mazurka in G minor, op. 67, no. 2
Einaudi: Le Onde

I have also discovered from my new teacher that I have never been taught technique properly, so I have invested in the 'Essential Finger Exercises' book by Erno Dohnanyi.

I'd be interested to hear from any other adult learners who have revisited the piano after a long break, your experiences, and what helped you.

Finally, it's worth mentioning that I'm a terrible sight-reader, and unfortunately picked up the habit of learning from muscle memory when I took lessons as a teenager. I'm looking to improve my playing by sight, so any hints would be appreciated! I'm guessing lots and lots of practice is the answer.

[indianajo]

I took a 16 year break between my last lesson age 16, and buying a piano age 32.  A run at the All-state band (made it) State Science contest (lost but qualified for a scholarship)  college, US Army, and my first jobs intervened.  I bought a house before I bought a piano to put in it.  The US Army club pianos were beat up Kimballs with serious maintenance problems, so I didn't waste any time there.
I didn't invest in a teacher after I bought the piano until I was finishing the last movement of the Moonlight, two years ago age 62. The teacher's main suggestion was to accent the downbeat of the tripletts in the first movement, so I stopped that relationship at one lesson.  That style reminds me of the lovers riding a Swiss steamboat on lake Zurich at noon, not two lovers in a rowboat in the moonlight on Lake Como.  
I took the full Edna Mae Berman cycle of exercise books, plus the first Boston edition of Czerny's exercises, so I may have been ahead of you on technique when I quit.  I had worked a bit on the first movement of the Pathetique Sonata the last year, but the teacher took the edition away from me and gave it back to the music store without comment.  I wasn't making as much progress on piano that year as I was on bassoon and my academic homework, so her contempt was probably justified.
In my twenties I had bought the Belwin Ragtime piano book with Joplin's Magnetic and Paragon rags in it, and I used those instead of exercise books in my thirties and forties. Joplin is a good workout for the fourth and fifth fingers that have deteriorated when typewriters went from mechanical to electric keyboards.  I still play those nearly every night when the television is **** after dinner, plus Maple Leaf Rag, to burn off the calories and keep my muscle strength up.  
After I bought the piano I visited Westron Wynde music store in Manhattan KS and bought the full Dover Beethoven Sonatas, plus the Belwin Pictures @ An Exhibition.  I worked on the mysterious last movement of Moonlight, and Pictures, for the next 30 years off and on, mostly off, and finally started getting the hang of Moonlight when I quit work age 58.   It is satisfying how much fun you can get out of a piano and your spare time, with no expense whatsoever.  (I tune my own piano these days).    I'm getting the hang of Pictures now and am beginning to memorize the painless way, although some of it is repetitive enough with small variations I keep the score on the rack.  It takes me an hour and a half to work through Pictures, but the speed is beginning to build up on rippers like Ballet of the Chicks etc.  
I'm not much of a sight reader, able to just about get through a standard hymnal arrangement if there are not too many accidentals.  My teacher encouraged slow practice with no mistakes until one could get up to speed, and by that time I had everything memorized with my hindbrain, which is I suppose what people here call "muscle memory".  I don't apologize for automatic memorizing, when you memorize that way you are not the least tempted to freeze in concert the way I have seen people do.  The best practice for sight reading, of course, is just to do it.  I've been going to a charity dinner downtown some Saturdays, and playing out of the hymnal, which is not the hymnal of my church, and is a pretty good test of sight reading since the keys and arrangements are all different to what I am used to. That hymnal also has some nifty pieces like "In the Bleak Midwinter" which my low-class denomination never heard of.  
Piano is a great hobby, the hard part being slogging through the exercise books and scales etc when you are starting out.  Once you get past that, though, working on pieces you love is a great pleasure, and if you can get in a few hours a week, one can make real progress without a teacher.  The CD's available, even the MP3 tracks, help one to listen to the standard way to do it, and hopefully eliminate your mistakes without paying a teacher $$ an hour to correct you.  That is after you get the posture down, and the exercises to learn all the normal tricks of the craft.
So, have fun, and don't get discouraged by grades and exams ratings and those things.  None of that was invented when I was learning, and I didn't miss it.  What I do like these days is listening to the WFMT-FM radio , hearing a piano piece, and thinking "I could do that now".  I should never get bored, I hope I live another 40 years to explore all the pieces I have taken a fancy to.  

[angelacavan]

Hello there,
I've just been reading your reply and had to respond, it was so encouraging.  I started piano when I was fifty - I'm now the wrong side of 55.  I went through 3 teachers - they dumped me for various reasons - one of them even emigrated to Australia! (but I'm sure I wasn't that bad!!).  You're so right about the piano - no matter how good/bad, ignorant/knowledgeable you are, there is always something new.  I spent literally months teaching myself the simplest tunes but you get such a kick out of it when you master it.  At the moment I'm sort of wandering from room to room wondering where I should sit down - with the exam/scales, the self-learn books, or the play by ear route. So much to learn.  Hope it's all going well for you.
Angela/Cavan

[thalbergmad]

I'm now the wrong side of 55. 

You are still probably 25 years from your peak, so you have loads of time.

Thal

[rbeltz48]

Hello Wendolene,

Welcome to the forum. I also just recently returned to playing and studying piano after about 25 years. After almost 43 years, I started lessons again last week with a man who has been teaching in the area for over 30 years. I have higher education in music. Now retired and almost 66 years old, I am back to practice and playing regularly, which I did from the late 1960s to the late 1980s. I also taught piano for a short time during that period, both through school and privately.

I previously worked in the computer programming field from 1984-2007, lived in 5 different states, traveled much for work and had little time to practice after attending computer school in 1984. However, I did play occasionally for church and was in the church chorale in New England for more than 15 years as a singer and music librarian.

We have not had in in-house piano since we moved from CT to NC almost 14 years ago. However, my wife and I purchased a Casio Privia PX-780 digital piano last October.

One of the best pieces of advice I received is to start slowly. You will have pain for a while and should take a break whenever you feel tired. I am now up to about an hour of practice per day and would like to slowly increase that in the coming months. One of the best exercise books I have found is the one by Hanon - The Virtuoso Pianist in Sixty Exercises. I noticed a difference in my technique after only two sessions with the Hanon.

I am picking up where I left off in 1971: Handel - Suite #9 in g-minor, Gigue; Beethoven - Sonata #10 in G-major, Op. 14 #2, 1st mvt.; Chopin - Nocturne in b-flat minor, Op. 9 #1; Debussy - Prelude #10, Bk. 1 - The Sunken Cathedral.

Keep at it and strive to practice every day. Also, read about and listen to as much classical music as possible on a daily basis. Your life will once again begin to feel much more fulfilling. P.S. My sight reading is also not that good. And, I could never get the trills down very well in the Bach Two-Part Invention in d-minor. Best wishes!

[mr1062]

You are still probably 25 years from your peak, so you have loads of time.

Thal

This is so good to hear!  I'm 56 and returned to piano a few years ago, so all of these posts are greatly encouraging.  I'm improving, in technique, understanding of theory, interpretation and sight reading, but it's hard to be patient with myself.  Thanks for all the great posts!

Margaret

[thalbergmad]

The wonderful thing about piano is that there is no upper age limit.

There are numerous examples of pianists giving astounding performances in their 80's, 90's and beyond.

At 56, you are still a junior

Thal

[angelacavan]

This is all great news for us geriatrics out here!  Onwards and upwards!