Is it possible for a late starter to acquire a virtuoso technique

[rovis77]

Hi, Is it possible for a late starter to acquire a virtuoso technique similar to a concert pianist with lots of hard work?

[marijn1999]

Already asked in the other board but what does late mean in this case?

[reiyza]

Hmm. I've read somewhere in the forum that the pianist is not the virtuoso itself but what is called virtuoso is actually how a piece is performed and presented.

That said, even a simple mozart sonata could sound virtuosic.


(Someone correct me if I'm wrong)

Then again, hard work really pays off given that one uses practice methods and time efficiently.

[lostinidlewonder]

Nothing is really impossible but simply asking already has put doubt in your head. It is a huge amount of work to sharpen your practice and playing method to a virtuosic level, many years and those who approach it inefficiently well then of course there will be plateaus to their improvement which they may never complete in their lifetime. Music is a personal journey, being virtuosic should not be an aim but merely the product of your hard work.

[bernadette60614]

Hmm, I don't know.

Can I having renewed lessons in adulthood after a long hiatus (decades, actually), play the pieces I might have played had I continued my studies over those decades?  That seems very unlikely to me.

However, I have found now that I'm an adult, that my goal isn't to play the most advanced pieces like a virtuoso.  It is to play pieces at my level like a virtuoso.  This means I'm not barreling through the piano literature to reach the most advanced pieces as quickly s possible.  I'm using the relatively simple pieces I'm working on now, to play them with solid technique and as complete an understanding as I can.

I would rather make a masterly grilled cheese sandwich than a half assed soufflé.

[visitor]

Hmm, I don't know.

Can I having renewed lessons in adulthood after a long hiatus (decades, actually), play the pieces I might have played had I continued my studies over those decades?  That seems very unlikely to me.

However, I have found now that I'm an adult, that my goal isn't to play the most advanced pieces like a virtuoso.  It is to play pieces at my level like a virtuoso.  This means I'm not barreling through the piano literature to reach the most advanced pieces as quickly s possible.  I'm using the relatively simple pieces I'm working on now, to play them with solid technique and as complete an understanding as I can.

I would rather make a masterly grilled cheese sandwich than a half assed soufflé.

this. She gets it.
To answer op

Virtuosity can be summed up as being the manifeststion of uncommon creativity (aka artistry ) with flawless execution of the fundamentals, ie basics.

the best the true virtuosos are expert beginners and they use that ease that comes from perfection  of basics to create and uniquely express themselves.

So first is the genetics, do you poses the basic aptitude to quickly assimilate and master fundamentals and how original and novel is you ability to express yourself.

Then with the right instruction, time, hard work it will develop for those  w the right stuff will get there. There is a window of neuroplasticity early in life whem brain is developing growing, its an accerlated learning curve, so tye younger one is the less time and hard work it can take, but later in life if the talent is there, a very advanced and refned musicality and expressive ability can be reached just not to the xtenet as had that critical early developmental windw been taken advantage of.

usually those that stsrt late still had exposure or early training.  If that us not the case, still possible , just less probable.

science lately shows that early in life the brain has more of a blank slate it is wired to learn multiple languages at once. Learning music is a lot like picking up another language. Adults can learn languages it just tskes longer and fluent wont be as muc as a child. This in combo w the nervous and motor control refinement are what comes togethe.

[louispodesta]

These replies are very well put, in my opinion, by the recent posters.

I wonder how the moderators of this website could have possibly allowed this obvious fraudulently/plagiarized made-up OP to occur?

[hardy_practice]

No adult with any commonsense would wish to consume his life in such a pursuit.