BoneSnapDeez wrote:Just began learning how to play piano at age 31. Interesting experience...
What a coincidence. I was just recently talking with a co-worker who said he wish he learned piano when he was younger. He's about your age. I told him, "Then why not learn it now? You could be 60 and say the same thing. But if you start learning now, you would have been playing for about 30 years by the time you're 60."
Here's what I think is the best advice: When learning a new piece, practice each hand separately and then put them together. Take just the right hand part and practice it with your right hand until you can play it well. Then take just the left hand part and practice that until you can play it well. Then put them together.
I took piano lessons for a short while when I was younger, and this is the one thing that I really took away from it. To this day, when I wanna play a new piece, I practice the hands separately first.
After you get past the crawling stage, my second best advice is to learn pieces that are at least slightly above your current skill level. Preferably more than slightly above. Use the left hand / right hand trick. Play them even if you can't play them in time or correct rhythm, even if you have to put long pauses in between each note or chord. Keep practicing it, as painful as it might sound to others. Eventually you'll get there.
When I was taking piano lessons, I got board with the beginner and practice books that my teacher supplied me with and wanted to play something "real". I went out and got this sheet music book "Jazz Goes to the Movies." There wasn't a single song in there that was on my skill level at the time, but I told my teacher I wanted to learn one of the songs anyway. I practiced and practiced and practiced until eventually I was able to play the song fairly well. That got me to a level much quicker than practice books would have.
Doing this has made me better at piano. It forces you to learn knew new things. New ways to stretch your fingers, new progressions, etc. And the way it works is through muscle memory, so by the time you're able to play a piece well you'll probably have it memorized too (you'll be able to play it without sheet music).
I try and stay away from playing classic music. When I was in school, everyone that played piano played all the well known classical pieces. It just got boring to me. I'm not saying NOT to learn classical pieces, it definitely has it's benefits, but you should mix it up with other stuff. Once you make your way through the practice books or whatever, if you want some suggestions for stuff that isn't classical and not hard to learn, just let me know!
So, what are you playing on? A real piano? A keyboard?
