Adult Piano Lessons

8/17/2019 Adult Piano Lessons

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Adult piano lessons: Never too late tolearn?

When Clemency Burton-Hill returned to piano lessons as an adult, shefound herself in good company. ro!n-ups every!here are learning the

instrument to relieve stress, focus their minds " and for the sheer #oy it

$rings.

They say that youth is wasted on the young, but it’s nothing compared to piano

lessons.

When I look back at my younger self and remember how I battled against

learning the instrument and how quickly I gave it up, I’m gnawed at by rage.

Why, why didn’t I practise when I had the chance? nd why do I find myself in

my thirties, suffering the mortification of learning the piano again, the indignity of

being rubbish at something my eight!year!old self could do, the sheer misery of

the difference between how I want something to sound and what actually

happens when I play?

The only consolation I can take from this is that I’m not alone. I often hear from

listeners on my ""# $adio % "reakfast show who say they’re revisiting in

adulthood the instruments they gave up as children, and it’s invariably the

keyboard to which they return. &uardian editor lan $usbridger recently wrote a

beautiful book ' (lay It gain) n mateur against the Impossible ' that

e*plores the year he spent learning #hopin’s +o "allade , aged -. nd he

was /ust one of the many high!profile amateur pianists, including actor 0imon

$ussell "eale and the former 12 #hancellor of the 3*chequer, 3d "alls, whowere persuaded to tackle 0chumann’s 2inders4enen 50cenes from #hildhood6

live onstage at a concert in 7ondon last year.

luttons for punishment?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006tmr6http://us.macmillan.com/playitagain/AlanRusbridgerhttp://us.macmillan.com/playitagain/AlanRusbridgerhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006tmr6


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0o what’s behind this trend, I wonder? Why are so many otherwise sane adults

submitting themselves to the strictures of daily scales and arpeggios and asking

the terrifying question of whether an adult brain is still plastic enough to learn '

and memorise ' some of the most comple* music ever written?

8It’s an overriding passion, not /ust for the music 9but: for the challenge,;

reckons 7ucy (arham, the leading concert pianist who taught $usbridger his

#hopin. 8nd the challenge is constant) there’s always a harder piece, you can

always take it to the ne*t level, you’re never finished. "ut there’s also the fact

that the piano is your friend< it’s always there. That gathers more significance as

you get older) what you can e*press through it, in a personal language,

becomes incredibly important.;

This is certainly true for "ritish actor and director 0amuel West, who tells me he

recently bought himself a 8proper; piano again, and has started practising daily

for the first time in %= years. 8s an adult you’re much more knowledgeable

about your own moods, so it becomes much more possible to use music as a

way to e*press yourself,; he says. ;>If I have a little piece I can play, I can listen

to myself better, I can e*press myself better. That’s entirely a function of being

older, and that’s a /oy.;

West, also an amateur cellist, had nurtured a desire to master the ria from

"ach’s &oldberg ariations for as long as he could remember. 8It was

something I felt I really ought to know. It’s simple, but it’s difficult and comple*

enough to keep me going until I die. #onsider &lenn &ould) he rarely ever

recorded the same piece twice, but he famously re!recorded the &oldberg

ariations when he was older, despite having had huge acclaim when he was

twenty!three. @e didn’t feel he’d said enough.;

West would be the first to admit he is no &lenn &ould. Aidn’t he find the

learning process maddening, given how out of practise he was? 8The

fascinating thing is how much my hands remembered,; he says. 8When you’re

small you learn faster, your hands are more adept, it’s /ust much, much easier<

as an adult, the fear that getting back to any kind of match fitness will take


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forever is a bit depressing. "ut it’s worth it) I got myself a piece I’d wanted to

learn and I taught it to myself and that was really satisfying. 3ven if my fingering

was rubbish.’

%eys to happiness

n easy reward for the amateur pianist lies in the fact that, unlike a violin or

cello, the keyboard is percussive. While the instrument certainly has its

challenges ' around BB of the damned things ' at least when you strike a key,

you know what note will sound. 8With the piano you can play small things

beautifully because you don’t have the tuning challenge,; (arham points out.

8That makes it slightly more doable, and intellectually, people like it very much.

When you learn as a child you do it because, say, your mum makes you go topiano lessons. "ut when you make the conscious decision to learn as an adult

you’re paying with your hard!earned cash and time.;

Then there is what (arham calls 8the de!stressing element;. 0he cites one of

her students, a banker, who travels constantly for his /ob but is learning a

fiendishly difficult 0chubert sonata. 8Instead of reading endless emails on the

plane, he’s downloaded the score onto his i(ad and he studies that,; she says.

8@e loves it.; &ripped as we are by the supposed wonders of daily Cmindfulness’meditation ' apparently even Wimbledon champion +ovak A/okovic is a fan '

it’s intriguing that $usbridger describes practising the piano in similar terms. Dn

the mornings he plays before heading into the office, he notices an increased

4ing and focus for the rest of the day. 8With other people it’s yoga or a run or a

burst in the gym,; he writes. 8Twenty minutes on the piano has the same effect

for me. Dnce it’s in the bank I’m ready for more or less anything the day can

throw at me. Without it, things are harder.;

This perceived magical effect is grounded in hard science. $ay Aolan, one of

the many neuroscientists $usbridger talked to in an attempt to understand what

was happening to his brain during his #hopin year, e*plains that whenever

$usbridger plays the piano, his brain is liberated from the 8e*plicitE over!

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/americanbuddhist/2014/07/novak-djokovic-combines-buddhist-mindfulness-and-ethics-with-tennis-at-wimbledon.htmlhttp://www.patheos.com/blogs/americanbuddhist/2014/07/novak-djokovic-combines-buddhist-mindfulness-and-ethics-with-tennis-at-wimbledon.html


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representational mind; of his day /ob. That has advantages not /ust for his brain

but for his body. @e goes through the piano days calmer< everything benefits.

"ut perhaps above all else, there is the sheer /oy of playing. Fy decision to get

back to the piano was inspired in part by the lovely things that happened

whenever I walked past one of the pianos that street artist 7uke Gerram placed

all over +ew Hork as part of his pro/ect (lay Fe, I’m Hours, launched in 7ondon

in ==J and so popular it was subsequently rolled out it in cities all over the

globe. 8The piano is such a great communal thing, such a great bringer together

of people, even if you can only play the simplest thing,; (arham says. 8It makes

me sad that more people don’t get back to it as adults for the simple fear of not

being good enough. They’d never think that about sport) people pick up a tennis

racket or kick a football about even though they know they’re no ndy Furray or

Aavid "eckham. I’d like to start a campaign) /ust do itK;
http://www.streetpianos.com/http://www.streetpianos.com/

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Adult Piano Lessons