is 28 too old to learn the piano ?

[Musical Gym]

You're never too old.
Check out the piano guy, Scott Houston
Check your tv listings, too. He has a great show on public television called "The Piano Guy."

[johneboy]

I've played drums since i was 13, picked up guitar a few years ago, and taught myself keyboards a little over a year ago (i'm almost 40). I'm not great at the latter two instruments, but i can hold my own. i'm self taught on all instruments, and not all that bright, so if i can figure it out it's a safe bet that just about anyone can do it (just dont ask me to sight read).

[blackboyrockinit]

playing piano isn't that hard. Just look at how uncoordinated most pianists are at other stuff. These are not special athletes or 10 foot tall baskteball players. anyone who twiddles with those keys can learn.



here's a cat playing as well.

[loose snare]

Interestingly, at 28 you are moving into the start of you 'Saturn return' phase where Saturn (as the name suggests) returns to the place it occupied when you were born ...

To cut to the chase - you may start to feel for the first time the real sense of the clock ticking in relation to all the things you want to achieve in life. You no longer feel you have all the time in the world and need to start prioritizing!

More info:

http://www.newage-directory.com/saturn.html

Quote from above link:

'This transition into adulthood is often accompanied by a sense of urgency, a feeling that you must try to accomplish everything you've ever wanted or planned to do now. Goals start to come sharply into focus. If you have not settled into a definite career, or have been pursuing one that is inappropriate for you, you'll experience a strong push to establish yourself in a more fulfilling occupation. Sometimes this means a complete change. During his first Saturn Return Vincent Van Gogh decided to be a painter rather than a minister. More frequently it means a new direction or specialization within your chosen field.

If you have been building steadily toward a goal that's right for you, Saturn Return can be a time of achievement and rewards. Your labors bear fruit. Runner Bill Rodgers' Saturn Return marked the first of three consecutive Boston Marathon wins. William Faulkner published his first novel at age twenty-nine.

According to California astrologer Stephen Arroyo, author of Astrology, Karma and Transformation, "The quality of the entire experience and the extent to which it is felt to be a 'difficult' time depends entirely on how one has lived during the previous twenty-nine years." If you have been pursuing an unsuitable vocation or merely fulfilling someone else's expectations, Saturn can be relentless in prodding you to make adjustments'.

[Gospel]

I disagree in the above post in the sense that at 28 you tend to learn things faster and understand concepts quicker. When I was young, video games would frustrate me and be impossible to beat even after months of practice. Nowadays the same game takes me a day to figure out.

Quit worrying about your age. What if you didn't know how old you were? Would you still worry about not being able to learn piano?

I guess that's why the he told you not to bite the apple.

did you disagree with me? i think we do learn things differently as we get older. when you talk about gaming it seems you are talking about applied contextual knowledge. i don't game so tell me if i am wrong but you use what you learned from playing other games to figure out the current game. and as you get older you have larger context so you have more context to draw from. from what i understand learning music is similar to learning a language in which contextual knowledge can trip you up (ie thats not how we do it in english). younger people seem to take to new rule sets easier.
fortunately we have the basic grammar of music in our head.
you can see this for yourself. sit down at a piano, keyboard, synth, guitar, whatever and play a note. it doesn't matter which. now play notes around that note, some will sound right and some wrong. why do you think this is? now test it get another person to sit with you as you do this and see if you agree on which notes are right or wrong. -g

oh and blackboy jesus got it poppin' at around 30 with the water to wine thing. but yeah they killed that dude quick.
i always wonder what happened after he got brought back to life. did he kick it with buddha or what? man we have being waitin' for the sequel for like 2000 years.

[pavvel]

Is 28 too old to learn English?

You really are a twat aren't you.

[blackboyrockinit]

The buddha was dead some 500 years before christ was born. The apex of Yaweh's career was the easter sunday as we now celebrate it.

I don't feel that certain notes are wrong or right, unless each tone is played sequentially after another.

this is because your brain interprets the relationship of the notes and not each individual note as right or wrong.

In this example you are explaining cacaophonous tones.


Finally,

Being older not only provides one with access to all previous musical information in your head, but also ALL of the experiences you've had in your ENTIRE LIFE. That is MUCH more information to draw from then when you are say, 12 or 13. Just because a child is more likely to follow a rule set does not mean that his or her learning ability is enhanced.

[headquest]

playing piano isn't that hard.

Just look at how uncoordinated most pianists are at other stuff.

It's true - I am terribly uncoordinated at most stuff other than piano/keyboard playing! Useless at sport, DIY, general walking in a straight line, etc.

But piano playing is hard - it does take years to do well. It is very interesting I think that people who make really good pianists are often quite useless at just about everything else...

[Gospel]

The buddha was dead some 500 years before christ was born. The apex of Yaweh's career was the easter sunday as we now celebrate it.

I don't feel that certain notes are wrong or right, unless each tone is played sequentially after another.

this is because your brain interprets the relationship of the notes and not each individual note as right or wrong.

In this example you are explaining cacaophonous tones.


Finally,

Being older not only provides one with access to all previous musical information in your head, but also ALL of the experiences you've had in your ENTIRE LIFE. That is MUCH more information to draw from then when you are say, 12 or 13. Just because a child is more likely to follow a rule set does not mean that his or her learning ability is enhanced.

i wasn't trying to get into it with you bboy. ok i stupid was stupid about the buddha thing. but i was refering to with jesus was that he was around 30 when he preformed his first miracle turning the water to wine at the wedding. even though he said he wasn't really ready John 2.1-2.11. and yes we celebrate his rising from the dead at easter however the parables Jesus told, the way he advised people to treat other people and themselves are of far more interest to me. i don't fear death (and therefore don't need it conquered) but i do want to be a good person.

2. the whole thing about notes is that in music it is ALL about the relationship of one note to the next. that is what i said in my example. i didn't sat sit down and play a note now does that note right or wrong. i said play a note now play some others some, will sound wrong and some will sound right in relationship to each other. and this holds true wether you know the note name or relationships or not.

and music is a language. as in my example if you say some words they are not right and wrong on their own they only become correct or incorrect by their relationships as dictated by grammar.

3rd what you say about all the conceptual knowledge and experience you have from being older. how exactly does that help you learn to play piano? i can see how it helps you write, interpret or even preform music but how does it help you learn the relationships between notes scales etc? (the rule sets) i really don't know enough early childhood development and brain aging to make a good argument but a child's brain is different than an adults. learning something and understanding it aren't the same thing. children seem to have an easier time with certain types of learning. if the original poster didn't at least partially believe this he would not have started this thread in the first place. -g

[Musical Gym]

David Nevue took up piano in college after his roommate introduced him to the music of George Winston.

[simesf]

I've read through these posts and have decided that at the age of 44 I'd love to learn at least the basics of the keyboard. So the next question is what self study books are there? Someone mentioned the Suzuki method. Any others? Or would that one be the best?

28? Ha! I bet you can't even spell hemirroides.

[Hink]

The buddha was dead some 500 years before christ was born. The apex of Yaweh's career was the easter sunday as we now celebrate it.

I don't feel that certain notes are wrong or right, unless each tone is played sequentially after another.

this is because your brain interprets the relationship of the notes and not each individual note as right or wrong.

In this example you are explaining cacaophonous tones.


Finally,

Being older not only provides one with access to all previous musical information in your head, but also ALL of the experiences you've had in your ENTIRE LIFE. That is MUCH more information to draw from then when you are say, 12 or 13. Just because a child is more likely to follow a rule set does not mean that his or her learning ability is enhanced.

learning something and understanding it aren't the same thing. children seem to have an easier time with certain types of learning.

that's basically what I was saying, perhaps I'm showing my age or have antiquated thinking. But when I was young often the reason why a lot of children were "pushed" to take piano lessons was because (and I've heard this from quite a few teachers over the years) is that when it comes to learning and understanding music the piano is one of the easiest to get you started. The main reason I hear for this is because everything is laid right out in front of you (quite literally in black and white). The 12 semi-tones are laid out in a straight forward and consistent way as opposed to other instruments which require calculations from key to key, chord to chord, scale to scale.

Now I'm not a keyboard/piano player, I'm a guitar player and I use the keyboard for writing. I can play the parts I want to write and usually do just that as opposed to programming, though I usually do it part by part. In other words I'm not a performer on a keyboard, but that's more of a coordination thing than an understanding thing. But I do see a keyboard being a quicker route to understanding intervals, keys, chords, scales, modes and other theoretical things.

[blackboyrockinit]

David Nevue took up piano in college after his roommate introduced him to the music of George Winston.

George winston is my FAVORITE piano player. Thank you for bringing him up.

[blackboyrockinit]

playing piano isn't that hard.

Just look at how uncoordinated most pianists are at other stuff.

It's true - I am terribly uncoordinated at most stuff other than piano/keyboard playing! Useless at sport, DIY, general walking in a straight line, etc.

But piano playing is hard - it does take years to do well. It is very interesting I think that people who make really good pianists are often quite useless at just about everything else...

sorry if i sounded negative!

I am a pianist/keyboardist of about 14 years or so and I understand your perspective here.

But in the grand scheme of things, piano isn't that hard. It's not like losing a loved one or fighting aids and cancer. You take lessons, practice for 3 years and you are at a level in which you can learn to play any piano piece with enough practice.

You can do it, don't let anything stop you.

I've seen old men learn to do kickflips on a skateboard.

[debra1rlo]

28? Ha! I bet you can't even spell hemirroides.

I bet you can't either.