How Long Will It Take Me To Learn To Play The Piano?

How long will it take to learn to play the piano?

So you've decided that you or your child would like to start taking piano lessons, and you want to enroll in music lessons. You might wonder how long will it take to become truly proficient? Well that will honestly depend on a few different things.

Some things in life you are able to master or complete and there is an end. Music is a talent and a skill that you will always be growing, learning and improving your technique. You might be able to play all you Major scales but then you find out you get to learn your minor scales as well. It is actually very interesting that you get to always grow, always find something new to learn. Always a new technique, a new piece of music to try and master. Once you are finished with that piece, there is a new piece of music that you get to work on. However if you are wondering how long it will take to be proficient with your instrument than the answer is in a few years you should be able to pick up more complex music and play it on your own.

Practice is the key to learning to play well.

Everyone learns at different speeds, also people have different bents in life of what comes easy to them. To some people music just makes sense, they get rhythm, they find reading music isn't hard for them, they understand about tone. Then other people love music, and they want nothing more than to be able to learn to play piano, guitar, drums or any other instrument that they have a passion for, but it seems really hard to them. No matter what your learning speed is or how easy/hard you find learning music, the key to success is practice. Whether you sit down and practice for hours or you like to play through your music a few times, every time you play your instrument you get better. Obviously the more you practice the more you will see improvement, the more comfortable you will be when you sit down to play your instrument. The more you practice you will find that your hands are almost moving by themselves. You are building muscle memory, that will be how you end up memorizing long pieces of music when you become a more advanced musician.

Making your lessons a priority is important.

Like most other things, it is hard to keep yourself accountable. We don't like to push ourselves to do something we feel is too hard, or not much fun. This is what your music instructor is for. Even though you would really rather stay with what you are comfortable with they will stretch you to play music that is going to help you grow as a musician. You will never get anywhere if you keep playing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". Also a lot of people think of music lessons in terms of the school year and take a break for summer. This is a bad idea.... you will find that when you resume lessons, you aren't where you were when you left, and that just doesn't feel good. You want to make sure that you keep lessons a priority and keep growing.

Learning music is fun!

Like everything else in life, we have an easier time doing anything when we are having fun. Music lessons should be fun! Yes, you want a good education, and you also want to enjoy going to lessons, not dread them. This is especially important for children. If you are not having fun and feel it's a chore your brain is not open to learning, and you will not be progressing as fast as you could be. Even though you should always have some challenging music, you should also have some fun music to enjoy. Watch how fast you learn to play your favorite music. Listen and enjoy your child asking to play the piano so they can play that song from their favorite movie.

Speaking of theory...

Who was speaking of theory? .... sorry, I just have to add this. Learning music theory is extremely important. Understanding music and how it works will help you play better, and will help you learn faster. Theory can even be fun if you get the right teacher. If you want a great music education then music theory should be a part of your lessons. You will be amazed at how much easier music will click if you are learning theory.

Anyone can learn to play the piano.

No, you're not too old, not too young. No, there isn't some people who just can't learn. If you put your mind to it and give it a try you can become a musician. Have fun and enjoy the ride. Don't put too much pressure on yourself, if you put in the time and want to learn to play the piano, guitar or any other instrument it will happen.