"I'm too old to learn piano!"

First and foremost, I can almost guarantee you that you are NOT too old to learn piano. The only exception I can think of is if you’re on your deathbed right now. If that is the case, I’m really honored you’re spending your final hours reading my piano blog, but don’t you have more important things to do?

I’m always amazed how many people believe that they are too old to learn piano. Sometimes parents even ask me if their 10 year old is too old to start. 10 years old!!! How could that be too old?

When we’re very young—like age 4-7—learning a variety of new skills comes more easily. We absorbed knowledge like sponges back then! This is why a lot of piano students start around this age window.

Is it harder to learn piano as an older beginner? In some ways, yes. We don’t pick up on patterns by ear as easily once we’re older than 5 or 6, which can make it harder to develop a natural overall sense of music and rhythm. But for traditional piano learning, there are actually advantages to starting later. Think about when you first learned to read, if you can remember. How old were you? Imagine how challenging it is for kids from age 4-7 to read music at the same time they are being introduced to reading words. It’s like learning to read two completely different languages at once. While younger children have great potential for learning by ear, especially when it comes to language, older beginners have the advantage of knowing how to read fluently already. That makes the process of reading notation much more intuitive. These older beginners already know what it takes to learn how to read, and I find that they’re able to pick up on the patterns of reading music much more easily. Older beginners can process visual patterns of all kinds more easily and pick out the details in the score that are so important to interpreting what’s on the page into music.

Another advantage you have if you’re older is that your fine motor skills are fully developed. With young beginners, fine motor skills are still developing. I spent some time in my early teaching days focusing way too much on correct hand position with beginners who were only 5 or 6 years old. I didn’t realize at the time that developmentally it’s just not realistic to expect most young children to be able to grasp piano technique completely because their motor skills just aren’t there yet. In fact, just pressing down a weighted piano key is a difficult job in itself for young children. With an older beginner, it’s usually as simple as “hey, have you tried lifting your wrist slightly and playing with curved fingers?” They can just do it! How magical. Technical progress is so much faster at an older age.

Older children really haven’t missed out on much in private piano lessons since they can generally make progress more quickly than they would have if they started younger. Also, often older beginners are signing up for lessons because they really want to learn, as opposed to young children who are signed up by their parents to see if they will develop an interest.

When it comes to adults, sure, there’s some time you may have missed out on studying piano, but that’s no reason not to start now. I’ve known amazing pianists who didn’t start until adulthood. In fact, one of them even started when he was in his 40s and went on to change careers and become a piano technician and teacher!

It truly doesn’t matter that much if you’re 10, 43, or 105. You can learn to play piano, and it’s totally worth it for the joy and value it will add to your life. Wouldn’t it be amazing to sit down at the piano and just play? I’m so grateful that I have such an amazing outlet for my creativity, and that I’ve practiced the skills that helped me get to this point in my playing. You can get there too—no matter your age—as long as you’re committed to doing the work it takes to make real progress.