Piano for Adults: 
The Best Approaches for Learning

Learning piano for adults is much different than it is for children. Some adults think it is too late to learn - when it is not!

What children have on their side is a lot of time and parents to encourage practicing. What adults have is intellect and understanding plus motivation. It's a great combination.

My general recommendation for adults to learn piano is to take online lessons and to learn chords. 
(Not sure what chords are? Read: What are Piano Chords?)

Why Chords?

To learn piano as an adult, you want to start playing as soon as possible. Right? Learning to play by chords is fast. It's also very flexible. You can develop your own style of playing.

What are chords? They are groups of notes played together. You use chords to play rock, pop, gospel, jazz, blues and other styles. (Just not classical.)

Along with chords I do recommend learning to play from notes also. You don't have to in order to play chords. But it's a very good thing to know.

Why Online?

The reason I recommend online piano lessons for adults is because they are fast, convenient and good. Sometimes better than a private teacher.

With a teacher, you will learn the beginning concepts and then go home and practice them for a week. And then do the same the next week. The problem with this is that these early concepts don't take long to master. Maybe 30 minutes of practice. Then you have a while to wait until the next lesson.

Learning online let's you speed up (or down) as much as you want to. Piano for adults should go quickly in the beginning. Adults have the ability to understand and play songs sooner.

Online lessons are good and they are also less expensive than private lessons. One of my favourites to recommend, Rocket Piano, is less than $40.

I also want to note that many private teachers don't know that much about chords. Most people who have taken and then teach piano lessons focus on classical music.
There's nothing wrong with this. I just consider learning chords the best approach in piano for adults.

Want to Learn Classical Piano?

If you would like to be able to play classical music, you should study with a private teacher. Online lessons can teach you the basics but classical piano needs to be coached one-on-one.

Overall, piano for adults is about learning to do something creative and enjoyable. It takes some growing and learning but you will love the results!

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