It continually shocks me the number of times we get calls and emails from Seniors (above 55, not 18 and leaving for college) who have just finished watching an episode of my public television series who ask something like this: “I’m almost __ (fill in your seemingly advanced age here) and I’ve always wanted to play the piano. I think I understand what Scott was talking about and it seems pretty logical, but there’s no way someone my age can really do this is there? Don’t you have to start when you are a kid?

I’m not just making this up – it really happens way too regularly. It makes me kind of sad, and mad, and gets me wondering about how playing piano got to be thought of as something akin to learning to talk, or ride a two-wheeler, or any other skill that is the exclusive domain of a youngster. It couldn’t be farther from the truth!

Now granted, some musical efforts like drumming in a heavy metal rock band (I don’t have enough hair anyway), or playing tuba in a marching band might be a bit of a physical stretch for a “former youth” such as yourself. But playing piano for your own enjoyment is absolutely not one of them.

Assuming you have fingers and a rear end to sit down on, you have what it takes to play some piano. You don’t need strong lips, or terrific breath control, or long skinny fingers, or anything else you might remember from other instruments. From a tone production standpoint a piano is fairly unique in that it does all the hard work. You can’t control whether it is in or out of tune. It takes no different effort to play a note very high or very low on a piano, all the keys take the same amount of strength to press down. You don’t need to develop calluses on your fingers to keep them from hurting while playing a piano.

Then what do you need to learn a tune at a piano or keyboard? You need a tune that you are just going crazy to learn to play. That’s it.

You see, a truism I’ve found from teaching (literally) thousands of people the easy system I use over the years is this: Those that really get going right from the start are the ones who have a single burning desire to get to a point of playing ______ (insert your favorite tune here). No matter the age. No matter the previous piano experience. The biggest factor seems to be good old desire.

Because of the fact that everyone, regardless of age, has the physical strength to push down a key on a piano, it opens the door to learning to play at whatever age you find the desire to pursue it.

Because of the fact that learning to play a tune on a piano using lead sheets and chords (which is what I pretend to know something about…) is a very fast, musically correct way to approach playing non-classical music, it opens the door even further to someone wishing to simply learn a few tunes and have some fun at any age!

If you want to play the piano for enjoyment as a Senior, go for it! There’s nothing physically or mentally stopping you. Just learn a little about lead sheets and the style of playing I espouse. Much more importantly, think of a tune that you just can’t imagine living another day without playing.

That’s the song that will get you where you want to go…