What I Learned from Learning the Piano as an Adult
Make your own kind of music → Chase Your Dream

Life is too short to follow someone else’s dreams. When I first told my parents I decided to learn the piano, they were immediately enthused, “Your sister plays Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata so well. Ah, this is great. You will be able to play Chopin one day! We love how Ruby plays the classics.” Remember that Fur Elise goal? Looking back, it probably had something to do with pleasing my parents or proving to them that I could play classical music too.

I did start out by trying to learn the classical piano pieces. As it turns out, I did not enjoy playing the classics one bit. On the verge of giving up, I chanced upon a YouTube clip of this 10 year old playing the piano and singing My Heart Will Go On and I thought, “I want to do that!” I discovered I love playing contemporary music because it means I can play (badly) and sing (even worse). I love subtly changing the mood of the music to reflect how I feel. As the Mamas and Papas said in their song, ‘make you own kind of music and sing your own special song’. If you want to invest the time to learn something new, do something you enjoy.

Seven years on, I may not have mastered the piano with the diligent study the teenage-me may have, but I can pick up a piece of Easy Play song and give it red hot go. I now get the utmost pleasure out of belting out Let it Go whenever I want. Sometimes, I play it with angry when I am fed up and sometimes I play it with melancholy when I’m feeling a bit down.

Looking back, I do marvel at how I managed to learn to play the piano, given all the hard work and the hours of practice to get to this point. I even occasionally wonder if I would have the energy and dedication to learn something else from scratch now. Deep down, I know I do —I did it before, I can do it again.

Like I said, we never doubted ourselves when we were kids. We persisted with learning how to walk and how to talk. Why should it be any different now if we decide we want to learn another skill as an adult?
['Nancy Huang']
['Adult Learning', 'Personal Improvment', 'Goal Setting', 'Determination', 'Chasing The Dream']