Starting or (re-starting) to play a musical instrument in later years

Re-reading this thread - feeling rather sad because the b....y mice have been at my poor little piano again and 3 or 4 main notes are dead .
It can be repaired, but it costs - about 200€, £150. The same thing has happened the last 2 winters.
Trying to decide whether to get it repaired or not.

I now have a harmonica, not a clue where to start. But hopefully there are some videos and I know a few people that can play

GD1 (7) and her best friend (also7) were bought keyboards for Christmas. I must be mad (as I don't play keyboard) because I've offered to teach them both together. I've found good books so I can be one step ahead of them.

The reason being I've seen too many children bought keyboards which are simply played with and then discarded when the novelty wears off. It's a worthy instrument for the 21st C and I'll get them to think of themselves as a duo.

Margaret the digital pianos are great aren't they? Nothing like keyboards as they are as responsive to touch as a 'real' piano. The advantage is they take up less room, are lighter, don't need tuning and are not affected by extremes of temperature.

Good luck both of you above. I love browsing the music shops for new pieces to play, be it classical, popular songs (GDs well impressed when I played 'Let it go'!) carols or whatever.

I had a new piano for my birthday this year - not a digital one. I don't usually play it for anyone but DH, but was persuaded to play a few songs on Boxing Day when the family were here. We had carols, Beatles songs.... it was fun, and my son said he had no idea I could play so well (I don't think I play that well), a compliment which pleased me no end. I play my piano most days. I am so pleased you're enjoying playing yours .

Back to this thread about starting to play the piano again. After much thought I bought a digital piano and it is upstairs in the room where the GCs have their beds.
I've been playing for 6 weeks and have got over the first aches and pains in my fingers and hands. I play every day and have restarted right at the beginning.
As a choral society singer I can read music and am determined this time not to play by heart, but to train my hands to hit the right notes.I'm making progress.
I love it. I am more housebound than I used to be and find it a real pleasure.

I played a violin badly nearly 50 years or so ago. I now want to try the cornet, but not sure if I can get back into reading music and whether the cornet is too ambitious. Maybe too anti-social as well?

pompa this is for you...if it attaches

I leaned the piano for 3-4 years and then my parents thought I should have break
because of school work. I restarted about 20 years ago when we had an old piano gven to us but I felt embarressed with people listening. I see from my GDs that you can play a modern piano and turn the sound off and listen with earphones.

I am now at stage when I am at home for much longer periods and this post has got me interested in restarting yet again.. The old piano was broken and had to be dismantled . Thanks for this thread and all the posters. Obviously it is not too late otherwise there would not be special piano course for us.
Now all I need is courage....

I went back to the piano after 40-odd years though my interest was more in the theory than practice. I worked hard at it before deciding I have no ability at all and could never play in front of other people.
I got well beyond grade 8 in theory and it's sad that I shall forget all that I loved learning. I'm a whizz at sight-reading but can't play anything from memory.
For about 15 years I was quite obsessive about music but now I rarely touch the piano and just listen to music.

Anya, could be a good name but boringly we are the "Maldon Ukulele Group" "MUG"

vimeo.com/134992803

This one:
www.musicroom.com/se/id_no/0142737/details.html

Witzend Well done! I learnt at a similar age as you, gave up for a while and have gone back twice since then. Last bought a small modern Yamaha on ebay 10 years ago but arthritis in shoulders and fingers means I can't play for long. And I'm right out of practise now. This thread has made me think I'll try again, because it's really a pleasure, you go into another world.
My big problem is that my Dad was a fantastic player. He played "by ear" and could play anything you asked. I haven't inherited his gift - got to have the music in front of me.
Anya - I have a book of some of Billy Joel's pieces, including New York State of Mind, also My Baby Grand. Not too expensive, from Musicroom.com.

You do gigs [wow! emoticon] - or rather 'we' .....there's more of you pompa ? What do you call yourselves ...the pompa-ompa-impasse?

My daughter acquired a second hand piano for free last year. The big expense was transporting it aNd tuning it as it was rather neglected. Have you tried advertising it locally?We have a piano and so do all our 'children' now. The older grandchildren are learning to play.
I still recommend having proper lessons for any instrument as its difficult to teach yourself properly and keep motivated. Anyway DO IT whatever instrument - will lead to hours of pleasure. But theres no easy way - you need to practise, practise, practise and it will get easier!

1 Laminate Soprano, good for travelling as it can safetly be left in a hot car.
1 Pono Concert - my favourite by a mile, expensive, but sounds beautiful
1 Concert with low G string, sounds better when picking.
1 Electro Tenor + amplifier ( use this for gigs where we need the volume)
1 cheap soprano which I lend to beginners.

What next ?? maybe a bass ukulele or/and a banjolele

Why do you need 5 pompa

I get the bit about all the sheet music and sing books. I'm awaiting a delivery of Billy Joel's 'New York State of Mind' to download so I can print it out.

Mrs P thought -- ukulele, they are small, won;t take up much room. She hadn't bargained for 5, plus an amplifier and piles of songbooks etc.

That is a shame KateK, I gave my organ to a relative, for the children to learn on, when they were finished with it they donated it to a local care home.
When we were young most of our relatives had pianos or organs and lots played instruments, times change and the TV killed off home entertainment.
My grandmother had a chapel organ in her sitting room, her sister was married to an organ builder in Durham.

I would like to exchange my piano for an electric one now that we've downsized but what to do with my piano?? It's in very good condition but you can't give them away it seems.

Electric pianos are very good, DD has just bought herself another one. The tone and touch is authentic and of course you can play with headphones on. DD's home in this country is a flat so it was never an option to have an upright or grand piano. Her home in Belgium is rented so the smaller electric piano is much easier if she needs to move again.
Our piano is now 41 years old but in very good condition and GD likes to play it when she visits. Finding tuners locally has become a bit of a problem, last time we managed to acquire the services of the tuner from The Sage but he is a very busy man, obviously.

One other thing about electric (digital) pianos, you can usually play them 'silent', with headphones. That is one thing I wish I could do, so I would not feel obliged to keep the windows closed in summer for fear of irritating the neighbours.

My piano is very old (1880s) and the tuner told me he will probably not be able to 'doctor' it much longer. However the cabinet is beautiful and I would be very sad to see it junked. So I was very pleased to hear recently of a company that will install a very good digital into an old cabinet, as long as certain measurements are sufficient. At some point in the next few months I will visit their showroom to see some examples. It's not cheap, but then neither would a good replacement be.

Anya a digital piano is the way I will go, I think. Our piano, which is getting a bit long in the tooth, is in the living room at the moment, and I would love to have it in the conservatory, where I could play it without anyone else having to suffer (!!) but I know the extremes of temperature would make it almost impossible to keep it in tune.

Hummingbird - you favour the Les Dawson style of playing perhaps

I used to play piano for assemblies and concerts at school when I was teaching but never had access to a piano after I left teaching. I didn't think I had room for one and hate keyboards.

But I was persuaded to try an electric piano and was amazed at the tone and the touch - almost like a 'real' piano. AND two advantages - firstly it's smaller (though the keyboard is exactly the same size) and I can fit it into the conservatory which you couldn't do with a normal piano as it would affect the tuning.

I now play again and have started giving lessons.