Too late to "really" learn piano?

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I have a pretty typical classical background as a clarinetist, but just before I took up clarinet, I took piano lessons using a typical contemporary method and quit within a few months. I happen to be good at sight-reading music and most of my musical life I depended on reading music over playing by ear. I've come to realize that ear-training on any instrument is an oft-neglected facet of music instruction because music teacher were seldom TAUGHT those skills themselves. Yes, it's addressed in college as music majors, but it never makes it to the young, beginning student. I think that's a real shame.

Here are my thoughts on playing by ear and by notation: I've only been able to do what I do because I perceive music as communication, not just a mere skill. I teach by reading music FIRST only because the notation is useful for when students practice at home. They need something in writing to reinforce the skills they're supposed to be learning in formal lessons. As far as I'm concerned, that is the extent of its usefulness. Once you have good reading ability, if you want to play like Beethoven or Mozart, purchase sheet music of Beethoven or Mozart. Take it slow, memorize it as you go if you have to, and through memory work you'll eventually reach a point when you no longer need the sheet music. Sometimes the sheet music actually holds you back. If you ONLY play on sight, things like page turns will ultimately hinder you. We teach students not to look at their hands, but sometimes being able to see where the hands need to go helps build confidence where the student is otherwise unsure of "feeling" where the hands need to go. You cannot do this if you have to keep your eyes glued to the notation. In my own professional life, I rarely play from the page. I have sheet music in front of me, yes. But for what I do, it's just a guide I use to minimize making mistakes. I'm a rhythm player in a church band, so strict adherence to the page actually holds me back. If I know harmonically where the band is supposed to be at any given time, I can just let go and let pure instinct take over. It's a wonderfully liberating way to perform music, and playing "in the pocket" takes a lot of pressure off of me.

I also play in a classic rock band, mostly 70's era rock, and I'm the only member of the band who can read music. So learning all their songs in practices was entirely by rote and by ear. What I eventually did was memorize so many different chord progressions that I can predict what's coming next--even when I've never played the song before. One time I was at a gig when another guitar player in the bar asked if he could jam with us on a few songs. We did four or five songs, maybe three of them I'd never heard before, and one I'd never played live ("Sweet Child o' Mine," G'n'R), none of which were really "keyboard songs" and no chance of practicing them, downloading charts, or looking them up on Youtube. With the exception of "Sweet Child," they all had familiar changes that I could relate to other songs I knew--and even "Sweet Child" changes are mostly very logically organized. I didn't NEED sheet music, and having further developed my aural skills in recent years and just gaining more practical experience in that area, I found I could just jump right in. I don't care if all you want to do is play Chopin and Brahms for the rest of your life--and there's nothing at all wrong with that, either--your keyboard skills are incomplete if you don't learn to play by ear, build your memory of chord progressions as well as entire charts (even classical "charts" if that's what you do), and extend the range of your ability to synth programming and even computer music.

Like I said, music is communication. It's a language. And I even think that learning notation FIRST isn't really the best way to go. The way we learn languages is by learning how to recognize certain kinds of sounds, imitate those sounds, and synthesize those patterns by speaking a familiar or native language. I don't personally know any kid who learned to speak by learning to read first, though I suppose there could be exceptions such as disabilities that prevented someone from speaking or hearing the language, thus necessitating learning language by sight. But we mostly learn by listening and speaking back what we hear. Well, music is a LISTENING art. So what sense does it make to expect someone to practice that art or communicate through that medium by divorcing it (the art form) from its mode of communication (sound)? It makes better sense to teach someone how to use the communicative medium of music effectively by using the "stuff" of it (the sounds) and THEN proceeding to connect those sounds with the notation. Once you have a basic ability to communicate musically (by ear, by memory) AND you make that connection with the written ABCs of music, THEN you can start building the skills necessary to converse fluently in it--by imitating what is written, and synthesizing what you've learned by improvising and even by composing your own original music.

If you struggle with reading music and playing on sight, that's OK. If you work best by memorizing and playing by ear, that's GREAT, because you have abilities that us note-readers only wish we had.

And just so you know, MOST piano players have some degree of difficulty of sight-reading. It's due to the complexity of piano music and the complexity of piano technique. It's unnatural. No one expects you to sight read Rachmaninov's 3rd Concerto, so don't try. I can't even sight-read Bach inventions, FYI, and the fugues are just killer for me. When I'm confronted with those kinds of things, I have to start slow, and gradually over time I memorize what the fingers are supposed to do. For a while I'll use the sheet music as a crutch, but eventually I'll look at it less and less until I no longer even need it. I've gotten to where I can sight-read Mozart sonatas, even if I have to play them slowly, but that's just a skill I've developed over a long period of time (like, 20 years now) through active playing and practice. When I have older students ask me sometimes how long it took me to learn to play piano, I tell them "over 20 years, and I'm still learning." Playing by ear was the last skill I developed applied to piano playing, but I'm constantly amazed at how much I improved in other areas because I DIDN'T read music much for a long time.

One last thing... I was doing some shopping for my students when I came across Carl Czerny's "Practical Method for Beginner Piano." Czerny was a young contemporary of Beethoven, took lessons from B for a year, and later went on to teach B's nephew. He wrote extensively for piano, including a massive library of instructional material. My 5-year-old is far enough along I'm thinking about introducing him to the Czerny "Practical Method." It's not a "true" beginner method in the contemporary sense, but I'd say a level 1 or level 2 beginner would do well to supplement his regular method with the Practical Method. It's a fast-moving work and represents what I believe is a cross-section of how classical musicians learned music during that time period, which was a very strict, no-frills, no-excuses way of teaching and learning (whereas we tend to try to make it "fun" and rewarding...the classical mindset was acquiring the skills to play musical instruments was an end unto itself, a mentality that shapes my own approach). I also like his "School of Velocity," and I also really like the Hanon "Virtuoso Pianist," both of which I highly recommend to older students to get those fingers moving. Learning scales and disciplining the fingers helps make sight-reading a LOT easier. Also learn to recognize chord structures on sight, particularly 2nd-inversion IV chords and 1st-inversion V7 chords, as well as memorizing common chord progressions and playing them in every major and minor key. Then reading music becomes a little more like reading words in a book. It takes time to learn to read out loud, but most people learn to do it effortlessly (because they memorize the words, so reading them aloud on sight is simplified). Apply the same principle to playing a musical instrument, and you're sight-reading will improve. I just happened to acquire this skill early on in my career. It's not always that easy for everyone. So go with the ability that is your strongest.