We’re never too old to pick up a new hobby. I’ve actually done quite a few new things in middle-age which has made middle-age a surprisingly fresh time for being alive! My picking up new hobbies have been mostly unexpected and part of a growing sense of giving things a try and not putting up as much of a fight when my wife tells me I should go do it! One of my newest and most enjoyable hobbies has been a curiosity of mine for a very long time. If you would have asked me if I’d be learning how to play piano in middle-age, I would have told you “You’re crazy! That ship sailed decades ago.” But in reality, my ship never left dream harbor. I had just been too chicken, too contemplative, too busy, too fearful, too focused on money, too…too…to do anything about it. Until I just went and did it. It’s time to sail away from dream harbor and wash away the fear of trying.

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If it weren’t for my kids…I wouldn’t be picking up new hobbies today…so here’s a little background!

How the Piano Lessons Began

The first piano we purchased was a Hamzer 61 Key Keyboard Piano with built-in speakers, stand, bench, headphones, microphone, and key labels. This keyboard was nothing more than a creative outlet for our middle son while also being a silly escape for the whole family.

We banged on notes, made cool tunes, and tried to master songs like Happy Birthday. It has a lot of options, almost too many options, to add other instruments and beats and record songs for playback.

At the time, we did not think anything of the fact that it only had 61 keys. It served its purpose and we still have it today, though it has been moved from front and center to corner of a bedroom.

Two years after we first dabbled in the piano scene with our Hamzer keyboard, our oldest child started taking piano lessons. The “just make it thru summer and you can stop if you don’t like it” phase was challenging to say the least.

Yet, the aptitude our oldest child showed was impressive and one summer of lessons has continued indefinitely. Don’t fret, mood also improved over time so hang in there if you’re going through a similar campaign!

Early in having him take formal lessons we realized our 61-key keyboard wasn’t going to cut it. If we wanted our oldest child to take piano seriously, we needed to provide as much environmental opportunity as possible.

Taking Piano Seriously

To us, that meant upgrading to a full-size piano that has 88 keys: 52 white keys and 36 black keys covering just over seven octaves. We opted for a Donner DDP-80 Wooden Beginner 88 Key Weighted Upright Digital Piano with Storage and chose the wooden bench, which has a seat that opens up for a nice compartment. Sometimes the Donner manufacturer website has better deals than Amazon, so be sure to check them out here but remember shipping costs: Donner DDP-80. At the time of writing this article, both sites reflected the same price.

It was pricey for us, around $600, but more affordable then many pianos out there. And when you’re paying for piano lessons weekly, you kind of want to get your moneys worth, even if that takes more money.

Unlike the Hamzer, the Donner piano comes with a volume control knob, which has been a welcome upgrade.

Having a nice piano at home has created a sense of wonderment, an opportunity for high-quality practice, and even a shared activity during a social gathering where lots of people were able to show off their skills!

As our oldest child progressed his skill playing piano, his teacher recommended he have a metronome to practice maintaining a consistent tempo (playing speed). When we asked what model, she advocated for a Wittner. We settled on the Wittner 804K Metronome and it’s been great. It is easy to use, looks stylish, and winds up easy.

Playing Piano is Contagious

Soon enough, our middle child began his piano lessons and the Donner use doubled. It’s also helped us as parents feel like our children are receiving a strong foundation of varied experiences and developing skills in their youth.

With our second child having watched his older brother take lessons and play neat songs, getting him involved was not difficult at all and building this new skill has given him a new level of confidence in who he is and what he can achieve.

The kids have really taken a liking to it and, despite it not being as exciting as playing video games or watching movies, they don’t push back on piano practice or piano lessons.

We really believe they’ve been enjoying learning and showing off this amazing talent!

Third Times the Charm

Two piano kids down, one to go?

Sort of!

At the time our two boys were taking piano lessons, daughter was only 5 our piano teacher wanted to wait until she turned 6 before starting lessons.

Now unlike the boys, our daughter LOVES trying new things and getting involved. She desperately wanted to start learning piano for months before she could take formal lessons so her brothers taught her what they could.

As we were approaching her 6th birthday, I had expressed to my wife, Sarah, that I’d love to be able to play piano too. It’s such a neat skill…

It was one of those wishy type statements.

You know, I wish I could fly.

I wish I was a billionaire.

I wish I was able to retire at 25.

Etc, etc, etc.

But deep down I did have a curiosity about piano. My parents used to have one when I was growing up but I don’t remember ever learning to play.

I’ve been around computers since Middle School and as an avid typer I’ve always wondered if I could become good at piano too.

In my head, it’s just an 88-key keyboard, right? Just lots of tapping! No different than a computer.

I’d learn a few easy songs, watch the boys play, and listen in on their lessons.

Something about being able to read sheet music and play a song just seems so neat.

I made that wishy comment a few more times in the next couple weeks and that must have done the trick because the next thing Sarah told me was to sign up for lessons with our daughter!

Whoa, whoa whoa!

Me?

Piano lessons?

At this age?

Don’t you know how busy I am?

I’m already doing this, and that, and the thing over there.

Besides, we’re already paying for our boys and about to start paying for our girl.

Any extra time I have should be spent relaxing!

Or fixing things.

Or exercising!

It doesn’t make sense for me to be picking up new hobbies right now.

Any of those sentiments sound familiar?

You too, eh?

Well, Sarah’s pretty persuasive and I’m glad I didn’t fight this idea very hard.

Our piano teacher, who is wonderful, was more than happy to take me on too.

A middle-age guy with a busy schedule wondering if he could still learn music.

A couple weeks later, there we were on a Wednesday, me and my daughter taking our first weekly lessons together. She would do her 30 minutes while I watched, listened, and read on my phone. Then I would do mine while she colors or plays with stickers or walks around having snacks. Sarah takes our boys for their lessons together on Mondays.

Having a New Piano Hobby

There’s a lot to unpack here in picking up new hobbies, which for me is like a piano tornado striking our family out of nowhere!

The Financial Side of Taking Piano Lessons

Now that four of us are taking lessons, we pay around $360 per month. That includes a 10% discount for having multiple students from the same family. Some months there is an extra Monday or Wednesday and that might push up the cost as well. Other months, if we are on vacation we tend to skip a lesson and can pay a little less. If we are sick or have scheduling conflicts we just re-schedule for a different day and the cost remains the same.

We also buy books as needed but have been able to save some money by passing down the books from our oldest son to our middle son and finally to our daughter. We just erase the marks and it hasn’t been an issue at all.

Add in the piano we bought, driving back and forth to lessons and recitals and the fact we’ve been on this journey for a while, the cumulative cost climbs pretty linearly.

All that being said, Sarah and I truly believe it’s been worth it. Learning piano has been such a worthy enrichment for our kids and me. Compared to many other things I spend money on, this has been a wonderful ROI (return on investment).

Now, I recognize many people aren’t fortunate enough to have this amount of disposable income. Even for a single student, it could be around $100/mo plus the purchase of books, maybe a piano, and travel.

If this describes you, I recommend starting slow, looking for a piano teacher by recommendations that include cost and flexibility, and seeing if your child (or YOU) responds well to piano or not. No need to pay Mozart for 48 lessons and buy a baby grand if it’s not any fun!

Talk about feeling, how enjoyable it’s been, how neat it is to be able to read some sheet music, etc. Creative outlet. New topic of conversation.

The Time it Takes to Play Piano

Really, to each their own on this one, but I’ll tell you what we have found.

There will always be a spectrum of commitment.

Some will pour themselves into picking up a new hobby and others will dabble so long you’ll wonder what the point is to keep going.

When our kids began taking piano lessons, we were told to have them each practice their assigned homework 20 minutes a day. Sometimes that 20 minutes was easy and other times it was like pulling teeth.

A little later our piano teacher told us that having the kids play through their homework 3 times would be OK and it was actually a big game changer.

One would think less practice time equals less skill.

And that might be true on one end of the spectrum where expectations are high and performances are the focus.

But for our family, we just wanted our kids to learn piano, have fun, stick with the hobby long term, and look forward to playing.

So for our kids, they really don’t push back anymore when they know to just play through their homework 3 times. They knock it out and we are still so amazed with how fast they are developing their skill.

For me, I practice as much as I can because I enjoy the practice.

I really want to see what I am capable of if I put in the work.

I want to know that I gave playing piano my best effort if I were to ever stop taking lessons.

I tend to practice late in the evenings during the week or mid-day on the weekends.

Lessons themselves are 30-minutes each, so our two boys do it together over an hour and then me and my daughter have an hour as well.

In total, each of us probably spend 1.5 to 2 hours playing piano each week and then an hour each week driving to and from lessons. Let’s round that up and say playing piano has a 3-hour per week time committment.

Really not too shabby, eh?

The Confidence Picking Up New Hobbies Provides

Life is relational.

Just about every day, not only do we interact with other people but it’s healthy for us to have interactions every day, throughout the day.

God made us in His image (Genesis 1:27). It’s called the Imago Dei – image of God.

As image bearers, we have similarities with God. One of which is the need for relationship.

God (the Father) has always been in perfect relationship with Jesus (God the Son) and the Holy Spirit (God the Spirit). In Christian circles we call it the Holy Trinity – three in one.

Picking up new hobbies, especially in middle-age, is simply one more way for us to relate to other people and the environment around us.

Hobbies help us share our interests, curiosities, struggles, or even fears with other people.

Hobbies allow us to be vulnerable, humble, and maybe even surprised when learning more about how God uniquely made us.

Developing our hobbies gives us a quiet confidence, a more mature understanding of how something works, what it’s like, and what we are capable of.

People love hearing about things they 1) know about and 2) don’t know about.

Hobbies, interests, skills, lessons learned, ideas…all these things give us a greater ability to talk, share, and communicate what our life is about.

I love how this article from BetterUp suggests finding new hobbies by thinking back to our interests as children. It makes us flash back and wonder what we may have written off as nothing more than a dream.

But as an adult, we don’t need to write dreams off anymore! We can take a small step off dream harbor and learn to swim in something new and exciting.

I can almost guarantee that anyone picking up new hobbies will find it to be a great deal of satisfaction and confidence.

A simple request…

Leave a comment and let me know what you’re thinking. Have you started a new hobby recently? Are you wondering if you should? What are you afraid of?

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