Leave your email, phone and how you found us. I read every message and listen to every recording myself.
The children are older, the calendar has room, and the song you have wanted to play for years is still waiting. This is the course built for you.
Adults in their fifties are the people I built Online Piano University for: never played, or quit around twelve, and now learning alone. Nobody is standing next to you, so the lessons have to do the job a teacher would do at your shoulder.
That means sound before notes, small steps in the right order, and feedback on a recording of your own playing. It is free on YouTube, and you move at your own pace.
New learning is what the brain notices most. Your hands, your ears and your eyes all start working together in a new way.
Time you finally own, music you can make for yourself and for the people you love, and a goal that has nothing to do with work or with other people's schedules.
Being able to sit at the piano and play Clair de Lune or a hymn for a friend, a spouse or a grandchild is a gift people remember and talk about. It also shows you can still do the hard thing.
What adult students say about Dr. Maria Pisarenko as their teacher · 5.0★ on Yelp, 4.9★ on Google.
★★★★★
“After being away from piano lessons for 15 years, I'd always wanted to start up again... Dr. Pisarenko is a great instructor for me. She's kind and patient and encouraging... very reasonable rates and top notch instruction. She's the best!”
— Guillo L., returning adult student · Yelp
★★★★★
“I took piano lessons for a few years as a kid... Dr Pisarenko has been wonderful!!! She is very patient, very flexible with scheduling and I have learned so much from her in such a short period of time!”
— Sarah K., adult beginner · Yelp
★★★★★
“A very knowledgeable teacher and an outstanding pianist... Her attention to detail and expression is incredible. I recommend Masha to all of my friends and everyone is delighted with her instruction.”
— Katerina W., adult student · Yelp
The songs from your teens and twenties, and the classical pieces that never left you.
Tell me which one you want and I will point you to the lessons that lead to it. Write to me or start the course and aim at it from day one. Titles are named for reference; the sheet music for each is published by its own rights holders.
Send a message or attach a recording. Email, phone and how you found us help me answer you properly.
You can play all the right notes and it still sounds wrong, and you cannot tell why. That is the exact gap the feedback service closes.
Larger-print music and a good bench and lamp help more than people expect. Warm up gently, and if you have joint pain, ask your doctor first; I am a pianist, not a physician.
Many first books are slow, babyish or both. The course here follows an adult method book, lesson by lesson, with explanations that treat you as an adult.
It is not. Adults can learn to read, to play with both hands and to make a real sound at any age. The pace is different and the results are real.
Choose one piece from the list above. Everything you practice in the next three months can point at it.
Lesson 1. Sit correctly, find any note and play the opening of a melody by ear.
Follow the 41 lessons in order, twenty to thirty minutes a day. Use a notebook for what you practiced.
Send a recording for written feedback and choose your first real piece from the list.
I am Dr. Maria Pisarenko, DMA, a concert pianist and university professor. I trained in the Russian school at the Central Music School of the Moscow Conservatory and the Gnessin Academy, and I teach at the college level. My work with adult beginners is the reason this course exists. You can read what the press and students say on the press and reviews pages.
I am writing a piano method book for adults who teach themselves, built on the same order as these lessons: sound first, then the hand, then the page. A free note-reading practice app is also in development. Both are works in progress, and anyone on my email list hears first. Join the list or see the books and gear I recommend now.
The first steps, the right instrument and how to practice, in one free PDF from Online Piano University.
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No. The free course is designed for adults of any age, and the first lesson already has you playing a real melody. Progress takes patience, not talent.
A structured course in a fixed order, a decent weighted keyboard, twenty minutes a day and a way to get feedback. Those four things matter more than any app.
Yes. Both are built on chords and a steady left hand, which the course teaches. Many adults pick one of them as their first goal.
Most adults who start at 50 and practice twenty to thirty minutes a day play simple pieces with both hands within three months, and the music they grew up with within the first year. The hands need a little more warming up; the plan on this page is built around that.
Other decades: Your 20s · Your 30s · Your 40s · Your 60s · Your 70s and beyond · All ages
Online Piano University is run by one teacher. I read every message and listen to every recording myself.
Contact
maria@onlinepianouniversity.com
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