How Many Piano Lessons Do You Need? Is 20 plenty or will learning take forever?
This is one of the questions that a lot of people have when they are starting to play the piano, especially if it is their ambition to become an accomplished pianist quickly. Unfortunately, there’s no simple answer, but in this post we try and give some idea of timescales.
How quickly can you go from an absolute beginner to a decent player? Is there a set rule when wondering how many piano lessons do you need or is it more complex than this?
What Constitutes a “Lesson”?
Piano lessons used to just mean sitting down with a tutor and doing what they told you, whether this means practicing scales or learning new chords.
Now, you can have your piano lessons in a variety of different ways. If you want to, you can sign up for online lessons such as our academy to get started. A lesson can be in the form of a video, over the internet or through an interactive learning system.
How Many Piano Lessons Do You Need Per Week?
This is a question that is a bit more simple to answer. A lot of people wonder how many lessons they should be having and how frequently they need them.
If you are getting lessons with a tutor then once a week is probably plenty. It keeps you in the habit and means you don’t leave the piano for too long.
It isn’t strict. In-person lessons can be effective multiple times per week, but we suggest one as a minimum.
The beauty of learning how to play piano online means you can do things at your own pace. However, the downside of this is that it can be very easy to slip out of the habit if you are not motivated. Try to set yourself a target of how many lessons or stages of a course you wish to go through.
Our academy is split into multiple stages, each with its own lessons within. You could feasibly say one lesson every 3/4 days until you get to the end of the course, which would mean you can get through our academy in a few months, with the basics of playing piano pegged. This is a foundation for your piano playing in the future.
How Many Piano Lessons Do You Need to Become a Pro?
Obviously, the number of lessons needed to become a world-class pianist will be different from the number if you just want to become adequate and be good enough to play simple songs such as the chords to rock and pop songs.
Malcolm Gladwell spoke about the time it takes to become world-class in his famous book “Outliers“. He said that 10,000 hours of practice is what it takes to become one of the very best in almost any field. This fascinating theory seems to hold true for piano, but practice hours do not necessarily mean lesson hours. Actually, it is more likely to come down to the hours someone is willing to put in between lessons.
There is another school of thought that it should take a year for each piano “grade”. There are 8 grades of the piano in total, so this would mean 8 years of dedicated lessons and practice.
Summary – How Much Playing is Needed?
Honestly, the number of lessons is probably different for everyone. In the modern age, we all have our own methods of learning and can go at our own speed. The important thing is that you stick to your hobby, don’t burn out, and get to a level where you are happy with your playing ability. It should be about enjoying your lessons as well as improving.
