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I've been wanting to learn for years and figure now's the time to start...
I have very little experience, i can play the beginning of Tocata and Fugue in D minor (don't be fooled i'm only apeing) and have begun to understand a couple of the major chords from playing guitar.

I thought you meant what time of day and I was going to say "after midnight" so that there are no distractions.
I think it's never to late to learn. As long as you are willing to learn to read music (doesn't take long at all) and your fingers generally do what you tell them, then you can certainly learn and have tons of fun in the process.

Good luck!

Personally I think that when you've wanted to play for a few years, and you start to hear the piano in every song you listen to, you have more of an appreciation of it, especially as you get a little older.
I'm 20 and just restarting again, I feel that now I am better suited to tackle it.

MarkGoodwinPianos wrote:I thought you meant what time of day and I was going to say "after midnight" so that there are no distractions.

I'm sooooooo glad i don't live nextdoor to you, Mark...

PianoLove wrote:

MarkGoodwinPianos wrote:. As long as you are willing to learn to read music (doesn't take long at all) and your fingers generally do what you tell them, then you can certainly learn and have tons of fun in the process.

Good luck!

You must have started young to say that! Reading music is hard for us adult beginners! I have pretty much stopped trying and just improvise instead!

NEVER stop trying, Kari. Buy some empty manuscript paper, doodle notes all over it and then sit and label them in idle moments. It all goes in eventually!

PianoLove wrote:

MarkGoodwinPianos wrote: You must have started young to say that! Reading music is hard for us adult beginners! I have pretty much stopped trying and just improvise instead!

As for me, it's easier when you listen to a piece you want to play a dozen of times. Then intervals you should play will come naturally and you won't be puzzling out the score more than necessary. It's sorta obvious, but I mean that even if you know a piece well, it's a good move to listen it right off before practicing. You may even try to conduct along with it - the tempo will be stamped in your muscle memory, and it will make things easier.

Aforementioned advices may be applied to improvising as well. If you want to jam along some music, you can try to capture its tempo the similar way: you determine the bar length in your mind and help yourself with fingers of your left hand. If you move them accordingly to the tempo and never miss the up beat, you will be able to accompany with a stronger emphasis, and even if your melodies or alternative bass lines will seem free-flowing (which is nothing bad, by the way: wandering melody adds another dimension to the song, if it isn't completely out of tune, of course), they will have a stronger connection to the initial rhythm section. And after becoming really good in improvisation you could even make weaker songs sound completely okay by crashing in with your piano passages!