WHAT DO YOU WANT TO LEARN?

Focusing on a single goal will get you further than trying to tackle Chopin’s nocturnes and Bill Evans’s “Autumn Leaves” all at once.

For any of the following objectives— or to learn a single song, for that matter— you’ll have to first grasp the basics: where to put your fingers, how to read notes on a music staff, and the names of the individual piano keys.

1 I want to re-create Marie’s Crisis in my living room.

this will entail becoming acquainted with “fake books,” which contain the melodies and chords of hundreds of pop, jazz, and Broadway songs. The melodies are usually written out as musical notes you’ll play with your right hand; you’ll use your left to play chords that go along with them. In the “real books” (an offshoot of fake books popular with aspiring jazz players), chords are notated as letters and numbers (F7, or Amaj, for example). It’s best to work through these with an instructor who can teach you music theory and help you learn “what the chords are and how to play them,” says musician Fred Thaler.

The good thing about Broadway tunes is that many publishers make them available in fully written-out versions for both hands. “These are perfect for anybody who wants to play a Broadway song and cannot look at a real book and fathom what an A-major 7 chord is,” says Yedidia. One book of songs that includes this option is

The Best Broadway Songs Ever.

ONE GREAT TEACHER: Tardo Hammer, Kaufman Music Center’s Lucy Moses School

A Queens-born jazz performer, Hammer likes to teach the Great American Songbook, those Broadway-style jazz and musical-theater classics that get lovers of Gershwin or Rodgers and Hammerstein excited.

2 I want to tackle classical.

a good teacher won’t just direct you blindly through a book, though instructors did mention that Faber’s Adult Piano Adventures series contains beginner pieces that are less grating than “Hot Cross Buns.” Instead, a teacher should offer you pieces to play that are achievable at your level, like an easier arrangement of a Chopin nocturne, which was the first classical piece that Bell was able to master. Ono likes giving his students classical pieces by contemporary composers to keep things interesting—he likes, in particular, Lera Auerbach, Kevin Olson, and William Gillock. Your teacher may even compose some music just for you. “I have written stuff for my students,” Ono says. “Usually, it’s just that I know what they need to work on—technical or musical challenges such as phrasing, hand independence, or incorporating the pedal, for example—and I scour what I can find for the thing. If I can’t find it, well, then, okay, I’ll just write a piece.”

ONE GREAT TEACHER: Arielle Levioff, 92Y

Levioff has appeared as a soloist at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium and Weill Recital Hall as well as Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. According to Bell, she’s patient and gives good feedback. She also teaches older adults through 92Y’s Himan Brown 60+ Program.

3 I want to retackle the classical music I knew as a 16-year-old.

you’ll probably begin by playing a piece of classical music for an instructor as an ability test—something from one of your old books or repertoire that you’re still able to play is fine. “I don’t need to hear more than four measures to get an idea of how they approach the instrument and what they’re capable of,” Yedidia says. What you do next will depend on whether you were on a preprofessional track, how good you were to begin with, and how long ago you quit.

Although people who have had formal piano training almost always learn faster than beginners, returning students can face some specific challenges. They may have to unlearn bad habits (like using the incorrect fingers). Or they might have bad memories of their early lessons—of being forced to practice, or of having their fingers smacked with a ruler for making mistakes.

ONE GREAT TEACHER: Ronn Yedidia, New York Piano Academy

Yedidia is particularly adept at figuring out where people are on their musical journey and what to do next. “I try to pick up all the musical and technical pieces which exist in that person—whatever is still in memory as well as any other potential—and amalgamate them to the best of my and his or her ability.”