Life Lessons From Lang Lang (July 16, 2025)

From left to right: Lang Lang shares his Eight Golden Rules for Playing the Piano; Jazz pianist Ryo Fukui’s  “Scenery”; Blues pianist Ann Robson performs “Another You”; Albert Frantz in a performance of Liszt’s  Transcendental Étude No. 5, “Feux Follets” in B-flat major 

As I continue preparations for my Carnegie Hall recital debut next year, I have also begun finding out  more about the ideas of other classical pianists in order to better understand some of their thoughts  on what it takes to be truly successful. 

I recently came across a video featuring Lang Lang on YouTube in which he discusses some very  important ideas for playing the piano. He calls it his eight golden rules for playing, and I would like to  share them with you. I will be discussing them in different posts over the next few weeks. 

RULE NO. 1: Take the plunge, regardless of age.  

Lang Lang says that every one of us should be an artist, and that the ideal age for learning the piano  is from 2 to 100, meaning that there is no perfect time to start.  

I found this very interesting because we all think that in order to play well a person has to start at a  very young age, and in fact, the younger the better. While I must admit I started studying the piano  when I was three years old, for many people interest in the piano does not come until much later, and  they still become very successful professionally. 

There are many examples of this in all types of music. The great jazz pianist Ryo Fukui did not begin  studying until he was 22 years old but went on to become a world-famous artist and recorded seven  albums. 

Although Ann Rabson started her professional career as a blues singer and guitarist at the age of 17,  she did not start learning the piano until she was 35, and performed with such other legendary artists  as Ray Charles and B.B. King. 

In case you think this kind of late start is only for jazz and blues pianists, please consider Bösendorfer  Artist Albert Frantz, who did not begin studying the piano seriously until he was seventeen, and even  then he says his early attempts at piano studies “failed miserably.” 

Lang Lang has a very real point. It is important for all of us to cultivate the artist inside of us whether  young or old, and it is never too late. Much like the old proverb says, "The best time to start was  yesterday. The next best time is now."