You won’t be judged. Every adult starts somewhere. This is the bridge.
Private piano lessons in Chicago’s Ukrainian Village. Built around the music you actually want to play, not a children’s method book. Working musician teaching adults.
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You’re an adult who’s always meant to learn piano. Maybe you took lessons as a kid and quit. Maybe you never started. Either way, you’ve been thinking about it for a while, and you want a teacher who’ll meet you like the adult you are.
The biggest thing adult students tell me before their first lesson is some version of: “I’m worried I’m starting too late.” You’re not. Adult brains learn differently than kid brains, but they don’t learn worse. Adults bring focus, life experience, clear taste in music, and the ability to practice deliberately, all of which are huge advantages.
The other thing adults tell me: “I don’t want to spend six months on Beyer or Hot Cross Buns before I get to play real music.” You won’t. Lessons here are built around the music you actually want to play, starting from your first session. The technique and theory get folded in alongside real songs, in service of them, not as a gauntlet to clear before you’re permitted to enjoy yourself.
If you’ve never touched a piano: the first few lessons are about getting comfortable with the keyboard, learning a small but real vocabulary of chords, and starting to play simplified versions of songs you already love. Within a month, most students can play a recognizable version of a song they care about. Within three months, most are playing several songs and starting to hear how the music is built.
If you took lessons as a kid: we’ll figure out together what you remember and what you don’t. We’ll fill in the gaps in your reading or your technique as needed, but we won’t make you start from zero just because it’s been a while. That’s a waste of your time.
Most piano teachers are teachers first. That’s a real craft and not to be dismissed. What a working musician adds is current ears. The harmony being taught is the harmony being played at venues this weekend. The advice about a tune isn’t theoretical. It comes from someone who played it Friday night at Andy’s. For an adult learner who wants to actually develop a relationship with the instrument rather than retread method books, that current vocabulary makes a difference in how every lesson lands.
It also means lessons aren’t one-way. With multiple keyboards in the room, you can work out a voicing on the piano and hear me play it back from the Rhodes so you can hear it in context. We comp through a tune together, you on the changes, me on the bass figure. That kind of trading is hard to do at a music school with thirty-minute slots and a single piano.
Lessons happen in a private Ukrainian Village studio, lamp-lit, lived-in, just teacher and student. Real acoustic piano. A Fender Rhodes and a Hammond B3 nearby for the moments the music calls for them. Recording capability for the pieces worth capturing. For most adult students, the room itself is part of what makes the lesson work: an hour where the studio is the only thing happening, and the rest of the day waits outside. More about the studio →
Try a $25 trial lesson — 30 minutes at the studio piano, no commitment. You’ll play, get an honest read on where you are, and see whether it’s a fit.
Prefer email? nick@musicwithnick.com
Same Nick, same adult-focused lessons, just different commitment levels. Most students enroll for the semester.
Every option, in detail, on the pricing page.
No. Whatever you remember, even if it feels like nothing, is more than you think. The first lesson is partly diagnostic: we figure out together what’s still there, what needs refreshing, and what’s worth building from scratch. The “start over” approach is a default for the teacher’s convenience, not a requirement of the music.
For most students starting fresh, a recognizable version of a song they care about lands within four to six lessons. By three months, most students are playing several songs and starting to hear how songs are built. Real music starts in lesson one, not after six months of exercises.
You don’t need an acoustic piano to start, but you do need something with 88 weighted keys. A digital piano in the $400–800 range works fine for the first couple of years (Yamaha P-series, Roland FP-series, or Kawai ES-series are all reasonable). We can talk specifics on the intro call. The studio has a real acoustic piano for in-person lessons regardless.
Both. Reading is a real skill and worth developing; ear training is non-negotiable if you want to actually play music rather than decode notation. Most lessons use both in service of whatever piece you’re working on.
$100 per lesson with semester enrollment. You lock in your weekly time slot and the teacher for a full semester. Whether it’s the right call depends on what playing piano actually means in your life right now. The $25 trial lesson is the honest way to find out: talk through goals and frequency, then play.
“He’s done an amazing job at building my skills and understanding from the ground up. He paces what I am learning very well so that it can feel challenging but doable.”
Both programs run on weekly 50-minute private lessons at $100 per lesson, enrolled. The difference is the music.
Chord voicings, accompaniment patterns, learning songs by ear, and a piece you can play start-to-finish. For adults coming back to piano or starting fresh.
Voicings, comping, the blues, basic improvisation, and a jazz standard you can play. For adults with some piano background ready to cross into jazz.