I taught myself how to play piano
Back in 2020, during the first lockdown (UK), with not much to do, and being restricted to essential travel only… I was doing what most people were, browsing Netflix. While doing this I came across La La Land.
After watching the film with my dad and finding out that Ryan Gosling (the lead male role) had learned to play the piano for the role, I thought to myself that if he could learn to play the piano, so could I. I’ve got all the time in the world now.
That same day I got my dad’s old keyboard and started teaching myself how to play ‘Mia & Seb’s Theme’ (The main title song for the film), off of YouTube videos.
It took about two weeks but I got it down to a T, it felt. However, I wasn’t satisfied, I felt I wanted to play more. now I had shown myself I could learn piano, I wanted to learn more with it. Instead of just learning songs, I wanted to learn the instrument; The chords, the keys, and the different ways songs were formed.
So a few weeks later, I went to amazon and brought John Thompson’s easiest piano course it taught me the basics of reading sheet music and how to play it.
For most of the time I was able to keep this up due to forming other habits in the past such as cold showers, but my progress was slow and at times my skills would grow stagnant.
If I wanted to learn this skill up to a standard, I would have to become even more self-disciplined.
Fast forward about a year and a half and many songs later I decided to start getting piano lessons from a professional in person. After the first session and getting to play a real piano and feeling how heavy the keys were compared to a keyboard. I realised that my skills were almost ineffective on a real piano. Although I knew the basics, due to not knowing how different playing it would be, I wasn’t prepared for the real thing.
Until I was able to get used to the touch, I would have to accept that I didn’t know what I thought I did about playing a real piano.
I also notice that since learning with a professional, I had learned triple in six months what I had learned in about a year and a half on my own.
Learning with a teacher gave me the discipline required to stay on top of my skills and stop them from becoming stagnant.
It’s been about 8 months since I started getting lessons. It’s taught me a lot, things to do with piano and lessons relevant to life too. The top 3 lessons I learned from my time learning piano and getting professional lessons were:
- Lessons keep you disciplined. — Having to check in with someone weekly or attend a lesson keeps you disciplined and your skills up to date. You do not want to slack because not only do you not want to waste your own money and time but the time of the teachers as well. You want to show that your making an effort and working hard.
- You have to enjoy the process instead of the results. — When I started getting proper lessons it forced me to keep my skills up to date and not let them get stagnate. In doing so you were always learning, which was fun and made progress fell fast. However, I noticed that if I started worrying about not getting a piece learned for the next lesson or keep messing up, I wouldn’t make any progress. If I stopped enjoying and focusing on the work and started worrying, I wouldn’t get anywhere. I now keep a small printed-out photo on my piano that says “Focus on the process… Not the results.” To remind me that whenever I started to get worked up, just take a breath and enjoy playing the keys, don’t worry about the result. Just keep going because in the end everything will come together and it will sound just fine.
- Experience — you don’t know anything. I thought for over a year that I could play the piano, never having touched one. It was only when I did it for the first time and experienced playing that I gained further knowledge of the instrument. You need the experience to move on to the next step and further your skills. No matter what they are, not just instruments. Getting out and obtaining as much experience as possible will help you progress the most.
“keep moving forward”
One last point that I have learned before piano and would like to share with anyone trying to learn anything or build up any hobby is, that the journey never ends:
The never-ending journey — you don’t complete playing the piano, you don’t complete working out, you don’t complete reading, writing, cooking or whatever habit/ hobby you enjoy. You just keep moving forward. The journey never ends. Every one of us that learns something, refines a skill, does a hobby, or does anything self-development-related knows that the journey never ends. You start, and if you enjoy the activity and really want to make something of it, you carry on. It Does Not End. You just improve, adapt, and evolve. You start a skill and you maintain a skill. If you don’t use it, you lose it.
It’s all maintenance…
Thank you for taking the time to read my article. If you found it helpful and think someone else could find it helpful too, please share it and 👏🏽👏🏽.
I write mainly on self-development. I occasionally write on personal experiences, interest and other topics too. If you are interested in self-development, then please read some of my other articles (linked below). Enjoy.
