Three years ago I bought a janky keyboard from some guy's garage for $147. Had a sticky D key. Smelled like cat. Didn't even know where middle C was. Today I can actually play. Not amazing. Not professional. But real music that I'm proud of. Songs people recognize. Pieces that move me while I'm playing […]
3 Years of Self-Teaching Piano: An Honest Review Read More »
There's a hotel lobby near my apartment with a baby grand that anyone can play. For months I walked past it, fantasizing about casually sitting down and impressing strangers with my skills. One year into learning, I finally worked up the courage to try. I sat down. Positioned my hands. And immediately forgot how to
My First Time Playing Piano in Public (A Disaster Story With a Happy Ending) Read More »
Yesterday I sat on my couch for 47 minutes avoiding my keyboard. It was right there. Five feet away. I just… didn't want to. No reason. Not tired. Not busy. Just zero desire to practice. The keyboard might as well have been on the moon. This happens. Not every day, but often enough that I've
How to Practice Piano When You Really Don’t Want To Read More »
Standard practice advice: play scales, use a metronome, practice slowly. Sure. Important. But some of my biggest improvements came from completely unexpected places. Here are the weird things that actually helped: Drumming on my desk at work. Seriously. I started tapping rhythms with my fingers while waiting for code to compile. Left hand tapping quarter
The Weird Things That Actually Improved My Piano Playing Read More »
When I started learning piano, I had no idea what to expect. Would I be playing Chopin in six months? Would I still be stuck on "Mary Had a Little Lamb" after a year? Nobody gave me a realistic picture. Now, a few years in, I can tell you what year one actually looks like.
What Nobody Tells You About Your First Year of Piano Read More »
Month five. I'm struggling through a piece that should be getting easier but isn't. Meanwhile, this person on Reddit posts about learning the same piece in two weeks. Two weeks! It's been six for me and I still can't play it cleanly. The thought arrives like it always does: some people just have natural talent.
The “Natural Talent” Myth That Almost Made Me Quit Piano Read More »
Around month three, my hands started hurting. Not like injury pain – more like this constant low-grade ache after playing. Fingers would get tired way too fast. By the end of a 20-minute session my forearms felt like I'd been doing push-ups. I thought it was just part of learning. Building piano muscles or whatever.
When Your Hands Won’t Cooperate: Fixing Tension at the Piano Read More »
There's this guy on YouTube. You probably know who I mean. Plays insane covers of pop songs. Hands flying everywhere. Makes it look effortless. Has like three million subscribers. I used to watch his videos religiously. For "inspiration." That's what I told myself anyway. Really, I was torturing myself. I'd watch him play some incredibly
Why I Stopped Comparing Myself to YouTube Pianists (And Got Better) Read More »
For months, I was convinced I just couldn't memorize music. Some people have that gift. I wasn't one of them. I'd play a piece over and over with the sheet music. Take the music away. Blank. Complete blank. Maybe the first four bars. Then nothing. Like my brain had a leak. My strategy was brute
How I Finally Memorized My First Piano Piece (After Failing For Months) Read More »
Month two of learning piano. I decided I was going to learn "River Flows in You" by Yiruma. You know the one. That beautiful, flowing piece that sounds like liquid emotion pouring out of a piano. I could barely play a C major scale with both hands. What followed was three weeks of frustration, bad
Songs I Regret Learning Too Early (And What I Should’ve Played Instead) Read More »