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 »
My hands are small. Like genuinely small. I can barely reach an octave – my pinky has to stretch uncomfortably to hit that eighth note while my thumb holds the first. Forget ninths. Tenths are a fantasy. When I started learning piano at 23, I was convinced this would hold me back forever. Read all
Playing Piano With Small Hands (It’s Not the Disadvantage You Think) Read More »
June 2020. Five months into learning piano. Hadn't touched my keyboard in eleven days. Wasn't that I'd quit. Kept meaning to practice. Had this goal – one hour every day – and most days I just couldn't. Too tired after work. Other stuff came up. And if I couldn't do a "real" practice session, why
The 10-Minute Rule That Saved My Practice Habit Read More »
A few years in and I'm nowhere near done learning. Not even close. The more I know, the more I see how much there is to know. At first this was discouraging. Now it's the best part. Piano isn't a skill you "complete." There's no finish line. Concert pianists with 50 years of experience are
Piano as a Lifelong Skill (Why This Never Ends) Read More »
I've tried probably 15 piano apps at this point. Some are genuinely helpful. Most are not worth your time. Here's my honest breakdown. Learning apps (Flowkey, Simply Piano, Yousician): These connect to your keyboard and give real-time feedback. They're polished, gamified, and fun at first. But here's the problem: they don't teach you to read
Piano Apps: Which Ones Are Actually Worth Using Read More »
Classical piano has a reputation problem. Everyone imagines dusty old music that sounds like a funeral march. And honestly, a lot of beginner classical is boring. Those simplified Mozart pieces in method books put me to sleep. But there's classical music that actually sounds cool. Pieces that feel alive instead of museum-piece dead. Here are
Classical Pieces That Won't Bore You to Death Read More »
Five months in and I still couldn't read music. Every song I learned was from watching YouTube tutorials, copying finger positions. It worked but I was completely dependent on tutorials. If nobody made a video for a song I wanted, I was stuck. Finally sat down to learn notation. Took maybe three weeks of 10-15
How to Read Sheet Music (Without Losing Your Mind) Read More »