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 habits, and eventually giving up on the song entirely. I learned nothing except that I wasn't ready. Which I should've known from the start.
This is the trap so many beginners fall into. We hear a piece we love, we find the sheet music or a YouTube tutorial, and we dive in without asking the crucial question: am I actually ready for this?
Here are the songs I tried too early and what went wrong:
"River Flows in You" – The left hand arpeggios require smooth, even finger work I simply didn't have. I was stabbing at notes, not flowing through them. The piece sounded choppy and mechanical. Killed the whole vibe. Should've waited until at least month 6. If you want to see what it's supposed to sound like, this Rousseau video shows the fingering clearly.
"Clair de Lune" – Attempted around month four. The tempo changes, the delicate touch required, the stretches in the left hand. Way over my head. I could play the first eight bars badly. That's it. Everything else was a mess. This is a year-two piece minimum.
"Bohemian Rhapsody" – Month three. I don't even want to talk about this one. The song has like seventeen different sections. I couldn't reliably play ONE section. What was I thinking?
The pattern: I'd find a song I loved, get excited, spend weeks struggling, develop bad habits from forcing passages I couldn't play cleanly, and eventually abandon it feeling defeated.
What I should've done instead: built a ladder. Start with songs just slightly above my level, master those, move up. Gradual progression instead of giant leaps.
The songs that actually helped me improve:
Months 1-3: Simple arrangements. "Ode to Joy" with basic left hand. "Mary Had a Little Lamb" (yes, really – for hand coordination). Very simplified "Let It Be." Nothing fancy. Everything playable. Check out my easy piano songs list for more at this level. Musicnotes has a good beginner list too.
Months 3-6: "Lean on Me," "Hallelujah" simplified, "A Thousand Years" easy version. Songs with more chord variety but still manageable tempo and hand coordination. This is when I finally learned "River Flows in You" properly – after building the foundation.
Months 6-12: Started tackling the songs I'd failed at before. And you know what? They weren't that hard anymore. My hands knew what to do. The first songs guide maps this out if you want specifics.
The lesson: ambition is good. Impatience is not. Every song you try before you're ready teaches you nothing except frustration. Every song you master at your level teaches you something that makes the harder songs possible later.
If you're staring at sheet music for your dream song and it feels impossible – it probably is. Right now. Put it away. Come back in three months. Play the boring stuff that's actually at your level. I know that's not what you want to hear. It's what I needed to hear.
Your dream song will still be there when you're ready. And when you finally play it well – actually well, not struggling through it – that feeling is worth the wait.