Before July 2021, I couldn't imagine myself playing piano.
I started playing piano in the middle of July 2021.
Before I forgot the beginner's mind, I would like to share some tips in a beginner's perspective with those who want to learn piano by themselves.
Most of the approachs I used is based on my research, it might contain some experiments. Free feel to discuss about it.
Also, this project adopt "learn in public" ethos, not only demostrate my result but also track my learning journey. I'll try to update my progress every season.
This project is meant to give direction to those who want to self-taught piano, get to know some of my background might be helpful.
I learned violin when I was 12. Learned about 1.5 years in an after school talent studio.
I thought I played nice back then, but actually lack of proper training.
Since most of the after school class charged based on student's progress, they try to skip fundentmental practice and move to pieces.
I'm not those kid who will take music as their major later, teacher can tell it. I have zero music theory knowledge when I learned violin, explaining music concept via piano to me make no sense. So teacher just assigned some sheet that I could play but not really helpful for basic skills.
I was happy to play a entire song when I was a kid, but lack of fundemental training makes me sound like sawing after dropping violin for 10 years.
One of the problem of talent school is teacher show you how to play, but didn't really tell you why play like that.
Probably no one tell them either.
There's at less three types of bow holding gesture, but not until I found books about violin pedagogy in library recently that I know their difference.
Neither will they examine ergonomics.
Honestly, we use a weird position to play violin.
To prevent bending our neck to much and support violin, we use a shoulder rest.
But the length of nack different from man to man.
And sweat.
Asia is hot. Expecially Taiwan.
When you practiced violin in summer, chin rest got really slippery. I found the metal part of my violin is rusted after years of sweat.
I know nothing about shoulder rest when I was a kid, so the shoulder rest always slipped after playing several minutes (now as well).
Not until recently I found I might need a higher shoulder rest to better support my violin.
You need to get feedback when you learn something new, but the feedback don't have to be merely teacher.
Don't leave the obligation of learning to your teacher, they won't care before you spend time working on it.
And did I learn piano before? Presumably yes. Too short to remember.
I couldn't recall if I have a piano teacher. But my mom did teach me.
She is not a piano teacher, I'm not a prodigy.
I don't know how to learn, she don't know how to teach, you could tell the result.
All this weird previous experience make me think I couldn't play piano. Things related to music had been into oblivion for decade.
Until July 2021.
The two main factors that brought me to piano is COVID and Dr.K.
The world turned upside down because of COVID, human faced a situation that never appeared.
People's behavior changed. Remork work, wearing mask, couch potato...
So am I.
I spent more time on online video platform.
In a conincidence, I clicked a video with a casual thumbnail but millions of views.
Ok, playing piano in public, let's see how good he played.
I didn't know those videos will change me. "THOSE" because the video just link to another and another, all about a white hair dude with a sunglass playing piano in public.
Great piano player are all over the world, you can easily find someone who plays amazing music in your town.
But those who plays and effects your emotion and makes you want to dance is rare.
I have no idea about boogie-woogie before, but vivid rhythm and characteristic swing caught my attention.
I ended up checking through most of the dude's video, and deeply hooked.
How can you troll a passenger with "where is the middle C?" and them plays amazing boogie woogie improvisation to shock them?
The boogie woogie piano video get into my browser in early July, one week later, I said to myself, "Shit, I have to learn playing boogie woogie."
Although I have the eager to learn boogie woogie, I have no clue how to get started. I don't have much piano experience, but I thought at least I need to practice some fundemental and read the sheet in order to play boogie woogie.
An approach I used I found helpful is I tried to build a habit instead of merely learning an instrument.
If you tried to learn an instrument, you'll somehow quit it. However, when you build a habit, it sticks in your life.
I couldn't recall which day and what I played in the first(that's why I want to write down my experience in case I forgot what I've overcame), probably just bashing some notes on piano.
It's uncomfortable when you kickstart a new habit, the book "Atomic Habit" give you nice insights about how you should start your new habit.
So I started small.
The piano stood at their for over decades, but the last time I heard someone played was probably more than five years ago when my younger brother still have a piano class.
I found some "children's Beyer" on top of piano, full of dust.
Playing the notes feel awkward, completely different from what I saw on YouTube.
Let's do it gradually, I told myself.
First day is embarassing.
Second day is my awkward.
Third, forth, fifth... After a week, it feels natural.
I didn't shout out loudly to the world that I'm going to learn piano, I just play it. Start small and simple.
My parents did show some curiosity, but later on they just went back to play their phone.
I played several minutes in the very beginning and have no stable rountine, after several days, I manage to play it consistently in fixed schedule.
There's my schedule before and after playing piano for your reference.
Daily schedule before vs after playing piano
(before)
- 7:00-8:00 read / plan
- 8:00-8:30 breakfast
- 8:30-9:00 read blog/article
- 9:00:12:30 work
- 12:30-14:00 lunch and nap
- 14:00-18:00 work
- 18:00-19:00 dinner
- 19:00-20:30 video editing
- 20:30-21:30 gym/tennis
- 21:30-22:30 Youtube
- 22:30-23:00 reading books
(after)
- 6:30-8:00 planning/working on important task
- 8:00-8:30 breakfast
- 8:45-9:30 learn French & Korean with duolingo & memrise
- 9:30-10:00 read blog/article
- 10:00-12:30 work
- 12:30-14:00 lunch and nap
- 14:00-17:30 work
- 17:30-18:30 workout/tennis
- 18:30-19:30 dinner
- 19:30-21:45 piano
- 21:45-22:30 flute
- 22:30-23:00 reading books
By the way, I have no idea about whether it's good to use Beyer as your first book.
I could only find Children's Beyer and I have no knowledge about piano method books so I just used what I found.
I will share some books I used but try to explore different materials to expand your taste.
Build a habit instead of try learning a instrument is a great mindset, and I'll share some other mindsets that you could try to keep yourself progressing.
After you successfully started the habit as the first step of your music journey, you'll have to think about how to practice properly and improve as an intermediate player.
The most important one is keep the music played (aka. How not to quit).
Let me share some tips I used to keep the music flow.
Being able to play music is a satisifying experience, but it requires you keep practicing to overcome challenges you faced in your music adventage.
In my first 2 weeks of piano playing, there's nearly zero difficulties. I have no idea about fingering and I haven't met bass cief yet so most of the things worked fine if I played slow.
However, after I got into the later part of Children's Beyer and read more books about piano pedagogy, things started to get difficult.
I can read treble cief cause I learned violin before, but I have no clue about how to read bass cief so I have to count the note.
Fingering is so important for a self-taught beginner. Without it you'll probably practice the same sheet with different fingering every time and it harms your progress.
Bottleneck came fast via theses challenges, and it's frustating.
There's several tips I used to help myself keep played the piano even encountering bottleneck.
- Watch others play what you're playing
You can find most of the music you played on the Internet. Watch different people play with different style helps you get some inspiration and demystify your confusion.
- Transcribe music / ear training
This is the fun part.
When I encounter some different sheet and feel frustrated about it, I'll relax and find some popular anime / meme style music and transcribe the motif.
Find some music the excites you, tinkering and see if you could get the motif.
Use your ears first, you can always look for the sheet later on.
- Sing
I used to feel unsecure about my voice, but after finding that you could train your voice like every other skills in the world, I started to sing.
Find some song that got simple but charming melody. Folk song is a great choice you can start with, switch an octave if it's too high or too low for you.
You want to sing and enjoy yoruself, so don't worry about correctness at this point.
BTW, sea shanties and blues also sound great!
- Find the music that you can easily play through it
When you enocunter bottleneck, your passion drops. Don't let it fade away, find some sheet that you can go through with.
Hisaishi's music is always a great choice!
You can play Hisishi's music with single hand when you're a beginner or add some complicate harmony if you're an advanced player.
Being able to finish a music when you encounter difficulties give you the confidience, and confidence help you conquer everything.
- Record some videos
Record how you played and share it!
Even if you don't want to share it you'll still get a lot of insights when you watch yourself playing.
Look at your finger and listen to the video you recorded. You'll always find something to work on.
Go record yourself playing piano now!
- Play other instrument
Don't limit yourself in one instrument if you can access other instruments, whether it's a physical instrument or a DAW with midi controller.
Playing same song from different instruments can give you a unique experience. Your phone can also be an instrument if you don't have other intrument.
Feel the music and play it on different medium.
- Find interesting sheet
Being a self-taught pianist, sometimes we gave ourself a sheet that is too hard or too easy to play with.
Finding a proper sheet the meets your skill takes effort.
Go look for interesting sheet in library or book store, look for recommendation in forums, an interesting sheet always broaden your horizon.
- Play different genre
You don't have to be a classical pianist.
Bach is amazing, Beethoven is great, but it doesn't make sense for you to try to clone them.
Explore different music style and come up with your own style.
Jazz, R&B, boogie woogie, bossa nova, there are a wide range of music genre you should try, feel the difference and play it!
Keep in mind there's no computer in old days, we got lots of advantages!
- Play public piano (try different piano)
If you are lucky, you'll find some public pianos in your city.
Go play it!
Don't be shy because you're a beginner, every master was once a beginner.
Enjoy yourself whether you played alone or played in public, music is meant to bring joy to people.
- Share your progress
Share your thoughts and progress in the form of blog or video.
When you share your work publicly, you raise the chance to meet peopel as passion as you are. You might got the chance to grow together or collaborate.
And that's why I start this project. Go and share it with the world!
Second mindset you should bear is move out of your comfort zone consistently.
To acquire advanced piano skills, you should try something that is a little challenging for you.
Not too hard, not too easy, a little challenge will take you to another level.
Playing the sheet you're familiar with bring you satisfaction, but keep progressing makes you able to play lots of different sheet.
How to effectively move out your comfort zone takes effort and perseverance. The reward will not arrive immediately, but when it comes, you'll glad you've always tried to challenge yourself.
Third, break into small parts.
Don't always start in the very beginning of a sheet. Start where you feel most friction.
Sometimes a piano repertoire can get hundreds of bars, treat it as a huge master piece is like messing up a bool of wool.
Break it!
Slice into smaller piece that you feel you can handle it.
Treat piano practicing as video game levels instead of an odyssey journey.
When you played a video game, you restart where your character died. So as practing piano.
Start at where you fail the most. Think how you would conquer those parts you fail most in the repertoire just like thinking how you will conquer the boss in video games.
Divide it into small parts, conquer them individually!