I’m putting together some video demos and collecting music resources to document my journey of learning to play the piano (perhaps they’ll be useful to you).
As a child, I tried to play piano—by ear—but, I never had any lessons, and never really learned music theory, technique, or artistry. Honestly, my playing was terrible. I always wanted to develop skills at the piano, but by the time I could afford a piano teacher, computer studies and work had taken over my life.
After a couple of decades of not playing, I figured enough time had passed to have forgotten the many bad habits I had developed. So, I decided to jump in and make a serious attempt to become an amateur pianist, emphasis on the amateur. It is not my objective to play professionally, but just to learn enough to enjoy playing in the level 5 range (mostly for my family and friends). I started at the end of March 2020.
I am currently using the Alfred Adult Learner (L1-L3) books (with the respective Theory books) to teach myself how to play piano, properly. I set aside roughly one hour a day to practice, learn, and play piano. I try to include theory, technique, and artistry in my piano practice. I discovered ABRSM and RCM in 2021, so I’ll probably be tailoring my learning sessions to adhere to their piano syllabus; a syllabus provides a more structured approach.
The Alfred books are great for training. The books have a plethora of piano pieces, but ABRSM has a syllabus for progressive learning. I use a mix of both.
1,000 hours will be my first major milestone marker
My Piano
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The piano I practice on is a Yamaha YDP-164, an 88-key, weighted notes—with hammer action—digital piano. It’s an amazing instrument. At 1,000 hours of piano practice (assuming I’m at level 5 or beyond), I would like to buy a CLP 785 or equivalent (going to be a few more years, but it’s a goal of mine).
The short demos I have are recorded on a Samsung S9 Note phone in 1080P, and then converted to a streaming format. Let me know if you have any problem viewing them. For the Alfred lessons, I try to record a session within the first week of starting the piece, and then a second/third session once the piece has been refined and fully learned. I’m currently in the process of re-recording some videos, because I have built an overhead rig (it’s much better for demonstration purposes).
Something important to note about the Alfred lessons, while the tunes are catchy and fun to play, you really want to learn what each lesson has to offer you…in the way of theory, technique, and artistry. So—that means—even if you don’t want to learn every piece in the book, make sure you review each one for what the authors are trying to teach you (maybe practice the particular technique highlighted in the lesson). Building a strong music foundation is critical in levels 1-3. I’ll also point out, I [sometimes] like to deviate from the written music, adding my own flare, or shorten the music where there are repeats (or even lengthen the music using 8va repeats). I’m pretty sure most piano teachers would hate that. 🙂
