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I got a piano
My aunt is moving to a smaller apartment and her piano does not fit there, so I offered to take it. Not because I intended to play, but she wanted to keep it in the family out of nostalgia and emotional attachment.
It is under renovation and should arrive perfectly tuned.
But now that I have it, I ask myself: why not play it? I had piano lessons as a kid, and I like classical music.
Is there a straightforward way to learn piano by myself that doesn’t feel like much of a chore? Otherwise, the piano will just linger in my living room.
I would say, start by asking yourself why you want to learn the piano. Story time...
As a kid, I had about ten years of piano lessons. I was ok; not great, not really even that good, but I was ok. I never got that far with my teacher, but I loved the instrument. It was a part of my identity. Still, after I moved to high school, I stopped playing because I had no piano or money for lessons. And the more time that passed, the more difficult it became to think about going back to the instrument.
And so, a couple of decades went by with me quite literally never touching a piano, until one day a friend's old piano sort of fell into my lap. A bit like where you are at now. This finally forced me to approach the instrument again.
And like you, I asked the question: how do I re-learn the instrument? I tried some books, and some apps, and watched Youtube videos, and my wife even for some reason thought that it was a good idea to buy me the sheet music for Beethoven's complete piano sonatas. No pressure there. Well, I do love Beethoven's piano works and I had been half-jokingly talking about wanting to play them, but pretty quickly I realised that I wasn't going to put the time and effort to be the next Vladimir Ashkenazy.
I mean, I could read sheet music (slowly), I had a basic understanding of how music and harmony works, and I could teach myself how to play a simple tune with some competence. But I wasn't really enjoying the practice and repetition.
A couple of years passed, with me re-starting and re-starting the piano practice every now and then. But it never really clicked with me. At times, it was frustrating.
Then, one day, I happened to be reading about the physics of music from a random article or book that I had come across (I forget) and something suddenly clicked. I realised that I loved the piano, but I wasn't really that interested in learning technique or how to play other people's tunes. What I was interested in was the way the piano works, and how playing it moves me. I just wanted to play and explore.
And from then on, I pretty much just play, and do it whenever I feel like doing it. I go to the piano and I start improvising whatever feels right at that moment. The result is nothing anyone would necessarily want to listen to, not that it sounds off-key or anything. My wife even says she likes it, but she's of course not quite impartial. Anyway, what I'm saying is that my playing is harmless. Simple. Fluff. But turns out, it's also exactly what I want to do: explore harmonies and rhythms, without the pressure of getting anything right, or memorising or recording anything, or following someone else's dictation. It's a meditative exercise for me and it makes me happy.
I now have my piano in my home office, and every now and then when work isn't progressing, I hop over and play for a few minutes. It helps to clear the mind.
And now that I know what I want to do with the piano, I have gone back to some instructional materials, especially those that talk about freeform jazz and blues, harmony and such things that can help me in what I want to do with the piano. I'm not aiming to be a freeform jazz pianist, or ever perform anything to anyone, but these materials give me ideas of new scale progressions, chords and rhythms to explore in my private little musical meditations.
And this has eventually led into other related things, like me getting into synths, learning digital audio production and having fun composing music (again, just for myself), and even picking up the guitar (with which I'm actual happier with a structured learning approach because my starting point and goals there are different).
Now, my point is not that you should play the piano like I do. My point is that I was pretty much in your situation and I wasted a couple of years trying to approach the piano in a way that wasn't really helping me to achieve what I wanted to achieve, very much the opposite. And the only reason for that wasted time was that I never asked myself what I wanted to achieve, and what the piano really meant for me. I guess I just automatically assumed that because piano lessons in my youth had been in a certain way, that was the proper process with which to re-learn the piano and how to appreciate the instrument. But turns out, it wasn't. Not for me.
So, my advice is: Don't start with the "how". Start with the "why".
Why I wanna play the piano? Probably because I got one and it would feel wasteful not to do so.
For a less tongue in cheek answer: it would be fun to play some blues and early rock’n roll. Jerry Lee Lewis comes to mind.
Edit: it would also be great to have another analog hobby since I’m fighting a screen/internet addiction.
Just a quick side note here, If you are looking for analog hobbies I'd encourage you to try out film photography. Being able to take a picture, develop it, then create a final print with a completely analog process is very rewarding. If you're interested I have a spare camera I'd be happy to send you to help you get started.
Thanks! I had film photography at college, it was awesome!
I’d love to take up on your generous offer but I’m pretty sure shipping to Brazil would make this impractical and/or expensive. Acquiring other required stuff would also be ridiculously expensive around here—at least for me.
When I got into the piano again as an adult I started learning about blues and jazz. Not that I can play either well, but it’s a different set of techniques than just reading sheet music and playing it, which is what I was doing before. These days as an accordionist I often play from lead sheets and make my own sheet music.
There are a lot of different skills associated with being a musician and I suggest trying to learn something different than before.
Same exact experience here as well when I inherited a piano from a down sizing friend. Most of the time I just search for “song name chords” and go off those, usually meant for guitar.
I know this sounds like folklore, but it's absolutely true. If it stays relatively close in the same city, it'll probably arrive and sit usably well-tuned, but even short moves tend to make the tuning shaky, never mind the change in climate from "near the sunny window" to "near central heat".
Humidity changes are a big factor as well.
Doesn’t sound like folklore to me, wood bends, expands, and compress slightly all the time.
This is spot on. It should probably get one after the move anyhow. The relocation could certainly affect it substantially. Although you can probably get a feel if it needs it with your phone first.
I pretty much agree with most of what's been said here. What's important is to learn to play the types of music you want to play. The reason it's important to find stuff you like is because you won't stick with it otherwise. You could probably put up with a song or two you don't like, but doing it week after week is a recipe for quitting. (That's how one of my brother's ended up quitting guitar. I think his exact quote was, "I want to play real music, not a bunch etudes and preludes!")
I found learning music theory made understanding music more enjoyable for me. One of the reasons is that it helped me to start writing my own music, which is ultimately what I wanted to do.
The only general advice I'd give is to practice regularly. It doesn't have to be a really long time. When I took up cello as an adult, I usually did about 20 minutes a day. (I was shooting for 30, but I'm pretty sure I was already driving my spouse nuts.) If you don't feel like practicing on a given day, just play for a bit instead. Like anything, there will be days when it's easy and days when it's hard. Sometimes you'll want a challenge and sometimes you'll want something safe and familiar. Just go with it.
Oh, and if you do take lessons where you go someplace for the lessons, don't listen to the other students playing. As a kid, it's no big deal. You're a kid and nobody has any expectations of you. As an adult, hearing the student before you finishing up a really nice piece, thinking, "I hope I'm that good some day," and seeing an 8 year old come out of the room can be a little humiliating. Just don't let it get you down! 🙂 (And remember they have way more time to practice because they don't have to get a job yet!)
Oh, I have some advice!
Make frequent audio recordings of yourself. Like, 10 seconds or 2 minutes or however long you feel comfortable. If you're not sure how often, I'd try about one per week.
Record yourself playing things you think sound good and things you think sound bad.
If you listen to them right away or the next day, you will immediately find things to improve, and you'll probably have a good idea how to improve them! Remember to always find things you like in your recordings as well!
If you keep the recordings, you'll be able to look back after a few months or a year and really hear your improvement. That's always rewarding!
Awesome :)