*Update: Feb 14, 2022* I've been playing the piano for two years now. Watch my 2 year piano progress here: ruclips.net/video/k4MYcxwRRRw/видео.html *Please note:* This video was trimmed down using the RUclips Studio editor on 28 April 2021. Several whole pieces were removed and a couple of sections from the remaining pieces (Little Sonata, Bagatelle). This was only to improve the pacing of the video as some of the performances dragged on. I have no intention of hiding anything. All of the pieces that were removed and many others that I learned during my first year are available on my channel as they have been since I was first able to play. All the 60+ pieces I learnt during my first year were uploaded on the day I felt I could play them well enough. You can view them all in order using this playlist: ruclips.net/p/PLd918-xKxopYHEhRG7-c8_vAAYb3BqB1H *Original Comment:* 1968weedsmoke wanted to see my mistakes. Here they are! Watch me fall to pieces trying to record a 1-minute piece. Contains bad language and anger management issues. ruclips.net/video/7DWVrB1Jf7A/видео.html
@@Chlrintruc I definitely intend to do that in future videos. So far I'd only recorded anything when a piece is finished but I have started recording other clips as I'm learning new pieces so I can show how they develop over time. It's going to require a lot more work but, hopefully, it will tell a better story.
I know exactly how you feel. When I was learning a Bach Prelude, I had it right off pat - until I tried to record it and then it fell to pieces. My language would have made the video unpublishable!!
@@DavideMazzetti This is what I'm talking about. I was planning to release this uncensored. However, I don't think that's necessary, as it's quite gratuitous. So a censored version will be what's on offer.
You're too hard on yourself! That is an incredible amount of progress for a beginner adult in 1 year. Keep at it!! You have a natural flair for the piano and I thoroughly enjoyed hearing the beginning of your, hopefully long and very rewarding, musical journey
Thank you. I don’t think I am hard on myself. However, I may have a skewed perception of how people progress. As an adult in lockdown the only other progress I see is on RUclips and there is probably a bias to better progress as it’s only those comfortable sharing that I see. In the past I’ve had a habit of taking up a lot of new hobbies and not continuing with them. I thought playing the piano could be the same. But now it’s been over a year I’m confident this is something I’m going to continue for years and years. And I am very excited to see where this takes me.
this is such a cool video! i’m 13 years old and started playing when i was around 7 years old and i’m currently at level 8. your progress is so inspiring especially to me since i sometimes lack motivation to practice. not to mention how amazing your rhythm and dynamics are! keep up the great work 😁
I am super impressed, especially with your hand/ finger shape etc from very early on. You show incredible finger and hand independence. I would hope yours is not " average" progress because you are light years ahead of me in terms of musicality and I practice way more than an hour a day ( I have not got the year mark yet but by your milestones I am way way behind.! ) Congratulations
Thanks. I’d watched a load of ‘top beginner mistakes’ videos and such before taking the plunge so I had an idea about hand position before I actually started. Hand independence was definitely a struggle. But what worked for me was not to think of my hands as independent but as one thing that needs to be in different positions at different times. I still think like this.
@@DanielLearnsPiano yeah since I found this technique very fast my hands became independent I could play fur Elise both hands and now learning ode to joy it a little bit easier since I practiced a few pieces with both hanfs
Yes, this is true. I didn't come at the piano as a complete music novice. My rhythm and understanding of rhythmic notation from when I was young did obviously help a great deal at the beginning. I tried to make this clear in the video.
I found this video very inspiring; I started learning the piano in May 2019 and have realised how small steps (like playing for half an hour a day) slowly build into something more. I see how many people can get put off as the rewards are slow to come. You just have to trust in the process that you will improve and learn to play through practice. Good luck with the rest of your journey, keep going! 😃
Thanks! You really hit the nail on the head. It really is like that. Continued incremental progress leads to big results over time. That really is the only way to look at it. My goal has always been to be a proficient piano play in 5 years. I think it’s really important to think long term learning a skill like this.
@@lastbornrelic3430 Someone once messaged me saying they had just started learning and could play La Campanella. I checked out their channel to discover they could play the first measure. Badly. Can someone play Rondo alla Turca after 2 months? Maybe. Can they play it well? Unlikely.
Yes, I’m sure it helped a little. Personally, I don’t think reading music is as difficult as people make out. Given enough time anyone can figure out what to play. Actual sight-reading, on the other hand, that is incredibly difficult. That’s definitely not a skill I had to start with, or even now.
Ahhh Im a piano teacher and LOVE your dynamics. That is a huge thing a lot of students forget about (even me when learning something new sometimes). Bravoooooo
I’ve been wanting to teach myself piano for years. I studied music theory but have barely touched a piano. Woke up this morning and said I’m going to start today for up to 1 hour a day! Thanks for the inspiration!
Go for it! An hour a day is a reasonable amount of time to find in a day and if you are consistent with your practice you can make serious progress. I would recommend getting a teacher if that is an option. They really help guide you and can save you wasting time.
Thank you for an honest down-to-earth account of your piano progress which i found encouraging as like yourself i am an adult playing the keyboard for the very first time largely self taught from a book and youtube input - i have been playing for approx 9 months for between 30-60 mins most days - from your account i now think a piano teacher would be worthwhile. Keep up the good work and have fun.
Thank you, I’m glad my video has been some help. I thoroughly recommend finding a good teacher. As I am learning from sheet music, my teacher’s input is absolutely necessary. She explains all the aspects of a piece that are not written down. Things that you learn through knowing the era and the composer etc. I imagine learning from videos online you would pick up and play some of these subtleties though you may not know what you are doing and why.
Thank you for your communication which was useful; out of interest i a thinking of upgrading my 61 key Yamaha keyboard (my first and only keyboard at present for learning) to a Roland FP30 which i believe you use ? any thoughts on this ?. Several FREE music theory sites that may warrant a look are 1)Dave Conservatoire ; 2)www.musictheoryacademy.com;
@@terrydobson5312 Hi Terry thoroughly recommend roland fp30...I am doing my grade 6...so it has got me to this point....I think for the money it's very close to a real piano with the graded hammer action keys....I want to upgrade to a roland rd2000 when funds allow...
This was awesome. Here's the thing about learning the piano and why some people progress faster or not. It all depends on how you are being taught. If they are memorizing songs as they go, they will progress faster in playing. If they are working with a teacher then they will also learn to read music and learn the theory. If you are learning from books, with an occasional teacher, your progress is going to look very different. Teaching from books is a slower way to learn but you probably learned more theory as you went vs those who just memorize music. I don't think one is better than the other. For what it's worth, I have been playing the piano for 36 years and I still have pieces that take a long time to get to performance level. Some are easier and some more challenging. it's just something we keep working on. I absolutely love the piano. I quit for a few years. It was a conflict of interest in my marriage. I am back to sitting at the piano daily. I love practicing for 20 to 30 minutes a day and then occasionally when I feel like it. :D I don't think you have to spend hours at the piano unless you are doing piano as a career.
Thank you. Yes, I'm sure there are all sorts of reasons why people will progress at different paces. I guess the comments in this video were more directed at people that claim to practice 15-30 minutes a day, but progress 5x quicker. If can take you a long time to get a piece to performance level after 36 years, it makes you wonder how a complete beginner can do the same with multiple advanced pieces in one year. But anyway... I'm glad to hear that you are playing still (though I do hope that didn't affect your marriage). I'm extremely happy I have started and hope I can be playing for as long as you have been already.
I am 53, and started practicing seriously for almost a year now. It’s an encouragement to learn your story. Thank you for sharing:) My goal is to keep practicing a couple of hours every day. Battle with theory and develop myself as far as I am able to do so. Blessings to you! Keep playing:)
Thanks. You must progressing nicely with a couple of hours a day of practice. I’ve recently started catching up with the theory side of things. It’s actually more tough than I imagined. I can’t believe 8 year olds learn this stuff!
@@DanielLearnsPiano how did you learn to do both hands without messing up. For me, playing a bass guitar with 2 hands is easy for me, i dont have to look at either hand most of the time, i can't imagine how hard it is to play piano when both hands have to move and land at the same time. Bass guitar the right hand dont really move, its all left hand.
@@bigbubba4001 It’s all about repetition. Starting slowly and repeating it over and over again. I make plenty of mistakes along the way. And even when I can play something well enough to record it still may take 20 attempts to get a recording without mistakes. I still need to look at my hands often. Particularly if there is a large movement. The trickiest parts are where both hands move a larger distance at once. But then you just try and make note of a landmark with one hand and then quickly look to the other to see where that is going.
@@DanielLearnsPiano What I do when there's a big jump in both hands, but different distances, I try to move one hand slightly before the other instead of at once. It helps! I've played piano before, but didn't learn any real songs or notes until last Fall. You could say I'm addicted to it...
You have made exceptional progress in 1 year. I noticed from the very beginning that your hand and finger positioning was excellent, as if you had been trained in the past because that does not come natural to almost everyone. You also, as you progressed, exhibited an excellent independence between the hands. It is not easy to play one hand at a different volume than that of the other hand or to play one hand with a staccato touch and the other hand with a smooth touch [legato]. Your ability to keep the beat moving without hesitation is also impressive. Your final piece, the Clementi Sonatina op. 36 #1 after 1 year is truly commendable and will improve even more with patient practice and attention to detail. Well done and a shout out to your excellent teacher as well. I have been a private piano teacher for 50 years and appreciate the amount of time you have committed to this endeavor. I will subscribe to your channel to continue watching your progress. Greetings from California.
Thank you. You are very kind. I'm not sure I would say any of this has come naturally. If my initial hand positioning was good it was because I immersed myself with beginner piano tips videos while I was deciding whether this was something I wanted to embark on. Some of the things you mention such as balance of volume and staccato/legato between hands was incredibly difficult for me and took a lot of incredibly slow practice. Maybe I have picked them up quicker than others, I have no way of knowing, but it certainly didn't feel like it was coming easily. You are correct in that my teacher has helped me enormously though. She has been able to provide some great insight and tips that would have taken me ages to discover on my own (if managed to discover them at all) that have helped my playing massively.
Thanks. I think to describe this as playing really well is quite a stretch but I’m happy if with the steady progress I am making. I’m definitely enjoying the process even if quite a lot of the time it can be quite frustrating.
I can really relate to this. I tried to learn piano back when I was working 60 hours a week owning a business and also raising my young children. Although I took about a year and a half of lessons I didn’t practice consistently and ended up quitting. But when I took an early retirement I finally decided it was time to fully commit to piano. It been about a year and a half now and I practice 2.5-3 hours a day. I am well past where I was when I took formal lessons and playing intermediate to late intermediate pieces. My sight reading is improving as well. It is nice to be able to learn a new skill. My goal is by the time I’m in my 60’s to be a decent pianist. Even an average person can do it wit enough consistent practice. Keep up the good work!
Thank you for sharing, Daniel. I probably watched this progress video a couple hundred times in the past few months since I started learning to play piano. 😂 It helped me keep my expectations realistic. Seeing your progress over the course of one year enables me to look past the current struggles by giving me hope for what the skill level could be if I stick to diligent practice. Hope you are doing well. Can't wait to see more videos from you!
I am 45 years old from Greece and I have just bought a digital piano and trying to find a teacher to start lessons.I have a bussiness, I have family and I have a very similar backround in music, I play electric guitar and last year I started vocal lessons for singing, so naturally your video spoke right into my mind and heart. I too, found your video very inspiring and honest and I hope you make more.For me personally the yearly progress is the most usefull-inspiring way but more frequent feedback would be welcome just to be in touch with a guy in a similar situation but a few steps ahead from me so that I have someone to look up to.I wish you the best for your family, bussiness and music! I wish you health, happiness and endless apettite for creativity!
Great, I'm glad the video spoke to you. I'm going to continue with my regular update videos, as well as yearly updates (as these have way better reach). I hope you find and teacher soon and wish you all the best for your musical journey.
@TriloLuciffer If it’s something that interests you, you should go for it. I was 42 when I started an 47 now. The longer I play the more I have to adjust my expectations. At this age I’m never going to be a virtuoso. But I’m already able to play some decent sounding pieces. And I imagine in another 5 years I should be able to play some quite complex ones, as well as being able to pick up the sort of pieces I can play now much quicker. Also just the ability to read music and understand the theory is opening me up to writing my own music, or arrangements of existing music. Regardless of your age, the best time to start is now. Best of luck!
This is really great. I practice up to an hour a day and it takes me 6-8 weeks to generally learn a grade 1 piece. I'm 51 and started 12 months ago. I'm also learning all major and minor scales (parallel and contrary motion). So my practice on actual songs each day is only 15-30 mins. My piano teacher has PHD so it's a bit awkward because I'm pretty average lol
Thanks. That sounds about right really. The ABRSM grade 1 pieces vary quite wildly in difficulty I think. Theme took me at least 8 weeks, whereas The Egyptian Level was much quicker. Minuet in C was also a challenge. I spend about 15 minutes on sight-reading practice and scales before I get into my pieces. I'm usually working on 3 at once. I'll spend about 25 minutes on the newest piece, 15 on getting the next up to tempo, and 5 polishing the most complete piece. My piano teacher has so many letters after her name you could write a sentence. She was a former concert pianist, and now works for an exam board, and mainly teaches teachers rather than beginners like me. So I wouldn't feel awkward, just be grateful you have a great teacher. I really think it makes a difference.
Yes, I mémorise all the pieces I play fairly early when learning them. I don’t do this consciously. It just happens due to the number of times I need to repeat sections of a piece before being able to play it. I’d prefer it if could read the score quick enough to use that as reference while I was playing. Because if I forget what’s next it can take a while to recover.
I've been playing for about 16 months and I persevere and I can't play any thing like this on day 53 after all this time. I don't have confidence but determined to keep going.
@@DanielLearnsPiano I memorize all my music too. I usually have all the notes memorized before I can play it all in one go without mistakes - that makes it nice since I can practice without needing the sheets! And there's nothing better than sitting down at a piano and just playing something straight. No flip flip flip! I also look at my hands quite a lot... At least one hand if both are playing.
What an excellent record of progress. My mom was an excellent sight reader on the piano, I, on the other hand became a self taught piano player capable of playing by ear (with plenty of bad habits for sure), but I find it very satisfying, and now play with local jazz groups.
Thank you. I am sceptical some of the claims made on RUclips. If someone says they have practised 3+ hours a day for a year, then fair play to them. They have worked hard for their progress. But when others claim they only practice 30 minutes a day, from an absolute beginner, and progress at the same pace... You have to ask yourself "is this for real?" If I'm honest, even my progress appears better than it is as it's only a snapshot of the times I play through the pieces without mistakes, which is less often than I would like.
I want to say thank you, thank you, and a huge thank you for this video. I have been looking to see if I could find a progress video that seemed "realistic" . I have been spending so much of my time just bogged down trying to get my fingers to stay down on the keys like I see so many on the videos that I have watched. I kept thinking to myself how do they do that. I have made progress keeping my fingers closer to the keys after watch Jazer Lee's 5 finger exercise video where you hold your fingers in a 5 finger scale position and press all the keys all the way down then playing each finger separately 4 beats up and down the scale. It did help but to move to other parts of the keyboard my fingers still become airborne at times. I am so happy to see that your fingers were not resting all the time on the keys. So maybe this just takes patience and time. Not just a quick thing. You have uplifted my spirits with your video. Thank you again!
Most 'content' about learning the piano can be filed under unnecessary. These people just make videos about anything to please the algorithm. While it may be best to hold your fingers like that (which is something my teacher says) it's probably not worth your effort working on this to begin with, it probably comes naturally over time anyway. There are so many things that people will comment about my playing that when I refer to my teacher about them she usually just says something like 'well, yes, but it's not a big deal at the moment and there are more important things to be concerned with'.
I like rewarding myself for my achievements as well. Every time I made the Deans list in college I used to splurge and buy gifts for my loved ones as their happiness was my biggest reward and they gave me the love and support needed for my successes.
I enjoyed your sincerity, clarity, and groundedness. You should be proud of the video alone, not to mention the wonderful progress you've made. I'm 45 and started learning the piano about 10 months ago. I've had the luxury of practicing about 2 hours a day on average and I feel that your conclusion that you made decent progress with 1 hour of practice a day to be very reasonable. Thanks again!
You've inspired me! I bought a digital piano last week. I used to play the guitar but gave it up while caring for my son who has special needs. Now that he's a teenager and doesn't need so much of my attention I attempted to return to the guitar but found that I've lost the ability to play it. So I decided to learn the piano. I'm looking forward to getting into it and I'm pleased to hear your story about your progress. It's very encouraging. I wish you all the best.
Nearly all beginners of piano have one thing own common. They allow their wrists to go under the level of the keyboard. High wrists allow playing on the pads as it should be.
This is incredible and I'm feeling really inspired... I would have never thought this was "regular" or "normal" progress because this is what I aiming for! Congratulations on your journey and thank you for sharing, I hope I will become this good in a year as well 🌞🌞
I've got a long way to go to catch up to you, picked up my first electric piano 3 weeks ago, I had quit playing 17 year ago while in middleschool. I have realized I forgot literally everything except note timing, middle C, and a few chords can't even remember the Bass clef and I played concert trombone lol. If I can make anywhere near the progress in a year that you have I will call myself successful. I need to make time every day as two set violin says and your video proves it. Good work man, keep it up.
Thank you. Great to hear that you are getting back into playing. It's probably going to sound odd from someone that posts videos of my progress for others to watch, but definitely try not to compare yourself to others as you progress. It's not good for your head. Just focus on being better than you were the day/week/month before and all will be good.
I must say, after going through this video a few times, you appear to have a musical touch to your soul. You're good with dynamics and piece sound very well put-together
Thank you. Most of the credit should go to my teacher. She helps elevate the pieces from something quite ordinary (which is what they all sound like when I first learn anything). One video where is quite noticeable is when I learnt Mazurka. ruclips.net/video/nmH_UHX0hNs/видео.html
On your point about zero-to-hero progress videos, there was a great thing I read recently which nicely illustrates what I think goes on behind the scenes with those - “progressing without improving”. I’m going to do a video myself at some point giving my thoughts on it, but most of those types of videos involve ploughing all efforts into force-learning advanced pieces by rote alone, not doing any scales or sight-reading, and having no musical understanding of what’s going on. Impressive for a video, but that’s about it. Advanced pieces are seductive, for sure - I gave a few a go myself early on before coming to my senses - but playing them too early means one is learning to play ‘that piece’, rather than ‘the piano’ itself. Keep doing what you’re doing man; proper, gradual learning of an instrument. It will pay dividends down the line (for us both I hope!) and it’s awesome to keep up to date with. You were one of the accounts I followed that got me started playing the piano as an adult! All the best
You're absolutely right. That definitely does happen and when I first started my piano teacher told me of someone she had taught who had done just that with a Rachmaninoff piece that he had learnt. When she asked him to show her his scales, he was unable to because he hadn't learnt anything else. Obviously, RUclips as a medium lends itself to this style of learning if all you want to do it impress people, as you can put together a video of selective clips rather than whole pieces and people will lap it up. That was definitely something I wanted to avoid when I started this channel which is why I always post a whole piece and even this video contains whole pieces (though I have since edited via the YT editor to remove some of the repeats just to bring the overall length down). And even that makes me sound better than I actually am, because I will reshoot a piece until I get it how I want to which usually take many takes. But on the other hand, there are videos out there that are frankly ludicrous. One I saw recently had someone playing Bach, Prelude in C with comically incorrect posture after a week, and finished 1 year of at least an hour a day practice (which I guess could mean 40 hours a day) with Fantaisie Impromptu and Liebestraum No. 3. If progress like that is real, and even is just the 30 second clips they post in a video, it's impressive. But I don't think it helps anyone. I certainly don't think it's inspiring like many others claim. To me, it's more discouraging than anything else. Even my progress, which is average at best, is greeted with comments like "Your day 10 is my day 222" which feels like even I am discouraging some people. I started this channel as a simple log of what I could play. It's become much bigger than I imagined. I'm astonished how many people have viewed this particular video. If it's inspired some people, I'm happy. If it's discouraged others, I'm sorry. I think more channels like mine, yours and all the other learners that post regularly are ultimately a good thing though when viewed collectively. They show a pretty broad range of how learning the piano can go and can provide realistic expectations to people thinking about starting the piano. Wow, this turned out pretty long. I'll keep an eye out for your video discussing all this.
Hello, exellente record of progress Im 53 old im starting alone in 1 january 2020 in may i take a teacher one hour for week frankly the progression was much more straightforward because when you block for example on the eighth notes and now on the ternary he has the keys to unlock you. I started for ten months on a Yamaha p125 digital piano now I have a Yamaha B1 acoustic
Thank you! How are you enjoying playing the piano? I contemplated getting an acoustic but I still have young children and often need to practice when others need quiet so it wasn’t an option. One day though.
At last: a real piano progress video. This time I can believe the progress. And it's really nice to hear the different pieces. I played many of these songs in the past. And I like your descriptions below the pieces. Hopefully you will have a lot of fun with your piano in the future. Musical greetings, Nicoline
Thank you, Nicoline! There are plenty of other progress videos out there that have similar progress (or usually slightly better) than mine. It was these that inspired me to start learning.
Well, most of the progress videos I come across go from beginner to pro in one year. And I can't believe that. And I think it's not a good motivation for someone who truly starts practising. But I'm glad to see you got motivated by watching the right videos!
It's not real though. The finger curves. He watched his many videos before hand for how many hours and how days. And the metronome he was a musician in a band so already knows timing and note lengths and music moods. He ain't a novice.
I wanna begin with giving you a big warm hug and thanking you for doing this. I found ur channel today and it's changed my life. You have given me hope and encouragement and I hope to benefit immensely from all your videos and journey. Amd I pray that all the views totally makes it worth your while. You Rock
Thank you for your kind message. I'm glad my videos have had a positive impact. It's not really worth my while making these videos, but I enjoy doing it so I will continue until that changes.
I love this, Daniel! Very inspirational. Similar to you, guitar was and remains my primary musical focus. That being said, I've really just begun studying piano. This morning, I pulled the plug on a nice digital piano and should have it in about a week. I'm 59 and absolutely believe that, barring physical limitations, age is used by many as a self-imposed limitation to learning something new. With piano/keyboard, music theory, which I've learned at arm's length over the years, suddenly makes perfect sense on the piano keys layout. Your journey is like the "working man's" guide to piano....authentic and real. I certainly relate. Keep up the great work and thanks for the inspiration. You have a new fan in Northern VA (USA). Cheers!
@@DanielLearnsPiano hi matey I took grade 5 after 2 years of lessons..and passed at christmas I have learnt 2 of my grade 6 pieces already....I find the biggest help of all is learning all the major..melodic and harmonic scales...as so many pieces contain these key ingredients I am working hard on my theory that also helps...I practice anywhere between half an hour to 3 hours a day...Short sharp bursts...I did play a little bit when I was young but had forgotten pretty much everything...so it was all new again...the best piece of advice i can give you it's a long journey with setbacks...but keep plodding on and the gains come...I'm hoping to get to grade 8 standard in 5 years...will give it my best
Great advice. I’m working my way through my scales. I know all white key major scales and 4 harmonic minor. Sight-reading is my Achilles heal. I just take too long to parse the notes. It’s slowly improving though and I’m gradually working through my Grade 2 book. Grade 8 is five would be a great achievement. I wish you all the best!
@@DanielLearnsPiano my best advice for sight reading is take a couple of minutes to look through it....try and sing it in your head look at all the dynamics and key...all the sharps and flats and fingering
Thanks for the vid! Your guitar comment at the end is super relatable to me and one of the reasons i’m starting piano lessons soon. I’ve been playing guitar for 20 years and hit a wall a long long time ago. i alwayssss fall back on something more fun (metal songs i already know) and it’s hard to expand and learn something new, going so slow it gets boring when i could just bang out something exciting that sounds good. i’ve wanted to play the piano forever and i figured, hey i’m 36, not getting any younger! i appreciate you emphasizing how average your growth is. i never know what to believe or expect on peoples progression videos. Thank you!
Cool. Best time to start is now. When it comes to videos like this I would actually disbelieve most of them. Even mine. Just forget about them and just concentrate on being better every day. It’s all about the hours you put in at the end of the day.
Thanks for the realism! You're doing great though. I bought a digital piano that's arriving today and I'm so excited. I used to play by ear for fun when I was a kid 15+ years ago (I'm sure I wasn't good), but I want to do it the "right" way and learn to read sheet music and play some classical too. Should be interesting! P.s. appreciate the doggo cameo.
No worries and thanks! I'm sure your past experience will help, even if just a little. Try and get a teacher if you can. They make the process much easier in my opinion and will guide you along your journey so you don't end up wasting time. Our other dog made a cameo in this video: ruclips.net/video/tOvVsXn_suY/видео.html
I have just started learning at the age of 46. I’ve always wanted to be able to play and getting the electric keyboard for my son finally pushed me into having lessons as well. I doubt I’ll get to your level but I’m enjoying it so far.
Thank you. That's my hope. Starting piano was never about rapid improvement. My goal has always been to be a competent player in 5-10 years. I will be great if I can keep the motivation up to keep posting to this channel and document the whole thing.
I like the consistent updates vs just day one to one year. I think your progress is amazing. I am getting my digital piano tomorrow. I am old and have never played.
The day 335 and 363 pieces are etched into the back of my mind from my piano lessons as a kid because of how long I spent trying to learn them. I definitely wasn’t playing those in my first year of piano.
Ha! Yeah, I spent a good deal of time on both of those pieces as well. Both were quite a stretch from the pieces I’d played previously. How much were you practicing as a child? I didn’t think it was common for children in their first year to be doing 30-60 minutes a day.
Fair enough. I started learning around two years ago, but I never learned how to read or play by sheet music, or learn the scales other than C major lol. I learned by copying from the piano videos I enjoyed. The best piece I can play is the Schindlers list theme which is like a grade 6+ piece. This is without learning sheet music or scales. The advantage to not learning zheet music is that you can improve faster, but its more difficult to learn harder pieces because I have to pause and play videos at 0.25 speed to see the notes theyre playing. If anyone is starting out dont be afraid to do what I did but if you want to take it seriously go and learn sheet music, but the effort/reward will be a lot slower.
Why do you think it’s slower learning by sheet music? Sure, if you spend long enough practicing one piece you can probably play a lot of things. Maybe it’s not as impressive learning a load of short, simpler pieces that incrementally get more advanced, rather than one show piece, but in the end I think I’ll be better for it.
@@DanielLearnsPiano in my opinion it's slower (to begin with) learning sheet music, because it takes so long to develop a familiarity with reading sheet music accurately and quickly. Reading sheet music is a separate skill, for example if I were a complete beginner not only would I have to learn the dexterity to play the song, but I would also have to decipher the notes, timing etc. from the sheet music. You are certainly correct though, learning sheet music was the best decision for you because it instils useful technical skills with your piano that will benefit you throughout your whole career. When i was starting out I wanted to learn songs I enjoyed rather than learning grade one songs I didn't. I'm ultimately hindered by my decision as i would go from being able to play grade 6 pieces from watching people play the notes to not even grade one piano and the more difficult the pieces I learn the harder it is to learn from watching videos. Perhaps a video idea would be to see how fast you could learn for e.g passacaglia by only watching a video! :) Regardless though I look forward to seeing you progress more and I wish you all the best in your piano journey.
Maybe at the very beginning, it's slower to read the sheet music. But it's important to make the distinction between sight-reading and just reading. Sight-reading (playing a piece upon the first read of the music) is extremely challenging and I struggle to play grade 2 exam questions at about 30bpm. But just reading isn't that difficult. And out of the time it takes me to learn a piece, the proportion of time spent reading the sheet is negligible. I know what you mean though, beginner pieces are dull. But they serve an important purpose that is usually to allow you to focus on one new skill within a piece that you can be finished within 2-3 weeks. This allows you to build up your skills in an incremental way, completing pieces quickly which builds confidence. I've done it the other way as well. I learned to play the guitar when I was a teenager. I just learnt the songs I liked and over a few years, I was pretty good at playing them. But the problem was I had completely neglected whole areas of playing the guitar. So if I wanted to play other music I was unable to. Before I took up the piano I actually tried going back to the guitar and starting that from the beginning again. But I just found it too frustrating doing all the beginner stuff I had missed previously when I could just fall back on the songs I knew and liked already. Because of that, I wanted to make sure I learned the piano properly with a teacher that would make sure I was well-rounded from the beginning. _Perhaps a video idea would be to see how fast you could learn for e.g passacaglia by only watching a video! :)_ The thought of trying this actually fills me with horror. It sounds like such a time-consuming process. I will make a note of it though as you may be right, it could make an interesting video.
Thanks for sharing! We both started playing piano around the same time and posted the 1 year progress video lately. After watching the longer version of Musette you played in the video beautifully, I wanna try that too! Please keep on posting.
I have been thinking about learning piano and I found watching you, very encouraging. This is the first video of yours I've watched. I play guitar, well sorta. I'm not very good at it. I had a very good teacher, but I felt sometimes he was impatient with me because I wasn't progressing that well, I was impatient and discouraged with myself as well. Life got in the way the last several month and even though I practice my guitar I'm still not good. Anyway, I've been thinking about get a keyboard and trying to see if I can do better with it. If in a year I can play as well as you, I will be very happy.
Thank you! I have no intention of stopping the progress videos. When I started I was unsure if I would either keep up the piano or keep up the videos so I didn’t really want to put my face to it. Now that I’m a year in a show no signs of stopping I’m happy to make the videos a little more personal and talk about my progress more. It’s also really fun to look back on every now and then.
Im 23 and currently learning piano again. Ive been trying to be consistence for almost 11 months! Yay! Whenever Im lack motivation I come to your video. So Thank you for this ❤❤❤
This is amazing! You seem to have a good grasp on musicality and rhythm. I can remember these early pieces from Grade 1 and 3 😁 I've been learning for two years now and will be sitting for Grade 5 exam in a month. Do you practice scales? I'd highly recommend them, keep up the great job
I’m 65 and have been learning Piano for 10years now .I’ve never had any lessons and just play to try and improve my memory as I get older as I had read your brain can improve grow new pathways from repetitive things you do. Really I thought I would be good on piano but have recorded my playing and it is just awful. No musicality and plenty of mistakes. Cannot play when someone walks in the room. Practice I hour a day etc...So listening to you talk so honestly about your progress has given me new hope and that I just need to enjoy the practice more and maybe get a few lessons Than you so much you are doing amazingly well Regards Eamonn
Thank you. That's one of the reasons I took up piano. I wanted a way to keep my brain active as I advance in years. You must remember that videos like this are selective with the clips that are shown. On any given day my playing sounds like you have described. Regarding musicality though, that's one thing where I would highly recommend getting a teacher. I don't think we should just expect ourselves to have that in us. It's something we learn like any other aspect of playing the piano, so if we don't have someone telling us how to improve, how will it? I had a lesson this morning, my teacher told me how I can make my latest piece much better by explaining the type of phrasing I should be going for. I was reading it very literally from the score, where she comes at it from experience. And a lot of this stuff is not written in the scores anyway. Anyway, we're always our worst critic, I'm sure after 10 years you are doing better than you think.
First of all, I loved your video. Finally something realistic, and not one of those Fantasie Impromptus in a year videos .. I myself have been playing for 8 months now, I have lessons once a week and like you, I practice about an hour a day (due to lack of time). I did get a little bit ahead of you I think, but I also struggle with a lot of things that maybe someone would find easy. We all learn differently. I'm looking forward to more of your videos! Keep up the good work 😊 Greetings from Croatia!
Thank you. That's great to hear you are doing so well. We certainly do all learn differently, and I am not trying to say this is the maximum anyone could achieve with an hour a day practice. This is just an example. To be honest, it's only really from October time it has been an hour a day on a more consistent basis. Before that, it was probably worked out more like 40 minutes a day. It's only since I've been using the forScore app that I have an accurate idea of how much I practised as that logs the time each score is open on the screen for. Now, I make a point of always having that open if I am practising. It also has the benefit of keeping my piano tidier.
@@DreamingGirlLola Hi. I have a live teacher, luckily she lives in my neighborhood. I know some piano teachers, I could ask them if they would do online classes for you :)
That's great! You are embarking on a truly fulfilling journey. It's not without its frustrations I must add. Don't worry if it feels difficult. It is. And as far as I can tell, that doesn't change. Someone recently told me a quote that's used in running that seems to apply. "It never gets easier, you just get faster."
My Mom taught piano for many years. We always had a seemingly endless procession of students in our house. So, I decided to play the trumpet. Based on my past observations I think you are progressing quite well. Now that I'm retired I plan on taking up the piano. Thanks for the inspiration.
Well done, keep it up!! I started from nothing when I was 40 and played/learned for 10 years. As you say it's all about your other commitments so you can only do what you can do. My commitments ebbed and flowed which reflected my progress (one lesson most weeks) and I never took and exam. I got to a stage when I could play Clair de Lune and Rachmaninoffs C# Minor prelude albeit badly.
Thanks! I’m so excited by the idea of having played for that length of time. Right now it does feel like everything is practice. I can’t really sit down at the piano and play something just for the enjoyment. But that must change after a couple of years when you have good pieces, that are not on the bleeding edge of your ability, in your repertoire.
@@brubeck67 Yeah, I get that. And it's required if you want to keep progressing. But even now, there are easier pieces that I can play comfortably. I just imagine that after 10 years the easier pieces that can be played comfortably sound a lot better.
Sir.... THANK YOU! I am 20 almost 21 and I've been wanting to learn piano since I was little but never had the funds for lesson. But now I have a keyboard and am motivated to learn. I had the same issue with youtube videos and lack of details. I appreciate your updates
What a fantastic video!! And so professional. You’re progress is amazing and i’m looking forward to seeing you progress over the next year. We are not too far apart when it comes to when we started so it’s nice to have your frequent videos for sure. I too have no interest in taking exams!! And Love your dog haha!
Haha, thanks. Over the top is probably a better description. I’m slightly conflicted on exams. On the one hand it would be nice to have official recognition of what I have a achieved. But on the other, I have absolutely no need for it. I’m only playing for fun and what really matters is what I can play rather than what a certificate might say I can play. I may try and take one at some point for the experience, it must be incredibly nerve racking. It’s good to feel uncomfortable now and again.
@@DanielLearnsPiano can you imagine the young examiners face when I walked in...ha ha she had had kids all day between 7 and 16...then in walks a 50 year old...dont think she was expecting that...I was as nervous as hell I have to be honest...kids have no fear...but she was lovely I have to be honest and they want you to do well...its good to challenge yourself...and I do think the grades push you on to new levels and make you practice harder.. otherwise it's easy to skip practicing....
You may be persuading me to give it a try. Though I kinda like the idea of doing a grade below where I might be for the comfort level. I get nervous performing to my teacher. Over Skype!
@@DanielLearnsPiano go for it start at grade 1 it will push you forward. I have a busy life with 2 young kids..work..when the kids are in bed I am either drumming in the garage or on the piano...what else would I be doing...watching the rubbish telly box....who knows where you could be in ten years....grade 8 pianist...wouldn't that be some achievement!!!.....I can do so can you!
Good job mate - I'm about to follow in your footsteps. Just picked up a piano for Christmas on a whim and used to play a bit of guitar. Thanks and see you again in a year... all the best.
@UCpGsGUYM-dKoBoTIh_5yzcQ Reading music like what? If you think I’m reading the music while I’m playing I’m not. Never have I suggested that. Being able to decipher the pitch of a simple melody like that is not beyond anyone. And it does not take weeks to relate notes to the keys. The half of music I didn’t know was pitch. I had never read any pitch before owning the piano. For goodness sake, there are 7 white keys to learn. It’s not rocket science. How many different pitches are in that first melody? Not many. It’s as if you think I turned the camera on, sat at the piano, opened some music I’d never seen before and started playing. Of course that’s not what happened. I’d probably been playing that piece for several days.
@@DanielLearnsPiano sorry, I was just asking, this was the first video I had seen on your channel.... I missed @UCpGsGUYM-dKoBoTIh_5yzcQ comment, but I think they must have deleted the comment, deleted their hole channel :/ I have played other instruments, but never learnt to read sheet, not fast enought to play along to. but your right it does not take long to 'remember' a set of notes. it's all just hand movements. keep going, you are getting there nicely :)
@@FiddlingwithmyWhistle Don’t worry. The comment was not directed at you. Just someone claiming to be an experienced piano player or maybe even a teacher yet claiming it’s impossible to relate the notes to the keys for WEEKS! And how I must be lying about everything. But you are exactly right. I can’t read the music while playing even if I know how to play the piece. It just becomes gibberish at that point. I do daily sight reading exercises but I really struggle once both hands are playing at the same time. It’s a challenge finding enough material to practice at the level I need. Which is one hand playing crotchets and quavers and the other semibreves and minims. That’s about my limit in actual sight reading.
@@DanielLearnsPiano 'claiming' to be... i have had and known a few teachers, and most 'real' good teachers know that some people pick it up quicker and easier than others. and the ones I know, i'm certain that not one of them, would make such a statement, using the word, impossible. I watched a four year old, who had never seen or played a piano. I got him to close his eyes and I played a note, and he had to find it on the keyboard. He worked it out every time, and after about half an hour. he would only have to press 1 or 2 keys to find it. I could not do that when I was four, but I bet he is not the only person of his age that can do it... every thing is possible :)
Keep going it is not easy, and takes approximately 6 years to get to a standard that you want to achieve, the right thing you did was to go to a piano teacher, I had a brilliant one and over 6 years managed to achieve grade 7and pass it. Started at 71 am now 78 no more lessons because of the virus, so still practicing what I was taught, a piano teacher is a must, I am impressed with your progress, wish I had recorded my playing, but don't know how.
Thanks. Your story sounds fascinating and goes to show you are never told old to learn. If I can achieve a grade 7 standard in 6 years I’d be very happy. I only had 2 or 3 lessons in person with my teacher. The rest have been over Skype. Do you not have this option?
Can you tell more of your story? I'm also not far off from the age you said you were when you started and it's very encouraging to hear you can get to grade 7 in 6 years! Did you start from scratch, or did you play when you were younger and went back to it?
I started quite a few years ago, but due to family commitments and work couldn't carry on, later I bought an organ and had some lessons with that, which taught me timing which is important, then went on to electric keyboard mostly self taught, but only learnt to read upper stave memorising chords mostly by shape, finally I achieved my dream of buying a piano, at this time I knew I needed tuition so embarked on the lessons, although I managed to get to grade 7 it was a hard long slog, many hours practice, the exams gave me goals to attain along the way, but they were nerve racking, especially the last one, and I realised to obtain grade 8 was beyond my capabilities. I still find reading two staves difficult, but continue to try and conquer this problem more now with easier music, my aim when I started was to play the moonlight sonata, this I can do, but not to a performance standard that I would like. Age means the memory is not as sharp as it was unfortunately, but I still love to try and never tire of practice. In fact I have to say, when on the piano I go to a special place where all the worries of the world disappear and I can get lost in the music. As I am now more or less retired from the work I used to do there is more time, previously I have spent most of my life as a professional heavy goods driver also coach driving at times, and have travelled many miles mostly in England but occasionally on the continent with coaches, when family commitments allowed, I am fortunate that my eldest son owns a transport company and I still get to go out in the trucks occasionally just local runs etc, as travel was my second ambition, but it has been a long and sometimes very hard job, many hours spent behind a wheel of a forty two ton vehicle is a huge responsibility and also a very lonely life, but I enjoyed all the ups and downs, and used to dream of the time I would be able to learn and do all the things I never had time to whilst at work and bringing up a family. To finalise, yes learning is hard but the rewards are great, so never say can't, always at least try, you will be amazed at what you can achieve if you don't give up. Best Wishes Julie
Maybe, I don’t really know. I just went on the fact you don’t seem to see many videos like this where the progress is worse, but lots where the progress is (much) better.
I’ve just realised what channel this is. I’ve watched a bunch of your videos testing out different pianos. Thanks for watching. This is something I love about the piano community, the great players are still looking out for the beginners and giving them support!
Lots of repetition. Don’t think that I’m reading that music playing it first go, or tenth go. I’d probably been practicing that tiny piece for several days. And I sure wasn’t reading the music while I was playing it.
I’ve been taking lessons on and off for about 20 years. I’ve even done some teaching myself. You are doing wonderfully! You appear very relaxed, volume changes are nice, and you stay on tempo extremely well. When I first started, I hated the metronome. Now as a more advanced student, I use it more and more.
I really enjoyed this video! It gave me a really good insight into how my progress will realistically look. I still think you progressed quite fast and it’ll probably take me a lot longer ahah. The style of this progress video is a lot better this way in my opinion:) thanks for sharing !
I loved this video. I’m an 80’s kid whose far from a kid anymore and I was and will always be into the rock and metal of the 80’s and the greats of the 70’s and 60’s too. I am close to buying a fairly decent keyboard to learn piano same as you have been. I’m studying with a couple RUclips teachers at the moment and am looking forward to getting going. Thanks for sharing. 🤙🏻
Really amazing. I started 3 weeks back. One question if I may. Do you believe this would be possible if you were self taught but had a close friend who is ABRSM Grade 8, who reviews your progress remotely through video clips and providing feedback and corrections? ;)
Yeah, I would think so. I do think it is important to have that element of review from someone who is experienced. Currently my lessons are remote. That’s mostly what is involved. I thought it would mainly be technique, and while there is a little of that, most time in the lesson is getting the music to sound more musical. There is only so much written in the score, the details are through experience. So to begin with you need someone else to provide that experience.
Thanks for sharing. I am thinking about starting the piano learning journey now....and i have same background. Played guitar all my life, influenced by rock/heavy metal. What i got from you is to not skip on the teacher even with all the resources online. Also i find the progress you shared more relatable and what i would expect to achive which from my point of view is great. I think after a year i would be happy to play like you. I will check out your year 2 progress video next. This is really great what you doing.
No worries. Personally, I think a teacher is invaluable. You are correct in that there are lots of online resources. But only someone with experience, listening and watching you play, will tell you the things that will make your playing better. That advice can range from simply technique modifications, just musicality, or merely a better way to practice a given section. I'm not suggesting that you wouldn't find this out through online resources and trial and error. But having a teacher hear the problem and give you the answer is absolutely worth the money in my opinion.
Thanks for sharing this video. I am also an adult piano student and I feel our learning rates are comparable; maybe you’re a bit faster than I am. I practice about the same amount of time as you said. What I picked up from your video is that you seem like a combination of diligent, deliberate, and patient. If that’s your formula, it works extremely well for you. You showed a ton of recordings in this compilation, and every one of them was relatively good (all things considered) with little to no mistakes. Compared to me, I tend to be impatient and rush to the finish line, and I don’t really buff out the pieces I learn as well as I could. Your Clementi at the end, while still somewhat raw, was just still very clearly coordinated and well executed. You didn’t try to overdo something you couldn’t do, and you kept a steady pace through it. That’s hugely commendable and a mark of a really great student. I’d love to continue to see progress updates, and I’d love to hear more about your struggles. What’s difficult? What’s frustrating? Where do you begin with a new piece? And of course, hearty congratulations!
Thanks for your kind comments. What’s important to remember, and may make my progress appear better than it really is, is that the pieces I upload are the times I’ve played the piece with no mistakes. This often can take a considerable number of attempts. I certainly cannot play them like this all the time, especially the pieces I’m working on at the time. Though I can often go back and bring back the older pieces and play them better. This has been something I’ve been aware of for sometime and have been meaning to change about the way I present what I can play because part of the point of the channel was to what learning is really like, rather than what it’s like when all the stars align. Moving forward I’ll probably share more thoughts, struggles etc. When I started I wasn’t sure if this was something I was going to stick at so didn’t really want to put a face to it. However, as I’ve made it to a year, and have no intention of stopping, I plan to make the channel more personal.
This is a really cool video. i really liked it. very realistic and very brutaly honest with yourself. it is a good guideline for people to expect how a dedicated person will progress.
Thank you. I hope to post more videos where I show the development of the pieces I am working on and the struggles and challenges I face as I learn them. Videos like this can make it look easy. It's definitely not.
@@DanielLearnsPiano No I know it isn't easy and it's good that you look that your pieces without a mistakes. The one is the practise, the other is the Performance of a piece and you did both really good.👍💛☀️
I just picked up a very nice keyboard for dirt cheap and now want to learn. I just need to figure out where to start and need to set a plan. I really enjoyed your video. You have inspired me and I thank you very much.
Ultimately the best option is to find a teacher and have them guide you, but failing that starting with one of the adult piano method books is a good option as they will walk you through the process.
Hey, I'm in your pace. Started 2020 Jan and also had that Clementi sonatina with my teacher. That was hard, still have errors and it started to get boring so I left it. I think it's a bit hard for our level. Wanna upgrade my fp30 soon too, but looking to upper level portable pianos or stage one, did you tried any?
That’s great to hear we started at the same time and are working on the same piece. It is very hard, but I understand why my teacher suggested it. One of my big problems is moving around the keyboard and the Sonatina has a lot of that. To be honest, I didn’t try any pianos even the one I choose. I just watched countless RUclips reviews. Obviously the reviewers are also selling the piano so they rarely give a bad review, but for this particular model everyone was very enthusiastic so I just took the plunge. I don’t regret it, it’s really nice.
@@DanielLearnsPiano here's my last accomplishment, but I still found sonatina harder ruclips.net/video/JPnTaPoXw4w/видео.html I found drilling large hops into muscle memory helpful, but still struggling with it too.
Honestly, get a cheap second hand piano. Lots of people have them as furniture and you can get one for maybe a couple of hundred dollars or so. It’s worth having real key action that is hard to duplicate on all but the most expensive digital pianos.
I started playing two weeks ago with basically zero knowledge of music (the reason why I wanted to learn piano, other than rote learning a few piano and guitar tracks, I know nothing and really regret that hole in my knowledge). I sit at my computer for hours every day so I've put the piano right in the way so I have to sit at that too. I've told myself to just get some practice in every day (which I have) and even though I know I can do 10 mins practice, I'm there doing it and usually get a few 30 minute sessions in over an evening. I doubt I'll make the kind of progress you have seen (partially due to my zero musical knowledge!) but I might invest in a few lessons at some point in the future to whip it up a bit and get some guided support, so thank you for that tip. I had always assumed that lessons would have to be weekly and quickly mount up to exorbitant costs, but knowing that I can take a few at a time is helpful to know. I'm going to keep going and keep my piano in front of me. Hopefully by next summer I'll actually have some skill. I'm aiming to be able to play a few reasonably complex pieces from sight and memory by the time I see my sister at Christmas next year. They have a piano and we usually fly over there for Christmas. My brother in law is a improv whizz and would love to be able to understand what and how he's doing it a bit better with some musical skill knowledge under my belt!
I appreciate the serial videos so much. I played as a kid, and now I’m back starting again at 50 years old. I wondered a great deal before I bought a (mid range) digital piano if I was just wasting my time at my age. Thank you very much for this.
My teacher usually has me working on 3 pieces. Ideally, one will be just polishing, another playable but rough, and the last I’ll be still memorising and playing slowly.
I am in the exact same situation as you: adult, business to run, regular job, family, rock/metal guitar background, and I decided to buy a digital piano to reconnect with music, learn a new skill, stress relief... The piano should arrive this week :). Of course, you've got yourself a new subscriber. Congrats on your progress!!
Cool. Best of luck with it all. Though I'm not sure learning to play the piano is that good for stress relief! Quite the opposite sometimes. Are you planning to get a teacher? That would be my number one piece of advice.
@@DanielLearnsPiano I think I will do just as you did, first few weeks self taught then teacher... also, I would need my wife's permission to get a teacher, you know how it is
I start self-learning piano too, since Feb 2021. My first piano is kawai ca15 (model 2013, used). Your videos really impressed. Hope you enjoy more and more in piano. Wish me luck :D
@@sarahahmed9558 I'm happy to have a conversation with you, but please stop spamming the comments of other users with made-up allegations. The idea that a pianist with 3 years experience would take a whole year to fake uploads of progress is simply ludicrous. What would be the point?
@@sarahahmed9558 If you are seriously suggesting that you have over 2000 hours of piano practice and you cannot play as well I did in my Day 10 clip, I can only assume this is a wind-up.
Hi, thank you for such an honest video.... CONGRATS on your progress, this is no competition, it is for you so the rest does not matter. I am an adult piano student, who started on Apr/23/2020... No music experience before, not instrument played before, not knowing how to even read notes. I stated with Pianote due to a RUclips video on how to read notes...and in Late in May I decided to start with a teacher. Same as you, I just do it for fun to release the stress and since I can't visit my family as they are on "the other side of the ocean", I found it as a way to release stress and entertain myself. Going slowly, however, this is a lot of fun, learning Bach pieces now...and for the 1 year anniversary I plan to get an acoustic piano At the end, as you said, this to learn a new skill, have fun, a bit of "me time" and no stress... Really, thank you for posting your video, I truly enjoyed it!!!
Thank you. You are exactly right. We are not competing with anyone. An acoustic sounds like a wonderful reward. I'm looking forward to the day I will get one. Thanks for watching!
Thank you very much! This is a great kick start for me.. I'm starting to study music at university, being 30 and having graduated from Psychology. A piano teacher told me it was a pity that I started now, that it is too late, and that it is very difficult that I learn something now that I'm "old" for the piano (I'm 30). I have been fighting this thought for a long time, and I found you did a great progress. Congratulations and keep on inspiring!
It would obviously have been great to start younger, but that option is not available to us. Next best time to start is now! I can’t believe your piano teacher said it’s too late to learn. Maybe your chances of becoming a concert pianist are greatly reduced, but there is nothing stopping adult learners becoming very good. Studying music at university sounds really interesting. I’m starting to learn music theory. Still just learning the language of music for now.
This was one of the best progress videos I’ve watched!!!!!!!!!!! At 25 I’ve decided to take on piano lessons so I’m so excited! Congratulations btw! Amazing job on your progress. Okay seriously, by day 335 you were perfecting grade 2 music! And you could read THAT music sheet perfectly. I’m actually so inspired wowowoowowow!!!!
I wouldn’t worry about it then. Sounds like you have everything in place to do well. Have you played an instrument before? I played guitar so was very familiar with reading rhythms. I don’t think I considered how much an advantage that was be initially.
One thing I would say is, try and practice everyday. Even if it’s just 5-10 minutes on the days you are pushed for time. It’s the time between practice sessions (during sleep) when our body adapts. It’s proven that short regular practice sessions beat infrequent longer sessions.
I thought my progress was pretty average, but a lot of people say it’s been pretty good. It’s just so difficult to know when you have all those other videos of virtuosos played masterpieces within a year. If you want to learn the guitar, I’d say just start. It’s more satisfying as you can play along to songs relatively quickly compared to the piano. The piano is hard!
This is a very honest progress video. I find that very encouraging for beginners as it shows what you can achieve with diligence but without spending all your leisure time on the instrument. Just consistency in a way every adult can do. There are so many videos out there claiming they got from total noob to prodigy in just 3 months etc, so many liars out there. I think videos like yours are so important to keep people motivated, not feel stupidly untalented and have realistic goals. Thanks for that! Btw I am impressed by your Clementi. I am around grade 4-5 and would have to practice it at least 1-2 weeks!
this is such a nice walk through memory lane back to childhood, when all of these piano ideas were new ones to me. thanks for making such a sincere video.
![Noob To Max With DRAGON REWORK In Blox Fruits [FULL MOVIE]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/LnBMOinoOvA/mqdefault.jpg)
*Update: Feb 14, 2022*
I've been playing the piano for two years now. Watch my 2 year piano progress here: ruclips.net/video/k4MYcxwRRRw/видео.html
*Please note:* This video was trimmed down using the RUclips Studio editor on 28 April 2021. Several whole pieces were removed and a couple of sections from the remaining pieces (Little Sonata, Bagatelle). This was only to improve the pacing of the video as some of the performances dragged on.
I have no intention of hiding anything. All of the pieces that were removed and many others that I learned during my first year are available on my channel as they have been since I was first able to play.
All the 60+ pieces I learnt during my first year were uploaded on the day I felt I could play them well enough. You can view them all in order using this playlist:
ruclips.net/p/PLd918-xKxopYHEhRG7-c8_vAAYb3BqB1H
*Original Comment:*
1968weedsmoke wanted to see my mistakes. Here they are! Watch me fall to pieces trying to record a 1-minute piece. Contains bad language and anger management issues.
ruclips.net/video/7DWVrB1Jf7A/видео.html
Yes I think it would be nice to see the moments where you failed or made mistakes. It would give people idea of your progression.
@@Chlrintruc I definitely intend to do that in future videos.
So far I'd only recorded anything when a piece is finished but I have started recording other clips as I'm learning new pieces so I can show how they develop over time.
It's going to require a lot more work but, hopefully, it will tell a better story.
I know exactly how you feel. When I was learning a Bach Prelude, I had it right off pat - until I tried to record it and then it fell to pieces. My language would have made the video unpublishable!!
@@DavideMazzetti This is what I'm talking about. I was planning to release this uncensored. However, I don't think that's necessary, as it's quite gratuitous. So a censored version will be what's on offer.
Agreed need some mistakes in there if it’s progress not performances!
You're too hard on yourself! That is an incredible amount of progress for a beginner adult in 1 year. Keep at it!! You have a natural flair for the piano and I thoroughly enjoyed hearing the beginning of your, hopefully long and very rewarding, musical journey
Thank you. I don’t think I am hard on myself. However, I may have a skewed perception of how people progress. As an adult in lockdown the only other progress I see is on RUclips and there is probably a bias to better progress as it’s only those comfortable sharing that I see.
In the past I’ve had a habit of taking up a lot of new hobbies and not continuing with them. I thought playing the piano could be the same. But now it’s been over a year I’m confident this is something I’m going to continue for years and years. And I am very excited to see where this takes me.
this is such a cool video! i’m 13 years old and started playing when i was around 7 years old and i’m currently at level 8. your progress is so inspiring especially to me since i sometimes lack motivation to practice. not to mention how amazing your rhythm and dynamics are! keep up the great work 😁
Thanks! It means a lot. It’ll be great if I could ever reach your level.
I am super impressed, especially with your hand/ finger shape etc from very early on. You show incredible finger and hand independence. I would hope yours is not " average" progress because you are light years ahead of me in terms of musicality and I practice way more than an hour a day ( I have not got the year mark yet but by your milestones I am way way behind.! ) Congratulations
Thanks. I’d watched a load of ‘top beginner mistakes’ videos and such before taking the plunge so I had an idea about hand position before I actually started.
Hand independence was definitely a struggle. But what worked for me was not to think of my hands as independent but as one thing that needs to be in different positions at different times. I still think like this.
Yes, his fingers position is very graceful.
@@DanielLearnsPiano yeah since I found this technique very fast my hands became independent I could play fur Elise both hands and now learning ode to joy it a little bit easier since I practiced a few pieces with both hanfs
You knew how tempo and rythmic subdivision is supposed to work. That's a huge head start, I was suprised by your day1 timing
Yes, this is true. I didn't come at the piano as a complete music novice. My rhythm and understanding of rhythmic notation from when I was young did obviously help a great deal at the beginning. I tried to make this clear in the video.
I found this video very inspiring; I started learning the piano in May 2019 and have realised how small steps (like playing for half an hour a day) slowly build into something more. I see how many people can get put off as the rewards are slow to come. You just have to trust in the process that you will improve and learn to play through practice. Good luck with the rest of your journey, keep going! 😃
Thanks! You really hit the nail on the head. It really is like that. Continued incremental progress leads to big results over time. That really is the only way to look at it. My goal has always been to be a proficient piano play in 5 years. I think it’s really important to think long term learning a skill like this.
This is a good progressing video not like others that made for earn viewers and it’s fake progression. Good informations here and good job !
Thank you. I’m glad you liked it.
Yes, those geniuses - especially the melodic and always fun Mozart are so.....boring :-/
Is learning rondo all turca in 2 months fake?
@@lastbornrelic3430 Someone once messaged me saying they had just started learning and could play La Campanella. I checked out their channel to discover they could play the first measure. Badly.
Can someone play Rondo alla Turca after 2 months? Maybe. Can they play it well? Unlikely.
@@DanielLearnsPiano i can play it quite well and yes 2 months well almost at 2 so if ur saying im lying now i know not to listen to any1 online thx
It helps that you already knew how to read music and played an instrument before you took up piano. Its nice to see the progression in this video.
Yes, I’m sure it helped a little. Personally, I don’t think reading music is as difficult as people make out. Given enough time anyone can figure out what to play.
Actual sight-reading, on the other hand, that is incredibly difficult. That’s definitely not a skill I had to start with, or even now.
Ahhh Im a piano teacher and LOVE your dynamics. That is a huge thing a lot of students forget about (even me when learning something new sometimes). Bravoooooo
Thank you. This is mainly what my teacher focuses on in our lessons.
I think you have progressed really well for a year. Pat yourself on the back.
Thank you. I’m pleased with my progress.
I just bought a FP-30 myself and find your video really motivating. Congratulations to your progress, I think it is impressive!
Thank you. Best of luck with your own piano journey. I hope you find it as rewarding as I do.
I’ve been wanting to teach myself piano for years. I studied music theory but have barely touched a piano. Woke up this morning and said I’m going to start today for up to 1 hour a day! Thanks for the inspiration!
Go for it! An hour a day is a reasonable amount of time to find in a day and if you are consistent with your practice you can make serious progress. I would recommend getting a teacher if that is an option. They really help guide you and can save you wasting time.
Your thoughts about your progress are very helpful. You help people think about what they want to do with piano lessons.
Thank you. I hope this helps some people.
Thank you for an honest down-to-earth account of your piano progress which i found encouraging as like yourself i am an adult playing the keyboard for the very first time largely self taught from a book and youtube input - i have been playing for approx 9 months for between 30-60 mins most days - from your account i now think a piano teacher would be worthwhile. Keep up the good work and have fun.
Thank you, I’m glad my video has been some help. I thoroughly recommend finding a good teacher.
As I am learning from sheet music, my teacher’s input is absolutely necessary. She explains all the aspects of a piece that are not written down. Things that you learn through knowing the era and the composer etc.
I imagine learning from videos online you would pick up and play some of these subtleties though you may not know what you are doing and why.
Thank you for your communication which was useful; out of interest i a thinking of upgrading my 61 key Yamaha keyboard (my first and only keyboard at present for learning) to a Roland FP30 which i believe you use ? any thoughts on this ?. Several FREE music theory sites that may warrant a look are 1)Dave Conservatoire ; 2)www.musictheoryacademy.com;
@@terrydobson5312 Hi Terry thoroughly recommend roland fp30...I am doing my grade 6...so it has got me to this point....I think for the money it's very close to a real piano with the graded hammer action keys....I want to upgrade to a roland rd2000 when funds allow...
@@davegill7614 Thanks Dave, I sure this is going to be my first upgrade; good luck with your future piano journey. Terry.
This was awesome. Here's the thing about learning the piano and why some people progress faster or not. It all depends on how you are being taught. If they are memorizing songs as they go, they will progress faster in playing. If they are working with a teacher then they will also learn to read music and learn the theory. If you are learning from books, with an occasional teacher, your progress is going to look very different. Teaching from books is a slower way to learn but you probably learned more theory as you went vs those who just memorize music. I don't think one is better than the other.
For what it's worth, I have been playing the piano for 36 years and I still have pieces that take a long time to get to performance level. Some are easier and some more challenging. it's just something we keep working on.
I absolutely love the piano. I quit for a few years. It was a conflict of interest in my marriage. I am back to sitting at the piano daily. I love practicing for 20 to 30 minutes a day and then occasionally when I feel like it. :D I don't think you have to spend hours at the piano unless you are doing piano as a career.
Thank you. Yes, I'm sure there are all sorts of reasons why people will progress at different paces. I guess the comments in this video were more directed at people that claim to practice 15-30 minutes a day, but progress 5x quicker.
If can take you a long time to get a piece to performance level after 36 years, it makes you wonder how a complete beginner can do the same with multiple advanced pieces in one year. But anyway...
I'm glad to hear that you are playing still (though I do hope that didn't affect your marriage). I'm extremely happy I have started and hope I can be playing for as long as you have been already.
I am 53, and started practicing seriously for almost a year now. It’s an encouragement to learn your story. Thank you for sharing:) My goal is to keep practicing a couple of hours every day. Battle with theory and develop myself as far as I am able to do so. Blessings to you! Keep playing:)
Thanks. You must progressing nicely with a couple of hours a day of practice. I’ve recently started catching up with the theory side of things. It’s actually more tough than I imagined. I can’t believe 8 year olds learn this stuff!
@@DanielLearnsPiano how did you learn to do both hands without messing up. For me, playing a bass guitar with 2 hands is easy for me, i dont have to look at either hand most of the time, i can't imagine how hard it is to play piano when both hands have to move and land at the same time. Bass guitar the right hand dont really move, its all left hand.
@@bigbubba4001 It’s all about repetition. Starting slowly and repeating it over and over again. I make plenty of mistakes along the way. And even when I can play something well enough to record it still may take 20 attempts to get a recording without mistakes.
I still need to look at my hands often. Particularly if there is a large movement. The trickiest parts are where both hands move a larger distance at once. But then you just try and make note of a landmark with one hand and then quickly look to the other to see where that is going.
@@DanielLearnsPiano What I do when there's a big jump in both hands, but different distances, I try to move one hand slightly before the other instead of at once. It helps! I've played piano before, but didn't learn any real songs or notes until last Fall. You could say I'm addicted to it...
You have made exceptional progress in 1 year. I noticed from the very beginning that your hand and finger positioning was excellent, as if you had been trained in the past because that does not come natural to almost everyone. You also, as you progressed, exhibited an excellent independence between the hands. It is not easy to play one hand at a different volume than that of the other hand or to play one hand with a staccato touch and the other hand with a smooth touch [legato]. Your ability to keep the beat moving without hesitation is also impressive. Your final piece, the Clementi Sonatina op. 36 #1 after 1 year is truly commendable and will improve even more with patient practice and attention to detail. Well done and a shout out to your excellent teacher as well. I have been a private piano teacher for 50 years and appreciate the amount of time you have committed to this endeavor. I will subscribe to your channel to continue watching your progress. Greetings from California.
Thank you. You are very kind.
I'm not sure I would say any of this has come naturally. If my initial hand positioning was good it was because I immersed myself with beginner piano tips videos while I was deciding whether this was something I wanted to embark on.
Some of the things you mention such as balance of volume and staccato/legato between hands was incredibly difficult for me and took a lot of incredibly slow practice. Maybe I have picked them up quicker than others, I have no way of knowing, but it certainly didn't feel like it was coming easily.
You are correct in that my teacher has helped me enormously though. She has been able to provide some great insight and tips that would have taken me ages to discover on my own (if managed to discover them at all) that have helped my playing massively.
I am quite surprised, how fast you learned to play really well. It is nice to see, how much joy people get from learning an instrument. Keep it up!
Thanks. I think to describe this as playing really well is quite a stretch but I’m happy if with the steady progress I am making. I’m definitely enjoying the process even if quite a lot of the time it can be quite frustrating.
I can really relate to this. I tried to learn piano back when I was working 60 hours a week owning a business and also raising my young children. Although I took about a year and a half of lessons I didn’t practice consistently and ended up quitting. But when I took an early retirement I finally decided it was time to fully commit to piano. It been about a year and a half now and I practice 2.5-3 hours a day. I am well past where I was when I took formal lessons and playing intermediate to late intermediate pieces. My sight reading is improving as well. It is nice to be able to learn a new skill. My goal is by the time I’m in my 60’s to be a decent pianist. Even an average person can do it wit enough consistent practice. Keep up the good work!
Congrats brother! Keep working on that Clementi Sonatina, it's a beautiful piece that I still enjoy playing after 30 years!
Thanks! Yeah, it’s got a long way to go. My teacher has not heard me play it yet so she’ll have plenty of feedback for me to work through.
Thank you for sharing, Daniel. I probably watched this progress video a couple hundred times in the past few months since I started learning to play piano. 😂 It helped me keep my expectations realistic. Seeing your progress over the course of one year enables me to look past the current struggles by giving me hope for what the skill level could be if I stick to diligent practice. Hope you are doing well. Can't wait to see more videos from you!
Thanks. I'm glad you've found this video useful.
I am 45 years old from Greece and I have just bought a digital piano and trying to find a teacher to start lessons.I have a bussiness, I have family and I have a very similar backround in music, I play electric guitar and last year I started vocal lessons for singing, so naturally your video spoke right into my mind and heart. I too, found your video very inspiring and honest and I hope you make more.For me personally the yearly progress is the most usefull-inspiring way but more frequent feedback would be welcome just to be in touch with a guy in a similar situation but a few steps ahead from me so that I have someone to look up to.I wish you the best for your family, bussiness and music! I wish you health, happiness and endless apettite for creativity!
Great, I'm glad the video spoke to you. I'm going to continue with my regular update videos, as well as yearly updates (as these have way better reach). I hope you find and teacher soon and wish you all the best for your musical journey.
It’s quite inspiring that you are starting at 45. I am also 43 and thinking of learning piano. My daughter is 6 and is playing since 5.
@TriloLuciffer If it’s something that interests you, you should go for it. I was 42 when I started an 47 now. The longer I play the more I have to adjust my expectations. At this age I’m never going to be a virtuoso. But I’m already able to play some decent sounding pieces. And I imagine in another 5 years I should be able to play some quite complex ones, as well as being able to pick up the sort of pieces I can play now much quicker. Also just the ability to read music and understand the theory is opening me up to writing my own music, or arrangements of existing music. Regardless of your age, the best time to start is now. Best of luck!
When I was a beginner I also started with those ABRSM book pieces and these songs bring back so many memories!
This is really great. I practice up to an hour a day and it takes me 6-8 weeks to generally learn a grade 1 piece. I'm 51 and started 12 months ago. I'm also learning all major and minor scales (parallel and contrary motion). So my practice on actual songs each day is only 15-30 mins. My piano teacher has PHD so it's a bit awkward because I'm pretty average lol
Thanks. That sounds about right really. The ABRSM grade 1 pieces vary quite wildly in difficulty I think. Theme took me at least 8 weeks, whereas The Egyptian Level was much quicker. Minuet in C was also a challenge.
I spend about 15 minutes on sight-reading practice and scales before I get into my pieces. I'm usually working on 3 at once. I'll spend about 25 minutes on the newest piece, 15 on getting the next up to tempo, and 5 polishing the most complete piece.
My piano teacher has so many letters after her name you could write a sentence. She was a former concert pianist, and now works for an exam board, and mainly teaches teachers rather than beginners like me. So I wouldn't feel awkward, just be grateful you have a great teacher. I really think it makes a difference.
Can you memorize pieces? I have a hard time memorizing. I am an old student so that may be part of it for me.
Yes, I mémorise all the pieces I play fairly early when learning them. I don’t do this consciously. It just happens due to the number of times I need to repeat sections of a piece before being able to play it.
I’d prefer it if could read the score quick enough to use that as reference while I was playing. Because if I forget what’s next it can take a while to recover.
I've been playing for about 16 months and I persevere and I can't play any thing like this on day 53 after all this time. I don't have confidence but determined to keep going.
@@DanielLearnsPiano I memorize all my music too. I usually have all the notes memorized before I can play it all in one go without mistakes - that makes it nice since I can practice without needing the sheets! And there's nothing better than sitting down at a piano and just playing something straight. No flip flip flip! I also look at my hands quite a lot... At least one hand if both are playing.
What an excellent record of progress. My mom was an excellent sight reader on the piano, I, on the other hand became a self taught piano player capable of playing by ear (with plenty of bad habits for sure), but I find it very satisfying, and now play with local jazz groups.
Thank you. Playing by ear is a skill I’d definitely like to have.
Quite refreshing to here truthful progress on your piano journey, so many you tubers with fantastic progress that I find it hard to believe!
Thank you. I am sceptical some of the claims made on RUclips. If someone says they have practised 3+ hours a day for a year, then fair play to them. They have worked hard for their progress. But when others claim they only practice 30 minutes a day, from an absolute beginner, and progress at the same pace... You have to ask yourself "is this for real?"
If I'm honest, even my progress appears better than it is as it's only a snapshot of the times I play through the pieces without mistakes, which is less often than I would like.
I want to say thank you, thank you, and a huge thank you for this video. I have been looking to see if I could find a progress video that seemed "realistic" . I have been spending so much of my time just bogged down trying to get my fingers to stay down on the keys like I see so many on the videos that I have watched. I kept thinking to myself how do they do that. I have made progress keeping my fingers closer to the keys after watch Jazer Lee's 5 finger exercise video where you hold your fingers in a 5 finger scale position and press all the keys all the way down then playing each finger separately 4 beats up and down the scale. It did help but to move to other parts of the keyboard my fingers still become airborne at times. I am so happy to see that your fingers were not resting all the time on the keys. So maybe this just takes patience and time. Not just a quick thing. You have uplifted my spirits with your video. Thank you again!
Most 'content' about learning the piano can be filed under unnecessary. These people just make videos about anything to please the algorithm. While it may be best to hold your fingers like that (which is something my teacher says) it's probably not worth your effort working on this to begin with, it probably comes naturally over time anyway.
There are so many things that people will comment about my playing that when I refer to my teacher about them she usually just says something like 'well, yes, but it's not a big deal at the moment and there are more important things to be concerned with'.
I like rewarding myself for my achievements as well. Every time I made the Deans list in college I used to splurge and buy gifts for my loved ones as their happiness was my biggest reward and they gave me the love and support needed for my successes.
I enjoyed your sincerity, clarity, and groundedness. You should be proud of the video alone, not to mention the wonderful progress you've made. I'm 45 and started learning the piano about 10 months ago. I've had the luxury of practicing about 2 hours a day on average and I feel that your conclusion that you made decent progress with 1 hour of practice a day to be very reasonable. Thanks again!
Good for you and keep at it! I’m much older and started in April 2020 and thoroughly enjoying the challenge. Thanks for sharing your video.
Thank you. That’s great to hear. It is really challenging. But in a good way. It’s so rewarding when it goes well.
You've inspired me! I bought a digital piano last week. I used to play the guitar but gave it up while caring for my son who has special needs. Now that he's a teenager and doesn't need so much of my attention I attempted to return to the guitar but found that I've lost the ability to play it. So I decided to learn the piano. I'm looking forward to getting into it and I'm pleased to hear your story about your progress. It's very encouraging. I wish you all the best.
That’s great to hear. It’s a long journey so celebrate the small wins along the way.
Nearly all beginners of piano have one thing own common. They allow their wrists to go under the level of the keyboard. High wrists allow playing on the pads as it should be.
Learning to play the piano is one of my 2022 goals. I just came across your video. This was so encouraging! THANKS SO MUCH for doing this!!!
Excellent. The best time to start is now!
This is incredible and I'm feeling really inspired... I would have never thought this was "regular" or "normal" progress because this is what I aiming for! Congratulations on your journey and thank you for sharing, I hope I will become this good in a year as well 🌞🌞
Thank you. Stay consistent with your practice and there is no reason why you shouldn’t.
I've got a long way to go to catch up to you, picked up my first electric piano 3 weeks ago, I had quit playing 17 year ago while in middleschool. I have realized I forgot literally everything except note timing, middle C, and a few chords can't even remember the Bass clef and I played concert trombone lol. If I can make anywhere near the progress in a year that you have I will call myself successful. I need to make time every day as two set violin says and your video proves it. Good work man, keep it up.
Thank you. Great to hear that you are getting back into playing.
It's probably going to sound odd from someone that posts videos of my progress for others to watch, but definitely try not to compare yourself to others as you progress. It's not good for your head. Just focus on being better than you were the day/week/month before and all will be good.
Great Progress Mate ! You're on your way !
Thanks. Still a long way to go.
I must say, after going through this video a few times, you appear to have a musical touch to your soul. You're good with dynamics and piece sound very well put-together
Thank you. Most of the credit should go to my teacher. She helps elevate the pieces from something quite ordinary (which is what they all sound like when I first learn anything).
One video where is quite noticeable is when I learnt Mazurka.
ruclips.net/video/nmH_UHX0hNs/видео.html
On your point about zero-to-hero progress videos, there was a great thing I read recently which nicely illustrates what I think goes on behind the scenes with those - “progressing without improving”.
I’m going to do a video myself at some point giving my thoughts on it, but most of those types of videos involve ploughing all efforts into force-learning advanced pieces by rote alone, not doing any scales or sight-reading, and having no musical understanding of what’s going on. Impressive for a video, but that’s about it. Advanced pieces are seductive, for sure - I gave a few a go myself early on before coming to my senses - but playing them too early means one is learning to play ‘that piece’, rather than ‘the piano’ itself.
Keep doing what you’re doing man; proper, gradual learning of an instrument. It will pay dividends down the line (for us both I hope!) and it’s awesome to keep up to date with. You were one of the accounts I followed that got me started playing the piano as an adult! All the best
You're absolutely right. That definitely does happen and when I first started my piano teacher told me of someone she had taught who had done just that with a Rachmaninoff piece that he had learnt. When she asked him to show her his scales, he was unable to because he hadn't learnt anything else.
Obviously, RUclips as a medium lends itself to this style of learning if all you want to do it impress people, as you can put together a video of selective clips rather than whole pieces and people will lap it up. That was definitely something I wanted to avoid when I started this channel which is why I always post a whole piece and even this video contains whole pieces (though I have since edited via the YT editor to remove some of the repeats just to bring the overall length down). And even that makes me sound better than I actually am, because I will reshoot a piece until I get it how I want to which usually take many takes.
But on the other hand, there are videos out there that are frankly ludicrous. One I saw recently had someone playing Bach, Prelude in C with comically incorrect posture after a week, and finished 1 year of at least an hour a day practice (which I guess could mean 40 hours a day) with Fantaisie Impromptu and Liebestraum No. 3.
If progress like that is real, and even is just the 30 second clips they post in a video, it's impressive. But I don't think it helps anyone. I certainly don't think it's inspiring like many others claim. To me, it's more discouraging than anything else. Even my progress, which is average at best, is greeted with comments like "Your day 10 is my day 222" which feels like even I am discouraging some people.
I started this channel as a simple log of what I could play. It's become much bigger than I imagined. I'm astonished how many people have viewed this particular video. If it's inspired some people, I'm happy. If it's discouraged others, I'm sorry.
I think more channels like mine, yours and all the other learners that post regularly are ultimately a good thing though when viewed collectively. They show a pretty broad range of how learning the piano can go and can provide realistic expectations to people thinking about starting the piano.
Wow, this turned out pretty long. I'll keep an eye out for your video discussing all this.
Hello,
exellente record of progress Im 53 old im starting alone in 1 january 2020 in may i take a teacher one hour for week frankly the progression was much more straightforward because when you block for example on the eighth notes and now on the ternary he has the keys to unlock you. I started for ten months on a Yamaha p125 digital piano now I have a Yamaha B1 acoustic
Thank you! How are you enjoying playing the piano? I contemplated getting an acoustic but I still have young children and often need to practice when others need quiet so it wasn’t an option. One day though.
At last: a real piano progress video. This time I can believe the progress.
And it's really nice to hear the different pieces. I played many of these songs in the past.
And I like your descriptions below the pieces. Hopefully you will have a lot of fun with your piano in the future.
Musical greetings, Nicoline
Thank you, Nicoline! There are plenty of other progress videos out there that have similar progress (or usually slightly better) than mine. It was these that inspired me to start learning.
Well, most of the progress videos I come across go from beginner to pro in one year. And I can't believe that. And I think it's not a good motivation for someone who truly starts practising. But I'm glad to see you got motivated by watching the right videos!
@@nicolinevangoorpianomusic5912 A healthy dose of scepticism is required when watching most things on RUclips.
😁👍
It's not real though. The finger curves. He watched his many videos before hand for how many hours and how days. And the metronome he was a musician in a band so already knows timing and note lengths and music moods. He ain't a novice.
I wanna begin with giving you a big warm hug and thanking you for doing this. I found ur channel today and it's changed my life.
You have given me hope and encouragement and I hope to benefit immensely from all your videos and journey.
Amd I pray that all the views totally makes it worth your while.
You Rock
Thank you for your kind message. I'm glad my videos have had a positive impact. It's not really worth my while making these videos, but I enjoy doing it so I will continue until that changes.
@@DanielLearnsPiano
🤗
Having lessons is most important to learn to play
You did well this past year .thank you for sharing keep playing and learning
Thank you. I agree about the lessons. I think it would have been difficult to progress without an expert guiding me.
I love this, Daniel! Very inspirational. Similar to you, guitar was and remains my primary musical focus. That being said, I've really just begun studying piano. This morning, I pulled the plug on a nice digital piano and should have it in about a week. I'm 59 and absolutely believe that, barring physical limitations, age is used by many as a self-imposed limitation to learning something new. With piano/keyboard, music theory, which I've learned at arm's length over the years, suddenly makes perfect sense on the piano keys layout. Your journey is like the "working man's" guide to piano....authentic and real. I certainly relate. Keep up the great work and thanks for the inspiration. You have a new fan in Northern VA (USA). Cheers!
I am in my 50s and doing my grade 6...hopefully grade 8 before I snuff it :-)
Brilliant! How long have you been playing to get to Grade 6?
@@DanielLearnsPiano hi matey I took grade 5 after 2 years of lessons..and passed at christmas I have learnt 2 of my grade 6 pieces already....I find the biggest help of all is learning all the major..melodic and harmonic scales...as so many pieces contain these key ingredients I am working hard on my theory that also helps...I practice anywhere between half an hour to 3 hours a day...Short sharp bursts...I did play a little bit when I was young but had forgotten pretty much everything...so it was all new again...the best piece of advice i can give you it's a long journey with setbacks...but keep plodding on and the gains come...I'm hoping to get to grade 8 standard in 5 years...will give it my best
Great advice. I’m working my way through my scales. I know all white key major scales and 4 harmonic minor. Sight-reading is my Achilles heal. I just take too long to parse the notes. It’s slowly improving though and I’m gradually working through my Grade 2 book.
Grade 8 is five would be a great achievement. I wish you all the best!
@@DanielLearnsPiano my best advice for sight reading is take a couple of minutes to look through it....try and sing it in your head look at all the dynamics and key...all the sharps and flats and fingering
Sounds good. ABRSM exams only give you 30 seconds though😳
Thanks for the vid! Your guitar comment at the end is super relatable to me and one of the reasons i’m starting piano lessons soon. I’ve been playing guitar for 20 years and hit a wall a long long time ago. i alwayssss fall back on something more fun (metal songs i already know) and it’s hard to expand and learn something new, going so slow it gets boring when i could just bang out something exciting that sounds good. i’ve wanted to play the piano forever and i figured, hey i’m 36, not getting any younger! i appreciate you emphasizing how average your growth is. i never know what to believe or expect on peoples progression videos. Thank you!
Cool. Best time to start is now. When it comes to videos like this I would actually disbelieve most of them. Even mine. Just forget about them and just concentrate on being better every day. It’s all about the hours you put in at the end of the day.
Thanks for the realism! You're doing great though. I bought a digital piano that's arriving today and I'm so excited. I used to play by ear for fun when I was a kid 15+ years ago (I'm sure I wasn't good), but I want to do it the "right" way and learn to read sheet music and play some classical too. Should be interesting!
P.s. appreciate the doggo cameo.
No worries and thanks! I'm sure your past experience will help, even if just a little. Try and get a teacher if you can. They make the process much easier in my opinion and will guide you along your journey so you don't end up wasting time.
Our other dog made a cameo in this video:
ruclips.net/video/tOvVsXn_suY/видео.html
How did you decide which digital piano to buy? I'm looking to get one at the moment.
I have just started learning at the age of 46. I’ve always wanted to be able to play and getting the electric keyboard for my son finally pushed me into having lessons as well. I doubt I’ll get to your level but I’m enjoying it so far.
You can do it.
you doing great. reaching a grade 1/2 in a year is a great result. few years more and you will be shocked about your results.
Thank you. That's my hope. Starting piano was never about rapid improvement. My goal has always been to be a competent player in 5-10 years. I will be great if I can keep the motivation up to keep posting to this channel and document the whole thing.
I like the consistent updates vs just day one to one year. I think your progress is amazing. I am getting my digital piano tomorrow. I am old and have never played.
The day 335 and 363 pieces are etched into the back of my mind from my piano lessons as a kid because of how long I spent trying to learn them. I definitely wasn’t playing those in my first year of piano.
Ha! Yeah, I spent a good deal of time on both of those pieces as well. Both were quite a stretch from the pieces I’d played previously. How much were you practicing as a child? I didn’t think it was common for children in their first year to be doing 30-60 minutes a day.
Fair enough. I started learning around two years ago, but I never learned how to read or play by sheet music, or learn the scales other than C major lol. I learned by copying from the piano videos I enjoyed. The best piece I can play is the Schindlers list theme which is like a grade 6+ piece. This is without learning sheet music or scales. The advantage to not learning zheet music is that you can improve faster, but its more difficult to learn harder pieces because I have to pause and play videos at 0.25 speed to see the notes theyre playing. If anyone is starting out dont be afraid to do what I did but if you want to take it seriously go and learn sheet music, but the effort/reward will be a lot slower.
Why do you think it’s slower learning by sheet music? Sure, if you spend long enough practicing one piece you can probably play a lot of things. Maybe it’s not as impressive learning a load of short, simpler pieces that incrementally get more advanced, rather than one show piece, but in the end I think I’ll be better for it.
@@DanielLearnsPiano in my opinion it's slower (to begin with) learning sheet music, because it takes so long to develop a familiarity with reading sheet music accurately and quickly. Reading sheet music is a separate skill, for example if I were a complete beginner not only would I have to learn the dexterity to play the song, but I would also have to decipher the notes, timing etc. from the sheet music. You are certainly correct though, learning sheet music was the best decision for you because it instils useful technical skills with your piano that will benefit you throughout your whole career. When i was starting out I wanted to learn songs I enjoyed rather than learning grade one songs I didn't. I'm ultimately hindered by my decision as i would go from being able to play grade 6 pieces from watching people play the notes to not even grade one piano and the more difficult the pieces I learn the harder it is to learn from watching videos. Perhaps a video idea would be to see how fast you could learn for e.g passacaglia by only watching a video! :) Regardless though I look forward to seeing you progress more and I wish you all the best in your piano journey.
Maybe at the very beginning, it's slower to read the sheet music. But it's important to make the distinction between sight-reading and just reading.
Sight-reading (playing a piece upon the first read of the music) is extremely challenging and I struggle to play grade 2 exam questions at about 30bpm.
But just reading isn't that difficult. And out of the time it takes me to learn a piece, the proportion of time spent reading the sheet is negligible.
I know what you mean though, beginner pieces are dull. But they serve an important purpose that is usually to allow you to focus on one new skill within a piece that you can be finished within 2-3 weeks. This allows you to build up your skills in an incremental way, completing pieces quickly which builds confidence.
I've done it the other way as well. I learned to play the guitar when I was a teenager. I just learnt the songs I liked and over a few years, I was pretty good at playing them. But the problem was I had completely neglected whole areas of playing the guitar. So if I wanted to play other music I was unable to.
Before I took up the piano I actually tried going back to the guitar and starting that from the beginning again. But I just found it too frustrating doing all the beginner stuff I had missed previously when I could just fall back on the songs I knew and liked already.
Because of that, I wanted to make sure I learned the piano properly with a teacher that would make sure I was well-rounded from the beginning.
_Perhaps a video idea would be to see how fast you could learn for e.g passacaglia by only watching a video! :)_
The thought of trying this actually fills me with horror. It sounds like such a time-consuming process. I will make a note of it though as you may be right, it could make an interesting video.
Thanks for sharing! We both started playing piano around the same time and posted the 1 year progress video lately. After watching the longer version of Musette you played in the video beautifully, I wanna try that too! Please keep on posting.
Thank you. You’re very kind. Something tells me you’re going to go a lot further than I am.
I have been thinking about learning piano and I found watching you, very encouraging. This is the first video of yours I've watched. I play guitar, well sorta. I'm not very good at it. I had a very good teacher, but I felt sometimes he was impatient with me because I wasn't progressing that well, I was impatient and discouraged with myself as well. Life got in the way the last several month and even though I practice my guitar I'm still not good. Anyway, I've been thinking about get a keyboard and trying to see if I can do better with it. If in a year I can play as well as you, I will be very happy.
Try your best to practice consistently, every day, even if it’s just 10 minutes. Progress will follow.
Congratulations on your progress! When I started playing, it was a rough start. You should keep on posting on progress vids.
Thank you! I have no intention of stopping the progress videos. When I started I was unsure if I would either keep up the piano or keep up the videos so I didn’t really want to put my face to it. Now that I’m a year in a show no signs of stopping I’m happy to make the videos a little more personal and talk about my progress more. It’s also really fun to look back on every now and then.
Im 23 and currently learning piano again. Ive been trying to be consistence for almost 11 months! Yay! Whenever Im lack motivation I come to your video. So Thank you for this ❤❤❤
That's really nice to hear. I wish you all the best.
This is amazing! You seem to have a good grasp on musicality and rhythm. I can remember these early pieces from Grade 1 and 3 😁 I've been learning for two years now and will be sitting for Grade 5 exam in a month. Do you practice scales? I'd highly recommend them, keep up the great job
Thank you. Grade 5 is two years is impressive. I hope you do well. I do practice scales each day before I get into my repertoire.
I’m 65 and have been learning Piano for 10years now .I’ve never had any lessons and just play to try and improve my memory as I get older as I had read your brain can improve grow new pathways from repetitive things you do. Really I thought I would be good on piano but have recorded my playing and it is just awful. No musicality and plenty of mistakes. Cannot play when someone walks in the room. Practice I hour a day etc...So listening to you talk so honestly about your progress has given me new hope and that I just need to enjoy the practice more and maybe get a few lessons
Than you so much you are doing amazingly well
Regards Eamonn
Thank you. That's one of the reasons I took up piano. I wanted a way to keep my brain active as I advance in years. You must remember that videos like this are selective with the clips that are shown. On any given day my playing sounds like you have described.
Regarding musicality though, that's one thing where I would highly recommend getting a teacher. I don't think we should just expect ourselves to have that in us. It's something we learn like any other aspect of playing the piano, so if we don't have someone telling us how to improve, how will it?
I had a lesson this morning, my teacher told me how I can make my latest piece much better by explaining the type of phrasing I should be going for. I was reading it very literally from the score, where she comes at it from experience. And a lot of this stuff is not written in the scores anyway.
Anyway, we're always our worst critic, I'm sure after 10 years you are doing better than you think.
First of all, I loved your video. Finally something realistic, and not one of those Fantasie Impromptus in a year videos .. I myself have been playing for 8 months now, I have lessons once a week and like you, I practice about an hour a day (due to lack of time). I did get a little bit ahead of you I think, but I also struggle with a lot of things that maybe someone would find easy. We all learn differently. I'm looking forward to more of your videos! Keep up the good work 😊 Greetings from Croatia!
Thank you. That's great to hear you are doing so well. We certainly do all learn differently, and I am not trying to say this is the maximum anyone could achieve with an hour a day practice. This is just an example.
To be honest, it's only really from October time it has been an hour a day on a more consistent basis. Before that, it was probably worked out more like 40 minutes a day.
It's only since I've been using the forScore app that I have an accurate idea of how much I practised as that logs the time each score is open on the screen for. Now, I make a point of always having that open if I am practising. It also has the benefit of keeping my piano tidier.
Hi! Do you have a "live" teacher or online? I've moved to Croatia and just got a piano and started thinking about finding a teacher🙈
@@DreamingGirlLola Hi. I have a live teacher, luckily she lives in my neighborhood. I know some piano teachers, I could ask them if they would do online classes for you :)
Thank you for sharing! We got a digital piano for the family for Christmas and I started with the Piano Adventures Adult book last week.
That's great! You are embarking on a truly fulfilling journey. It's not without its frustrations I must add. Don't worry if it feels difficult. It is. And as far as I can tell, that doesn't change. Someone recently told me a quote that's used in running that seems to apply. "It never gets easier, you just get faster."
if I get to the end of this video and see him play "The art of fugue" im gonna scream. Great progress!
Haha. Thanks. Just regular progress here.
My Mom taught piano for many years. We always had a seemingly endless procession of students in our house. So, I decided to play the trumpet. Based on my past observations I think you are progressing quite well. Now that I'm retired I plan on taking up the piano. Thanks for the inspiration.
Thank you for the kind comments.
Well done, keep it up!! I started from nothing when I was 40 and played/learned for 10 years. As you say it's all about your other commitments so you can only do what you can do. My commitments ebbed and flowed which reflected my progress (one lesson most weeks) and I never took and exam. I got to a stage when I could play Clair de Lune and Rachmaninoffs C# Minor prelude albeit badly.
Thanks! I’m so excited by the idea of having played for that length of time. Right now it does feel like everything is practice. I can’t really sit down at the piano and play something just for the enjoyment. But that must change after a couple of years when you have good pieces, that are not on the bleeding edge of your ability, in your repertoire.
@@DanielLearnsPiano Even after 10 years it can still feel like everything is practice 😉
@@brubeck67 Yeah, I get that. And it's required if you want to keep progressing. But even now, there are easier pieces that I can play comfortably. I just imagine that after 10 years the easier pieces that can be played comfortably sound a lot better.
You are an inspiration - keep playing - mistakes or no, you sound like you are having a good time.!
Thanks. It’s been several years since this video. I’m still playing.
nice and congratulations to your progress, this is one the best beginner video on youtube, I like how you frame it and edit it too
Thank you. I’m glad you liked it.
Sir.... THANK YOU! I am 20 almost 21 and I've been wanting to learn piano since I was little but never had the funds for lesson. But now I have a keyboard and am motivated to learn. I had the same issue with youtube videos and lack of details. I appreciate your updates
Thank you. You can do it.
What a fantastic video!! And so professional. You’re progress is amazing and i’m looking forward to seeing you progress over the next year. We are not too far apart when it comes to when we started so it’s nice to have your frequent videos for sure.
I too have no interest in taking exams!! And Love your dog haha!
Haha, thanks. Over the top is probably a better description.
I’m slightly conflicted on exams. On the one hand it would be nice to have official recognition of what I have a achieved. But on the other, I have absolutely no need for it. I’m only playing for fun and what really matters is what I can play rather than what a certificate might say I can play. I may try and take one at some point for the experience, it must be incredibly nerve racking. It’s good to feel uncomfortable now and again.
@@DanielLearnsPiano can you imagine the young examiners face when I walked in...ha ha she had had kids all day between 7 and 16...then in walks a 50 year old...dont think she was expecting that...I was as nervous as hell I have to be honest...kids have no fear...but she was lovely I have to be honest and they want you to do well...its good to challenge yourself...and I do think the grades push you on to new levels and make you practice harder.. otherwise it's easy to skip practicing....
You may be persuading me to give it a try. Though I kinda like the idea of doing a grade below where I might be for the comfort level. I get nervous performing to my teacher. Over Skype!
@@DanielLearnsPiano go for it start at grade 1 it will push you forward. I have a busy life with 2 young kids..work..when the kids are in bed I am either drumming in the garage or on the piano...what else would I be doing...watching the rubbish telly box....who knows where you could be in ten years....grade 8 pianist...wouldn't that be some achievement!!!.....I can do so can you!
Sounds very much like my life. Maybe I’m convinced.
Good job mate - I'm about to follow in your footsteps. Just picked up a piano for Christmas on a whim and used to play a bit of guitar. Thanks and see you again in a year... all the best.
Go for it!
Nice work, Guessing you could read sheet music from the start?
I could half read music. I discuss this in a recent video. ruclips.net/video/pqemwygOS7U/видео.html
@UCpGsGUYM-dKoBoTIh_5yzcQ Reading music like what? If you think I’m reading the music while I’m playing I’m not. Never have I suggested that. Being able to decipher the pitch of a simple melody like that is not beyond anyone.
And it does not take weeks to relate notes to the keys. The half of music I didn’t know was pitch. I had never read any pitch before owning the piano. For goodness sake, there are 7 white keys to learn. It’s not rocket science. How many different pitches are in that first melody? Not many.
It’s as if you think I turned the camera on, sat at the piano, opened some music I’d never seen before and started playing. Of course that’s not what happened. I’d probably been playing that piece for several days.
@@DanielLearnsPiano
sorry, I was just asking, this was the first video I had seen on your channel....
I missed @UCpGsGUYM-dKoBoTIh_5yzcQ comment, but I think they must have deleted the comment, deleted their hole channel :/
I have played other instruments, but never learnt to read sheet, not fast enought to play along to.
but your right it does not take long to 'remember' a set of notes. it's all just hand movements.
keep going, you are getting there nicely :)
@@FiddlingwithmyWhistle Don’t worry. The comment was not directed at you. Just someone claiming to be an experienced piano player or maybe even a teacher yet claiming it’s impossible to relate the notes to the keys for WEEKS! And how I must be lying about everything.
But you are exactly right. I can’t read the music while playing even if I know how to play the piece. It just becomes gibberish at that point.
I do daily sight reading exercises but I really struggle once both hands are playing at the same time. It’s a challenge finding enough material to practice at the level I need. Which is one hand playing crotchets and quavers and the other semibreves and minims. That’s about my limit in actual sight reading.
@@DanielLearnsPiano 'claiming' to be...
i have had and known a few teachers, and most 'real' good teachers know that some people pick it up quicker and easier than others.
and the ones I know, i'm certain that not one of them, would make such a statement, using the word, impossible.
I watched a four year old, who had never seen or played a piano. I got him to close his eyes and I played a note, and he had to find it on the keyboard. He worked it out every time, and after about half an hour. he would only have to press 1 or 2 keys to find it.
I could not do that when I was four, but I bet he is not the only person of his age that can do it...
every thing is possible :)
Exactly what I wanted to see. An honest documenting of an adult learning piano. Subscribed. Keep it up, mate!
Glad you liked it. I’ve got new pieces uploaded pretty regularly.
Keep going it is not easy, and takes approximately 6 years to get to a standard that you want to achieve, the right thing you did was to go to a piano teacher, I had a brilliant one and over 6 years managed to achieve grade 7and pass it. Started at 71 am now 78 no more lessons because of the virus, so still practicing what I was taught, a piano teacher is a must, I am impressed with your progress, wish I had recorded my playing, but don't know how.
Thanks. Your story sounds fascinating and goes to show you are never told old to learn. If I can achieve a grade 7 standard in 6 years I’d be very happy.
I only had 2 or 3 lessons in person with my teacher. The rest have been over Skype. Do you not have this option?
Can you tell more of your story? I'm also not far off from the age you said you were when you started and it's very encouraging to hear you can get to grade 7 in 6 years! Did you start from scratch, or did you play when you were younger and went back to it?
I started quite a few years ago, but due to family commitments and work couldn't carry on, later I bought an organ and had some lessons with that, which taught me timing which is important, then went on to electric keyboard mostly self taught, but only learnt to read upper stave memorising chords mostly by shape, finally I achieved my dream of buying a piano, at this time I knew I needed tuition so embarked on the lessons, although I managed to get to grade 7 it was a hard long slog, many hours practice, the exams gave me goals to attain along the way, but they were nerve racking, especially the last one, and I realised to obtain grade 8 was beyond my capabilities. I still find reading two staves difficult, but continue to try and conquer this problem more now with easier music, my aim when I started was to play the moonlight sonata, this I can do, but not to a performance standard that I would like. Age means the memory is not as sharp as it was unfortunately, but I still love to try and never tire of practice. In fact I have to say, when on the piano I go to a special place where all the worries of the world disappear and I can get lost in the music. As I am now more or less retired from the work I used to do there is more time, previously I have spent most of my life as a professional heavy goods driver also coach driving at times, and have travelled many miles mostly in England but occasionally on the continent with coaches, when family commitments allowed, I am fortunate that my eldest son owns a transport company and I still get to go out in the trucks occasionally just local runs etc, as travel was my second ambition, but it has been a long and sometimes very hard job, many hours spent behind a wheel of a forty two ton vehicle is a huge responsibility and also a very lonely life, but I enjoyed all the ups and downs, and used to dream of the time I would be able to learn and do all the things I never had time to whilst at work and bringing up a family. To finalise, yes learning is hard but the rewards are great, so never say can't, always at least try, you will be amazed at what you can achieve if you don't give up. Best Wishes Julie
@@julieharris1212 Very inspiring! Thanks.
You are doing well above average for sure. I remember I started with Faber as well, but then moved on to classical and then to Jazz.
Maybe, I don’t really know. I just went on the fact you don’t seem to see many videos like this where the progress is worse, but lots where the progress is (much) better.
I’ve just realised what channel this is. I’ve watched a bunch of your videos testing out different pianos. Thanks for watching. This is something I love about the piano community, the great players are still looking out for the beginners and giving them support!
So how did you learn to read sheet music and master your fingers in 10 days?
Lots of repetition. Don’t think that I’m reading that music playing it first go, or tenth go. I’d probably been practicing that tiny piece for several days. And I sure wasn’t reading the music while I was playing it.
@@DanielLearnsPiano Makes sense, thanks!
I’ve been taking lessons on and off for about 20 years. I’ve even done some teaching myself. You are doing wonderfully! You appear very relaxed, volume changes are nice, and you stay on tempo extremely well. When I first started, I hated the metronome. Now as a more advanced student, I use it more and more.
Wow, thank you!
I really enjoyed this video! It gave me a really good insight into how my progress will realistically look. I still think you progressed quite fast and it’ll probably take me a lot longer ahah. The style of this progress video is a lot better this way in my opinion:) thanks for sharing !
Thanks! I’m glad you enjoyed it. Keep practicing and you’ll progress nicely.
I loved this video. I’m an 80’s kid whose far from a kid anymore and I was and will always be into the rock and metal of the 80’s and the greats of the 70’s and 60’s too. I am close to buying a fairly decent keyboard to learn piano same as you have been. I’m studying with a couple RUclips teachers at the moment and am looking forward to getting going.
Thanks for sharing. 🤙🏻
Hope it goes well for you!
Really amazing. I started 3 weeks back. One question if I may. Do you believe this would be possible if you were self taught but had a close friend who is ABRSM Grade 8, who reviews your progress remotely through video clips and providing feedback and corrections? ;)
Yeah, I would think so. I do think it is important to have that element of review from someone who is experienced. Currently my lessons are remote. That’s mostly what is involved. I thought it would mainly be technique, and while there is a little of that, most time in the lesson is getting the music to sound more musical. There is only so much written in the score, the details are through experience. So to begin with you need someone else to provide that experience.
@@DanielLearnsPiano Thanks a lot. I'll keep that in mind and move forward :)
Its good man dont be hard on yourself damn! Just showing up so regularly earns my respect.
I can barely start doing scales every day.
Got to admit, scales have taken a backseat recently. I need to do something about that.
Thanks for sharing. I am thinking about starting the piano learning journey now....and i have same background. Played guitar all my life, influenced by rock/heavy metal. What i got from you is to not skip on the teacher even with all the resources online. Also i find the progress you shared more relatable and what i would expect to achive which from my point of view is great. I think after a year i would be happy to play like you. I will check out your year 2 progress video next. This is really great what you doing.
No worries. Personally, I think a teacher is invaluable.
You are correct in that there are lots of online resources. But only someone with experience, listening and watching you play, will tell you the things that will make your playing better. That advice can range from simply technique modifications, just musicality, or merely a better way to practice a given section.
I'm not suggesting that you wouldn't find this out through online resources and trial and error. But having a teacher hear the problem and give you the answer is absolutely worth the money in my opinion.
Thanks for sharing this video. I am also an adult piano student and I feel our learning rates are comparable; maybe you’re a bit faster than I am. I practice about the same amount of time as you said.
What I picked up from your video is that you seem like a combination of diligent, deliberate, and patient. If that’s your formula, it works extremely well for you. You showed a ton of recordings in this compilation, and every one of them was relatively good (all things considered) with little to no mistakes. Compared to me, I tend to be impatient and rush to the finish line, and I don’t really buff out the pieces I learn as well as I could.
Your Clementi at the end, while still somewhat raw, was just still very clearly coordinated and well executed. You didn’t try to overdo something you couldn’t do, and you kept a steady pace through it. That’s hugely commendable and a mark of a really great student.
I’d love to continue to see progress updates, and I’d love to hear more about your struggles. What’s difficult? What’s frustrating? Where do you begin with a new piece?
And of course, hearty congratulations!
Thanks for your kind comments.
What’s important to remember, and may make my progress appear better than it really is, is that the pieces I upload are the times I’ve played the piece with no mistakes. This often can take a considerable number of attempts. I certainly cannot play them like this all the time, especially the pieces I’m working on at the time. Though I can often go back and bring back the older pieces and play them better.
This has been something I’ve been aware of for sometime and have been meaning to change about the way I present what I can play because part of the point of the channel was to what learning is really like, rather than what it’s like when all the stars align.
Moving forward I’ll probably share more thoughts, struggles etc. When I started I wasn’t sure if this was something I was going to stick at so didn’t really want to put a face to it. However, as I’ve made it to a year, and have no intention of stopping, I plan to make the channel more personal.
This is a really cool video. i really liked it. very realistic and very brutaly honest with yourself. it is a good guideline for people to expect how a dedicated person will progress.
Thanks. I’m glad you liked it!
Your progress is really good, well done! How ofter and for how long are you playing?
Just saw the rest of your video where you already responded to my question. Again well done!
Thank you. I play for around an hour a day and have 30 lessons a year. Though last year I missed the first term so only had around 20 lessons.
Well done, a good honest video, good realistic progress for 1 year. Thanks mate
No worries. I think it’s good for people to know it’s normal that you can’t play Liszt Liebestraum no.3 in your first year.
Really nice channel, I also started playing in May 2019. You are really diligent 👏😍👍 I subscribed you because I'm interesting on your progress.
Thank you. I hope to post more videos where I show the development of the pieces I am working on and the struggles and challenges I face as I learn them. Videos like this can make it look easy. It's definitely not.
@@DanielLearnsPiano No I know it isn't easy and it's good that you look that your pieces without a mistakes. The one is the practise, the other is the Performance of a piece and you did both really good.👍💛☀️
I just picked up a very nice keyboard for dirt cheap and now want to learn. I just need to figure out where to start and need to set a plan. I really enjoyed your video. You have inspired me and I thank you very much.
Ultimately the best option is to find a teacher and have them guide you, but failing that starting with one of the adult piano method books is a good option as they will walk you through the process.
If at the end of the video i see him playing Chopin’s ballade no. 1, im quitting. Lol jk just started this june. Hope to progress as good as you ✊🏻
Just a bad rendition of Clementi’s Sonatina Op.36 No.1. 1st Movement.
I love this. I'm encouraged and reminded that nothing is impossible if you put your mind to it. Big Up Bruh! 👊🏽😎
Thank you!
Hey, I'm in your pace. Started 2020 Jan and also had that Clementi sonatina with my teacher. That was hard, still have errors and it started to get boring so I left it. I think it's a bit hard for our level. Wanna upgrade my fp30 soon too, but looking to upper level portable pianos or stage one, did you tried any?
That’s great to hear we started at the same time and are working on the same piece. It is very hard, but I understand why my teacher suggested it. One of my big problems is moving around the keyboard and the Sonatina has a lot of that.
To be honest, I didn’t try any pianos even the one I choose. I just watched countless RUclips reviews. Obviously the reviewers are also selling the piano so they rarely give a bad review, but for this particular model everyone was very enthusiastic so I just took the plunge. I don’t regret it, it’s really nice.
@@DanielLearnsPiano here's my last accomplishment, but I still found sonatina harder
ruclips.net/video/JPnTaPoXw4w/видео.html
I found drilling large hops into muscle memory helpful, but still struggling with it too.
@@EgorErohin That’s great! Speed is something that I struggle with so that piece sounds quite tricky to me.
Honestly, get a cheap second hand piano. Lots of people have them as furniture and you can get one for maybe a couple of hundred dollars or so. It’s worth having real key action that is hard to duplicate on all but the most expensive digital pianos.
@@PlatinumVanguard my neighbors will hate me))) I'm going to get one of the top portable pianos later.
I started playing two weeks ago with basically zero knowledge of music (the reason why I wanted to learn piano, other than rote learning a few piano and guitar tracks, I know nothing and really regret that hole in my knowledge). I sit at my computer for hours every day so I've put the piano right in the way so I have to sit at that too. I've told myself to just get some practice in every day (which I have) and even though I know I can do 10 mins practice, I'm there doing it and usually get a few 30 minute sessions in over an evening.
I doubt I'll make the kind of progress you have seen (partially due to my zero musical knowledge!) but I might invest in a few lessons at some point in the future to whip it up a bit and get some guided support, so thank you for that tip. I had always assumed that lessons would have to be weekly and quickly mount up to exorbitant costs, but knowing that I can take a few at a time is helpful to know. I'm going to keep going and keep my piano in front of me. Hopefully by next summer I'll actually have some skill.
I'm aiming to be able to play a few reasonably complex pieces from sight and memory by the time I see my sister at Christmas next year. They have a piano and we usually fly over there for Christmas. My brother in law is a improv whizz and would love to be able to understand what and how he's doing it a bit better with some musical skill knowledge under my belt!
My biggest problem is to read music sheet. :(
Yeah, it’s tricky. You just need to start simple and work up. And practice doing it a lot.
There are stickers which you can stick on your piano-keys that have the corresponding notes on it. They are immensely helpful to me
I appreciate the serial videos so much. I played as a kid, and now I’m back starting again at 50 years old. I wondered a great deal before I bought a (mid range) digital piano if I was just wasting my time at my age. Thank you very much for this.
No worries. Definitely not wasting your time. As you’ve played as a kid it might come back to you a bit quicker even.
How pieces are you working on at any given time?
My teacher usually has me working on 3 pieces. Ideally, one will be just polishing, another playable but rough, and the last I’ll be still memorising and playing slowly.
I am in the exact same situation as you: adult, business to run, regular job, family, rock/metal guitar background, and I decided to buy a digital piano to reconnect with music, learn a new skill, stress relief... The piano should arrive this week :). Of course, you've got yourself a new subscriber. Congrats on your progress!!
Cool. Best of luck with it all. Though I'm not sure learning to play the piano is that good for stress relief! Quite the opposite sometimes. Are you planning to get a teacher? That would be my number one piece of advice.
@@DanielLearnsPiano I think I will do just as you did, first few weeks self taught then teacher... also, I would need my wife's permission to get a teacher, you know how it is
Nicely done, looking forward to the next pandemic just in case round 2 and 3 is around the tempo...I mean corner. 😂 #Props
I start self-learning piano too, since Feb 2021. My first piano is kawai ca15 (model 2013, used). Your videos really impressed. Hope you enjoy more and more in piano. Wish me luck :D
Thank you. You can do it. Just make sure to practice everyday, even if it's just a little.
11:30 thats some truth bruh. Your video sohowed how progress actaually work, everyone should point this video as a "1 year piano progress" example.
Thanks. It’s proving a little controversial though.
It's a lie. He has 3 years playing solid behind him. No one is that good
My 3 years daily 3 hours practise are not as good as his day 10. This video is a lie
@@sarahahmed9558 I'm happy to have a conversation with you, but please stop spamming the comments of other users with made-up allegations. The idea that a pianist with 3 years experience would take a whole year to fake uploads of progress is simply ludicrous. What would be the point?
@@sarahahmed9558 If you are seriously suggesting that you have over 2000 hours of piano practice and you cannot play as well I did in my Day 10 clip, I can only assume this is a wind-up.
Hi, thank you for such an honest video.... CONGRATS on your progress, this is no competition, it is for you so the rest does not matter.
I am an adult piano student, who started on Apr/23/2020... No music experience before, not instrument played before, not knowing how to even read notes.
I stated with Pianote due to a RUclips video on how to read notes...and in Late in May I decided to start with a teacher.
Same as you, I just do it for fun to release the stress and since I can't visit my family as they are on "the other side of the ocean", I found it as a way to release stress and entertain myself.
Going slowly, however, this is a lot of fun, learning Bach pieces now...and for the 1 year anniversary I plan to get an acoustic piano
At the end, as you said, this to learn a new skill, have fun, a bit of "me time" and no stress...
Really, thank you for posting your video, I truly enjoyed it!!!
Thank you. You are exactly right. We are not competing with anyone. An acoustic sounds like a wonderful reward. I'm looking forward to the day I will get one. Thanks for watching!
Thank you very much! This is a great kick start for me.. I'm starting to study music at university, being 30 and having graduated from Psychology. A piano teacher told me it was a pity that I started now, that it is too late, and that it is very difficult that I learn something now that I'm "old" for the piano (I'm 30). I have been fighting this thought for a long time, and I found you did a great progress. Congratulations and keep on inspiring!
It would obviously have been great to start younger, but that option is not available to us. Next best time to start is now!
I can’t believe your piano teacher said it’s too late to learn. Maybe your chances of becoming a concert pianist are greatly reduced, but there is nothing stopping adult learners becoming very good.
Studying music at university sounds really interesting. I’m starting to learn music theory. Still just learning the language of music for now.
This was one of the best progress videos I’ve watched!!!!!!!!!!! At 25 I’ve decided to take on piano lessons so I’m so excited! Congratulations btw! Amazing job on your progress. Okay seriously, by day 335 you were perfecting grade 2 music! And you could read THAT music sheet perfectly. I’m actually so inspired wowowoowowow!!!!
That’s so fantastic to hear. I’m really happy for you! You can do it too.
@Christopher Smith How long are you practicing? Do you have a teacher?
I wouldn’t worry about it then. Sounds like you have everything in place to do well. Have you played an instrument before? I played guitar so was very familiar with reading rhythms. I don’t think I considered how much an advantage that was be initially.
One thing I would say is, try and practice everyday. Even if it’s just 5-10 minutes on the days you are pushed for time. It’s the time between practice sessions (during sleep) when our body adapts. It’s proven that short regular practice sessions beat infrequent longer sessions.
I thought my progress was pretty average, but a lot of people say it’s been pretty good. It’s just so difficult to know when you have all those other videos of virtuosos played masterpieces within a year.
If you want to learn the guitar, I’d say just start. It’s more satisfying as you can play along to songs relatively quickly compared to the piano. The piano is hard!
This is a very honest progress video. I find that very encouraging for beginners as it shows what you can achieve with diligence but without spending all your leisure time on the instrument. Just consistency in a way every adult can do. There are so many videos out there claiming they got from total noob to prodigy in just 3 months etc, so many liars out there. I think videos like yours are so important to keep people motivated, not feel stupidly untalented and have realistic goals. Thanks for that!
Btw I am impressed by your Clementi. I am around grade 4-5 and would have to practice it at least 1-2 weeks!
Thanks.
this is such a nice walk through memory lane back to childhood, when all of these piano ideas were new ones to me. thanks for making such a sincere video.