How to Teach Yourself Piano: 10 Lessons I Wish I Knew Sooner

I used to be in your shoes.

I wanted to play my favorite music on the piano, but where would I even start?

OK, to be clear I did have some piano lessons as a kid. But I never really enjoyed them so I quit. At 15 years old, I had no clue how to play the piano anymore. Which was sad, because the idea of playing the epic music I was hearing in my favorite films and videogames really appealed to me.

That’s when it hit me: I can just start practicing on my own right now. Maybe if I spend enough time at the piano, I will become good eventually!

And boy was I right. Within a month I was already playing my first few songs. And if we fast forward 10 years, I honestly achieved my wildest dream of being able to play anything I set my mind to, sometimes in a matter of minutes, or even seconds.

If I look back, I never really needed the lessons. I just needed to find my way.

So how did I do it exactly? That’s what I’ll share with you in this blog. I’ll walk you through 10 practical steps that, looking back, have helped me the most in reaching my current level as a pianist.

Since there’s a lot to cover, I won’t go into every detail here - however, if you want the full breakdown, consider checking out our complete piano guide: 10 Essential Steps to Becoming a Great Pianist.

With all that being said, let’s get into it.

#1 Know your body

Have you ever seen a concert pianist perform and wondered how they make it look so effortless? Even though their hands are flying across the keys, it doesn’t seem like they are struggling in the slightest.

At its core, this is what piano playing is all about: making yourself as light as possible, so you can focus on the phrasing of your playing even when lots of keys are being pressed.

Ideally you want to be relaxing your body, especially when it comes to your wrists and forearms. This way you can achieve the speed and flexibility needed to perform harder passages. Any energy required to play can be primarily formed from the natural weight of your body.

Now, how can you know for sure whether you’re using the right technique? Here’s a cool trick: play your piece as usual, but suddenly stop at a passage you find difficult. Keep your body exactly how you left it, and then use one hand to analyze the other. If for example your wrist feels stiff and you cannot move it around the way you want it to, practice the piece again, but this time, really focus on relaxing your wrist after each note you play.

Unlike me, make sure to implement this step right at the beginning of your piano journey, so you can really set yourself up for the rest of this list.

#2 Practice pieces that interest you

Instead of focusing on one's favorite music, many people tend to hang onto a specific piece or exercise that they think is beneficial for their progress. Although they do not enjoy it, they still feel like they should master it before anything else.

Screw that! Seriously, especially during the early phases of your journey, there is no faster way to discourage yourself from playing the piano than to practice boring repertoire. Instead of burning yourself out, focus on the music that actually touches your soul!

Sure, it might not be the ideal route, but you're guaranteed to have a lot of fun, which improves your skills the most in the long run. Not just because you're encouraged to practice consistently, but also because the chances of you coming across many different techniques and playing styles is significant. These techniques will be particularly relevant for you, as you’re practicing the music that you are interested in playing.

Besides, you've picked up this skill because it seems fun right? So hold onto that! Develop your passion first, before potentially diving into any rigid exercises to reach your fullest potential.

#3 Practice pieces that seem out of your league

Hands down, this is the best tip I can give you to boost your overall piano skills. In order to become good at anything, including piano playing, you must apply the principle of progressive overloading.

Think about bodybuilding for a second: the only way to build bigger muscles is to push your muscles to their limits. It's the same for piano playing. Every time you challenge yourself with a difficult piece, you are improving your piano skills.

In my experience, it's good to reach high. Because you'll be surprised what you're capable of if you try hard enough. For example, I remember very clearly how I had a goal of playing the full Pirates of the Caribbean medley by Kyle Landry. It seemed literally impossible to 16-year-old-me, but I tried it anyway, and eventually I succeeded.

Now, the first few hours of a difficult piece will either make or break you. If you push through those, and you start seeing your first bit of progression on the piece, it will become like an obsession to improve even further. Tap into that fully, and before you know it, you’ll be making some insane progress in a relatively short period of time.

Even if the piece breaks you and you’re not able to pull it off yet, it's beneficial. Because you will have learned from it, and you can apply that knowledge to other pieces.

At the end of the day, it's up to you how far you’re willing to take it. However, if you want to become a great pianist, the obstacle is the way.

#4 Learn to read sheet music, ASAP

Here's 3 reasons why.

• First and foremost, sheet music is the most practical tool to internalize music quickly. Instead of having to keep pausing and replaying some video, a paper of music helps you interpret the music as a whole instantly. The more fluent you become at reading, the faster you'll be able to play new music.
• Second, there are only so many pieces you can memorize at once. If you want to have a big repertoire of pieces ready to play, without losing the details of the music, sheet music is probably your best bet.
• Last but not least, there is no better way to understand a piece in depth than sheet music. Where visual learning tools can be helpful to learn a piece in general, it will often fail to show you its details. What makes sheet music so great is that it leaves a lot of space for composers to explain themselves.

Now, there is even an extra benefit, and that is the ability to start writing sheet music yourself. If you ever plan on composing or arranging a piece of music, you’ll be able to write it down for the rest of time and have other musicians play it easily.

And who knows, maybe in 200 years time someone will find it in a vault somewhere and future humans will start praising it.

#5 Master basic music theory

Although I don’t recommend fixating completely on music theory, I do recommend becoming aware of its power, and gradually improving your understanding of it.

See, for years I was able to play very complex music without actually having a clue what I was doing. I didn’t realize this at the time, but in hindsight, this lack of knowledge was holding me back.

When you understand music theory, it becomes so much easier to not only process new music, but also to memorize it, and to even improvise on it. Instead of perceiving the piano as a bunch of separate notes, you will start seeing the great coherence between all the notes as a whole.

Now, when I say “basic music theory”, I specifically mean intervals, scales and chords. Intervals are like the building blocks of music. They can be accumulated into scales of notes, which are like the playrooms of music - each scale represents a different set of sounds that you can explore. Intervals can also be accumulated into chords, which are like the coloring of music.

Music theory can be incredibly overwhelming, so to get started, I recommend checking out our Master Basic Music Theory PDF guide: a beginner-friendly crash course that covers all the essentials.

#6 Train your ear

Imagine being able to play your favorite music on the piano, without actually needing any sort of external resource. In fact, the only thing you need to get going is your own hearing!

To some of you this may sound like a rare gift. However, as any experienced musician will tell you, that is simply not true. 

Here’s the deal: once you play and listen to enough music, your brain will start to recognize patterns, which it will then be able to reproduce.

This is not just fun to do, but it’s also extremely useful for 3 reasons.

• First off, developing your music ear helps you increase your practice speed when learning new pieces, as music will become more predictable to you.
• Secondly, having a well developed music ear will help prevent you from making any mistakes. When you play the wrong note, there is a good chance you will already hear it before anything else.
• Finally, having a well developed music ear will make you a more flexible pianist, capable of quickly adapting your playing to your surroundings

Although developing your 'music ear' is a long-term journey, there is nothing holding you back from playing music by ear as early as today. The more you try it, the faster you will improve.

So how do you do it? Well, it takes some time to explain. So to find out exactly, check out our comprehensive Piano by Ear Mastery Bundle. Not only will I explain into detail how to play any piece of music by ear and improvise on it with freedom, but also will I provide you with a bunch of practice material.

#7 Practice different genres of music

One thing that I feel like has always given me an edge compared to other pianists, is the fact that I know my way within various playing styles.

If you’re ultra set on mastering one genre, then go ahead. But if not, here are 3 reasons why you should consider diversifying.

• First off, it's refreshing to be able to experience different approaches to piano playing. If you ever feel uninspired, tired, or generally not excited to play the piano, practicing something completely different than what you’re used to, will most likely get you excited again, and back on track in your pianist journey.
• Second, it's a lot of fun always having the right repertoire up your sleeve for just the right moment. When you are at a party and someone asks you to play something, but all you know are soul touching Chopin nocturnes, you might be missing out on a cool opportunity.
• Lastly, being able to play several genres of music further enhances your piano playing abilities. Different styles of playing require vastly different techniques, so being open to more than just one style is certainly going to increase your versatility as a pianist.

Some genres that I can personally recommend are classical music, which helps you develop your dynamics, boogie and blues, which are accessible genres to get you started on improvisation, and pop music, which is amazing for training your music ear, as pop songs usually consist of easy to follow chord structures.

#8 Hang around other musicians

If you’re like me, and playing piano is more of a personal endeavor rather than your traditional career path, applying this step can be difficult, as you really have to build your music network from the ground up.

You might even wonder, why bother doing so?

Well, I can tell you from experience that there is nothing quite like being able to share your passion with like minded musicians. It opens the door to incredible inspiration and a lot of memorable experiences. 

And it’s not just fun; spending time with fellow musicians is actually an amazing gateway to gaining new perspectives on music. It can provide you with a lot of knowledge that you wouldn’t find anywhere else and that you can implement in your own journey. 

Furthermore, having music friends means being able to make music together, which is both fun to do and educational in many ways.

Lastly, building a network of musicians is a great idea if you want to take music to a professional level. If you connect with other musicians consistently, there is a good chance they will be calling you someday whenever they need a pianist. 

#9 Record yourself

Here’s an important fact: it’s only when you play the piano in public that you are truly confronted with how well you really know your pieces. 

That said, there is no need to make your way to the local train station just yet. Because today’s technology offers an accessible method for testing your piano skills at home, as if you are playing in public: and that is recording. 

Both video and audio are incredibly valuable tools. Combined, they capture all aspects of your piano playing. Instead of relying on a teacher to assess your playing and provide you with feedback, it has now become entirely possible to view yourself in third person and do exactly that!

Now, here are 2 reasons why you should be recording yourself consistently.

• First off, when practicing the piano in the comfort of our own homes, we often become too complacent with our playing. Recording ourselves can burst our bubbles and give us a painful, yet important reality check.
• Second, recording your journey means being able to measure your growth. Trust me, when you are feeling low, there is nothing more inspiring than looking back at your older videos and seeing how far you’ve come already. Besides, you could be sharing your videos online, and connect with other musicians that way as discussed in the previous step.

If you’re wondering what equipment to use for the recordings, in most cases your phone will suffice. Though if you have a digital piano, definitely look into recording your audio separately using a cable.

#10 Practice efficiently

So far I have only discussed the steps that you can proactively take to improve your piano playing. However, it's important to realize that most of your growth actually happens when you are away from the piano. 

You see, as you’re learning and practicing, you are flooding your brain with new information. It's only when you take some time off that your brain has the opportunity to do anything useful with it.

In light of this, I will conclude the list with two “passive” rules you may want to stick to in order to optimize your results.

• First off: sleep more, practice less. To become great at anything, quality practice won't suffice. It has to be complemented with quality sleep. See, it’s mainly during your sleep that your brain creates and strengthens neural pathways for the things you spend your time on in life, like playing the piano. This is why a passage you’re struggling with one day, usually feels easier the next one. Besides, practicing the piano is a lot easier, and a lot more fun, when you’re feeling rested.
• The second principle is: practice short and often. There’s only so much information your brain can handle at any given time. Instead of repeating the same section over and over again, consider taking breaks and splitting up your practice sessions into multiple parts.

And don’t be afraid to focus on different passages during each session. Again, it’s only during your sleep that new information gets stored properly. In other words, there’s no need to be repeating the same passage over and over again in a short amount of time.

Wrapping up

If you enjoyed this blog and you want to dive into my steps even further, again, I highly recommend checking out our full guidebook, in which I discuss the steps in great depth.

Also, make sure to comment below: how far are you on your journey and what are your current goals? Let’s talk about it, so we can all improve together.

With all that being said, thank you so much reading. Have a great day, and make sure to stick around for our next blog.