One Year Piano Progress from Complete Beginner | 28 years old | 300+ hours

Hello, I'm Grey42 and year ago I’ve started to play piano and created this channel. I'm making piano covers of popular songs with the visualization. You can use it as tutorial and learn how to play songs on piano.

Subscribe for my channel for new videos.

Thanks for watching.

You can support me on Patreon:

Follow me on:

[Grey]

Finally my channel now got a trailer. So new people can understand what's going on.
I've forgot to put names of the pieces in the video so I've added subtitles with names. Of you want to know name just make subtitles ON.
If you want to watch full versions of the videos you can watch them on my channel.
And subscribe to see how it will go on the year two!
Timings:
Day 33: Face - Baby 0:19
Day 59: Lana Del Rey - Summertime Sadness 1:19
Day 97: Twenty One Pilots - Goner 2:26
Day 135: Pixies - Where Is My Mind 3:28
Day 177: Eiffel 65 - Blue 4:27
Day 226: XXXTentacion - Changes 5:22
Day 262: Gary Jules - Mad World 6:47
Day 310: Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication 8:05
Day 374: Beethoven - Moonlight Sonata 1st Movement 9:36

[nicoslvt]

Damn my 5136 hours in the sims 4 could’ve been really beneficial here

[monique]

if the simply piano app comes up one more time when i try to watch any piano video i might scream

[FoziCoD]

As a piano teacher, i've a tip i would give to all beginner, and this is probably the MOST important, if you want to progress.
99% of people who are learning an instrument think they're "practicing" their pieces, but instead of that they are just simply "playing".

When you study a piece;just take like one, two or three mesures and even one line (depend of the difficulty) and play it slowly with separate hands (important) then accelerate a little bit. When you get it like three times streak, play with both hands, slowly, then accelerate a little bit everytime when you get it.
And this is when the 99% are failing : when you get the measures or the line you were repeating, always start from the second line (or the next measures) and work from here. DON'T PLAY FROM THE BEGINNING WHEN YOU'RE WORKING ON SOMETHING. Otherwise, the first line will be perfect, your second will be good cause you worked on it, and when you'll start the third you'll want to repeat the first and second line over and over, cause you know it, and you'll be like "fuck, don't want to continue this piece anymore".

Work like 30 min per day minimum, try to not look at your hands sometimes, and be careful to relax your arms, wrist and shoulders !

[constellations]

Ads: Hi guys my name is sarah and i got simply piano and I am a piano master now!
Me: Simply die.

[zzzii]

Yo, just some tips from a classical pianist that's been playing for 10 years lol (this is long so beware)
You could probably apply this to other instruments, but these are best suited for the piano. (Also, I play 2 wood instruments and two stringed instruments so I mean?? If you need help with those then sure??)
1. When you first start, DO NOT pick a piece that's way above or above your current level, don't try to reach too high, it's good to reach high, but you need a basic understanding of fundamentals first before you try to do some harder stuff, instruments work differently than most things - keep this in mind.

2. Learn to read sheet music - it may be a pain but it is KEY to learning all the right rhythms and getting understandings and important things in music you will otherwise miss by trying to follow tutorials, such as; dynamics, keys, key changes, time changes, tempo, etc. Start with learning pieces that are for your right hand specifically, AND left hand specifically, there's nothing wrong with going slow and learning from beginners' books.
When learning a piece, break it down, practice the right-hand part until you know it really well, then do the same for the left hand, and break it down into bits and practice SLOWLY, then you can work your tempo up and put the hands to play together.

3. Get the hand posture correct - it is so important to have the right hand posture. Otherwise, you pose the risk of hurting your hand or wrist. A tip is to just let your hand fall naturally down and then to bring your hand up to the piano without changing the shape. Your fingers should ALWAYS be rounded (and never press down and look kinda banana-shaped) and as if there's something round sitting in the palm of your hand.
(Also if you have a piece with finger markings on it, which are numbers on top of the notes, follow those! It's so important and they're there to make it easier to play. The right- hand goes: 1 - thumb, 2 - pointer finger, 3 - middle finger, 4 - ring finger, 5 - pinky finger, same goes for the left hand)
Also, learning hard pieces right off the bat is not good for your hand, as it hasn't got that muscle memory of playing the piano. It hasn't gotten used to it, that's why your hands will hurt so much.)


4. Let your body move with your arms. If the piece tells your right or left arm to go up an octave or down an octave, move your body with your arm instead of just moving your arm (if they move out at the same time then that can't be helped) And don't keep your wrist stiff and just move your arm and hand, and make sure the hand never goes flat either. And always keep your back straight (but not like stiff straight) and feet flat on the ground. Always take breaks if any part of your arms or hands are feeling sore, it also helps refresh your brain and you can go back the next day and practice the piece again like he said.


5. It's good to learn classical pieces, do exercises, and scales and arpeggios, and understand basics of music theory, (key signatures, time signatures, etc.) at 8:35, he states the piece is in C major (only white keys played). But C major is not the only key with just white notes, there are things called relative majors and minors, if you can hear, the piece sounds kind of sad, that's already an indication it's in a minor key. The relative minor of C major (meaning they have the same key signature) is A minor. (An A natural minor scale ALSO only plays on the white keys). Also, notice how the piece starts on A with both hands? That's a good indication that the piece is in A minor, not C major. Also, learning about time signatures helps give you a feel for the timing of all the notes, etc. It's more difficult to learn pieces without them. And pop pieces are great, but generally just chords in the left hand and a repeating melody in the right hand. Which won't really help you improve that much. Classical pieces (or they don't have to be classical, you can find plenty of modern musical pieces) help you improve as there are always new complex melodies and things you can learn with your right and left hand that you wouldn't normally get in a pop piece.


Yes, you can play a cool piece of music or a bunch and you can be proud of yourself, but playing only a few cool pieces doesn't give you experience. - Don't limit yourself! Try out new things, go crazy, there are beautiful compositions written by many many composers that you can play and have it sound just as good. This stigma around classical music being boring is so uncalled for because it's not always in the classical music era, there's baroque, romantic, impressionist, minimalist and so many more eras that have just as good music. These composers wrote amazing compositions that convey so much meaning and represent so many things. Give it a try sometime,
I know my comment is probably annoying, but I hope it helps at least someone?? It's important to learn the piano properly. If you can't afford lessons, look some up on youtube, find a good person and learn the basics before going wild on practice and learning pieces that take you weeks to get right.

[dsp]

There isn't nearly enough struggle in this origin story. 24 seconds in and he's already good.

[Hyphessobrycon]

My piano teacher taught me something that I held on to for the 8 years I have been practicing

“Slow practice makes for fast improvement”

She couldn’t be more right. When it’s slow your brain can focus on playing correct notes, instead of keeping up to a tempo. Then, once you’re notes are spot on, then try to speed it up. I still practice like this to this day.

[late]

Fun fact: Sleep gives you SuperPowers! When practicing a song on piano you train your muscle memory, which takes time. When you go to sleep that muscle memory is ”saved” inside your brain as long as you regularly do it.

[toxicnoise]

wow. A piano progress video without River Flows in You

[MotorBuilds]

One thing of the things I say when people ask me why I like playing the piano, you find them randomly in public places. Old, worn, abused, but still waiting for someone to play them. Every so often someone stops by who knows how to play, and they play, and people walking by or around the piano quiet down and listen. It really is such a special instrument, and it's such a treat for a player to find one randomly in public

[-nochu]

0:00 Baby by Face
1:20 Summertime Sadness by Lana del rey
2:26 Goner by Twenty one pilots
3:30 Where`s my mind by Pixies
4:25 I`m blue by Eiffel 65
5:23 Changes by XXXTentacion
6:46 Mad world by Gary Jules
8:04 Californication by Red Hot Chilli Peppers
9:36 Moonlight Sonata first movement


lol

[thelema]

A little constructive criticism . This was a year ago so maybe it's not relevent . I got into piano late in life, but I had been a musician in my youth so I had a basic grasp of theory, circle of fifths, scales, chord progressions, Minor/Pentatonic/Blues scales . What it takes to remember how to play a long piece of music without an understanding of theory takes almost infinitely more brain space . It really doesn't take much time to learn the essential parts of music theory . Music theory is like the secret powerful kung-fu of music . When you balance technique (learning different pieces of increasing difficulty) with enough theory, you get to a point where you no longer need much input for great output . Songs are a bit like mathematical theory and mathematicians would say maths has no author . Songs are very similar . Sometimes songwriting feels like you're uncovering something more than you're creating something . Before long you'll find that progressing on the piano is more fun without sheet-music or software than with it . And you'll be able to figure out a song in less time that it takes to play the song . If you're going to spend, say >10.000 hours on the piano, make sure it's the right 10.000 hours! Because it'll make all the difference in the end . Sometimes the difference in progressing is as big as pushing as compared to being pulled . It's much nicer to be pulled along than to push along . I hope that makes sense .

[zdzichu]

Hey all. Played some piano for a while & got some extra tips:

#-1 - Get creative. Playing with creativity is always better than just playing even if it doesn't sound the best.
#0 - Get Correct Sheet Notes. IMSLP is your place to go, and for classical pieces go with Edition Peters. Can't overstress it. Lot of times editors release sheets with mistakes in notes or just editing mistakes that will make the practice more difficult.
#1 - With new pieces - practice with one hand at a time at slow tempos. Once you get confident @ around 100 BPM, lower the metronome setting by half and try playing both hands.
#2 - Practice the 3-1 and 4-1 switch. These finger switches are of HUGE importance and will improve the speed and the technique massively.
#3 - If you have sheet notes - write down the fingering.
#3a - Practical note: ALWAYS take special consideration for the position of the 4th finger. Some arpeggios are played more easily 1-2-4-5, some are 1-2-3-5; some scales play better 1-2-3-1-2-3-4-1 than 1-2-3-4-1-2-3-1, some go with 2-3-1-2-3-4-1-1
#4 - To play well you also need to train your ear. Listen to different people playing the piece - try to understand their interpretation.
#4a - dynamics. How loud is the piece performed? Does the musician that you hear play according to your sheet notes? Do you have crescendos, decrescendos, morandos... do you understand everything that your sheet notes say? Dictionaries with musical notations are marvelous things.
#4b - agogics. How does the tempo differ? Does it say so in the sheet or is it just a manner of this musician? Also - from which period is the piece, if it is a romantic/postromantic piece consider varying tempo [check what Rubato is]
#4c - articulation. Staccatos, portatos, the pre-notes, short notes, trills & other thrills. Bare in mind that articulation is like spices in kitchen - you practice technique withour articulation, but you don't want to perform without articulation: it will sound bland.
#4d - phrasing & stress pattern. Find the melody in the piece. It is your "theme sentence" of your main character. Then you will get an answer from a second character. Then you will get a story. It will be either cooperative (eg. illustrative to tell the story with different characters) or competitive (contrastive, like in the music of JS Bach). Listen how people give character to each person in the piece.
#5 - Think Ahead. While playing piano you need to always know what comes next. Once you'll be able to play without hesitation - you are ready to go stage

Tried to make it as concise as possible. Cheers folks & hf playing piano :)
With all the love from Poland,
Marcin "jambski" Dziembor

[malenemalene]

I’m calling it, 2020 is the year I’m actually gonna learn piano, like a whole song not just the beginning of twinkle twinkle.

Edit: to everyone asking how it’s going: it’s going great! I’m really optimistic about this! I’m one to keep up with my New Years resolutions.

[chocothecat]

don't mean to show off but after five years of practice every day I can play chopsticks with only eight mistakes.

[Louis-iikw]

Wow finally. A progress video that doesn’t go from chopsticks to fantasise impromptu in a week

[lucabernardini]

Thanks for sharing, I bought myself a digital piano February 2018. All this time I roughly put 40hrs in it like super random over a period of 1y 2m, I started serious only 3 days ago.
DO NOT PROCRASTINATE GUYS!
Whatever your passion is.
Much love to everybody

[supra-physiologicalandroge]

I respect the advice you gave beginners, no shame in taking things painfully slow, with separate and both hands together, aslo put a big emphasis on technique!! to avoid injury. your playing improved over time, thank you for the video it was fun to watch and good job! Keep up the hard work its paying off!

[PianoScenesMoviesandSeries]

9:56 You say: "it was quite hard to memorise it because I don't know how to read sheet music."

I suggest you try to learn it. It's not hard and wil improve your skill immensely.