2.5 Years of Piano Progress (2000 HOURS) | Pianist Reacts

In this video I react to a video by Luís Graça of his 2.5 years of piano progress as a self taught pianist.

Luís' Original Video:

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[luisgraca]

Nice, man! It was fun rewatching this with your comments. I laughed with you at both Moonlight Sonata 3rd Mvt attempts 😂

To answer some of your questions, indeed I learned almost all of these pieces using YouTube tutorials, including Arabesque and Fantaisie Impromptu (Rousseau's videos). Looking back, dynamics and technique were lacking, but learning the maximum amount of pieces in the least possible time was what kept me going at the time.

After uploading this video, I realised that I wanted to get more out of the piano and to do so I needed to work more on dynamics, musicality, technique, reading music and to learn some theory, so I decided to have a few private lessons for guidance. I started practicing scales and arpeggios at the beginning of each session (5-10min) and to use sheet music to learn pieces, instead of tutorials. I learned some Einaudi, Händel's Minuet in G Minor and Pathétique Sonata 2nd Mvt - I uploaded both in my channel. Once again, I only picked songs that I really enjoyed listening to, even though they were a little more advanced. I can learn pieces through sheets, but I can't sight read. It's not my main goal to be able to sight read.

A little after that I decided I wanted to create my own piano arrangements / play by ear, and so far that's what I enjoyed the most. Whenever I'm stuck, I try to get a lesson for guidance. Thanks for the lesson on arranging 🤝🏼

It's all been a big experiment, but I think my main goal is to compose more original music, piano arranangements and to be able to play anything by ear.

If anyone is still reading, I will upload a 4 Year Progress Video update in August / September, so stay tuned ;)

[deepuniverse]

2000 hours in just 2.5 years is crazy .. Props to him for such consistency and determination

[mikemarino]

20:49 was the ultimate proud dad smile we all so desperately crave

[SLM]

Half an hour of Matt explaining music. What a treat.

I find it interesting he went from Tiersen and Einaudi in the learning to play stages to Satie and Chopin, but then went back to Tiersen and Einaudi to help inspire him on his own compositions.

[michellemonet]

Im self taught. Been playing 2 to 5 hours a day for 3 years. Ive written 72 songs. Now my bucketlist goal (at age 62) is to write a Musical and play and arrange all the songs myself.

So fun.

[duelistvalorant]

Matt your level headed and optimistic approach to piano learning is an absolute joy to watch, one of the big reasons I've just started learning. Keep it up man

[phaquasystems]

With 2.5 years such fluency is commendable

[kjwong]

I’m also self taught and 2.5 yrs in…. This guy is light years ahead of me

[dees]

I have seen his video before and was particularly impressed with how he was analysing his experience and playing as he went along. Well done Luis!

[whiteshiftracing]

Your comment about looking at the vertical notes for hands (RH, LH, HT) is revolutionary!

I’m an adult learner, just passed Grade 1 after 9 month, hoping to pass Grade 2 in November and the step up from sight reading hands separately to hands together has been almost impossible for me.

Going to try to utilise the tip vertical reading, or at least use the 30 seconds to analyse the bar notes vertically.

Cheers Matt!

[Renmiou]

I have started practicing the piano on my own in the evening a few days ago and found his video, then your channel - I was really curious to see how your comment would go.

I'm really pleased to see so much useful advice (the vertical reading one is something I have to try this evening). It seems so hard to come by useful content like this online, where there is an incentive to be inflammatory to get engagement.


I'm going to keep going and I'm really grateful to you and others who spend their time spreading knowledge that helps those of us who can't yet afford lessons or who simply need to go through a different path for whatever reason.

On reading sheet music first: that's the path I'm going through now because I'm not that good at memorising from a YouTube tutorial and for now my progress is nowhere near what is shown in his video. On the other hand I'm playing even while ill because it makes my day a bit better, so we'll see how this goes. I weirdly enjoy scales and beoken chords too. :) Juggling work, a house and a small (demanding!) child is hard.

[dezzidumpwing]

IM NOT EVEN JOKING THIS IS LOTERALLY ME. I played literally the exact same pieces, but when I got to moonlight sonate movement 3, I got a proper teacher then Reyes fantasie impromptu. After a few months of that I can now basically perform it

[brimosimo]

I like that you mention that moonlight sonata is written in cut time, however counting it 1, 2, 3, 4 is maybe not the best advise, and actually contradicts what you explained before, that this time signature has 2 beats. I would suggest counting 1 and 2 and instead. Or in this particular case, 1 - trip - let - and - trip - let - 2 - trip - let - and - trip - let.
Aside from this, great video by you and obviously a stunning dedication to learning this instrument by Luis!

[liquididentity]

I struggled with sheet music because early on I found myself getting more connected to the feel of the keys and the interaction. I eventually dropped sheet music and began focusing on the sound and music theory... I created a lot of my own mini-pieces then. The sound eventually led me back to patterns, which I now read much easier on sheet music because I "hear" the patterns I see. I transcribed my mini-pieces into sheet music and expanded to make proper compositions.
I was surprised because I am very much a visual learner otherwise.. it helps me memorize. With music the sounds formed first, then translated into the written musical language.

[DrumNBassed]

How are these guys so good after like 2 months where I still get notes wrong on Grade 1 pieces after a year?

[nitrogel]

Playing 2 hours a day for 2.5 years is crazy! Props to him!! I am still in high school and started about 3.5 years ago so I don't have that much time to practice.

[ds]

I learned that there's a difference between learning to play the piano and learning to play piano pieces. It's easy to jump to the pieces and miss out building up enough technique so that you can play a lot more piano pieces and with less time.

[MooreMusic]

Wow fantastic. I am loving my music and my piano journey

[kaitlync]

I'm so glad you did this reaction, Luis Graca was the person who originally inspired me to start playing piano. I love his progress and his dedication, he's so impressive.

[Bvic]

One important thing to remember is that as he says, he makes tens of recordings before managing a perfect one.

That being said, his progress is still insane. I quite proud of my 1 year 8 months with 1h a day, I'm comparable to top piano progress videos.

But this guy is truly the most incredible I've ever seen.