Hello. 20+ year Piano teacher here. You're doing great! A book I'd like to recommend is the The Virtuoso Pianist in 60 Exercises by Hanon. -Use the metronome and start out slower than the recommended 80 BPM. 60 is a good start. -1 exorcise per week. 7 days a week and at most 10 minutes out of your practice. -do not combine exorcises until you finish the book the first time. -it should take you a year and a half or more to finish it. With this book you should work on hand posture. Especially your tendency to let the top knuckles bend inwards on fingers 3 and 4. That can cause arthritis and slow down attempts to play fast and accurate runs. Curve your fingers like gripping a softball. Otherwise excellent work in just 2 years!
Thank you very much! I can definitely see and feel when I play that I have to work on my technique in order to progress further. I’ll definitely be using your advice, and I already have the Hanon book :)
I don't know whether you read music or not but it definitely helps especially with different timings between left and right hands..i always practice hands separately then when confident apply both together and I always right out the suitable fingering....use pedalling on notes you can't reach..if I can be of any assistance let me know...p.s...you're doing great ❤
@@Zhenyamarushko He is giving you good advice with Hanon. But I'd recommend you to learn and practice the scales each day for a few minutes. (I can tell that you dont practice enough scales, if at all) Scales are the foundation. I know they are boring to practice, but you can find ways to make it fun for you. And trust me on this, learning and mastering the scales will speed your learning process by ALOT. p.s.- if you do practice Hanon, do the exercises in all scales, not only in C. (from what i remember Hanon exercises were writen in C scale) You can do the exercises following the circle of Fifts for example. Spice it up! o_O
Last week, I came across your first year video by accident and thought, 'Hmm, I wonder how you've progressed now that another year has passed.' Lo and behold, today comes your second-year update, which was featured as a recommended video for me, and you exceeded my expectations!
I'm back here 5 months later, after getting my piano and teaching myself, and i just wanted to come back to the person and the videos that made me wanna play in the first place, I am still practicing and I haven't given up, but i just wanna thank you.
A great advantage of these times is that a person with a phone or a laptop can learn whatever they want and this is a great example. As a piano teacher, I congratulate you for your perseverance and for not losing focus on your goals and if you allow me, I would like to give you some advice, do finger exercises for both speed and hand independence at least a few minutes before each day you are going to play, that will help you progress even faster and also to relax tension in arms and shoulders. Anyway, you're making amazing progress for just two years.
I just took up piano a year ago and this is very inspiring! I’m impressed with how many songs you’ve learned in a short time. I have a problem of only committing to difficult pieces, so my progress has been slow. Keep up the good work!
That's not a bad thing! Everyone progresses differently. My advice would be to find songs that will build your fundamentals. That will help you with moving on to difficult pieces. I understand wanting to play that one song that will impress everyone, but it takes a lot of time to build your muscles in the right ways. Another tip is to just stay relaxed.
Congratulations, you did something that I should've done... start young. I always wanted to learn to play a musical instrument, so at 64 years old I bought a keyboard and started practicing the piano... 5 hours a day, EVERY day. It was extremely slow going. But I'm a remarkably patient person. So after three years of mostly scales and Hanon exercises I just this week started to learn my first song "Nuvole Bianche", which is actually going better than I had hoped. And other than the fact that I'm on my second keyboard now, and it has eight keys that no longer work, I think that I may just conquer this piano thing. So long as I stay away from watching videos of 5 year olds playing Mozart's sonatas. I'll be happy to just play one song. I'm finally old enough now to say that I'll either learn to play it or die trying... and actually mean it.
Nuvole Bianche is such a beautiful piece. I have faith in you that you will learn it, just don't give up and think of the day when you can play that song perfectly and I'm sure that day will come very soon. I'm also trying to learn a difficult piece and I started learning it a few days ago as well :)
Those 5 years old are discouraging for anyone to watch… I’ve been playing piano for 9 years (I’m 16 years old right now) and I feel like I’ve done nothing when I see them so really, ignore them and keep on doing your progress and remember that there is no such thing as “being talented” and piano is a practiced skill! Also by the fact you did years of Hanons and scales, you already have a huge start that will help you A LOT later on, it’s better to start with many exercices than to start with playing songs directly! Good luck practicing Nuvole Bianche! I’m sure you’re gonna do great with all the technique you already have gotten with Hannon and scales!
I'm nearly 69 gave up the piano at 12 and then at 62 decided to take it back up. Nearly 7 years on and doing ok. Keep going. Problem people don't realise is as a youngster you pick things up faster, when you're older the brain doesn't work so efficiently so takes longer. Hey Ho, I'm practising every day
Well done for keeping going, many give up. I would seriously search out a piano teacher and have some lessons. One thing that will hold you back as you develop will be relying on looking at the keyboard. I know this as no-one ever pointed it out to me (I started when I was about 13), even at university having lessons with a concert pianist. Piano was my second study instrument, but even so, it was only through teaching the piano that I realised how much looking at my hands held me back. Ideally, you want to be in the position of looking at your hands occasionally, even if you've learned the piece off by heart. But bravo, for sticking at it, and I wish you all the success in the world.
Very nice considering you're self taught. I played piano for 10 years and then studied piano performance at a university. Here are my suggestions: 1) hold your wrist higher. Your hand should be flat so you could play while balancing a quarter on the back of your hand. In fact, pro pianists can do this while playing scales at amazing speeds. 2) elbows should be farther from your body. 3) use minimal pedal. you can hold notes longer with your fingers to minimize pedal use.
Fiz aula em 2011 mas não consegui continuar, não tinha tempo nem piano. Apenas um teclado mas que é mto diferente pra quem quer aprender piano. E lembro me que meu professor me corrigia quanto a ficar tirando a mão na troca dos acordes e apenas mantê la próximo às teclas. Enfim, reparei que nos seu início você tinha o mesmo vício e agora as mãos já corrigidas. Mto legal dá pra perceber que vc realmente começou e evolui nesses vídeos seus. Obrigado por compartilhar. Inpirador
You are fantastic!! You sound like a professional and your music brought me to tears! I am just on my first few months. I hope I can be half as good as you!
Thank you very much! I don’t have any secret methods really, I just break each songs into very small parts and repeat each phase at least 7 times. After I get it perfectly, I move onto the next part. So I guess the only “method” I have is doing lots of repetitions slowly and working your way up.
It was very nice to see your own composition at the end. I always wonder how much improvisation and self-exploration people do in their piano learning journey. I really think it helps strengthen the creative and tonal knowledge.. not something that learnings pieces alone can accomplish. I saw your first year as well, and that is always rough to look back on. But look at you go now... so nice! Enjoy the ongoing music in your life.
i've played piano for two years now but put it to the side for a while so i'm really rusty at it. this is really inspiring to keep up practice and to not let that happen again! so proud it sounds amazing
You are doing really great! I can tell you are solid with the mental image of the score, whether you read or not music and it's highly commendable. With all the hard work and skills you acquired, I would maybe recommend the guidance of a musician for you to develop phrasing and breathing, and make your playing a bit more multi-dimensional. Also, a pianist would help you play with your entire body, not just your fingers, as your energy would come from the abdomen and radiate throughout the body, not unlike yoga in fact! Unlike children, adults learn music theory very quickly (around 3 weeks), while it easily takes one to two years for a child. On the other hand, children have a physical flexibility that many adults have lost. It is on stiffness and posture, and the prosody, the flowing of music, similar to story reading, that I work with adults, not on their music theory, even though theory should develop together with the level of complexity of scores. An adult with reasonable MENTAL abilities can play a Bach prelude practically from the 2nd week and a Chopin waltz from the 2nd month...
I started playing the piano about two years ago, too. My progress is not as good as yours, I play fur elyse completely quite well, but every time I start a new song I look like a novice again. I have subscribed to your channel because it is good that there is someone like me, that I can see myself reflected, since those who play perfectly I see it as unattainable right now for me, and because you are close to 1000 subscribers and we know what it means to reach 1000. It is one of the goals to monetize, and I hope you get there, I hope you also have a lot of viewing hours. a hug!
Thanks for sharing your progress, I just picked up the piano a few months ago and I'm loving it. I don't know a lot of pieces, but I'm taking the time to perfect them. You seem more relaxed compared to your 1 year video. Keep up the good work!!
Thank you very much! It was my main goal for the year, so excited to compose more! Picking out a melody is doable, but harmonizing gets VERY difficult for me.
Congratulations! I feel in the same situation as you. Now in August 2024, I just turned 1 year since I started playing the piano. The difference between us is that I started singing at 55 years old. But - message for those of the same age as me who are afraid to start something new - it is WONDERFUL to be able to reach your passion. I've been telling my wife since 15 years ago that I want to compose music for movies. And only now I found time to start. Dear Zhenya, I started composing from the fourth month of playing the piano. I didn't know how to play the keys properly, but I installed Musescore (the free version) and started writing the songs from my mind. I wrote them, then polished each one as best I could. Now (8 months since I started composing and a year since I started playing the piano) I have over three hours of my own music: I created my own channel (just the other day) and I have over 40 songs recorded at Composers Union from Romania (your words: some better, maybe others less good: but I love them all). All the songs are based on the piano (being the only instrument I can play on) and almost all the ones put on TH-cam now are orchestrated, also with Musescore. It would be a great pleasure if you would enter my channel (maybe subscribe, who knows :)) and give me some feedback. www.youtube.com/@CinematicMusic-b5r
Oh you have greatly improved! I watched this and thought how nice it was then I looked back and saw I really liked your year one video too! You really have improved with the timing and overall performance, I really like the canon in D and it’s nice to see you worked on your own piece! I hope you continue, you are at the fun stage now where you can try lots of pieces you like and experiment with compositions. And impress friends haha! I hope to be recommended year 3, keep it up! 😊
just watched both of your yearly progress videos & i am super proud of you and very impressed. you’ve obviously been very dedicated to your practice, have been very receptive of advice people have given, and you’ve made very good progress. keep it up we are all rooting for you!!!
I've been playing the piano for eight years or something but I'm always too lazy to practice. Your videos showed me that I'll really have to drag my ass to the piano for practicing more instead of just playing around or else you'll be better than me in half a year!
You're crushing it, your hand posture has improved and your tempo is getting more consistent. Your jumps look better too. Keep at it! And keep composing too; it's an awesome way to develop your musicality. Take cool patterns from pieces you learn/listen to and try putting them together with your own twists.
Wow so beautiful! I really enjoyed listening to your song January. The relaxing melody went very well with the base. Also I'm very proud to see you took that step to making your own piece! It just gets more addicting from here on out haha.
Well done, so excited for your journey, you are doing so well. Can I add an additional goal for you? Please avoid injury? Have a few lessons with a professional teacher focusing specifically on this. You clearly play a lot and you’ve improved hugely with tension, hand positioning etc but piano is an instrument that people can and do play into their hundreds. And for multiple hours a day, which you have clearly been doing. You don’t want a repetitive strain injury or a bad habit so ingrained it is years of work to undo. Learn some good self care practice now, stretching, good yoga based moves, strengthening exercises for wrist and fingers, how to get strength from the whole body not forcing it from the fingers etc. it will make your playing more fluid, let you play faster and with more dynamic range and delicacy, (although I appreciate you are constrained by technology at the moment) let you play for longer with less fatigue etc. your whole body is part of the instrument. You have to care of it. ( I tore my rotator cuff and cracked a bone in my back last year….it’s put a right dampener on my musical activities). Look after yourself, it is the best investment you can make to be able to keep making music. Thank you for sharing your journey with us.
Awesome! I've been playing for 10+ years, and this video reminds me how long I've been playing and how difficult this instrument really is. I think it needs more acuity and skill than others, you can play so many melodies, polyrhythms, and insane things with the piano, let alone all the dynamics and feel you can add that make its skill ceiling unbelievably high. I think one thing I can add is that music is a very vulnerable, emotional thing. I feel like you can surprise yourself by adding more emotion to some things. Really feel it out, even close your eyes in some parts and let some sounds ring out. It does require some technical skill and muscle memory, which I think you have enough of, but my opinion is that you'll be impressed with yourself if you pick a single, emotional song, and really try to resonate with it and put your heart into it. You may find that it lets you play more smoothly and less stiff, which is beneficial in playing everything! Happy playing, and don't stop :)
Well done! You have made great progress. I bought a keyboard for my 4yo daughter and I in January. She will learn when she is ready to, but I have really enjoyed starting my journey. I cut my finger pretty bad after 3 or 4 weeks so that has set me back, but seeing your progress is inspiring. My aims are to be able to play some of my favourite songs for family and friends at events and to inspire my 2 children to want to play an instrument, as I believe it is a fantastic skill to possess (I have always wanted to learn myself, and only now at 37, am attempting it.) Good luck on your journey.
What a progress! It's amazing to see what dedication and passion can make you achieve... you did a great job, using the metronome, and pulling out your own piece... that's what piano can give, pure passion and enjoyment... you did a fantastic job, keep it up! 👏👏🙂👍🏻🎵💙🎹 AL
Your dedication is an inspiration and your progress is applaudable. I believe that you could have improved a bit more if you had a tutor, or at least had an easier time if you had a guide to trace a path ahead for you. Learning an instrument is a serious endeavor and maybe Yt is not the best place for reliable information or help in this regard. Remember you don't have to be alone in your journey. If you'd allow me to offer my advice, at your current level I would suggest practicing lots and lots of scales and arpeggios ascending and descending with both hands separately and together at least one hour a day. This can make learning so much easier in the long run, it's like a cheat code. Maybe you can also find a real piano in your neighborhood and test your skills on it. I had an upright piano in the family and in my youth I had the opportunity of studying on real wooden keys with real hammers. The difference between digital pianos and the real ones in terms of sound and feel is stark unfortunately even today. Waiting forward for your next update video :) Cheers!
Thank you for your kind words and useful advice! That’s definitely the plan for this year to finally start practicing the right way (not just pieces but technical practice). I really want an acoustic piano, hopefully sometime this year I get one! Thank you again! 😊
Excellent progress. You discovered many essentials on your own! I would of course recommend the Hannon book and to practice all scales. Last tip - find a classical piece you love. Then, find an online recording of a masterclass with that piece. Analyze the intricacies and apply to yourself. I recommend Mozart; strive for perfection. Good luck! Awesome playing and progress❤
My grandfather taught me how to play the piano at 8 years old im 39 now and teaching my 8 year old daughter she can play "a thousand years from christina perry that i did not know till i watched her i was amazed 😮😊
As an older adult student coming back to piano lessons (2 years now), much as my teacher recommended to me, I'd recommend you get the Czerny-Gerner book (green cover) and work on some exercises and short pieces out of that book to A) improve sight reading and B) work on fingering and technique. I'm sure you are probably already doing some of the things I'll suggest below, since this video is already half a year old. So, take these with a grain of salt, since everybody learns differently, and I'm trying to mostly think in general terms. But I hope some of these ideas will help set some guide points and goals to aim for to help you build structure and guidance for yourself. I also recommend the Complete Book of Scales, Chords, Arpeggios & Cadences from Alfred's basic piano library both to work on scales and also as a general reference. Scales, I know everyone harps on them, and I will too, but not too much. At the very least, try to practice the scale for the key that your chosen piece of music is in. So, if you're playing a piece written in F major, practice the F major scale in various ways before starting your practice of the piece of music. Play the scale using triplets, or try using a staggered "galloping" rhythm, or syncopated. If you're not playing a scale across 2 octaves yet, try to work towards that. Start slowly, a note per second or adagio, and slowly work your way toward about an andantino tempo. Practicing some arpeggios or broken chords for the scale will help too. Work your way towards being able to play with both hands in unison. Even a digital metronome app on your phone will help with those gradual increases in speed. In terms of repertoire, it's good that you want to advance and play more complex pieces. And you play a good variety of things. But remember piano is a journey, not a race. Learning a challenging piece is fine. Exploring is fine. But it doesn't make much sense if you focus on trying to learn something that is so above your current ability that you're unable to fully learn the piece, or you are unable to play it at the level and mastery that you really want to play it at after learning. If at any time you start noticing tension anywhere, either your fingers, your hands, wrists, elbow, shoulders, anywhere in your body... if you feel tension, then STOP! Then evaluate where the tension occurs. Try to figure out what motions are causing that tension to happen, and then correct the motion. Are the elbows too far from the body? Are the wrists too low? Are you playing too much from the wrist as opposed to letting the elbow do the heavy lifting? Are you bending your wrists too much left and right versus rotating the the wrist? Are you stretching the wrist over to reach a chord or key versus pivoting at the elbow to move the hand over a little? As we say in piano, "stretching" and "reaching" are bad words. Try not to lift your elbow away from your body too much. If you find yourself doing so to reach a key or chord further out, instead of raising the elbow, lean over a little, just a little, with your waist or hip. Piano is actually a full body experience. You needn't stay fully or rigidly upright, and you certainly don't want to maintain a rigid posture! So, it's okay to lean left and right a little with your movements. It promotes fluidity and relaxed motion. Leaning forward a little can also be okay. Just don't slouch! 😉 I saw that you started using a Hanon book. That's fine, but I think you'll build technique faster by learning pieces, and really focusing toward playing those pieces well, rather than doing a bunch of Hanon exercises. Hanon can be good for warming up and getting the blood flowing, but you can do that with scales just as well. I think the exercises from that Czerny-Gerner book are a bit better/more musical than what's in Hanon. But everyone learns differently. I would also encourage revisiting some of the "easy" pieces you learned at some point and work towards mastery. Go back to Fur Elise, really focus in on the accuracy, getting it to tempo, and connecting with the music on an emotional level to bring out your internal interpretation of the written music. However well you learn a piece, there's no harm in going back and taking it further, improving fluidity, or improving the emotion in your playing. I do feel that you might be pushing yourself a bit, especially in that first year. Or maybe just trying to learn too many different things over a short period. And believe me I understand the desire to move forward quickly (in my case it's like making up for lost time!) But I think that, choosing a select few pieces of music to work on over a season, approaching those pieces slowly, and really focusing on accuracy, will lead to faster progress and building of technique in the longer run. Also focus on connecting with the music on an emotional level to really bring out your internal interpretation of the written notation. Which, sometimes that's a challenge for me as I don't necessarily connect well or easily with some composers or some pieces of music. As a way to build guidance for yourself: Think about what pieces suit your current ability level. Really think about what your comfort level and ability are. Pick one or two pieces that are relatively "easy" for you to learn, that you can be completely relaxed with and play well over a short period of time. Say, a couple weeks to 1 month. Also choose a 2nd piece that is "at" your level that is a little bit of a challenge, but that you can still master well within a month or two. Finally, choose a 3rd piece that is a little bit above your level, that will challenge you and your technique. It might take you the whole season to be able to play the piece well. Do this every season, Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall, imagining yourself preparing 2 or 3 chosen pieces for recital as your "showpieces" that you'd want to perform. Make a performance video focusing on those 2 or 3 pieces, and let that be your recital. Finally, think of some "milestones" Pieces you really want to be able top lay at some point. Set a short-term goal, work towards that now. Set a mid-term goal, maybe about a year or so away, and think about what pieces will help lead you toward being able to achieve that goal. Finally, set a long-term goal, something like a complex piece of music that really speaks to you on a personal level, and keep thinking about pieces and exercises that will help build you the bridges you need to reach that goal. Remember if at any point in your practice you feel tension anywhere, stop and evaluate what you are doing, and correct the movement or issue causing the tension. I am very serious about the tension. If you play with tension, and you practice with tension to the point it builds a habit, that can possibly lead to long term problems, and even possibly a chronic injury. So, always, always be relaxed and fluid. You don't want repetitive motion injury or tendonitis before you're even in your 30's or 40's!!! When I started piano again 2 years ago, my teacher had me work from the Czerny-Gerner book I mentioned to rebuild my sight reading and some of my technique (I had a few years of lessons as a kid, and played on my own for a long time, even being a keyboardist in a prog/pop band for a few years, but wanted to return and properly rebuild myself in classical piano. Anyway, long story). Then, after playing a few "simplified" pieces from a basic adult anthology book for a couple months, we moved me to learning proper repertoire. My teacher said I was far too talented to be learning the watered down excerpts. The first couple "real" pieces I learned were Scarlatti's K.32 Aria and K.40 Minuet Sonatas. Shortly after that, and learning a couple easy Bach Minuets by ear, I jumped to learning the "Passacaria" from the first Suikoden Game, and performed that in the fall recital along with Chopin's posthumous A minor Waltz. So, those were my summer projects to prepare for Fall recital that first year. And it's been steady progress since Fall of 2022. This recent Spring recital (2024) I preformed Mozart's D Minor Fantasy and a good, accurate solo piano arrangement of Woodcarving Partita from Castlevania: SOTN. I'm now finishing up learning Chopin's F Minor Nocturne op. 55 no. 1 and learning some Mazurkas, . and my teacher is about to start me on some Moszkowski Etudes from the Op.91 Petites Etudes book, which mildly scare me, haha. Anyway, best wishes and hope you make continued progress in your pianistic endeavors!
@@freecss9330 I won't say no. But I will advise caution that you do your research to find good quality videos, particularly when it comes to the biomechanics of the hands and body. You want to start off right so you don't develop unwanted habits that end up taking extra time to undo later. You could browse around some of the piano forums like Piano Street or Piano World and see if anyone has mentioned any good channels. I understand the want to use videos for starting out, especially when lessons cost a fair bit, and sometimes it can be a challenge to find a local teacher that is the right person for you. Everybody learns differently, after all. Best of luck!
YT just recommended me your 1y of progress video, and now watching this - great job! You’ve really improved a lot in just 2 years!👏🏻 And congrats on writing your own music now - sounds nice!👍🏻 I’m wondering what’s your routine nowadays, how much do you practice per week, and what are you doing: specific technique exercises, learning and practicing theory and all of that, or just trying to learn new compositions and songs?
That's a progress for 2years self taught. I see you have learned many pieces along the way. Keep it up! Some advise, take up lessons a one to one with a teacher will be able to guide you further on your fingerings, posture too. Start slowly to learn from metronome, dynamic and techniques as well. One tip, do not rush. Just go very slow. You can do it x
Nice work, keep it up, you’re rocking it for sure. I just ordered my first digital piano tonight and will be looking to join you in the ranks of beginning pianists. Found a great deal on a Kawai ES 120 kit and pulled the trigger, so it’s now time.
You really made a lot of progress, very nice! I'm amazed by your performance of Pachelbel Canon in D, it really stands out from the rest, and the others are very nice already! And it's also cool to see how much music you can already make at the beginning of The Police Every Breath You Take with only your left hand. Did you use an audio interface when recording all pieces yet? If so, how exactly?
@@Zhenyamarushko Thanks! I bought and just installed the Behringer UMC404HD audio interface and it works perfectly! Audio seems to be correctly synchronized when I record with Open Camera on my smartphone. The sound now is so much better! I'm working on Boulevard Of Broken Dreams right now and hopefully I have it up to a decent level to record soon!
I recommend you to learn Passacaglia. It is very beautifull piece and the notes are easy to play. I am learning it by myself, and I must work a little on my left hand.
@@Zhenyamarushko Well you are absolutely making huge improvements! I've been playing music since I was a little kid lol I got my first drum set when I was 3, it had Animal on it from the Muppets hahaha I unfortunately have a terminal illness, so it made me want to leave some kind of legacy behind. I was diagnosed 8 years ago tho, and I am still kicking!!! You are doing it the right way too by writing down your goals and working hard to achieve them!!!
Hey, I started playing piano in 2 years ago just like you. Although I have a teacher, and I’m learning in a classical way, which is quite harder. Your videos are very motivating for me. I’ve subscribed❤ But I wanted to ask you, do you have any tip for not making any mistakes when playing??? Coz I make a few mistakes, due to my nervousness or anxiety.
Thank you very much, you can do it! I get very nervous myself! Recording is one thing (and most of my videos I got within the first 3-5 takes), but playing for others is another. My fingers get super tense and I can barely get through a piece without chocking. The only way to get over this I think is just keeping doing it over and over again until you get used to paying in front of others. That’s how I’m trying to fix my nervousness.
Do not know much about playing piano, but second year sounds great. I liked Phantom of the Opera in the first video, and Every Breath You Take in this video. I was debating whether to start piano or guitar lessons, I went for the latter. Who knows? I may do a yearly video as well. 🙂 Keep up the good work and be safe.
As a person who has played piano for almost my whole life I can give some tips Rn I’m 16 years old and I’m currently working on unravel by animenz for my senior capstone project My advice for you is to work not just on your ability to play your own songs and play with pedal, but to make sure you work mostly on your technique with things like phrasing, arpeggios🥴, and runs Those are the hardest things to learn but if you can get some good arpeggios down, and get some amazing phrasing down then you’re going to sound a lot better. Also I’d try and find a faster song, cuz that’s going to help a lot
I forgot to add that it’s also important to have some good muscle memory in a song you play, you should feel the flow of the song and it will make you play more fluidly and less clunky(which is normal, it just takes time to not play songs like that) it’s mostly good muscle memory😊
You’re doing great! How are you learning all these pieces? Are you reading sheet music or using synthesia? Your hand movement definitely improved throughout year 2. I’m jealous, I’ve been playing for almost 2 years and I can’t really play songs. I’ve been focused on Czerny and scales for almost the entire time.
Hi ! I want to learn piano too but I have no idea how to start. Could you maybe make a video of tips,how did you start learning music,exercises,what learning source you used etc? It would be extremely helpful. Thank you for your time:))
Hi! You can do it! My learning wasn’t very methodical I don’t think. The first thing I did was learn some theory with the help of this video: th-cam.com/video/Ud9CpGOG1GE/w-d-xo.htmlsi=0-keA_zh09JuH4P3 So I would practice some chords and scales and familiarize myself with notes (at that point I had stickers with notes’ names on my keyboard and was still struggling to remember where each one was). After that, I just started googling piano tutorials of pieces that I wanted to learn, and just followed the tutorials (this is a good example of what I used): th-cam.com/video/ZR8Zd3F4mC0/w-d-xo.htmlsi=1g6gd-mNOi1d-Kg1 At month 6, I started to learn how to read music also through TH-cam tutorials (there are so many). Oh, and I didn’t learn to add pedal until my second year. I tried it my first year but it was too much for my brain to handle haha. And that’s about it! I should have studied Hanon and/or Czerny early on to develop a proper technique and fingering but I didn’t, so my finger placement and technique is off, so that’s something I regret and advise you to do. You can do it!!!
I can help you with the audio. There is a MIDI out cable that you can connect to a laptop, and the are free DAWs (Digital Audio Workstation) where you can record straight through, and then Equalize the sound, add some reverb & or delay and much more. I am a producer but I also Mix & Master all my own music
Hey I love your videos. I took beginner lesson for about a year and stopped. Life got busy and I haven’t got back to paint like I wanted. Can you explained how your self taught? Any recommendations on what videos/books etc. anything that helped you self taught. Can u read music?
Hello and really nice progress for 2 years. I'm 10+ month also self-taught learner. Do you practice sight reading practice ? (Asking because myself never yet (!) started learning playing by reading real paper notes, all by copies/remember TH-cam clips... Good luck !
FYI for all beginner piano enthusiasts. Ear training can extend progress exponentially. The objective with ear training is to be able to identify and isolate any of the twelve notes just by listening. Each note has a signature sound. Although there’s eighty notes on the piano, they’re grouped into sections of twelve. Consequently, there’s only twelve notes that repeat which reduces the learning curve drastically. As a demonstration of this, sing a note and hold it while playing the piano. You will notice that the note that you are singing can be played multiple times up and down the keyboard and also, the note that you are singing is in the same relative position. Once you establish the perfect pitch ability, it will increase your confidence and proficiency when playing piano and other instruments as well.
Hi. I'm working on a short story with a sad mood and piano scene. Could you recommend a piece or so with that type of tone? Maybe something that represents loneliness. If you need a stronger guideline, I wouldn't mind one similar to Crystal Palace Theme from Paper Mario. Thanks.
heya great progress youve made! just watch out for the form of your hand and your hand placement. your hands should be rounder and your fingers should not be so far away it makes it easier to reach the black keys and have a smoother experience in general. looking forwars towards your third year!
Then there's me who wants to improve my fingers but the piano can't , cause my piano is only 54 keys and some of the keys are delayed, on my first years it is very appropriate but then the time comes when my piano started to have illness HAHAHAHA. I really wanted to have 88 keys piano with pedal, and I promise someday I will buy myself.
@@Zhenyamarushko Thanks for your answer. So as it seems are you very successfully teaching yourself. Can you recommend a piano for beginners until 1,000 €? Is Ivory Touch a must have or a pressure point simulation - or is it too strenuous for the hands in the beginning? Many thanks for your effort!
😂 im sorry I don't know why but i started laughing when i realized you were wearing Adidas sweatpants, maybe because i also wear sweatpants when playing I really don't know
Hello. 20+ year Piano teacher here. You're doing great! A book I'd like to recommend is the The Virtuoso Pianist in 60 Exercises by Hanon.
-Use the metronome and start out slower than the recommended 80 BPM. 60 is a good start.
-1 exorcise per week. 7 days a week and at most 10 minutes out of your practice.
-do not combine exorcises until you finish the book the first time.
-it should take you a year and a half or more to finish it.
With this book you should work on hand posture. Especially your tendency to let the top knuckles bend inwards on fingers 3 and 4. That can cause arthritis and slow down attempts to play fast and accurate runs. Curve your fingers like gripping a softball. Otherwise excellent work in just 2 years!
Thank you very much! I can definitely see and feel when I play that I have to work on my technique in order to progress further. I’ll definitely be using your advice, and I already have the Hanon book :)
I don't know whether you read music or not but it definitely helps especially with different timings between left and right hands..i always practice hands separately then when confident apply both together and I always right out the suitable fingering....use pedalling on notes you can't reach..if I can be of any assistance let me know...p.s...you're doing great ❤
@@Zhenyamarushko He is giving you good advice with Hanon. But I'd recommend you to learn and practice the scales each day for a few minutes. (I can tell that you dont practice enough scales, if at all) Scales are the foundation. I know they are boring to practice, but you can find ways to make it fun for you.
And trust me on this, learning and mastering the scales will speed your learning process by ALOT.
p.s.- if you do practice Hanon, do the exercises in all scales, not only in C. (from what i remember Hanon exercises were writen in C scale) You can do the exercises following the circle of Fifts for example.
Spice it up! o_O
Hell no not hannons
I’m scared
Spider-Man 1994 - unexpected masterpiece
Brings back so many great childhood memories!
Last week, I came across your first year video by accident and thought, 'Hmm, I wonder how you've progressed now that another year has passed.' Lo and behold, today comes your second-year update, which was featured as a recommended video for me, and you exceeded my expectations!
Same here!
That’s awesome, thank you so much for your support!
I'm back here 5 months later, after getting my piano and teaching myself, and i just wanted to come back to the person and the videos that made me wanna play in the first place, I am still practicing and I haven't given up, but i just wanna thank you.
A great advantage of these times is that a person with a phone or a laptop can learn whatever they want and this is a great example.
As a piano teacher, I congratulate you for your perseverance and for not losing focus on your goals and if you allow me, I would like to give you some advice, do finger exercises for both speed and hand independence at least a few minutes before each day you are going to play, that will help you progress even faster and also to relax tension in arms and shoulders.
Anyway, you're making amazing progress for just two years.
Thank you very much for your kind words and useful advice! Definitely will be working on my technique this year!
I just took up piano a year ago and this is very inspiring! I’m impressed with how many songs you’ve learned in a short time. I have a problem of only committing to difficult pieces, so my progress has been slow. Keep up the good work!
Thank you very much! You can do it!!
That's not a bad thing! Everyone progresses differently. My advice would be to find songs that will build your fundamentals. That will help you with moving on to difficult pieces. I understand wanting to play that one song that will impress everyone, but it takes a lot of time to build your muscles in the right ways. Another tip is to just stay relaxed.
That 1994 Spiderman brought back some NOSTALGIA!! Love the growth, girl!! Let's go!! 🎉🥳
Thank you! That intro is sooo good on guitar, I’ve been listening to it almost every day since I rediscovered it! Let’s go!:))
Congratulations, you did something that I should've done... start young. I always wanted to learn to play a musical instrument, so at 64 years old I bought a keyboard and started practicing the piano... 5 hours a day, EVERY day. It was extremely slow going. But I'm a remarkably patient person. So after three years of mostly scales and Hanon exercises I just this week started to learn my first song "Nuvole Bianche", which is actually going better than I had hoped. And other than the fact that I'm on my second keyboard now, and it has eight keys that no longer work, I think that I may just conquer this piano thing. So long as I stay away from watching videos of 5 year olds playing Mozart's sonatas. I'll be happy to just play one song.
I'm finally old enough now to say that I'll either learn to play it or die trying... and actually mean it.
Nuvole Bianche is such a beautiful piece. I have faith in you that you will learn it, just don't give up and think of the day when you can play that song perfectly and I'm sure that day will come very soon. I'm also trying to learn a difficult piece and I started learning it a few days ago as well :)
Those 5 years old are discouraging for anyone to watch… I’ve been playing piano for 9 years (I’m 16 years old right now) and I feel like I’ve done nothing when I see them so really, ignore them and keep on doing your progress and remember that there is no such thing as “being talented” and piano is a practiced skill! Also by the fact you did years of Hanons and scales, you already have a huge start that will help you A LOT later on, it’s better to start with many exercices than to start with playing songs directly! Good luck practicing Nuvole Bianche! I’m sure you’re gonna do great with all the technique you already have gotten with Hannon and scales!
I'm nearly 69 gave up the piano at 12 and then at 62 decided to take it back up. Nearly 7 years on and doing ok. Keep going. Problem people don't realise is as a youngster you pick things up faster, when you're older the brain doesn't work so efficiently so takes longer. Hey Ho, I'm practising every day
Well done for keeping going, many give up. I would seriously search out a piano teacher and have some lessons. One thing that will hold you back as you develop will be relying on looking at the keyboard. I know this as no-one ever pointed it out to me (I started when I was about 13), even at university having lessons with a concert pianist. Piano was my second study instrument, but even so, it was only through teaching the piano that I realised how much looking at my hands held me back. Ideally, you want to be in the position of looking at your hands occasionally, even if you've learned the piece off by heart. But bravo, for sticking at it, and I wish you all the success in the world.
Very nice considering you're self taught. I played piano for 10 years and then studied piano performance at a university. Here are my suggestions: 1) hold your wrist higher. Your hand should be flat so you could play while balancing a quarter on the back of your hand. In fact, pro pianists can do this while playing scales at amazing speeds. 2) elbows should be farther from your body. 3) use minimal pedal. you can hold notes longer with your fingers to minimize pedal use.
Beautiful. I started playing when I was 20 and piano has become so much apart of who I am. GOOD LUCK! -Texas, USA 🇺🇸
You are truly awesome! Such amazing journey.
Regards from Sweden
With this dedication, hard to imagine what could've you achieved if studied with a piano teacher...
Fiz aula em 2011 mas não consegui continuar, não tinha tempo nem piano. Apenas um teclado mas que é mto diferente pra quem quer aprender piano. E lembro me que meu professor me corrigia quanto a ficar tirando a mão na troca dos acordes e apenas mantê la próximo às teclas. Enfim, reparei que nos seu início você tinha o mesmo vício e agora as mãos já corrigidas. Mto legal dá pra perceber que vc realmente começou e evolui nesses vídeos seus. Obrigado por compartilhar. Inpirador
You are fantastic!! You sound like a professional and your music brought me to tears! I am just on my first few months. I hope I can be half as good as you!
You are too kind! I’m sure you’ll pass my level in no time. But of course the most important part is enjoying the process:)
Would love a video on your learning process - heavily inspired by this.
Keep up the good work!
Thank you very much! I don’t have any secret methods really, I just break each songs into very small parts and repeat each phase at least 7 times. After I get it perfectly, I move onto the next part. So I guess the only “method” I have is doing lots of repetitions slowly and working your way up.
It was very nice to see your own composition at the end. I always wonder how much improvisation and self-exploration people do in their piano learning journey. I really think it helps strengthen the creative and tonal knowledge.. not something that learnings pieces alone can accomplish. I saw your first year as well, and that is always rough to look back on. But look at you go now... so nice! Enjoy the ongoing music in your life.
i've played piano for two years now but put it to the side for a while so i'm really rusty at it. this is really inspiring to keep up practice and to not let that happen again! so proud it sounds amazing
Wonderful, you can do it!!
You are doing really great! I can tell you are solid with the mental image of the score, whether you read or not music and it's highly commendable. With all the hard work and skills you acquired, I would maybe recommend the guidance of a musician for you to develop phrasing and breathing, and make your playing a bit more multi-dimensional. Also, a pianist would help you play with your entire body, not just your fingers, as your energy would come from the abdomen and radiate throughout the body, not unlike yoga in fact! Unlike children, adults learn music theory very quickly (around 3 weeks), while it easily takes one to two years for a child. On the other hand, children have a physical flexibility that many adults have lost. It is on stiffness and posture, and the prosody, the flowing of music, similar to story reading, that I work with adults, not on their music theory, even though theory should develop together with the level of complexity of scores. An adult with reasonable MENTAL abilities can play a Bach prelude practically from the 2nd week and a Chopin waltz from the 2nd month...
Wow, your progress is amazing. So inspiring.
Thank you, you are very kind!
Why is nobody talking about the original composition? It was great!
Oh wow thank you so much!
I started playing the piano about two years ago, too. My progress is not as good as yours, I play fur elyse completely quite well, but every time I start a new song I look like a novice again. I have subscribed to your channel because it is good that there is someone like me, that I can see myself reflected, since those who play perfectly I see it as unattainable right now for me, and because you are close to 1000 subscribers and we know what it means to reach 1000. It is one of the goals to monetize, and I hope you get there, I hope you also have a lot of viewing hours. a hug!
Thank you very much! Keep going, you can do it!
Thanks for sharing your progress, I just picked up the piano a few months ago and I'm loving it. I don't know a lot of pieces, but I'm taking the time to perfect them. You seem more relaxed compared to your 1 year video. Keep up the good work!!
As someone with 20+ years of piano behind me, I can tell you're a natural at this ! Your progress is amazing, good job !!
I love that you included your own music. That is the most inspiring thing.
Thank you very much! It was my main goal for the year, so excited to compose more! Picking out a melody is doable, but harmonizing gets VERY difficult for me.
Congratulations!
I feel in the same situation as you.
Now in August 2024, I just turned 1 year since I started playing the piano.
The difference between us is that I started singing at 55 years old.
But - message for those of the same age as me who are afraid to start something new - it is WONDERFUL to be able to reach your passion.
I've been telling my wife since 15 years ago that I want to compose music for movies.
And only now I found time to start.
Dear Zhenya, I started composing from the fourth month of playing the piano. I didn't know how to play the keys properly, but I installed Musescore (the free version) and started writing the songs from my mind.
I wrote them, then polished each one as best I could.
Now (8 months since I started composing and a year since I started playing the piano) I have over three hours of my own music: I created my own channel (just the other day) and I have over 40 songs recorded at Composers Union from Romania (your words: some better, maybe others less good: but I love them all).
All the songs are based on the piano (being the only instrument I can play on) and almost all the ones put on TH-cam now are orchestrated, also with Musescore.
It would be a great pleasure if you would enter my channel (maybe subscribe, who knows :)) and give me some feedback.
www.youtube.com/@CinematicMusic-b5r
Oh you have greatly improved! I watched this and thought how nice it was then I looked back and saw I really liked your year one video too! You really have improved with the timing and overall performance, I really like the canon in D and it’s nice to see you worked on your own piece! I hope you continue, you are at the fun stage now where you can try lots of pieces you like and experiment with compositions. And impress friends haha! I hope to be recommended year 3, keep it up! 😊
just watched both of your yearly progress videos & i am super proud of you and very impressed. you’ve obviously been very dedicated to your practice, have been very receptive of advice people have given, and you’ve made very good progress. keep it up we are all rooting for you!!!
I've been playing the piano for eight years or something but I'm always too lazy to practice. Your videos showed me that I'll really have to drag my ass to the piano for practicing more instead of just playing around or else you'll be better than me in half a year!
You're crushing it, your hand posture has improved and your tempo is getting more consistent. Your jumps look better too. Keep at it!
And keep composing too; it's an awesome way to develop your musicality. Take cool patterns from pieces you learn/listen to and try putting them together with your own twists.
This is amazing!!! Keep up the great work!! Sounds like you've been enjoying the process and are so disciplined in learning! :)
Thank you very much for the kind words! Looks like you’ve been playing for a long-long while, you have a beautiful channel!
All the best to you and your learning! And your piece is beautiful! Keep on!!🎉
Thanks so much, I definitely will!:)
Wow so beautiful! I really enjoyed listening to your song January. The relaxing melody went very well with the base. Also I'm very proud to see you took that step to making your own piece! It just gets more addicting from here on out haha.
Hi Zhenya, your progress is quite remarkable for only 2 years learning by yourself!
All the best on 3rd year goals :)
Thank you so much for your kind words!:)
You're doing great Zhenya keep at it most people give up in the first few months, good for you.
I love your passion!!
Thank you!
You really are good for 2 years. I have been playing for 3 years and i already know you're gonna achieve your goals!
Impressive and inspiring. Especially your original piece. Thumbs up.
Wow thank you so much for the kind words!
Well done, so excited for your journey, you are doing so well.
Can I add an additional goal for you? Please avoid injury? Have a few lessons with a professional teacher focusing specifically on this. You clearly play a lot and you’ve improved hugely with tension, hand positioning etc but piano is an instrument that people can and do play into their hundreds. And for multiple hours a day, which you have clearly been doing. You don’t want a repetitive strain injury or a bad habit so ingrained it is years of work to undo. Learn some good self care practice now, stretching, good yoga based moves, strengthening exercises for wrist and fingers, how to get strength from the whole body not forcing it from the fingers etc. it will make your playing more fluid, let you play faster and with more dynamic range and delicacy, (although I appreciate you are constrained by technology at the moment) let you play for longer with less fatigue etc. your whole body is part of the instrument. You have to care of it. ( I tore my rotator cuff and cracked a bone in my back last year….it’s put a right dampener on my musical activities). Look after yourself, it is the best investment you can make to be able to keep making music.
Thank you for sharing your journey with us.
Awesome! I've been playing for 10+ years, and this video reminds me how long I've been playing and how difficult this instrument really is. I think it needs more acuity and skill than others, you can play so many melodies, polyrhythms, and insane things with the piano, let alone all the dynamics and feel you can add that make its skill ceiling unbelievably high. I think one thing I can add is that music is a very vulnerable, emotional thing. I feel like you can surprise yourself by adding more emotion to some things. Really feel it out, even close your eyes in some parts and let some sounds ring out. It does require some technical skill and muscle memory, which I think you have enough of, but my opinion is that you'll be impressed with yourself if you pick a single, emotional song, and really try to resonate with it and put your heart into it. You may find that it lets you play more smoothly and less stiff, which is beneficial in playing everything! Happy playing, and don't stop :)
Well done! You have made great progress.
I bought a keyboard for my 4yo daughter and I in January. She will learn when she is ready to, but I have really enjoyed starting my journey. I cut my finger pretty bad after 3 or 4 weeks so that has set me back, but seeing your progress is inspiring. My aims are to be able to play some of my favourite songs for family and friends at events and to inspire my 2 children to want to play an instrument, as I believe it is a fantastic skill to possess (I have always wanted to learn myself, and only now at 37, am attempting it.)
Good luck on your journey.
AMAZING PROGRESS!!!! Congratulations!!!! 👏👏👏👏👏
What a progress! It's amazing to see what dedication and passion can make you achieve... you did a great job, using the metronome, and pulling out your own piece... that's what piano can give, pure passion and enjoyment... you did a fantastic job, keep it up! 👏👏🙂👍🏻🎵💙🎹 AL
Your dedication is an inspiration and your progress is applaudable. I believe that you could have improved a bit more if you had a tutor, or at least had an easier time if you had a guide to trace a path ahead for you. Learning an instrument is a serious endeavor and maybe Yt is not the best place for reliable information or help in this regard. Remember you don't have to be alone in your journey.
If you'd allow me to offer my advice, at your current level I would suggest practicing lots and lots of scales and arpeggios ascending and descending with both hands separately and together at least one hour a day. This can make learning so much easier in the long run, it's like a cheat code. Maybe you can also find a real piano in your neighborhood and test your skills on it. I had an upright piano in the family and in my youth I had the opportunity of studying on real wooden keys with real hammers. The difference between digital pianos and the real ones in terms of sound and feel is stark unfortunately even today.
Waiting forward for your next update video :)
Cheers!
Thank you for your kind words and useful advice! That’s definitely the plan for this year to finally start practicing the right way (not just pieces but technical practice). I really want an acoustic piano, hopefully sometime this year I get one! Thank you again! 😊
Excellent progress. You discovered many essentials on your own! I would of course recommend the Hannon book and to practice all scales. Last tip - find a classical piece you love. Then, find an online recording of a masterclass with that piece. Analyze the intricacies and apply to yourself. I recommend Mozart; strive for perfection. Good luck! Awesome playing and progress❤
My grandfather taught me how to play the piano at 8 years old im 39 now and teaching my 8 year old daughter she can play "a thousand years from christina perry that i did not know till i watched her i was amazed 😮😊
You play very beautifully ❤❤🎶🎶🎶🎹👏👏
i see you manage the sustain pedal now...
awsome.
iv followed your progress from time to time
Keep it up.!!
Marty.
Composer Colosphonium.
Trying to manage, but it’s pretty challenging to me! Thank you for the kind words!
As an older adult student coming back to piano lessons (2 years now), much as my teacher recommended to me, I'd recommend you get the Czerny-Gerner book (green cover) and work on some exercises and short pieces out of that book to A) improve sight reading and B) work on fingering and technique.
I'm sure you are probably already doing some of the things I'll suggest below, since this video is already half a year old. So, take these with a grain of salt, since everybody learns differently, and I'm trying to mostly think in general terms. But I hope some of these ideas will help set some guide points and goals to aim for to help you build structure and guidance for yourself.
I also recommend the Complete Book of Scales, Chords, Arpeggios & Cadences from Alfred's basic piano library both to work on scales and also as a general reference.
Scales, I know everyone harps on them, and I will too, but not too much. At the very least, try to practice the scale for the key that your chosen piece of music is in. So, if you're playing a piece written in F major, practice the F major scale in various ways before starting your practice of the piece of music. Play the scale using triplets, or try using a staggered "galloping" rhythm, or syncopated. If you're not playing a scale across 2 octaves yet, try to work towards that. Start slowly, a note per second or adagio, and slowly work your way toward about an andantino tempo. Practicing some arpeggios or broken chords for the scale will help too. Work your way towards being able to play with both hands in unison. Even a digital metronome app on your phone will help with those gradual increases in speed.
In terms of repertoire, it's good that you want to advance and play more complex pieces. And you play a good variety of things. But remember piano is a journey, not a race. Learning a challenging piece is fine. Exploring is fine. But it doesn't make much sense if you focus on trying to learn something that is so above your current ability that you're unable to fully learn the piece, or you are unable to play it at the level and mastery that you really want to play it at after learning.
If at any time you start noticing tension anywhere, either your fingers, your hands, wrists, elbow, shoulders, anywhere in your body... if you feel tension, then STOP!
Then evaluate where the tension occurs. Try to figure out what motions are causing that tension to happen, and then correct the motion. Are the elbows too far from the body? Are the wrists too low? Are you playing too much from the wrist as opposed to letting the elbow do the heavy lifting? Are you bending your wrists too much left and right versus rotating the the wrist? Are you stretching the wrist over to reach a chord or key versus pivoting at the elbow to move the hand over a little? As we say in piano, "stretching" and "reaching" are bad words.
Try not to lift your elbow away from your body too much. If you find yourself doing so to reach a key or chord further out, instead of raising the elbow, lean over a little, just a little, with your waist or hip. Piano is actually a full body experience. You needn't stay fully or rigidly upright, and you certainly don't want to maintain a rigid posture! So, it's okay to lean left and right a little with your movements. It promotes fluidity and relaxed motion. Leaning forward a little can also be okay. Just don't slouch! 😉
I saw that you started using a Hanon book. That's fine, but I think you'll build technique faster by learning pieces, and really focusing toward playing those pieces well, rather than doing a bunch of Hanon exercises. Hanon can be good for warming up and getting the blood flowing, but you can do that with scales just as well. I think the exercises from that Czerny-Gerner book are a bit better/more musical than what's in Hanon. But everyone learns differently.
I would also encourage revisiting some of the "easy" pieces you learned at some point and work towards mastery. Go back to Fur Elise, really focus in on the accuracy, getting it to tempo, and connecting with the music on an emotional level to bring out your internal interpretation of the written music. However well you learn a piece, there's no harm in going back and taking it further, improving fluidity, or improving the emotion in your playing.
I do feel that you might be pushing yourself a bit, especially in that first year. Or maybe just trying to learn too many different things over a short period. And believe me I understand the desire to move forward quickly (in my case it's like making up for lost time!) But I think that, choosing a select few pieces of music to work on over a season, approaching those pieces slowly, and really focusing on accuracy, will lead to faster progress and building of technique in the longer run. Also focus on connecting with the music on an emotional level to really bring out your internal interpretation of the written notation. Which, sometimes that's a challenge for me as I don't necessarily connect well or easily with some composers or some pieces of music.
As a way to build guidance for yourself: Think about what pieces suit your current ability level. Really think about what your comfort level and ability are. Pick one or two pieces that are relatively "easy" for you to learn, that you can be completely relaxed with and play well over a short period of time. Say, a couple weeks to 1 month. Also choose a 2nd piece that is "at" your level that is a little bit of a challenge, but that you can still master well within a month or two. Finally, choose a 3rd piece that is a little bit above your level, that will challenge you and your technique. It might take you the whole season to be able to play the piece well. Do this every season, Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall, imagining yourself preparing 2 or 3 chosen pieces for recital as your "showpieces" that you'd want to perform. Make a performance video focusing on those 2 or 3 pieces, and let that be your recital.
Finally, think of some "milestones" Pieces you really want to be able top lay at some point. Set a short-term goal, work towards that now. Set a mid-term goal, maybe about a year or so away, and think about what pieces will help lead you toward being able to achieve that goal. Finally, set a long-term goal, something like a complex piece of music that really speaks to you on a personal level, and keep thinking about pieces and exercises that will help build you the bridges you need to reach that goal.
Remember if at any point in your practice you feel tension anywhere, stop and evaluate what you are doing, and correct the movement or issue causing the tension.
I am very serious about the tension. If you play with tension, and you practice with tension to the point it builds a habit, that can possibly lead to long term problems, and even possibly a chronic injury. So, always, always be relaxed and fluid. You don't want repetitive motion injury or tendonitis before you're even in your 30's or 40's!!!
When I started piano again 2 years ago, my teacher had me work from the Czerny-Gerner book I mentioned to rebuild my sight reading and some of my technique (I had a few years of lessons as a kid, and played on my own for a long time, even being a keyboardist in a prog/pop band for a few years, but wanted to return and properly rebuild myself in classical piano. Anyway, long story). Then, after playing a few "simplified" pieces from a basic adult anthology book for a couple months, we moved me to learning proper repertoire. My teacher said I was far too talented to be learning the watered down excerpts.
The first couple "real" pieces I learned were Scarlatti's K.32 Aria and K.40 Minuet Sonatas. Shortly after that, and learning a couple easy Bach Minuets by ear, I jumped to learning the "Passacaria" from the first Suikoden Game, and performed that in the fall recital along with Chopin's posthumous A minor Waltz. So, those were my summer projects to prepare for Fall recital that first year. And it's been steady progress since Fall of 2022. This recent Spring recital (2024) I preformed Mozart's D Minor Fantasy and a good, accurate solo piano arrangement of Woodcarving Partita from Castlevania: SOTN. I'm now finishing up learning Chopin's F Minor Nocturne op. 55 no. 1 and learning some Mazurkas, . and my teacher is about to start me on some Moszkowski Etudes from the Op.91 Petites Etudes book, which mildly scare me, haha.
Anyway, best wishes and hope you make continued progress in your pianistic endeavors!
Will youtube videos work as a complete beginner for me?
@@freecss9330 I won't say no. But I will advise caution that you do your research to find good quality videos, particularly when it comes to the biomechanics of the hands and body. You want to start off right so you don't develop unwanted habits that end up taking extra time to undo later. You could browse around some of the piano forums like Piano Street or Piano World and see if anyone has mentioned any good channels. I understand the want to use videos for starting out, especially when lessons cost a fair bit, and sometimes it can be a challenge to find a local teacher that is the right person for you. Everybody learns differently, after all.
Best of luck!
Excelent progress!!! My congratulations!!!
I’m in my 10th month 🥲
inspiring stuff!
You're great.
Keep on your good work ❤
PS
... Does the KBD have reverb ? 😊
Ahhhh, I love playing Pachelbel Canonnnnn.
YT just recommended me your 1y of progress video, and now watching this - great job! You’ve really improved a lot in just 2 years!👏🏻
And congrats on writing your own music now - sounds nice!👍🏻
I’m wondering what’s your routine nowadays, how much do you practice per week, and what are you doing: specific technique exercises, learning and practicing theory and all of that, or just trying to learn new compositions and songs?
Also, you really nailed that Pachelbel Canon in D piece - sounds absolutely wonderful!
I like how you wear beautiful outfits when you record, a professional touch, and lovely.
congratulation!...excellent
your own first piece is amazing . you will be writing movie scores in no time:D
That's a progress for 2years self taught. I see you have learned many pieces along the way. Keep it up! Some advise, take up lessons a one to one with a teacher will be able to guide you further on your fingerings, posture too. Start slowly to learn from metronome, dynamic and techniques as well. One tip, do not rush. Just go very slow. You can do it x
that’s awesome
Good progress. 👌👌👏👏
Nice work, keep it up, you’re rocking it for sure. I just ordered my first digital piano tonight and will be looking to join you in the ranks of beginning pianists. Found a great deal on a Kawai ES 120 kit and pulled the trigger, so it’s now time.
Еее, шикардос!
You really made a lot of progress, very nice!
I'm amazed by your performance of Pachelbel Canon in D, it really stands out from the rest, and the others are very nice already! And it's also cool to see how much music you can already make at the beginning of The Police Every Breath You Take with only your left hand.
Did you use an audio interface when recording all pieces yet? If so, how exactly?
Thank you so much! I use behringer audio interface, and I also use reaper. Pretty easy and affordable, but I do need to adjust my levels!
@@Zhenyamarushko Thanks! I bought and just installed the Behringer UMC404HD audio interface and it works perfectly! Audio seems to be correctly synchronized when I record with Open Camera on my smartphone. The sound now is so much better! I'm working on Boulevard Of Broken Dreams right now and hopefully I have it up to a decent level to record soon!
I recommend you to learn Passacaglia. It is very beautifull piece and the notes are easy to play. I am learning it by myself, and I must work a little on my left hand.
You are making tremendous waves since the last video I watched of your 1at year!!! Sounds good too on the original!!!!
Thank you so much for your kind words! I definitely tried to learn more suitable pieces this year.
@@Zhenyamarushko Well you are absolutely making huge improvements! I've been playing music since I was a little kid lol I got my first drum set when I was 3, it had Animal on it from the Muppets hahaha I unfortunately have a terminal illness, so it made me want to leave some kind of legacy behind. I was diagnosed 8 years ago tho, and I am still kicking!!! You are doing it the right way too by writing down your goals and working hard to achieve them!!!
@@johnnyeproductionsI’m so sorry to hear that! Keep fighting! I really appreciate all the kind comments and wish you all the best!
Very nice! congrats!!! You play way better than me and I'm starting my 4th year in the Conservatory hahaha. Nicely done!
exelente
I just watched your first and second videos. Great job!!! How much time each day do you spend practicing? Looking forward to your third year update!
Hey, I started playing piano in 2 years ago just like you. Although I have a teacher, and I’m learning in a classical way, which is quite harder. Your videos are very motivating for me. I’ve subscribed❤
But I wanted to ask you, do you have any tip for not making any mistakes when playing??? Coz I make a few mistakes, due to my nervousness or anxiety.
Thank you very much, you can do it! I get very nervous myself! Recording is one thing (and most of my videos I got within the first 3-5 takes), but playing for others is another. My fingers get super tense and I can barely get through a piece without chocking. The only way to get over this I think is just keeping doing it over and over again until you get used to paying in front of others. That’s how I’m trying to fix my nervousness.
@@Zhenyamarushko Ohh ok. Thanks so much❤️
Wow! great progress
Do not know much about playing piano, but second year sounds great. I liked Phantom of the Opera in the first video, and Every Breath You Take in this video. I was debating whether to start piano or guitar lessons, I went for the latter. Who knows? I may do a yearly video as well. 🙂 Keep up the good work and be safe.
As a person who has played piano for almost my whole life I can give some tips
Rn I’m 16 years old and I’m currently working on unravel by animenz for my senior capstone project
My advice for you is to work not just on your ability to play your own songs and play with pedal, but to make sure you work mostly on your technique with things like phrasing, arpeggios🥴, and runs
Those are the hardest things to learn but if you can get some good arpeggios down, and get some amazing phrasing down then you’re going to sound a lot better. Also I’d try and find a faster song, cuz that’s going to help a lot
Also that’s a really good original piece 🫶
It’s so cool to see how far you’ve come in only 2 short years
I forgot to add that it’s also important to have some good muscle memory in a song you play, you should feel the flow of the song and it will make you play more fluidly and less clunky(which is normal, it just takes time to not play songs like that) it’s mostly good muscle memory😊
You’re doing great! How are you learning all these pieces? Are you reading sheet music or using synthesia? Your hand movement definitely improved throughout year 2. I’m jealous, I’ve been playing for almost 2 years and I can’t really play songs. I’ve been focused on Czerny and scales for almost the entire time.
Second year seems to be the meme year
Bonnie looking lassie. Nice piano playing.
Hi ! I want to learn piano too but I have no idea how to start. Could you maybe make a video of tips,how did you start learning music,exercises,what learning source you used etc? It would be extremely helpful. Thank you for your time:))
Hi! You can do it! My learning wasn’t very methodical I don’t think. The first thing I did was learn some theory with the help of this video: th-cam.com/video/Ud9CpGOG1GE/w-d-xo.htmlsi=0-keA_zh09JuH4P3
So I would practice some chords and scales and familiarize myself with notes (at that point I had stickers with notes’ names on my keyboard and was still struggling to remember where each one was).
After that, I just started googling piano tutorials of pieces that I wanted to learn, and just followed the tutorials (this is a good example of what I used): th-cam.com/video/ZR8Zd3F4mC0/w-d-xo.htmlsi=1g6gd-mNOi1d-Kg1
At month 6, I started to learn how to read music also through TH-cam tutorials (there are so many). Oh, and I didn’t learn to add pedal until my second year. I tried it my first year but it was too much for my brain to handle haha.
And that’s about it! I should have studied Hanon and/or Czerny early on to develop a proper technique and fingering but I didn’t, so my finger placement and technique is off, so that’s something I regret and advise you to do.
You can do it!!!
very good progress!
I can help you with the audio. There is a MIDI out cable that you can connect to a laptop, and the are free DAWs (Digital Audio Workstation) where you can record straight through, and then Equalize the sound, add some reverb & or delay and much more. I am a producer but I also Mix & Master all my own music
How did you go about when composing ur own piece? Ive been practicing a while now but would have no idea how to approach it! Really liked it btw!
Hey I love your videos. I took beginner lesson for about a year and stopped. Life got busy and I haven’t got back to paint like I wanted. Can you explained how your self taught? Any recommendations on what videos/books etc. anything that helped you self taught. Can u read music?
You don't happen have just the audio for Pachelbel Canon in D? I'd love to add the symphonic pieces behind it (cello, violins)
Ahhh I think I deleted it and only left the video version. But I’ll look again!
@@Zhenyamarushko no worries if you don't, just heard the orchestra in my head listening to you
Hello and really nice progress for 2 years.
I'm 10+ month also self-taught learner.
Do you practice sight reading practice ? (Asking because myself never yet (!) started learning playing by reading real paper notes, all by copies/remember TH-cam clips... Good luck !
Что скажете про метроном Soundbrenner? Его вибрация ощутима во время игры?
Да, сильная и громкая вибрация. Мне очень помогло, советую!
I loved her dresses,
FYI for all beginner piano enthusiasts. Ear training can extend progress exponentially.
The objective with ear training is to be able to identify and isolate any of the twelve notes just by listening.
Each note has a signature sound. Although there’s eighty notes on the piano, they’re grouped into sections of twelve. Consequently, there’s only twelve notes that repeat which reduces the learning curve drastically.
As a demonstration of this, sing a note and hold it while playing the piano. You will notice that the note that you are singing can be played multiple times up and down the keyboard and also, the note that you are singing is in the same relative position.
Once you establish the perfect pitch ability, it will increase your confidence and proficiency when playing piano and other instruments as well.
Hi. I'm working on a short story with a sad mood and piano scene. Could you recommend a piece or so with that type of tone? Maybe something that represents loneliness. If you need a stronger guideline, I wouldn't mind one similar to Crystal Palace Theme from Paper Mario. Thanks.
heya great progress youve made! just watch out for the form of your hand and your hand placement. your hands should be rounder and your fingers should not be so far away it makes it easier to reach the black keys and have a smoother experience in general. looking forwars towards your third year!
Que hermosa mujer
Then there's me who wants to improve my fingers but the piano can't , cause my piano is only 54 keys and some of the keys are delayed, on my first years it is very appropriate but then the time comes when my piano started to have illness HAHAHAHA. I really wanted to have 88 keys piano with pedal, and I promise someday I will buy myself.
加油
How did you taught yourself? By using an app or learning with reading and music theory?
Yes! Reading and lots of music theory, and lots of playing very slowly and perfecting a part of a piece until I move onto the next part of the piece.
@@Zhenyamarushko Thanks for your answer. So as it seems are you very successfully teaching yourself. Can you recommend a piano for beginners until 1,000 €? Is Ivory Touch a must have or a pressure point simulation - or is it too strenuous for the hands in the beginning?
Many thanks for your effort!
😂 im sorry I don't know why but i started laughing when i realized you were wearing Adidas sweatpants, maybe because i also wear sweatpants when playing I really don't know
Haha they are so comfy and it’s chilli in my room, what can I say?
Can you tell me what piano is that? Does it have weighted keys?
Sure, it’s Yamaha P-45, and it does.
I just started piano 2 weeks ago any tips
SONG SUGGESTION!!!>:D
the four seasons - winter
artist: Vivaldi (think thats how you spell it)
Hi XHENYA 😊, what was you method?
how do u learn by ur self like yt videos or do u buy courses? if yt videos can u recommend be a channel cuz I also want to learn piano
What keyboard you playing on?
Yamaha P-45
is there a reason why you choose to learn on your own instead of working with a teacher?