How hard is it to learn the piano?

Hi guys, I'm interested in learning the piano. I don't know if anyone here knows how to play, but i could use some Internet advice.

Uh, so first im a medical student so I spend most of my time studying and I can barely keep my head above water. Next thing is, I'm busy all day during week days I don't even have time to spare for my health during weekdays. Last thing, im broke, so I don't really know if I would be able to afford a piano or classes or anything.

Is there any way I can learn the piano by myself without having to take classes and whatnot? I have zero knowledge about music.

You can definitely learn piano without a teacher but it will take up time. I'd hope you consider buying like a keyboard if you want to practice though.

After that you can look up an online guide on how to play the piano probably. I think just learning simple musical notation before playing would help significantly.

You can learn, but you will never be good at it if you don't pour hours into practicing

No STEM student can afford to commit himself to an arduous leisure/recreational activity. This isn't to discourage you from trying to learn something new or decompress via a side activity away from the monotony and brutality of your daily routine; this is to encourage you to set a reasonable goal for yourself, as that will increase your chances of persisting with your undertaking.

Starting now from scratch, you're not going to master the piano as a medical student, but you can still enjoy the journey and have the satisfaction of adding another dimension to your life in which to take refuge after an exhausting day.

Hello

First things first dont be in a haste n buy any cheap branded piano. go only for yamaha or Roland or korg or similar competitive brands if you dont wanna go my recommended brands. Save up cash and get a full size 88 keys graded hammered digital piano. Digital pianos are cheaper than acoustic pianos and provide lots of various facilities like recording, MIDI cable attachment, usb attachment, reverb providing different sounds like not just grand piano but also harpsicord and strings and electronic piano. Make sure u buy a cover for the piano too as digital pianos get affected by dust very much.

Approach to practice as i have come across though book recommendations is that rather than 1-2 hrs practice weekends it would be even enough 15- 30 mins a day dats all. 20 mins works fine enough coz i have a job as well as i am studying. The tutoring part, in my region the fees for learning the piano is very expensive i had to quit tuitions after the first 3 months because i couldnt afford it. Then my tutor told me get piano books. The best books i have found to learn after doing a lots of research on the net are Alfreds All in One Adult Piano book Level 1,2,3 with accompaniment cd or dvd(.Important) You can learn through books, my tutor told me that he learned all on his own.

Check out the reviews and features of digital pianos and books for beginners by doing research on the net.

Alfreds All in One adult level 1,2,3 with cd/dvd educate you to a very high level, they also teach you music theory, excellent books for beginners.

Hope this helps

It's close to learning the guitar, which is why i learned the drums.

Nothing like banging on with 2 choppick like a monkey to get my blood going.

Really easy. This was the first thing i learned, took a few days:

I know it's cheap, but get one of those keyboards where the keys light up on the screen and it shows you the fingering. FOLLOW FINGERING EXACTLY, and you'll learn 2 or 3 songs in no time. A student could pull this off. Later on, LEARN SHEET MUSIC.

The piano is a very time-consuming instrument to learn. Reading the music is a large part of this.

If you can already read music, playing the piano becomes a lot easier, but if you don't, I'd recommend against it as a hobby.

Well, what do you want to play?

Sure.

Yeah... probably best to temper your expectations.

You'd probably pick up a shitload of bad (not easily reversible) habits without a teacher, but Youtube is a useful resource.

@k--m--k:"You can learn, but you will never be good at it if you don't pour hours into practicing"

This pretty much it. I took a piano course in college even though I never played/learned it before. I got good as course progress.

The problem was, I stopped after that course. Had I kept playing from that day, I would of gave Beethoven a run for his money.

I would skip it. Wait until you're done school. School, eat right, get enough sleep, and exercise. I'm in pharmacy and that's all I can manage. You should be busier than me lol

Yes, this is the main reason why I want to learn the piano. I need some new hobby or recreation to do or else Ill go mad. I don't care if I suck at it, but dammit I need to live life a bit.

I can't buy a very expensive thing on an instrument which I don't even know if ill enjoy or not, so my best bet is to buy a digital piano from casio or something which wouldn't entirely burn my wallet.

I love intrumental music. I'd love to play songs like Nuvole Bianche or Radioprotector. I found an entire learning guide on youtube too!

My life is miserable right now because it revolves around so little things, I'm busy all the time.

I spent over 5 months doing nothing but preparing for a board exam, and yet I still failed. Now I have to repeat the entire process again. When I look back at it, it feels like I wasted 5 months of my 21st year of life doing nothing but studying. I didn't hang out with friends, play videogames, or do anything enjoyable... I did absolutely nothing except study. It feels like I was in prison for over 5 months. I want to learn new hobbies and grow, I want to enhance my skill set as much as I can in anything. I'm already miserable as it is.

If you can afford please please buy yamaha at least n please dont go for casio, save up take your time but please dont go or casio and regarding the music to like the piano sound you might probably should have a liking for Mozart, beethoven, chopin, yanni, richard claydernan, maksim mrvica, jon schmidt. watch their videos on youtube.

@Iszdope: I disregard your opinion and substitute my own.

@ps3hdalltime: I'd love to buy a yamaha, but I'm honestly a broke college student. My parents won't lend me money either for a hobby which I don't know how to play! ... I need to learn first the basics and get into it and then maybe I can afford an upright yamaha piano... but getting one right off the bat won't do me any good.

I use to learn piano for 6 weeks. I gave up as was learning same thing over and over again. It was only a friends neighbour mum down street but they teaches piano lessons for a living but still charged. Later they said to my mum I liked teaching him. I said I no wonder why teaching same thing after 6 weeks and still getting paid.

@magicalclick: I love medicine. Its hard as **** but I love the profession. Its true I tried really hard and still failed. I honeslty don't have any excuse to myself as to why I failed, but all med students know how much this exam sucks. I don't want to give up. I'm continuing my med education even though I failed to do my board exam. I will not quit.

Everyone hates studying regardless of how much u love the subject. The same applies for medicine. I tried so hard and sacrificed so much for this exam and yet I still failed and my friends got good scores and will probably move on to get good residency programs... I can't quit now. I just can't. I'm still trying to recover from my current failure. It'll take some time for me to lick my wounds but I should be fine. I can't quit.

have you considered the kazoo? its much easier and more affordable I hear

It's not hard to get started. I studied music in college- and the only advice I can give is to stick with it. First brick wall you'll encounter is forcing your two hands to play two different things at the same time.

But it's way easier than guitar. If you press a key, it plays. No frets or strings or tuning to worry about.

Even though I don't play it regularly, I still have an old Yamaha keyboard laying around. I used to enjoy imitating music I hear in some places, mostly video games (go figure). I have been told I have keen ears to notes, so with a little experimenting trying to find the right notes, I can pick up on a song rather quickly. I learned how to play the Mega Man 2 theme this way, for example. I still have a lot of trouble with chords, though. Still, I would definitely say that the piano (or keyboard) is relatively easy to learn and enjoyable once you get the hang of it.

It's not that bad but to really get decent at it you need to know how to read notes. Once you learn that the rest of play a piano gets easier.

Slightly off topic but on topic. I don't get these tutorials on youtube. Have you got to have 600 fingers?. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CXNpm15kZY

I have a degree in Music Education.

Piano is Easy to learn the basics. Takes a lifetime to master.

Playing basic block chords and a right hand melody should take a few months with dedicated practice if you learn by ear, which is perfectly fine if you're going to be a hobbyist. If you want to play excerpts from video games you're going to have to learn to read music and now you're talking years of study.

Toughest part for most people is left hand/right hand independence, especially if you're older.

i took lessons for ~4 years as a child but i never practiced so i didn't get particularly good at it ( nor did I have much interest after the first year or so )

i never got good @ reading the music itself, but could play from memory pretty well. problem is if i got tripped up and had to read the music to know where i was, i'd be lost :)

i'm sure there is TONs of available material on the internet for people looking to learn.

like anything i'd wager your success will come down to the interest and time you dedicate to it. nothing is easy at first.

edit:

also, you're a pussy if you can't play this

Depends on your aptitude

piano: *check

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