What’s up my piano friends! Today I’m going on a rant in response to some comments on a video I put out called: How Long Does it Actually Take to Learn Piano. The reason I put up this video is when beginner pianists come to me, this is the question they always ask – How long is it going to take to get good?
The reason I’m kind of angry at these comments, is that before I even created the video I knew it was going to be super controversial, everyone has an opinion on this, so I was going to make it very clear exactly what I mean by “good at piano,” how long it’s going to take, and the exact process I’m talking about sending students through.
I literally said, to get good at piano you have to practice a certain number of minutes per day, and if you’re consistent for a certain amount of time, your technique will be good, and I defined what I meant by good. I said “good” was when you can play all 12 major scales at a certain bpm on a metronome. So, everything was super clear.
Then, I did the same thing for how long it takes to get good at playing by ear and also for actually learning songs.
Yet, even after detailing everything to an almost stupid-deep level, people are still leaving comments that make absolutely NO SENSE. So, I just felt like I needed to respond to some of these.
The Biggest Comment I Got
Something people kept saying in the comments was “It takes a lifetime to learn piano.” This is literally the most unhelpful answer you could tell somebody. Every time I hear this or see this it’s always from somebody who is just trying to sound “smart” or “cool.”
It makes no logical sense. Like, are you saying Beethoven, Mozart, and Chopin, the day before they died, weren’t even good at piano? Let alone great or masters. It makes no sense.
Even more than that, the reason I hate the answer, is it actually hurts people. There are so many people that want to learn piano, somebody tells them something like this, and they’re already thinking it’ll take too long of a time for them to learn, so they are too afraid to even start.
Instead of giving that answer, why not give an answer that actually makes sense and requires a little bit of thought?
Defining Good
Another comment I got was digging into the definition of being “good at piano.”
How do you define what is good on piano? Not what is great, not what is at master level, but what’s good? There is no real answer. Good is a relative term.
You could take somebody who has never played piano before and he might think a certain person is good at piano and then you might take a classically trained pianist who has been playing for years and they might look at the same person and think that person sucks at piano.
For me, my job as a teacher is to communicate and understand the question someone is asking me. When beginner piano players come in and ask how long it takes to get good, they just want to be able to play songs for their friends and family that sound cool. That’s not the same as being a concert level pianist or something on that level.
So, we have to have our definition of good somewhere, and I defined it based on an “average Joe” hearing you play piano. That’s not right or wrong, but we have to set a certain point so we can say how long it takes to get good and how long you’ll have to practice.
It’s not about being right or wrong, it’s about how this answer can be useful and helpful to someone else.
Classical Snobs
One of the comments I got said “he said songs… bye there” and this is a person I’d like to call a “Classical Snob.” These are the people that are “too cool for school” who don’t care about anything but Beethoven or Mozart.
Oh, and by the way, I’ve played all of that in college and they can go back and look at those videos from the early days of my YouTube channel. I’m not bashing classical music, I’m bashing “Classical Snobs” who don’t understand that just because someone wants to play pop songs on piano doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing. It’s not any worse or better than classical music, it’s just a different taste and a different preference.
In classical music there’s a difference between songs and pieces. A song is something that is sung. Opera would be considered a song. Justin Beiber’s music would be considered a song. Beethoven’s creations would each be considered a piece.
First of all, who cares? This is just a definition. If I told somebody if they could play a Beethoven song they’d know exactly what I was talking about.
Second of all, when’s the last time you were sitting at a piano and somebody said “Hey, can you play a piece of music for me?” Nobody says that! People walk up and they say “Hey, can you play me a song?” I’m trying to use language that people understand, not language where I can look cool and smart for people.
The Most Disingenuous Video on YouTube
This is a comment I got that I have to rant on. Shiina Ringo left this comment:
“This must be the most disingenuous video on all of YouTube. Anyone who wants to follow this advice, go ahead. See for yourself It will only take you a few months. In under a year none other than yourself will have proven to yourself that you just can’t learn the piano in under a year. There’s a good reason why his teachers said what they said. And there’s a good reason why they are actual teachers, and he is just some bloke on YouTube…”
What do you think I was doing before I started making YouTube videos? Do you think I was a trumpet player and then just started going on YouTube and creating piano teaching videos? No! I was a piano teacher before I started making these videos. I taught hundreds of piano students before I went on YouTube and started teaching the same kind of stuff.
That comment on my YouTube channel just makes no sense. Why would you not trust someone just because they’re on YouTube? Does that not make them a teacher?
Shiina goes on to comment that even after 11 months there’s no way you’re going to be a good pianist.
Look, I’ve had students that by 6 months were already good pianists by my definition. And, I already clearly defined in the video what I meant by “good pianist” so that comment again doesn’t make any sense.
Shiina goes on to say in her comment “You are ruining some people’s lives here, Piano Superhuman. Their dreams, even their possible careers.”
Am I really ruining people’s lives? I don’t think so.
She goes on to say that you should practice for 11 years and maybe then she’ll go see you play in a concert hall.
This is the thing though, not everyone wants to play piano in a concert hall. Not everybody wants to get good enough to play piano at a concert hall.
Is it going to take more than six months to get good enough to play in a concert hall? Of course, but what if you just want to get good enough at piano to play for your family and friends? What if you just want to get good enough to play for yourself and you simply enjoy the process of learning? What if you just want to play for your church or worship team?
Telling people the type of things that Shiina said makes people unmotivated to practice. It’s not helping out anybody saying these things. This is the least practical comment I’ve ever seen.
Another comment I got mentioned that it was a great video and he outlined the type of practice schedule he was going to follow to improve his skills. This was great!
I want to be a practical piano teacher. I don’t want to be the guy who sits in the clouds, is too cool for school, and doesn’t teach anything practical and says stuff just to sound smart. I want to tell you things that actually work and that you can implement easily.
I’m not some piano professor guy. I’m just a dude who learned how to play piano faster than the average person, has taught a lot of people, and figured out what works and what doesn’t. That’s it. And if you have a plan and follow it – It works! I’ve seen it time and time again with my students and I know how long it takes.
10 Minutes Per Day
Another comment I got said “10 minutes? That’s nothing, you might as well not practice at all. Make it minimum an hour and aim for everyday, not 5 times a week.”
First of all, in the video I mentioned that 10 minutes was just for the technique session. I said to spend 10 minutes on scales and technique drills. This person didn’t include the parts on learning songs, playing by ear, and all the other parts. They obviously didn’t actually watch the whole video.
Second of all, you absolutely don’t need a minimum of an hour a day. Of course, the more practice the better, but there are a lot of people who don’t have an hour per day. They might only have 30-40 minutes per day and you can absolutely learn piano with consistently practice 30-40 minutes per day, even with five days per week.
The reason I don’t say every day is because when you set those types of expectations for people, it’s unrealistic. You know why? Because life happens! Things come up. There will be a day when you’re sick, or your car breaks down, or something else comes up and you can’t practice that day.
If you tell people to practice every day, yes, in theory, that’s great advice. Telling people to practice five days per week is actually realistic. Practical advice matters.
3 Hours Per Day
This comment really irks me too:
“First you need a good teacher. Then you need to practice 3 hours per day for 3 years and you’ll be formidable. No skipping days.”
So, you’re telling me that you practiced for 3 hours per day, for 3 years, and never skipped a day? You’re a liar! There’s no way! Nobody has ever done that. Why are you trying to give people this advice? You’re not basing this in reality and it just makes no sense.
It Depends
A comment I agree with partly, mentioned how “It depends” will always be the answer to how long it’ll take to learn piano because everyone learns at different paces.
I do agree that some people learn faster than other people. However, in my experience being a piano teacher, if the people that are practicing really do practice the same amount, are consistent, and practice the correct way with the correct techniques, it doesn’t make a very big difference if you’re a fast learner or slow learner.
From my perspective, if someone is at let’s just say a six month level of piano abilities, if they’re a fast learner they might be at maybe a seven month level while a really slow learner might be at a five month level. It’s not like if the slow learner is doing everything right they’ll be at a one month level.
There’s not that big of a difference between fast and slow learners. I think people assume there is a big difference because the “natural fast learners” are actually just people who practice consistently while the “slow learners” aren’t actually practicing that much.
One thing that happens a lot, is that students will come in and say they practice five days per week, but when I ask them when they actually practiced I find out they haven’t really been as consistent as they said. They think they’ve been practicing way more than they actually have. Often times the “fast learners” are people who actually do the work.
A Good Comment?
Another comment from Nelson Smith says “Sounds legit, rather than be a naysayer, I think I’ll give it a try first.”
Wouldn’t that be awesome if everybody just did that instead of talking about something before they tried it? I really appreciated this comment and had to mention it.
Learning to Play by Ear
When I was explaining how long it takes to learn to play by ear, I mentioned how it helps a lot if you use drills and exercises with a very specific progression. I got in-depth in this video.
Basically, this progression involves starting with 3 notes, and then slowly and gradually systematically progressing, adding one note at a time until you can play the whole keyboard.
This is how I learned when I took a class called “Oral Skills” in college. Before I took this class, I was trying to learn to play by ear simply by listening to songs, without using any specific drills. I had a really tough time with this. And while I believe you can learn this way, I think it just takes a lot longer and causes way more frustration. You might also need a certain level of natural ability to do this.
Instead, why not use what works? Why not use a systematic process?
25 Years
This next comment, from Mark Coetsee, really had me laughing hard:
“25 years if you have natural talent, start really young, have expert tuition and work at it like a slave…”
Really Mark? Really? You think it takes 25 years to get good at piano? I really hope you didn’t practice for 25 years and still aren’t good at piano. If that’s true, bro, you need to try something else because it definitely shouldn’t take anywhere close to 25 years. That’s ridiculous.
U r so handsome and cute!!
I can’t argue with that 😉 I do my best. I think it’s mostly my piano hat to be he honest.
The 10,000 Hour Rule
This next comment is basically summarizing the 10,000 hour rule which is a really famous talent rule popularized by the author Malcom Gladwell in the book Outliers. If you actually read the book, which I did and thought it was phenomenal, you’ll learn that it basically takes 10,000 hours to master a skill, which he defines as being in the top 1% in the world for.
This is true – if you want to master a skill. You know, if you want to become the Lebron James of piano, the next Beethoven or Mozart. But if you just want to get good at piano, especially how I defined it, it doesn’t take anywhere near 10,000 hours, especially if you follow the plan I outlined in the video.
Now, I get the point of the 10,000 hour rule, but again I think that it dissuades people when they think it’s going to take 10,000 hours to get good.
You Seem Straight Coked Up
I found this comment from Joel Middaugh pretty funny.
He said “I know you have heard this before, but you seem straight coked up.”
Well Joel, I actually don’t do any drugs. The only thing I’m coked up on is life and piano 🙂
My Favorite Comment
My favorite comment of them all was from Xiao Yi who mentioned that what I was saying made a whole lot of sense and that he has been playing piano for 16 years and thought I was being clear and fair.
I really appreciated this comment because this is somebody who actually has been playing piano for 16 years, not somebody that’s just guessing, or who is trying to sound smart or cool. This is a person who has played for a significant amount of time and understands that if you use these strategies, they work.
If you’re really serious about learning piano, I do have a free Become a Piano Superhuman Course available which you should definitely check out too!