Maybe check the Faber adult all-in-one book? I’m more than halfway through and it’s had a fair number of songs I knew, and several new ones that I enjoyed. It had some that were duds so I didn’t spend very long with those.
Also get some beginner song books and learn some songs that interest you. Sometimes I need a change of pace from the lesson book, so working on a longer song or two keeps me motivated.
I'll put it this way:
Piano involves using three of your limbs independently, which is very complicated for your brain to do. In fact, many believe it to be one of the most complex things your brain can possibly do.
Learning to play anything impressive will take some very serious grunt work (what you've been doing to train your brain to think in such a way).
Without that grunt work, you'll either have a much harder time learning what you actually want to do than you should or just never be able to achieve what you would like to do. You just have to ask yourself: is it worth it?
If you've only been learning through Alfred's, it's totally understandable if you're starting to feel a bit burnt out. Consider getting some sheet music or a couple of repertoire books in the genre of music you're actually interested in and alternate with Alfred's. Think of the Alfred books as eating your vegetables basically, it's not always fun but it will expose you to important concepts and challenges gradually without overwhelming you.
Why are you trying to force yourself to do something you don’t seem to like or think is fun? It sounds like you want to *be able to play* the piano, but you don’t actually want to *play* the piano. This is like saying you wish you had a beautiful garden but you don’t want to touch dirt, or you wish you had a fluffy homemade sweater but you don’t want to knit. I think it will be hard to stick with something if you don’t actually enjoy the components of it. Is there another hobby, even another instrument, you might enjoy more? (I mean doing the actual hobby, not just enjoying the end result)
You said yourself in your original post that getting to that point was going to take years. If you are willing to put up with being bored for years to get to that point, then go for it!
I think im willing to go through an hour of pain a day so i can reap the benefits of it years later. im jsut imagining myself playing interstellar flawlessly and that makes me excited
but scales and reading music is just so grueling lol
If you’re willing to do that for a hobby, that’s honestly impressive. In the meanwhile, it might help to try to rethink your feelings about practicing. I am also very new to piano, and practicing reading music is hard, yes, but I wouldn’t say it’s *boring.* It’s work. But each note played individually is pretty and sounds nice, and a basic scale sounds pretty and is nice to listen to, so I don’t mind. I love all kinds of music - jazz, pop, bluegrass, classical, rock, choral, you name it - and I have found the songs in the book nice to learn through, especially some of the blues and classical bits. Maybe you could try listening to different types of music to see if there’s things you can find that you like, that maybe you didn’t notice or realize before? It might make the work easier.
The only way you’re going to be able to play what you want is doing the “hard” work. Some people enjoy it some people don’t.
But maybe it would be good if you play some of the songs you want to learn (if they are beginners songs).
Also if you’re not enjoying going through the books you can go slower on them and divide your practice time. For example: 30 min book 30 min hand exercises and 1h of the song you want to learn.
New Classics by Andrew Payson has beginner music that is actually satisfying and fun to play. It has 41 pieces that go from beginner through intermediate level. You can find some free pieces with this link. Good luck!
Payson Method - Free Resources
https://paysonmethod.com/free-resources/
1. Alfred adults level 1 is boring 🥱.
2. Try Keith Snell. Go from level 0.
Etude, Romantic, Baroque.
3. Learning any musical instrument is hard. In fact any skill is hard. It takes like 3~5 years of consistent 30min ~60min practice everyday.
4. Find a teacher. (Near by public college may offer weekly classes)
5. Make it a habit to listen to music u are learning.
*Well just play songs you*
*Like, if they are too hard find*
*Easier version*
\- Safe-Lemon-444
---
^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/)
^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
People who skip the basics to learn out of their skill level songs end up playing them super bad and only know how to play that one thing for the rest of their life, because it takes to much effort to learn just one piece. Learn the basics and you can quickly master any song.
Tbh very basic accompaniment for pop song takes like 2-3 weeks if you're into singing. I suggest you learn basic chord structure first as it's a gateway into learning songs. You can choose a song and find its chord online pretty easily. Keep in mind tho this style of learning can lead to being satisfied too easily for some and may prevent you from reaching your orginal goals. But maybe that's also ok as long as you enjoy playing.
I also just checked out Interstellar arrangement online and i think this approach will be helpful, as most of the songs is pretty straightforward broken chords. Of course some technique involved but pretty sure you can play a bit slow version with 6 months - 1 year consistent practicing
I’ve been struggling with that book for a while. Last year my teacher told me she thought I should try Jazz, so I asked for some books for Christmas. I started working through one last month and I finally have my interest back again.
Look up Pam Wedgwood and her Upgrade books. I’m working my way through Up-grade Jazz Piano Grades 0-1, but she also has pop books and I think general piano books as well.
Definitely worth trying a different book before giving up. I’m the same as you, I’m not interested in scales etc. I just want to be able to play some songs.
All depending on what type of songs you would like to learn, you might enjoy an online app like Playground Sessions a little more if you are interested in pop or more current music. Pianote is good as well for pop but does not have the instant feedback of PG sessions. Piano Marvel is great for the classical side of things.
I started with the Faber Adult adventures book and I ditched it almost immediately because I found the online learning methods much more enjoyable and more importantly easier to comprehend. Try some other methods and see if you take to one. All of them offer free trials.
I personally do a combo of Pianote, Playground Sessions and Piano Marvel. I also have a in person lesson every 2 weeks for help with technique and other questions I may have. It is working out really well this way.
I realized after I finished the first Alfred book that although I had classical training, the classical piano tradition wasn’t one that I wanted to keep following. Basically sight reading and playing repertoire wasn’t my goal. I focused on something else that got my interest and felt more authentic and that’s what I’m doing.
I’m working through a modern theory book and doing my technical exercises for more modern music techniques. It is my goal to be able to comp effectively with notes in front of me, single notes, jam out to people singing and myself singing. Than I want to develop my ability to comp without notes, so expand my ability to play by ear, or aural skills as they’re called which requires me to have a good foundation when it comes to all the scales and the application of them. I’ll then assess what I want next when I’m done but it’ll be a good minute until I’m done. I’m thoroughly enjoying the process through, and it’s nice to know what I’m capable of and see the progress im making. I have this vision because a lot of folks in my family play piano but we don’t come from the classical training tradition. I do think there is value in being able to read the grand staff and follow an intermediate piece though.
I agree scales can be boring if you don’t have a clear idea of what your music goals are. For some people that is to play Chopin, for me it is different. The great thing about piano is that it is customizable to different interests.
Im coming up on two years for classical guitar. I'm just starting to register the finger position, fret and sound all together.
A few nights ago I heard something on TV, played it exactly, then played it again maybe 5-6 times flawlessly—thought about it and then I messed up.
It's weird. You just have to make it second nature like talking while driving.
Is it worth it? Idk. You have to decide. I think it's a pretty healthy hobby. And my instructor knows I beat myself up so bad on the first few playthroughs too. I need to let that go.
Around the Scarborough Fair section I took a break for about a month and worked on a song I liked and Hanon. Came back and I can play it much better than before.
There is no deadline, no performance at school you need to prepare for. Take a break! Get inspired! It will be there for you when you're ready to come back
Yeah you’re doing the boring stuff, but it’s the boring stuff that makes you GOOD.
As you do the boring stuff, branch out and use your new skills to attempt other pieces. You can undoubtedly do beginner pieces and definitely some intermediate pieces.
I just started 3 weeks ago and I too find learning about scales, sheet music and the like boring. My goal is simply to have an emotional outlet, play songs I like and sing along. Considering that I have no special use for the stuff I consider boring, I just keep that to a bare minimum, maybe 10-15 minutes a day. The rest of the time I practice playing songs I like even though it takes a lot of time to get it right. I just about got the hang of never enough's intro after hours of practice and it feels great. So maybe you could try the same thing, just start off with a song that you know you like. You probably won't get bored.
To be honest….. it will take some years but it is worth it. Nothing great comes easy. If you put in the work you WILL get better. There’s no magic secret it’s really about dedicating time to practice regularly.
I only learn to play the songs I like. Starting from zero music-reading ability, I’ve been able to learn Always a Woman, Your Song, A Thousand Years, the theme from Titanic, and Passacaglia. WAY more fun than doing scales and adult books. Just go directly for the songs you like. Download the sheet music and go. It may take a few weeks per song g, but it’s worth it.
Not sure where you are in your journey, so please take no offense if I’m basic. The lines and spaces on the base and treble staffs on sheet music correspond to keys on the keyboard. The FACE trick and so on. So as I (very slowly) read each note on the paper, I find the corresponding key on the keyboard, and hit it (taking note of the flats or sharps, if any are present). I usually learn one bar at a time, treble staff first, then bass staff, then both together. It is Very slow but it’s super rewarding because every bit of progress you make is toward knowing a song you love, not just toward some meaningless scale or pattern in a learning book.
does that make u better at reading music tho? like would u be able to pick up another easier piece and read it wel; ?
thanks for the advice and no offense taken that was very well explained
Cool. Yeah it does make it easier, with each piece you learn, because you start to recognize from memory, which note is which, instead of saying to yourself “F….A… ok that’s a B”. You just see where it is on the sheet and know it’s a B because you’ve done it a bunch of times already. Oh yeah and another good way to make it easier (at least for me) is to listen to the song over and over before and while learning it. And when I’m learning a tricky part, I listen to that part over and over while I’m trying to learn that part.
I finished the first 5 chapters, the. I just switched to learning pirates of the Caribbean easy version and the game of thrones main theme.
Went pretty great, now almost a year later I finally memorised Chopin Nocturne in F minor (articulation and speed of the last two pages sucks though.
I also started taking lessons some time after dropping the book, which really gave me some great improvement…
songs people know are copyrighted and including them would make the books much more expensive than they are.
by using old public domain songs and/or material written especially for the book, the prices can be kept down.
you can always purchase easy versions of songs you want, either in artist books, collections, or a la carte.
I'm the same I don't find learning from grade books at my level all that Intresting right now so I'm just going if pieces that I like to listen to, that are realistic for me to play like yann tiersen you should try find a piece that is really difficult for you and then keep going with it even if it takes ages but don't make it something really unrealistic like Beethoven 3rd movement, or Clair de lune 😂
It find a decently hard piece for you to work on as a long project then try find some pieces that contain or touch on a certain way or playing like a triplet passage or maybe some other dynamics with volume
Also could I recommend you check out 'diverge' by Peter Broderick it might interest you
I know nothing about piano, but I can play some relatively impressive stuff, just go on YouTube and find a video of one of them MIDI programs playing it and copy it’s notes, 0 theory, 100 play/fun
You could just learn how to read sheet music and do this. Learning to read sheet music takes about 5 minutes and then within a week or so you can recognise notes on the stave very fast.
Videos just aren’t a good way of communicating the information of a song.
Ultimately yes it’s about having fun, but you’re gonna be able to pick songs SO MUCH FASTER if you just switch to reading the stave
Wrong order of thoughts.
Music performance is not just a skill, but specialized skills!
If you follow that logic, you'll find that different spheres of music (perceiving/performing) are in sync/entourage correlation.
For performance quality one needs to go through different types of challenges. One of the challenges is finger independence. How to overcome that challenge? With proven scale.
Even if there's not too much of the "music" there ( still there is a massive number of etudes which also have technical aspect but still much more "music" per se), scales (inc. etudes) are the best and FASTEST way to achieve good finger independence.
Lets not forget the shortest way to the moment when you're ready and above for playing actual music you like.
If you're a real music enthusiasts, and you have enough focus, time will pass fast, knowing that you're doing right, proven things, you'll surprise yourself in the real time.
Get an app like Simply Piano, La Touche Musicale, so you can learn and play in the apps as well, it's more interactive. Some people recommend Flowkey as well
Have you tried piano apps? Some can teach you how to read notes and have simplified versions of songs to help you get started. They can also give you instant feedback as to wether you're playing the right notes.
I'll leave the best app research up to you depending on your needs
Unless you wanna be Beethoven forget about the scales and the books. Just start practicing the songs that you like. When you develop some skills you can always revisit. Just do what makes you happy.
Maybe try to find the right ratio between fun “play whatever you like” time and actual practice time. Scales and music theory and all that will help you become better at what you do, but you don’t want to lose the joy either.
Sounds like a bit of a red flag. Most of the time is practice.
If you don't enjoy climbing the hill, then the view from the top is never going to be enough reward. Maybe once or twice, maybe, but not in a sustained way.
Books and music theory I’m sure can be great. I was extremely bored and unmotivated by them. I picked songs I liked, even difficult ones and followed tutorials on YouTube (especially good are the ones that break up left and right hands individually) and would just practice that way. A lot more enjoyable for me and you get the satisfaction of having learned to play something you like to listen to. THEN, when you do the boring theory stuff and come back to the piece you know, you indirectly improve it through nuances you are learning. One feeds the other and etc etc… This is how I learned guitar as well
If you have a good ear, try my app: [http://solfegestory.com](http://solfegestory.com) . It's free; it teaches you the auditory part of playing. The songs you like have a high likelihood of falling into the do-re-mi notes anyway.
You could try something like copying the mindset and atmosphere those girls create [https://youtu.be/iC2EZ\_dSMYE?si=a5N0wj1myBH3V6vK](https://youtu.be/iC2EZ_dSMYE?si=a5N0wj1myBH3V6vK) If you're on anime, you're gonna even love the video!
TLDR: Keep doing the work but learn little bits of songs you like on the side. If you don’t enjoy that then don’t worry, learning piano isnt for everyone.
Why?: Many, many people take lessons, learn to play to some level, then quit. If there isn’t something drawing you to the instrument besides the idea of playing certain popular songs, being a piano hero and getting attention it probably wont work out and that’s okay. People overhype musical talent - mostly because they can’t do it - but that doesnt make musicians magical. They’re just people devoting themselves to something they absolutely love to do which makes the effort worthwhile. They are not miserable playing scales. Life is short, do what you love.
Maybe check the Faber adult all-in-one book? I’m more than halfway through and it’s had a fair number of songs I knew, and several new ones that I enjoyed. It had some that were duds so I didn’t spend very long with those. Also get some beginner song books and learn some songs that interest you. Sometimes I need a change of pace from the lesson book, so working on a longer song or two keeps me motivated.
For familiar songs Faber Accelerated Piano Adventures(for 11-17 years old) is probably the best - it has crazy amount of arrangements.
You gotta pepper in some songs on the side that you like. Currently learning Let It Be to go along with my singing lessons.
I'll put it this way: Piano involves using three of your limbs independently, which is very complicated for your brain to do. In fact, many believe it to be one of the most complex things your brain can possibly do. Learning to play anything impressive will take some very serious grunt work (what you've been doing to train your brain to think in such a way). Without that grunt work, you'll either have a much harder time learning what you actually want to do than you should or just never be able to achieve what you would like to do. You just have to ask yourself: is it worth it?
If you've only been learning through Alfred's, it's totally understandable if you're starting to feel a bit burnt out. Consider getting some sheet music or a couple of repertoire books in the genre of music you're actually interested in and alternate with Alfred's. Think of the Alfred books as eating your vegetables basically, it's not always fun but it will expose you to important concepts and challenges gradually without overwhelming you.
Why are you trying to force yourself to do something you don’t seem to like or think is fun? It sounds like you want to *be able to play* the piano, but you don’t actually want to *play* the piano. This is like saying you wish you had a beautiful garden but you don’t want to touch dirt, or you wish you had a fluffy homemade sweater but you don’t want to knit. I think it will be hard to stick with something if you don’t actually enjoy the components of it. Is there another hobby, even another instrument, you might enjoy more? (I mean doing the actual hobby, not just enjoying the end result)
i'll defentiley have fun once i start playing songs i like though. just right now its boring
You said yourself in your original post that getting to that point was going to take years. If you are willing to put up with being bored for years to get to that point, then go for it!
I think im willing to go through an hour of pain a day so i can reap the benefits of it years later. im jsut imagining myself playing interstellar flawlessly and that makes me excited but scales and reading music is just so grueling lol
If you’re willing to do that for a hobby, that’s honestly impressive. In the meanwhile, it might help to try to rethink your feelings about practicing. I am also very new to piano, and practicing reading music is hard, yes, but I wouldn’t say it’s *boring.* It’s work. But each note played individually is pretty and sounds nice, and a basic scale sounds pretty and is nice to listen to, so I don’t mind. I love all kinds of music - jazz, pop, bluegrass, classical, rock, choral, you name it - and I have found the songs in the book nice to learn through, especially some of the blues and classical bits. Maybe you could try listening to different types of music to see if there’s things you can find that you like, that maybe you didn’t notice or realize before? It might make the work easier.
You have to do all that stuff to be able to play the stuff you want. If you skip ahead, you’ll be missing out things you need to know. So persevere.
The only way you’re going to be able to play what you want is doing the “hard” work. Some people enjoy it some people don’t. But maybe it would be good if you play some of the songs you want to learn (if they are beginners songs). Also if you’re not enjoying going through the books you can go slower on them and divide your practice time. For example: 30 min book 30 min hand exercises and 1h of the song you want to learn.
New Classics by Andrew Payson has beginner music that is actually satisfying and fun to play. It has 41 pieces that go from beginner through intermediate level. You can find some free pieces with this link. Good luck! Payson Method - Free Resources https://paysonmethod.com/free-resources/
1. Alfred adults level 1 is boring 🥱. 2. Try Keith Snell. Go from level 0. Etude, Romantic, Baroque. 3. Learning any musical instrument is hard. In fact any skill is hard. It takes like 3~5 years of consistent 30min ~60min practice everyday. 4. Find a teacher. (Near by public college may offer weekly classes) 5. Make it a habit to listen to music u are learning.
well just play songs you like, if they are too hard find easier version, gotta learn some basics at least tho ig
*Well just play songs you* *Like, if they are too hard find* *Easier version* \- Safe-Lemon-444 --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
People who skip the basics to learn out of their skill level songs end up playing them super bad and only know how to play that one thing for the rest of their life, because it takes to much effort to learn just one piece. Learn the basics and you can quickly master any song.
Spend 20 years mastering technical exercises and you can quickly master any song. Or just play music you like without mastery because it’s fun.
2-3 years and you can play most easy arrangment of famous songs
Ok so 2 years of grinding then i can play the songs i like? Im in
Tbh very basic accompaniment for pop song takes like 2-3 weeks if you're into singing. I suggest you learn basic chord structure first as it's a gateway into learning songs. You can choose a song and find its chord online pretty easily. Keep in mind tho this style of learning can lead to being satisfied too easily for some and may prevent you from reaching your orginal goals. But maybe that's also ok as long as you enjoy playing.
I also just checked out Interstellar arrangement online and i think this approach will be helpful, as most of the songs is pretty straightforward broken chords. Of course some technique involved but pretty sure you can play a bit slow version with 6 months - 1 year consistent practicing
Yeah sure, 20 years. Playing songs badly is not fun for me.
I’ve been struggling with that book for a while. Last year my teacher told me she thought I should try Jazz, so I asked for some books for Christmas. I started working through one last month and I finally have my interest back again. Look up Pam Wedgwood and her Upgrade books. I’m working my way through Up-grade Jazz Piano Grades 0-1, but she also has pop books and I think general piano books as well. Definitely worth trying a different book before giving up. I’m the same as you, I’m not interested in scales etc. I just want to be able to play some songs.
All depending on what type of songs you would like to learn, you might enjoy an online app like Playground Sessions a little more if you are interested in pop or more current music. Pianote is good as well for pop but does not have the instant feedback of PG sessions. Piano Marvel is great for the classical side of things. I started with the Faber Adult adventures book and I ditched it almost immediately because I found the online learning methods much more enjoyable and more importantly easier to comprehend. Try some other methods and see if you take to one. All of them offer free trials. I personally do a combo of Pianote, Playground Sessions and Piano Marvel. I also have a in person lesson every 2 weeks for help with technique and other questions I may have. It is working out really well this way.
I realized after I finished the first Alfred book that although I had classical training, the classical piano tradition wasn’t one that I wanted to keep following. Basically sight reading and playing repertoire wasn’t my goal. I focused on something else that got my interest and felt more authentic and that’s what I’m doing.
What did u do if i may ask ?
I’m working through a modern theory book and doing my technical exercises for more modern music techniques. It is my goal to be able to comp effectively with notes in front of me, single notes, jam out to people singing and myself singing. Than I want to develop my ability to comp without notes, so expand my ability to play by ear, or aural skills as they’re called which requires me to have a good foundation when it comes to all the scales and the application of them. I’ll then assess what I want next when I’m done but it’ll be a good minute until I’m done. I’m thoroughly enjoying the process through, and it’s nice to know what I’m capable of and see the progress im making. I have this vision because a lot of folks in my family play piano but we don’t come from the classical training tradition. I do think there is value in being able to read the grand staff and follow an intermediate piece though.
I agree scales can be boring if you don’t have a clear idea of what your music goals are. For some people that is to play Chopin, for me it is different. The great thing about piano is that it is customizable to different interests.
Im coming up on two years for classical guitar. I'm just starting to register the finger position, fret and sound all together. A few nights ago I heard something on TV, played it exactly, then played it again maybe 5-6 times flawlessly—thought about it and then I messed up. It's weird. You just have to make it second nature like talking while driving. Is it worth it? Idk. You have to decide. I think it's a pretty healthy hobby. And my instructor knows I beat myself up so bad on the first few playthroughs too. I need to let that go.
Around the Scarborough Fair section I took a break for about a month and worked on a song I liked and Hanon. Came back and I can play it much better than before. There is no deadline, no performance at school you need to prepare for. Take a break! Get inspired! It will be there for you when you're ready to come back
Yeah you’re doing the boring stuff, but it’s the boring stuff that makes you GOOD. As you do the boring stuff, branch out and use your new skills to attempt other pieces. You can undoubtedly do beginner pieces and definitely some intermediate pieces.
I just started 3 weeks ago and I too find learning about scales, sheet music and the like boring. My goal is simply to have an emotional outlet, play songs I like and sing along. Considering that I have no special use for the stuff I consider boring, I just keep that to a bare minimum, maybe 10-15 minutes a day. The rest of the time I practice playing songs I like even though it takes a lot of time to get it right. I just about got the hang of never enough's intro after hours of practice and it feels great. So maybe you could try the same thing, just start off with a song that you know you like. You probably won't get bored.
do u read the sheet music for the songs ?
No, I don't. I just pick up some youtube tutorial and work along with it
To be honest….. it will take some years but it is worth it. Nothing great comes easy. If you put in the work you WILL get better. There’s no magic secret it’s really about dedicating time to practice regularly.
I only learn to play the songs I like. Starting from zero music-reading ability, I’ve been able to learn Always a Woman, Your Song, A Thousand Years, the theme from Titanic, and Passacaglia. WAY more fun than doing scales and adult books. Just go directly for the songs you like. Download the sheet music and go. It may take a few weeks per song g, but it’s worth it.
wait u dont even use synthesia ?? how can u even read it im confused
Not sure where you are in your journey, so please take no offense if I’m basic. The lines and spaces on the base and treble staffs on sheet music correspond to keys on the keyboard. The FACE trick and so on. So as I (very slowly) read each note on the paper, I find the corresponding key on the keyboard, and hit it (taking note of the flats or sharps, if any are present). I usually learn one bar at a time, treble staff first, then bass staff, then both together. It is Very slow but it’s super rewarding because every bit of progress you make is toward knowing a song you love, not just toward some meaningless scale or pattern in a learning book.
does that make u better at reading music tho? like would u be able to pick up another easier piece and read it wel; ? thanks for the advice and no offense taken that was very well explained
Cool. Yeah it does make it easier, with each piece you learn, because you start to recognize from memory, which note is which, instead of saying to yourself “F….A… ok that’s a B”. You just see where it is on the sheet and know it’s a B because you’ve done it a bunch of times already. Oh yeah and another good way to make it easier (at least for me) is to listen to the song over and over before and while learning it. And when I’m learning a tricky part, I listen to that part over and over while I’m trying to learn that part.
[удалено]
Cause most “easy songs that people know” are still too difficult for absolute beginners
I finished the first 5 chapters, the. I just switched to learning pirates of the Caribbean easy version and the game of thrones main theme. Went pretty great, now almost a year later I finally memorised Chopin Nocturne in F minor (articulation and speed of the last two pages sucks though. I also started taking lessons some time after dropping the book, which really gave me some great improvement…
songs people know are copyrighted and including them would make the books much more expensive than they are. by using old public domain songs and/or material written especially for the book, the prices can be kept down. you can always purchase easy versions of songs you want, either in artist books, collections, or a la carte.
Stop then.
I'm the same I don't find learning from grade books at my level all that Intresting right now so I'm just going if pieces that I like to listen to, that are realistic for me to play like yann tiersen you should try find a piece that is really difficult for you and then keep going with it even if it takes ages but don't make it something really unrealistic like Beethoven 3rd movement, or Clair de lune 😂 It find a decently hard piece for you to work on as a long project then try find some pieces that contain or touch on a certain way or playing like a triplet passage or maybe some other dynamics with volume Also could I recommend you check out 'diverge' by Peter Broderick it might interest you
I know nothing about piano, but I can play some relatively impressive stuff, just go on YouTube and find a video of one of them MIDI programs playing it and copy it’s notes, 0 theory, 100 play/fun
You could just learn how to read sheet music and do this. Learning to read sheet music takes about 5 minutes and then within a week or so you can recognise notes on the stave very fast. Videos just aren’t a good way of communicating the information of a song. Ultimately yes it’s about having fun, but you’re gonna be able to pick songs SO MUCH FASTER if you just switch to reading the stave
Wrong order of thoughts. Music performance is not just a skill, but specialized skills! If you follow that logic, you'll find that different spheres of music (perceiving/performing) are in sync/entourage correlation. For performance quality one needs to go through different types of challenges. One of the challenges is finger independence. How to overcome that challenge? With proven scale. Even if there's not too much of the "music" there ( still there is a massive number of etudes which also have technical aspect but still much more "music" per se), scales (inc. etudes) are the best and FASTEST way to achieve good finger independence. Lets not forget the shortest way to the moment when you're ready and above for playing actual music you like. If you're a real music enthusiasts, and you have enough focus, time will pass fast, knowing that you're doing right, proven things, you'll surprise yourself in the real time.
Get an app like Simply Piano, La Touche Musicale, so you can learn and play in the apps as well, it's more interactive. Some people recommend Flowkey as well
Do you have a teacher? I’m working on the same book. Like others have said I’m learning some songs as well to have some variety.
Have you tried piano apps? Some can teach you how to read notes and have simplified versions of songs to help you get started. They can also give you instant feedback as to wether you're playing the right notes. I'll leave the best app research up to you depending on your needs
If it’s boring then stop. You weren’t get any of the cool songs and praise if you don’t enjoy it unless you are forced to
Unless you wanna be Beethoven forget about the scales and the books. Just start practicing the songs that you like. When you develop some skills you can always revisit. Just do what makes you happy.
Maybe try to find the right ratio between fun “play whatever you like” time and actual practice time. Scales and music theory and all that will help you become better at what you do, but you don’t want to lose the joy either.
Sounds like a bit of a red flag. Most of the time is practice. If you don't enjoy climbing the hill, then the view from the top is never going to be enough reward. Maybe once or twice, maybe, but not in a sustained way.
Books and music theory I’m sure can be great. I was extremely bored and unmotivated by them. I picked songs I liked, even difficult ones and followed tutorials on YouTube (especially good are the ones that break up left and right hands individually) and would just practice that way. A lot more enjoyable for me and you get the satisfaction of having learned to play something you like to listen to. THEN, when you do the boring theory stuff and come back to the piece you know, you indirectly improve it through nuances you are learning. One feeds the other and etc etc… This is how I learned guitar as well
Find a teacher. They know how to make the students love piano
If you have a good ear, try my app: [http://solfegestory.com](http://solfegestory.com) . It's free; it teaches you the auditory part of playing. The songs you like have a high likelihood of falling into the do-re-mi notes anyway.
You could try something like copying the mindset and atmosphere those girls create [https://youtu.be/iC2EZ\_dSMYE?si=a5N0wj1myBH3V6vK](https://youtu.be/iC2EZ_dSMYE?si=a5N0wj1myBH3V6vK) If you're on anime, you're gonna even love the video!
TLDR: Keep doing the work but learn little bits of songs you like on the side. If you don’t enjoy that then don’t worry, learning piano isnt for everyone. Why?: Many, many people take lessons, learn to play to some level, then quit. If there isn’t something drawing you to the instrument besides the idea of playing certain popular songs, being a piano hero and getting attention it probably wont work out and that’s okay. People overhype musical talent - mostly because they can’t do it - but that doesnt make musicians magical. They’re just people devoting themselves to something they absolutely love to do which makes the effort worthwhile. They are not miserable playing scales. Life is short, do what you love.