As I mentioned earlier, it took me years to learn to sing in a choir. When I decided to learn keyboard, I definitely didn’t want to repeat that experience. I really didn’t want to spend months working on boring mechanics before I could play anything that I enjoy. So I decided to do some shopping around, and I found a few piano tutorials. Most of them were pretty much crap, just another ebook of basic music info. Thankfully, one of them really stood out, and taught a completely novel way to learn the piano completely novel way to learn the piano.

It really worked for me. I was playing simple melodies the first time I sat down. After a week I could play with both hands and do simple accompaniments, and within the first few months I was playing some of my Rock and Roll favorites. Today, not quite a year later, I’m learning to play the great piano works of my favorite composers: Mozart, Beethoven, Field, and Brahms. For Christmas I’m planning to play a mini-concert for all of my family, with mostly popular Christmas music, and have a carol sing along.

Now I admit that I still don’t play nearly as well as many of my friends who play the piano. But they also practiced the piano for two hours every day since they were five, spending hours playing boring, miserable scales. They probably payed a teacher $60 per hour to do it too! And while that method is tried and true, I just didn’t have that kind of time or money. So I learned on my own, and in another year, I’ll be playing as well as the kids who have been playing since childhood.

When I look back, I can’t believe that I waited so long to start playing the piano. However, I’m so glad that I eventually decided to learn. I can’t tell you how well an hour at the piano relieves stress, or how good I feel when I hear a song on the radio and I can sit down right away and play a basic version of it. If I want to play like a pro, I just buy the sheet music for five bucks and go for it.

So anyway, this is what worked for me. It didn’t make me a master overnight, but it definitely got me started on the right path on my schedule with my budget. I still have to practice, but most days I look forward to that half hour all day long.