Can you teach yourself piano? Lots of people for a variety of reasons try it. However, is this even possible?
Horowitz famously said that the piano is the easiest instrument to play in the beginning and the hardest to master in the end. Equally famously, Richter was self-taught until his twenties – and even afterwards his teacher Neuhaus commented that he had taught him ‘almost nothing’.
Therefore, teaching yourself is likely to be possible, however, certainly not an easy thing to do.
Some basic considerations
I firmly believe you can teach yourself anything – if you’re prepared to put in the work. I taught myself French in my youth. Though I say so myself, I did this to a far better standard than the people with whom I went to University. Most of these had studied it at school up to being 18 years old. However, in order to do this, I had to do an awful lot of ‘extra’ work myself. If you’re going to ‘teach yourself’, then you need to know what it is you need to learn. Of course, when you have a teacher, they already know these things – which is why you are paying them!
If you’re considering the self-taught route, then I’d take a few things into consideration first
- Previous musical knowledge
- Current level on piano
- Your own age
- Previous self-teaching experience
- Where you want to go with piano
Previous musical knowledge
For example, if you have no previous musical knowledge, then teaching yourself will be harder than if you already play another instrument and can perhaps already read music.
Current level on piano
Similarly, if you already have a good level on piano – say Grade 5 and beyond – then you’ll find it easier than if you’ve never played before.
Your age
Younger students might find self teaching more difficult than older ones. This is simply because it’s not really until University age that the education system shows you how to be self-starting and figure things out for yourself.
Have you taught yourself something before?
If you have taught yourself things in the past, then you’ll also find it easier as the process of ‘finding out’ is similar for any skill.
Where do you want to get to
If you want to be a top class pianist, then (aside Richter I mentioned earlier), it will be hard if not impossible to do that without a top class teacher
What does teaching yourself really mean?
Now, let’s consider what teaching yourself implies. You need to learn how to:
- read music – both treble and bass clef
- move correctly at the piano
- work out which fingers to use
- practice the piano effectively
- control the instrument (aside the keys there are also the pedals)
- add musicality to your playing
- self-critique your outputs
To look at just a couple of these, first, reading music is entire topic on its own. There is all the notation – and, more importantly, the significance of that notation. Lots of foreign words (in a variety of languages depending on the composer), odd squiggles. In short, a significant learning curve – made more difficult on piano in that you need to read the music for both hands rather than just a one note at a time as with many other instruments.
Secondly, finding the correct physical movements – perhaps you’d call this ‘technique’ – is ultra important. The way you hold your hands, the way you move them, the way you move your wrists, forearm, elbows and even shoulders. Getting these wrong in the early stages won’t prevent you from playing initially. However, it will give you significant problems as the music you are approaching gets progressively more difficult. Also, undoing bad habits is extremely time consuming (I know to my own cost).
Taking on responsibility yourself
If you are teaching yourself, then you are taking on the responsibility of finding all of this out and then working out how to apply what you’ve learned. Going back to the example of French, it’s one thing to learn grammar and vocabulary. It’s quite another thing being able to convert all of this into spoken words that sound ‘authentic’.
Of course, in music, just as in French, you also need a way of checking that you are actually ‘getting it right’. When you have a teacher, then they’ll tell you. When you don’t, what do you do?
Benefits of the digital age
Luckily for us, in the new digital age, there are lots of resources available to help with all of these problems.
- There are plenty of method books for piano – take the Alfred set for example – and getting hold of them is simplicity itself via Amazon and the like – super helpful if you’re starting from scratch
- Other types of tuition books (such as Melanie Spanswick’s course aimed at people returning to piano after a break) are available. A great support if you’re continuing your studies alone.
- You’ll find books on the subject of Practicing piano – plus all sorts of volumes of exercises to help build technique (if you want to use them)
- There are lots of YouTube channels offering piano lessons covering all different musical styles – a great addition to books in that you can see demonstrations
- You’ll find great Social Media groups (take a look on Facebook and Reddit for example). Here ultra helpful people are ready to offer advice – invaluable if you want a second opinion on your progress so far with something
- Filming and recording yourself is now super simple if you have a smartphone – something you’ll need to do often to check both how your playing sounds and whether you are using ‘good’ or ‘bad’ physical gestures
A word or two of caution
However, all of that said, you really do need to proceed with caution
For example, opinions as to ‘good’ and ‘bad’ within the piano world differ. You will soon encounter the debate around ‘technical exercises’. There are those who absolutely passionately believe they are vital for any learner. Then there are those who are equally passionate that they should be avoided at best and can be dangerous at worse. You’ll need to take this decision for yourself!
You’ll also come across the conflicting schools of thought around how to move your thumb (things like thumb under, thumb over). Again, this is a topic that divides opinion. Another decision you’ll need to take for yourself.
If you seek feedback on a facebook group, how can you be sure that the person providing it is qualified to do so? Are you really moving your wrist too much, or not enough. Is the right way to fix your problem to slow right down – again you’ll need to interpret advice and choose what to follow.
As for musicality, this is ultra subjective. When people say you’re playing to fast, too slow, too loud, too soft, too much rubato, not enough rubato … you’ll be able to find professional recordings of every variant in many cases.
Do your research
If I learned one useful thing at university, it was that if you want to look at a particular question, then you need to research as many different opinions as you can find and then weigh them up for yourself. Try things out, test theories, be prepared to get it wrong and then work even harder to get it right. In general, I’ve come to the conclusion that there is no one size fits all with piano … what works for some won’t work for others.
Should you give it a try … ?
In short, would I recommend that you teach yourself? Well, I had teachers in my teens and early twenties – this got me up to Grade 8. Since I came back to piano a few years ago, I have gone down the self taught route. I’m enormously enjoying the process of learning how to learn. I’ve invested lots of time and a little money in this journey. I’m finding progress is slow, mainly because I’m trying to break through the ‘technical walls’ that basically stopped me playing altogether all those years ago.
I certainly think that teaching yourself is eminently possible now thanks to all of the available resources I mentioned earlier. If you are prepared to put in the time doing the research and are prepared to accept that you’ll need to have the confidence in your own ‘instincts’ sometimes to decide whether to follow one set of advice over another, then it’ll prove to be a fascinating project.
…. Not necessarily
That said, I don’t think it’s for everybody. Some people would find the uncertainty of not knowing whether or not you are doing it ‘right’ too much to cope with. Although of course who is to say that your teacher is teaching you how to do it ‘right’! Equally, many won’t have the patience (or the time) to watch hours of videos, read book after book, study the advice given by others on Facebook etc. – and that’s before you even sit down at the piano to practice.
To sum up, I’d say if you can find and afford a teacher, then especially as a beginner it’s a worthwhile investment. It will get you over that initial steep learning curve. Be prepared to look hard for a teacher to ensure you find one who will support what you specifically want to do. When Alan Rusbridger embarked on his Ballade No. 1 project, he convinced his teacher to support him despite the teacher’s misgivings as to whether the Ballade was simply too much to get to grips with.
If a teacher really isn’t an option, then I hope the ideas above will help you make a start on your own.
