Piano progress 1 year practicing less than an hour a day

hello there last christmas i bought a digital piano on a whim for my family and it's been a whole year now since i've been playing it so keep watching and you'll see how i've progressed over that time and stick around after the video clips because i'll discuss some thoughts on my progress and things like that [Music] so [Music] [Music] do [Music] [Music] do so so [Music] do [Music] do [Music] my [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] so [Music] when i was looking into purchasing the piano the first thing i really wanted to know was what kind of progress can i expect to achieve if i start learning so i went onto youtube and i typed in piano progress videos and what i noticed is there was kind of two kinds of channels so to speak you'd have a channel which just had one video saying here's my year's progress in piano and they'd go from absolute beginner to absolute superstar and while these were very exciting i think even if they are real these are exceptional circumstances and thinking that you're gonna progress in this kind of manner is probably foolish and will lead to a lot of disappointment so i then noticed the other kind of channel that you'd get where you'd have regular progress videos and you kind of get to see over the course of a period of time how people are progressing and this i found much more motivational because the progress although a lot slower um seemed realistic uh and seemed like something i could achieve and so this is why i i wanted to kind of document my progress and see or allow people to you know see it and hopefully inspire other people who are looking into learning to piano to see what is achievable i mean this is very average progress i think i practice at most an hour a day so this is very achievable but i don't know in hindsight maybe i shouldn't have posted all these videos i should just posted one video because you seem to progress a lot better that way let me know about your um what you think of these kind of videos if do you like the the regular updates versus the one-shot videos i don't know let me know in the comments i think i got to over the course of the year i think i got to about a grade two level um the grade i i tried a grade one piece yesterday and you know i was able to kind of sight read it to begin with i mean not the whole thing obviously that would be incredible but um it seemed quite easy it seemed like i'd be able to pick it up in a you know a week or two which is uh probably about right for something that's you know fairly easy um i mean muzette was a grade two piece um i found that quite difficult but i got there in the end i think it still needs a bit more tempo but i mean other than that it's you know that kind of got there uh and my teacher currently has me working on a grade three piece which i'm finding really difficult and i've probably spent about like seven hours on it already and it's still maybe half tempo and i can't play the whole thing and there are bits that still need loads of work so i mean i think grade two would probably be a good guess um i haven't taken any exams i don't really intend to take any exams so who knows derek come here come here derek come on up up up where are you up up up there's a good boy there's a good boy [Laughter] i am i am happy i am happy with my progress uh it's good enough for me um i have to remember that playing piano for me is just a hobby it's just something to do for a bit of fun to i'd say i would like to say it's something i do to relieve stress but i sometimes i find playing it practicing quite stressful because i just can't do what i'm trying to do but i mean when i get to play things that i can play that's that's very enjoyable and it's good to learn a new skill and that's why i'm doing it and you know i have other commitments uh in my life i have a business i have to run i have family that i spend time with so i'm not going to dedicate hours and hours a day to playing piano as you know as much as i may like to i'm just not going to do that over the course of this year i had 20 lessons so that's not that much really i feel like when i did have the lessons during because my teacher teaches only in blocks of 10 lessons in three terms throughout the year so when i was having a term i progressed faster and then i kind of had a lull during the breaks which kind of works you know because it gives me a bit of a a break through the year next year i'll have all 30 lessons so hopefully i'll progress further when i was a teenager i was given a guitar for christmas i believe it was and i was very much into heavy rock and metal at the time and so i used to learn lots of guns and roses metallica slayer pantera sepultura songs and things like that and it was kind of it was in fact because of this that got me thinking about playing piano in a weird way because i before i started looking this piano i decided i wanted to kind of relearn guitar and learn the the areas that i had missed when i was younger so i mean i was very good at kind of playing like very heavy riffs uh fast syncopated rhythms and things like that but when it came to something you could play around a campfire i just i didn't have that that skill set so i thought i'd try and bring it all you know bring that side of the guitar up to the you know the more metal side but the problem i found was it was too frustrating it was too frustrating to be a beginner when i could do advanced things in a different area because i would just fall back and just end up playing metallica song i know and wouldn't bother practicing like strumming patterns and cage systems and you know all these other things i needed to learn to be a kind of well-rounded guitar player and that is why i looked into piano because it was like i didn't have an area that i'd be any better at everything was brand new and i could just progress with a good teacher and they would guide me and help me just develop all the areas i need to know at the same time and hopefully the idea would become a well-rounded piano player and you know i think that is working because i don't mind doing the things like practicing the scales or practicing the chord positions that i kind of found boring on the guitar uh because i haven't got anything else i can just go and fall back on so i just get it done and as a result i i progress at a fairly even and steady steady pace i think it'd be very easy to progress faster than i did to be perfectly frank um as i've said a couple of times i practice probably on average less than an hour a day so if you practice two hours a day three hours a day if you have that kind of time you're gonna progress a lot quicker and you know you're gonna see more results um also more lessons i only had 20 lessons this year or they're about 22 maybe um so if you can have like 50 lessons a year more than that you're going to progress a lot quicker than i did and that said like my i progressed fastest i think while i was having the lessons my teacher is a very good teacher she was a former concert pianist and is a current music board examiner so she knows her stuff and she knows how to develop the musicality of a piece and help me develop the musicality of a piece which i wasn't expecting i was expecting piano teachers to be like you know put your finger here and i don't know what i was expecting actually but what i got um has really helped so i'm very grateful for my teacher um and of course you might not you might not need to practice any more than i did or have any more lessons you might just have a better natural ability and you had to just put your fingers in the correct place at the correct time with the correct pressure and just in general be better i i find this hard i'm not gonna lie i do find it hard to put my fingers in the right place at the right time not so much at the right time it's the right place that i have the trouble with um but yeah there are this is as i keep stressing i think very average progress uh i think you'd be i think you'd find it quite easy to do better than this if you just put in more

Channel: Daniel Learns Piano

Views: 436,408

Keywords: piano progress, piano, 1 year piano progress, Piano Progress 1 year, one year piano progress, 1 year practice piano, 1 year piano progress beginner, adult piano progress, piano beginner progress, adult piano beginner, piano progress beginner, adult beginner piano progress, Piano progression 1 year, piano progress 3 months, 1 year classical piano progress, piano self taught, adult learning piano, adult beginner, beginner piano, piano practice 1 year, piano complete beginner

Id: xXseopMHF5s

Length: 18min 28sec (1108 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 26 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

Hi! Great video, it thinks it's great because most times i only see adult 'beginners' on youtube with very unrealistic results which might be demotivating for a lot of people. I think your progress is similar to mine after a year. What kind of piano do you use (the one later in the video)? It really looks great to me for some reason.

I recently made a subreddit specifically for adult learners, feel free to join us and post your video there as well as here :)

link

Have a great day!

[u/piano20191229]

I bought a piano last Christmas and have been practising up to an hour a day most days since. Here's my progress over the course of the year. I think my progress has been pretty average, but I'm happy with that. In the video, I discuss this and other things.

I hope someone considering learning piano finds this as useful as the videos I was watching a year ago.

(Sorry, for post spam/deletion spree. Couldn't get the link to work as the video was private)

Edit: can’t believe I misspelt Fantaisie Impromptu.

[u/Gwyndon]

Do you have any previous musical experience? I'm a complete beginner with a teacher and you are light years ahead of me

[u/herculesjazz]

This is great! Congratulations, I haven't finished the video but I can see the progress and I think it's really impressive. I am going to come back to it and watch the whole thing.

[u/Mafzz]

This was fantastic and your progress is really quite wonderful.

I may be the first to say this, but I felt your progress was quite fast, especially in the earlier months. Did you listen to recordings of pieces ahead of time? To be able to read, learn note values and play accurately like that in the first 30 days of being self taught is quite an accomplishment even if a person had a great teacher.

[u/[deleted]]

I’m glad you didn’t play Fantasy Impromptu. People who try playing Chopin in their first year are obnoxious.

[u/sufle1981]

Nice progress! Keep it up. I’m a newbie as well, just started in March at the start of pandemic, and it’s always nice to see other people’s progress.

Also I do not feel the videos of people that have amazing progress in the first year are de-motivational. I think there is people that can easily dedicate 4/5 or more hours to practicing, which means they are going to achieve much faster results. The whole notion of per year progress is not suitable any more. The more time you put in the faster you will progress.

I myself in the first 3 months was practicing 6 to 8 hours a day due to being unemployed (furloughed from job). And I’ve just last month passed grade 4 ABRSM. But I’ve done in the first 3 months more hours than probably most people in a year.

I’ll see myself out now. Sorry for the rant.

[u/stylewarning]

Thanks for sharing this video. I am also an adult piano student and I feel our learning rates are comparable; maybe you’re a bit faster than I am. I practice about the same amount of time as you said.

What I picked up from your video is that you seem like a combination of diligent, deliberate, and patient. If that’s your formula, it works extremely well for you. You showed a ton of recordings in this compilation, and every one of them was relatively good (all things considered) with little to no mistakes. Compared to me, I tend to be impatient and rush to the finish line, and I don’t really buff out the pieces I learn as well as I could.

Your Clementi at the end, while still somewhat raw, was just still very clearly coordinated and well executed. You didn’t try to overdo something you couldn’t do, and you kept a steady pace through it. That’s hugely commendable and a mark of a really great student.

I’d love to continue to see progress updates, and I’d love to hear more about your struggles. What’s difficult? What’s frustrating? Where do you begin with a new piece?

[u/Godders1]

I'm only a couple of months in so I really appreciate the realism/honesty. I'll be very happy if I'm at your standard after a year!