Learn Piano the Hard Way

What is a great pianist?

Is it someone who is technically precise, who can play fast with no mistakes? Is it someone who has a deep emotional connection to the music and is able to communicate it? Is greatness synonymous with uniqueness – does this pianist need to bring a unique interpretation to the music? Everyone will have different answers, or at least everyone will weigh certain qualities differently. There is no right answer, nonetheless, answering this question for ourselves is crucial to achieving our goal of becoming a great pianist.

Throughout this book, I will give exercises and activities to help you engage with the reading material more. Reading by itself is not sufficient for understanding, doing is crucial. I highly recommend doing these exercises to test and solidify your understanding.

By answering this question, we can identify the discrete skills required, and we can reason our way to acquiring them. While defining exactly what a great pianist is might be difficult, pointing one out is not. In fact, you might already have a few names in mind. These pianists, these idols, can embody what you hope to achieve before you can put words to it.

So, what is a great pianist? I suggest you think about that question before reading on. Don’t worry if it’s not as precise as you’d like it to be, it took me a while to come up with a concise and convincing definition. As a starting point, think about your favourite pianists and what it is about them that makes them special to you.

Don’t have a favourite pianist? Here are some of my favourite as a starting point: Sviatoslav Richter, Martha Argerich, Brad Mehldau, and Mitsuko Uchida.

My definition: A great pianist is someone who is both musical and technical.

The definition might seem too simple for what we’re trying to define, but it’s not. I have specific definitions of musicality and technicality that encompass the majority of what it means to be a great pianist.

Musicality and technicality will get you most of the way, but there are other important qualities that you might value that don’t fit in this simple framework. Mine include creativity and memory. While I don’t discuss those here, I’m hoping the method I outline below can inspire you to develop those other skills you care about.

Musicality is the ability to form a personal artistic ideal of music. It’s the most important quality that a pianist (and more generally a musician) can have. Without it, nothing else matters. Technique is the ability to physically execute that artistic ideal. Musicality exists internally and technique is necessary to externalise it. In other words, we are making a clear distinction between conception and execution. Making this distinction is important because it will guide everything that we do and learn as we try to become great pianists.

Learning technique needs to be done alongside music. There is no point learning the intricacies of movement at the piano without understanding how those movements are put to use in context. Learning technique will come in the second section of this book, when we start learning repertoire.

Musicality on the other hand, is for the most part, learned away from the instrument. It is about engaging with and developing an emotional connection to the music we love.

Jacob Collier spends time during his live streams going through some of his compositions and explaining the decisions behind the music. His discussions are clear, meaningful and even poetic. His live streams are the place to go if you want an example of great musicality.

Like anything in life, the distribution of talent is not equal. Some people will have a better intuition for music than others, some will find learning technique easier. For our purpose of becoming a great pianist, the distribution of talent is irrelevant. All of the skills necessary to become a great pianist can be learned by anyone, given the time and dedication required.

What is this book about?

This book is structured in three parts. The first part serves as an introduction to my concept of musicality, the foundational quality of a great pianist. This is essential reading if you want to understand the method and get anything out of this book. The second part is the curriculum, the repertoire. Every skill you will learn in this book will be through music. Playing piano takes separate and identifiable skills but learning them will always occur in a unified context. This section is progressive and will begin from the very first piano lesson and go all the way through to advanced concepts. I recommend reading this section in order, but feel free to jump ahead if it feels too easy. Every piece builds on previous knowledge, so if you find yourself lost or out of your depth, look at the prerequisites for that piece. In the final section I outline the limits of online educational resources like this one. I also give my thoughts on perpetually continuing your journey of self education and improvement. A collection of reference material for technique and theory is also available for more detailed individual study or searching purposes.

A great piano teacher is impossible to replace. However, great piano teachers can be hard to find and expensive. With the decreasing cost of high quality online learning resources, self-learning piano seems like a reasonable and cost effective option. While I would agree there is no lack of quality learning material in the world, I have struggled in the past to find a comprehensive and unified teaching method. Finding good learning resources online is difficult and time consuming. Structuring them in a constructive way is even harder. That’s why a great piano teacher is impossible to replace: they provide accurate information for you, and deliver it to you in a natural and understandable progression.

For centuries, people have been getting better and better at learning, playing and teaching piano. Most of the insights you will find in this book come from greater pianists and educators than I’ll ever be. I did not write this book to share new ideas, or a new trendy method to learn the piano. I wrote this book to present (sometimes) old but (always) good ideas in the best way that we presently know of.

My goal with this book is to provide a centralised place for high quality learning resources. I want to provide a complete path for aspiring pianists and educators to reach the highest levels of excellence.

Table of Contents

Introduction

What is a great pianist?

What is this book about?