By Guest Blogger J Phoenix
When I began playing the piano 15 years ago I was at a loss for best way to learn piano without a teacher. I knew I wanted to teach myself piano, primarily because I didn’t have the money for private lessons, but also because I’ve always been a self-starter – someone who likes to do and learn things on my own. So, I found some of my sister’s lesson books that she had from taking lessons years before and began to teach myself how to read music.
It was slow at first, but I was dedicated and practiced constantly. Still, there were easier ways to teach myself piano that probably would have sped up the process for me, but I didn’t look around to find them. In any case, here are the main reasons why I chose to teach myself piano. Following that you’ll find a link to some resources to help you do the same.
1. The money. You will save it, lots of it! Private lessons on a weekly basis and for one hour over the course of a year will cost you $1,000 to $1,500. That’s at a rate of $20 to $30 per hour, which is the cheapest you’ll probably see. Now, this instruction will be good, but scarcely different from the instruction you get from many self teaching methods. In addition, the number of hours over the course of that year would be 52. Most study at home piano courses have 2 or 3 times that number of lesson hours at a fraction of the cost.
2. Having the ability to study and learn at your own pace is something that I truly enjoy. With private lessons you are pretty much on the teacher’s timetable. Of course it is good to have a teacher to keep you on track and push you to practice on a regular basis. However, I didn’t find it hard to keep myself on top of practicing because I was truly motivated and interested in learning.
3. When you own a piano learning course you can revisit the material whenever you want without paying anything more – a week later, a month later, or a year later; it’s always yours. Every piano student finds it necessary at times to go back and review lessons for clarification on things that may not have sunk in the first time around. You can do this with a teacher as well, but you’ll be charged for their time of course.
4. I enjoyed being able to close the book or turn off the video lessons whenever I got frustrated. You can’t really do that with a piano teacher there (well, I suppose you could, but you’d still have to pay for their lesson). I also was glad that I didn’t have to deal with the inconvenience of traveling to a teacher’s home or having them in my home once a week.
5. Lastly, there is nothing quite so special to me as that which I have done all by myself – my own creation, my own doing. I receive a great amount of satisfaction and pride from such personal accomplishments and I regard teaching myself the piano one of my best achievements.
I encourage anyone who wishes to learn to play the piano to take up the challenge of teaching yourself. Don’t be frightened by the prospect, there are plenty of excellent resources available these days to help you learn. I wish they had been available when I decided to teach myself piano, as things would have moved along much more quickly.
J. Phoenix is an avid pianist and guitarist who enjoys helping people pursue their interest in learning to play an instrument. Visit http://www.thepianospace.com for all your piano related needs.
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