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Comment by markyc | Hacker News Reader

do you have a tutor or are you learning on your own? can you point me to resources you're using for piano learning for adults?

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The /r/piano FAQ (https://www.reddit.com/r/piano/wiki/faq) is a great starting point. There's a ton of resources available online, so the trouble is actually in picking the really good ones. Still, if you want to play well, you should probably get a teacher.

As for myself: I've started lessons about 6 months of trying on my own. The teacher's role is to point out the small things one does not even notice when learning on one's own -- and those can really make a huge difference. But in the end it is all about the learning process -- seeing what works for you at any given stage, filling the gaps, re-evaluating periodically if your approach should change. And it's a long-time project. Most people become comfortable after 10 years or so of daily practice. So either you're extremely committed/desperate/forced/enjoy the learning process with the long-term goal in mind, or you quit.

The specific resources I can recommend are:

  - Lypur's video courses on youtube (both piano + music theory)
  - "Piano Handbook" by Carl Humphries
  - "All About Music Theory" by Mark Harrison
  - http://www.musictheory.net
  - Willi Schneider's "Klavierfibel"

One important note on teachers: they make you play with the proper form and that makes a huge difference. It makes you less likely to develop an injury, and after you get over the initial hurdle of learning how to make your hands stay in the appropriate positions it makes it much easier to play. Bad technique makes even relatively simple music hard to play.

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