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Comment by rhizome31 | Hacker News Reader

Take lessons with a piano teacher and practice a lot on your own.

As a lazy synthdad, father of a piano virtuoso who makes fun of my musical clumsiness, I concur: listen to music, watch music being played and read about music all you want... It won't get you very far: music requires practice, practice and practice daily, even if just a little - and memorizing some scales and chords goes a long way too.

Doing scales, chords and arpeggios can get you far enough, that people who do both know enough think you are a virtuoso. You can make a piano sound great (at least for no experts). But at the end practice is all cannot emphasize enough. Take simple music you really like and want to play to start and have motivation. Finding a good teacher is hard (at least it was for me) (s)he should be interested in the music you want to play, be ok with what you want to learn (some think everybody must be an orchestral pianist) and have a good repertoire of techniques for helping you.

> be ok with what you want to learn (some think everybody must be an orchestral pianist)

I relate to that: I was inflicted a couple years of piano lessons as a kid, and hated every minute of it - because I detested the music that my teacher and my family considered appropriate.

40 years later, I stumble on electronic musics and realize I would enjoy making some - and I joyfully (and incompetently) began on that path, lately becoming ripe for some dry theory because I now value it.

Each person is different though: my daughter always enjoyed the technical exercises for their own sake !

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