How I learned to play the piano

I actually never had piano lessons - really.

But there must be something in me, otherwise I would never have been so attracted to music and the piano.

We had an older, walnut-colored Euterpe piano at home, on which my older sister had lessons years before me. It wasn't played for a long time, but I always had to sit down at it and noodle around.  

Through recorder lessons during elementary school and later music lessons, I was somewhat familiar with sheet music and basic musical relationships. So I picked up my sister's beginner's books and began to teach myself how to play from sheet music. This was painstaking and, logically, progress was very slow. (Why I never asked my parents to take real lessons is still not clear to me - but it is what it is).

Fact is, I wanted to play everything and just as well as the keyboard players who were my idols: Jon Lord and Keith Emerson. Admittedly, that was an overwhelming goal, but it was my motivation and inner drive at all times.

Later, in the first school band with friends, I played keyboards, but always had the feeling that I "couldn't play at all". This got a little better over time and so I played in a few cover bands, which was a lot of fun. The life situation changed and so I made music the following years exclusively at home. Through the years of playing, replaying and playing around I could definitely improve my playing skills and I could even play a few pictures from Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition".

Now, after more than five decades, I finally wanted to learn "real piano", but with my special learning history, I didn't want to put myself in the hands of a "regular piano teacher". Besides, regular lessons would have been difficult for me to organize with my job.

And so I finally came across Franz Titscher's online piano course. 

His offer is aimed at beginners as well as returning students and his material is very thorough and systematically prepared. The great advantage of online learning is that you can watch and repeat the videos and material at any time and as often as you like.

Through his course, I was able to learn pieces such as Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata (1st movement) and Sibelius' Impromptu Op 97 No. 5 - which I would never, ever have been able to do on my own without his instructions.

An online course is certainly not ideal for everyone, but for me it was the best choice. 

If you are a beginner or a returning pianist and are also interested in learning the piano or in refreshing and deepening your knowledge, then take a look at Franz Titscher's online piano course: spielend Klavier lernen (Affiliate Link).

As "proof", here are two pieces from J. Sibelius and J. S. Bach: