Teach Yourself to Play Piano: 11 Proven Principles for Success
Learning to play the piano is one of the most rewarding skills you can develop. Whether you dream of playing your favorite songs, composing your own music, or simply enjoying a relaxing new hobby, the piano is a fantastic place to start. But let’s face it—finding time and money for traditional piano lessons isn’t always easy.
The good news? You can absolutely teach yourself piano—as long as you follow the right approach. Self-taught pianists can go just as far as those who take formal lessons, provided they stay motivated and understand the fundamental principles of learning.
In this guide, I’ll walk you through 11 key principles to help you succeed as a self-taught pianist. From building a solid foundation to staying consistent with your practice, these tips will help you learn smarter, play better, and enjoy the journey.
Can You Teach Yourself to Play the Piano? Absolutely – Here’s What You Need to Know
Yes, you can learn to play the piano by yourself. In fact, many people have done it successfully without ever stepping into a traditional lesson. But let’s be honest—it’s not always easy.
The biggest challenge? Accountability. Without a teacher or a structured online course, it’s easy to lose focus, skip practice, or worse—pick up bad habits that are hard to break later on. When no one is guiding your technique or giving you feedback, those small mistakes can snowball over time.
That said, teaching yourself piano is 100% possible—especially if you stick to a few key principles, stay consistent, and use the right tools to guide your progress.
1. Make Piano Practice a Daily Habit
Finding time and money for formal piano lessons can be challenging, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still make meaningful progress. One of the best ways to improve as a pianist—whether you’re taking lessons or learning on your own—is to practice regularly.
Now, regular practice doesn’t have to mean sitting at the piano for hours every day. What matters most is consistency. Aim to play every single day, even if it’s just for 15 or 20 minutes. Whether you practice in the morning, during your lunch break, or at night before bed, the key is to build a routine that keeps your skills sharp and your memory fresh.
By showing up daily, you’ll strengthen muscle memory, improve your timing, and stay connected to what you’re learning. It’s not about perfection—it’s about progress and commitment.
2. Choose the Right Learning Resources to Learn Piano Online
If you’re starting your journey to learn piano online, it’s important to choose the right learning resources. While I hope bestdigitalpianoo.com continues to be one of your go-to guides for tips, lessons, and motivation, there are many great tools available out there. The challenge is knowing which ones will actually support your progress and which might hold you back.
Learning Piano with YouTube Videos
Take YouTube piano lessons, for example. YouTube is full of talented instructors and free video tutorials for every level of player. It’s a fantastic platform to learn piano online, but it comes with one major downside—there’s often no structure. Without a clear learning path, it’s easy to jump around from one video to another, picking up bits and pieces without truly mastering the basics.
Music is creative, but it also follows a set of rules. If you skip those foundational steps and rush ahead, you may hit a wall where progress becomes slow or frustrating. This is a common problem among self-taught pianists who rely only on random videos rather than a guided learning system.
To avoid this, it’s essential to create some structure around your piano practice. You don’t need a full curriculum like you’d find in a formal course, but you do need a plan that covers the key building blocks of piano playing. These include finger strength and technique, rhythm training, music theory basics, ear development, and regular practice routines.
By focusing on these core skills and choosing well-organized learning resources—whether it’s a structured online piano course or a thoughtfully curated YouTube playlist—you’ll make faster progress, avoid bad habits, and enjoy your journey to becoming a confident pianist.
3. Be Patient with Yourself
When you’re learning music, it’s important to be patient. This means you should give yourself time to grow and improve. It’s okay if you don’t learn everything right away.
I like to think I was a good student who loved music, but I wasn’t a super genius like Keith Jarrett or a young J.S. Bach. Very few musicians are that amazing from the start — and that’s totally fine.
Some people are born with special talents and can play music very easily. If that’s you, be thankful and keep practicing hard.
But if it takes you a little longer to learn, don’t feel sad or give up. With practice and effort, you will still reach your goals.
Remember, you don’t need to be a prodigy to play music well. Also, you don’t have to become a professional musician unless you really want to. The most important thing is to enjoy music and learn for yourself.
4. Find the Right Piano for You
The first step for anyone who wants to learn piano is to pick the right instrument. Remember, the best piano or keyboard for one person might not be the best for you. It’s important to think about what features you need and what fits your budget.
Before you buy, take a look at my reviews and suggestions for the best beginner keyboards and pianos. They will help you choose the perfect one for you!
5. Start by learning major and minor scales
There’s no way around it—whether you teach yourself or have a teacher, learning scales is very important for your progress.
If you’re teaching yourself, you don’t need to worry about tricky scales like diminished or bebop scales right away. You can learn those later if you want. But it’s really important to first understand the basic major and minor scales.
To help you get started, check out my article all about major and minor scales.
6. Understand Chords – Don’t Just Memorize Them
If you’re teaching yourself piano, your path might be different from how teachers usually teach. That’s okay, but there are some important things you shouldn’t skip.
Many self-taught players focus on learning chords because it helps them play songs faster, and that’s great. But a common mistake is learning chords as separate things without seeing the bigger picture.
This means some people learn chords only for each song, like memorizing shapes on the keyboard. Memorizing shapes is helpful at first, but if you only do that, you won’t really understand how chords are made.
Here’s the important part: music theory isn’t just for school tests. It helps you build a strong foundation so you can make your own music and play better. Some people think theory doesn’t matter when you perform, but it really does.
If you learn major and minor scales, you can also learn how to create chords from them. These are called diatonic chords, which means chords that naturally belong to a scale.
When you understand diatonic chords, you can play many songs—and even play them in any key you want! That’s much harder if you only memorize chord shapes.
7. Learn Common Chord Progressions
Once you know the basic chords in a key, the next step is to learn common chord progressions. These are groups of chords that often go together in many songs.
A lot of popular songs use the same chord progressions. If you learn these patterns and can recognize them by listening, you’ll be able to play along with almost any song very quickly. This is one of the few shortcuts that really helps
8. Start Playing by Ear
Playing by ear is more than just knowing common chords. Most people don’t have perfect pitch (if you do, that’s awesome!), but you can still get really good at something called relative pitch.
What is relative pitch?
It means you can hear one note and figure out how far away another note is from it. To get better at this, try something called interval training.
Here’s how you do it:
Pick a note to start with, like middle C. Play it, then close your eyes. Now play another note and try to guess what note it is and how far it is from the first one.
For example, if your first note is C, and the next note you play is E, then the distance between them is called a major third, and the note is E.
Use just one finger to press the keys so you don’t get any clues from feeling the other keys nearby.
If you want to learn more, check out my article on playing by ear—it will help you get started!
9. Learn to Read Music
Many people who teach themselves music try to skip learning how to read music. But they really shouldn’t.
You don’t have to read music like a concert pianist. Even just learning the basics will make you a much better musician.
If you want to play music with others or record in a studio, reading music can be very helpful. Sometimes, people will just give you chord charts and tell you to play your own style. That’s fun and easy.
But other times, they might ask you to play something specific, like a melody, intro, or harmony. In those moments, if you can read music, you’ll be ready. If you can’t, you might slow everyone down.
Even if you never want to be a pro, reading music is still a great skill. You can look at a melody on the page, understand it, and add your own chords. It helps you learn faster, play better, and enjoy music even more.
9. Learn to Read Music
Many self-taught musicians skip learning to read music, but it’s something they shouldn’t ignore.
You don’t have to read music like a concert pianist. But if you can read even a little bit, it will help you become a much better musician.
Even without music lessons, self-taught players can be amazing artists. Some even play in bands or record in studios. But in many real-life situations, being able to read music is super helpful.
For example, imagine you’re in a band practice or recording session. Sometimes, people will just give you a chord chart and say, “Play it your way!” That’s fun, and it means they like your style. But other times, they’ll want you to play exact notes, like a melody or intro line.
In moments like that, you don’t want to be the one who slows everyone down because you’re not sure what to play.
Even if you don’t plan to be a professional, learning to read music still helps. You can look at a melody and quickly understand how it sounds, then add your own chords and style.
So don’t be afraid of sheet music—it’s just another tool to make you a better, more confident musician.
10. Practice Every Day!
You’ve probably heard this a lot: “Practice makes perfect.” It may sound old, but it’s true!
The best way to get better at anything is to practice regularly. You don’t have to spend hours each day (though that’s great if you can!). What matters most is that you keep going every day.
Even just 20 minutes a day is much better than practicing for one long hour only once a week. Little by little, you’ll get better—and you’ll start to see real progress. So keep it up, and don’t give up!
11. Don’t Just Play What You’re Already Good At
When you’re practicing piano, try not to spend all your time playing the songs you already know well. It might feel good to play what you’re good at—but doing that too much can actually slow down your learning.
Learning piano from online courses or by yourself can be fun, but it’s also easy to fall into this habit. It’s great to feel proud of your progress, and you should enjoy your favorite songs! But if you always skip the hard parts, you’ll stop getting better.
Think about your goals. Every time you practice, remind yourself to work on the things you still find tricky. That’s how you grow. Be honest with yourself and focus on what needs work—not just what feels easy.
If you only play what you already know, you won’t move forward. Keep challenging yourself!
Final Thoughts
Whether you’re taking piano lessons or learning on your own, music is a wonderful thing to have in your life. Teaching yourself piano is possible—you just need to stay focused and keep practicing the right way.
Some amazing pianists never had a teacher. You don’t need to be famous or perfect. It doesn’t matter if you want to play on stage or just at home for fun.
The most important thing is this: start now, keep learning, and enjoy the music.