1. Figure out your goals – what genre? is it to play Classical? Jazz? Pop? Rock?

2. Avoid taking short cuts that won’t help you in your long term learning – i.e. apps that show you which notes to play but not how to play properly and/or read properly.

3. Be patient. You can’t learn to play piano well in just 1 day, 1 week, or even 1 month. Many online programs use false advertising to try to increase sales. Don’t feel ashamed if you learned piano as a child and forgot almost everything!

4. Be okay with making mistakes. No one is perfect right away. Catch your mistakes, don’t practice them.

5. Learn how to read music (both treble & bass clef). It is always beneficial to train your ears and be able to learn by ear. But sometimes we forget things, and being able to go back to a musical score and read is always a good way to remember what we were trying to achieve. I will write a whole other post on how to improve your note reading skills.

6. Once you can learn to read notes, search for patterns in the music. Outlines of chords, repeating material, melodic shapes, etc.

7. Learn about music theory. Learn about the circle of fifths and how many sharps and flats are in each key. Play some scales and form chords in these keys. Understand how to build chords on your own.

8. Read lots of music! Now if you follow along with any pop music score, you can read the chords symbols and know exactly how to build the chords. Now you won’t need to buy as much sheet music to play your favourite pop songs! The more music you read, the faster your sightreading will become.