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Thank you! At the age of 69 I decided I wanted to learn the piano.  It had been a lifelong dream. My sons learned when they were young and the piano was just sitting collecting dust. I contacted the boys old teacher and I started on a wonderful journey. I had never learned to even read music. One and a half years latter I am reading and playing music. What a joy! Yes, I have a long way to go. But it’s not a race. I especially enjoy working thru the notes and learning the best approach to fingering. Your videos are wonderful. I envy your young students. What an opportunity to learn from a professional with passion, kindness and no ego.

“Practice is problem solving.” I love that !

Please please do a video on fingering. It’s so crucial

It took less than 3 minutes of this video to be confident you are an expert and know what you’re talking about. Thanks for the video!

I’ve been a musician all my life, and a pro for at least 54 of my 70 years. I’ve played in orchestras, arranged, composed, taught, conducted, produced, represented, recorded (as engineer), and performed a lot. Let me just say that I agree with everything you said, and I think you’re wonderful for saying it all together in a concise way for people to learn from. Excellent advice!

May I add one? I’m a classical musician, but I hear things constantly, and I love improvising. I’m probably terrible at it, but I don’t judge it. I use it for a purpose. Between pieces I’ll improvise to the next key or something, just letting my ear guide me, along with years of theory, thousands of repetitions of scales, triads, 7th chords of all persuasions, and ii7-V7-I maj7 exercises in all keys. The exercises build technique of many kinds, including composing on the spot. Ear training. Improvisation brings all those things together seamlessly and un-self-consciously, but the one thing that improvisation does better than just about anything is that it forces you to focus on how you want it to sound. You’re not just pushing keys in a chord progression pattern. You’re hearing a LINE. The LINE is the thing we’re all looking for. The line gives you expression. It gives you keyboard effects. It gives you dynamics, chord voicings, melodic voicing, and all the things that go into making music seemingly come right from the heart. And it allows you to master those things without really being aware that you’re practicing.

If I’m practicing classical or Bach and not feeling it, I only need to improvise a little while and it changes everything. There is one caveat: when you first start out improvising, you sound terrible. Disgusting! All those things you don’t want to sound like. Just understand that it’s because you simply don’t know how yet. You have to put up with sounding that way for the first year or two of it, but you also notice every time you play that you are a wee bit better than the last time. You remember those chords you came up with, and you remember those little syncopations you put in the melody, and… you develop a library of technical responses to the expression of the line. They stick and accumulate. Give them time.

Finally; limit yourself. Don’t let your improv practice interfere with getting classical results. I just add about three minutes to the end of everything I play as I taper off with improv, or I improvise to the key of the next classical piece I’m going to play. When I find technical problems that I can’t quite grasp, I often switch to improv to fix it. Why? Because I’m not focused on fingers and technique then, but instead I focus on the line (hearing), and I can make that line as simple as I need to.

There’s a lot to learn. I find it unwise to segregate the styles or to avoid everything besides classical. Mixing up classical, jazz, pop, even some occasional Western swing, is beneficial to all of my playing. I have all 6 of the “Real Book” series, which really helps me with the chord changes. Forgive me for such a lengthy tangent in your video’s comments, but I think this is advice that supports and expands on your advice. Thanks again for the great “50 years of Piano Advice” video which inspired me to write about this.

This is more than just piano advice, it's life advice. Thank you for this.

“Perform for your cat“ Haha. My cat asks to go out as soon as I sit down at the piano.

Rebecca knows what she is talking about- A very astute and experienced teacher. I have joined her community and have learned much in a short time about how to learn efficiently and I am seeing the results in a few short weeks.

14:55 cue tears! Oh Rebecca, you have no idea how much listening to you talk about your life’s journey helps me (and I’m sure so many countless people!) “you are not your playing.” I finally know that, but man oh man, if ANYONE would’ve told me that at ANY point when I was a kid or teenager or even young adult, I’m sure everything about my life would be different today. Thank you for not only sharing your wisdom and vast knowledge, but for sharing your heart and for being so transparent. This is helping me so much!

The minute you began to speak, I knew that I needed to learn everything I can from you. Blessings

I'm actually a classical guitarist but what you are saying applies equally to learning  my instrument and is  valuable insight for all musicians. . You are obviously a very astute and empathic teacher .

The piano teacher must know how to enlighten the students about relevant connecting theories on a certain piano piece, but so far you are the first one who brought this to light, and became so honest about her struggle in her piano journey. Godbless

This is fantastic guidance, so intelligent and helpful and accurate

This woman is kind and understanding. Thank you.

First, thank you for your wisdom and advice!!! I would love to see a video on fingering!

I love your video ❤️

I just want to share how incredibly valuable your videos are to me. It’s so clear that you have a wealth of experience in both teaching and communication. The way you combine empathy with deep musical knowledge is truly inspiring. I will definitely be using your videos when my daughter is old enough to start learning the piano.

smart tips... thank you... your students are in luck!!

❤. I was forced to take piano lessons for 12 years growing up with a teacher that wouldn’t let me “hear”, I wasn’t allowed to improvise, just had to learn to read the music.  I gave her a headache and she made me feel terrible. I wouldn’t practice. 12 years is a very long time to spend doing something you don’t want to do and aren’t good at and want to quit.  But in high school I switched to a teacher who was so encouraging and taught me more in one year than in all the 12.
I am grateful for the foundations I did learn but wished I applied myself.  I love to improvise now and find myself playing a handful of the classical pieces I learned when a teenager.  I cannot read music cold.  I have to really work at it.  But I love just playing for my pleasure.  Wish I was more disciplined and motivated.  Maybe watching your videos will inspire me and give me courage to undo all the wasted time and start fresh.  I’m 72 now.   Thank you for your encouragement!