Nice, man! It was fun rewatching this with your comments. I laughed with you at both Moonlight Sonata 3rd Mvt attempts 😂

To answer some of your questions, indeed I learned almost all of these pieces using YouTube tutorials, including Arabesque and Fantaisie Impromptu (Rousseau's videos). Looking back, dynamics and technique were lacking, but learning the maximum amount of pieces in the least possible time was what kept me going at the time.

After uploading this video, I realised that I wanted to get more out of the piano and to do so I needed to work more on dynamics, musicality, technique, reading music and to learn some theory, so I decided to have a few private lessons for guidance. I started practicing scales and arpeggios at the beginning of each session (5-10min) and to use sheet music to learn pieces, instead of tutorials. I learned some Einaudi, Händel's Minuet in G Minor and Pathétique Sonata 2nd Mvt - I uploaded both in my channel. Once again, I only picked songs that I really enjoyed listening to, even though they were a little more advanced. I can learn pieces through sheets, but I can't sight read. It's not my main goal to be able to sight read.

A little after that I decided I wanted to create my own piano arrangements / play by ear, and so far that's what I enjoyed the most. Whenever I'm stuck, I try to get a lesson for guidance. Thanks for the lesson on arranging 🤝🏼

It's all been a big experiment, but I think my main goal is to compose more original music, piano arranangements and to be able to play anything by ear.

If anyone is still reading, I will upload a 4 Year Progress Video update in August / September, so stay tuned ;)

2000 hours in just 2.5 years is crazy .. Props to him for such consistency and determination

Im self taught. Been playing 2 to 5 hours a day for 3 years. Ive written 72 songs. Now my bucketlist goal (at age 62) is to write a Musical and play and arrange  all the songs  myself.

So fun.

I’m also self taught and 2.5 yrs in…. This guy is light years ahead of me

Half an hour of Matt explaining music. What a treat.

I find it interesting he went from Tiersen and Einaudi in the learning to play stages to Satie and Chopin, but then went back to Tiersen and Einaudi to help inspire him on his own compositions.

The whole video looked like the guy is doing everything possible to continue struggling with overcomplicated pieces instead of learning things properly, but I have to admit the end result sounds pretty decent!.. But I still think that a "normal" route, with more boring but gradually increasing exercises and pieces throughout these 2.5 years would've likely given him a much better foundation for expanding his repertoire.

A lot of progress in 2 years for sure. Not everybody is comfortable or wants to learn from sheet music from day 1. Some people would start playing by using synthesia or imitate hand positions. People who start learning from sheet music would probably play beginner pieces like "Twinkle" or "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and wouldn't attempt difficult ones until much later. Those who learn without sheet music often dive into more challenging pieces sooner.
There is learning by rote where you're forcing yourself to master pieces before you understand all the nuances. Giving yourself more time to learn pieces means you repeat it many times to get the notes right. Spending more time on a piece can also mean drilling in bad habits or techniques unless you're consciously fine-tuning your playing.

Oh, don't fool yourself - you'll never be able to play like this in 2 years :)

How are these guys so good after like 2 months where I still get notes wrong on Grade 1 pieces after a year?

2.5 years piano.... very funny. At least 5x more!!

Matt your level headed and optimistic approach to piano learning is an absolute joy to watch, one of the big reasons I've just started learning. Keep it up man

i find it hard to believe that it's possible from perspective of muscles and joints. it takes years of training to achieve specific adaptations to the body and economical movement so i won't injure myself or accumulate inflammation. it's pretty challenging to play every day for more than 2h even for professional pianists on acoustics. don't underestimate it, even many experienced people injure themselves.

I learned that there's a difference between learning to play the piano and learning to play piano pieces. It's easy to jump to the pieces and miss out building up enough technique so that you can play a lot more piano pieces and with less time.

With 2.5 years such fluency is commendable

I have one piece of advice some folks in the comments. You don't need to practice 2 hrs per day. I came back to piano after a 12 year hiatus aaaaaand .... got carpal tunnel. I'm recovered and playing, but learned you don't need to be in a rush to get good. There's a lot you can do within 15 minutes. Rest days are important too. Your brain continues to absorb information even when you stop playing. It's pretty amazing actually how well our bodies can learn after pausing, sleeping, and not playing. DON'T GO BEYOND YOUR LIMITS. If you're tense stop and reassess why.

I have seen his video before and was particularly impressed with how he was analysing his experience and playing as he went along. Well done Luis!

I wasn't sure i wanted to watch this video, but had some time.  I'm glad I did.  I've just started playing and am in my 4th month.  I had a crappy 66 key stuffed in the closet that I didn't pull out until the end of month #2, because I had questions about music and just wanted to talk and in reality, make some room for it and to rework my schedule so that I could integrate practice time with life.  After setting up the 66 key and actually starting to practice, I ran out and got an 88 key... since then (about 4 weeks) I've been practicing about an hr a day.
Now, for the reason I'm glad I watched this vid...
It is very inspiring to see what can be done with  practice and dedication and the progress he made !!!  Well Done Sir !!!
I set a goal to be able to play Moonlight in 10 years and I thought that was pushing it... maybe I can do it in 5...
Thanks for the vid (Inspiration)

It's a very inspirational video.  I've just started learning piano in my late 50s.  I'm struggling a bit, as i have limited mobility in my right hand and little to no independent movement of my 3rd and 4th fingers.  Nevertheless, i am sticking with it and trying to learn the basics while doing finger mobility exercises.  While I doubt that I'll ever come close to matching what this gentleman accomplished in his first couple of months alone, the only person I have to be better than is myself!

This video is both inspiring and frustrating. Inspiring because you see that some people can learn quite a lot of piano playing in such a short period. And frustrating because I am more than six years on this and can't remotely reach tthat level. So, well, I will keep trying!- Perhaps one of my "faults" is that I am playing keys on a band and so that takes also lots of my playing / learning time. You can't have it all!

I have started practicing the piano on my own in the evening a few days ago and found his video, then your channel - I was really curious to see how your comment would go.

I'm really pleased to see so much useful advice (the vertical reading one is something I have to try this evening). It seems so hard to come by useful content like this online, where there is an incentive to be inflammatory to get engagement.


I'm going to keep going and I'm really grateful to you and others who spend their time spreading knowledge that helps those of us who can't yet afford lessons or who simply need to go through a different path for whatever reason.

On reading sheet music first: that's the path I'm going through now because I'm not that good at memorising from a YouTube tutorial and for now my progress is nowhere near what is shown in his video. On the other hand I'm playing even while ill because it makes my day a bit better, so we'll see how this goes. I weirdly enjoy scales and beoken chords too. :) Juggling work, a house and a small (demanding!) child is hard.