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Teach Yourself to Play Piano
All you need is YouTube and a keyboard.
We took our 2020 COVID lockdown seriously. I was able to teach remotely, and we bought 3 months’ worth of groceries at a time. We postponed or cancelled medical and dental appointments. We didn’t go out unless it was absolutely necessary. We coped with the isolation in various constructive and not-so-constructive ways. I started up my comic-book buying again. I did a lot of sitting and playing video games.
YouTube became very important to me. It was a vital link to the outside world, and there were lots of interesting things going on. Ben Folds started doing one-man shows from his apartment in Australia, where he was locked down.
My wife and I aren’t Ben Folds superfans, but we love his album Songs for Silverman. We play it all the time. So it was fun to see him struggle to get all of his streaming equipment working to send out free concerts on YouTube. One thing he did regularly was little mini piano lessons “for the kids.” I remember thinking, “I could do that,” and based on that alone, I decided to buy a keyboard.
After a little comparison shopping, I chose the Yamaha P-71 digital piano. 88 keys, weighted action, built-in speakers, a really nice piano tone, etc. It’s what I still use, but I’d like a synthesizer at some point too. You don’t need that…
