Over the years, I have explored many different DIY piano methods.  Among them, I have personally not found a "bad" one, but instead different methods that will appeal to different learning styles and pianistic goals.  I spent the most time with the Sudnow method and later the Duane Shinn 52 week Crash Course.  The Sudnow method is really open-end, where you sort of morph out of the strict guidelines Davd Sudnow provides to get you started and into a much looser and wider realm in which you can learn from anything that interests you.  The Shinn course is very structured, with weekly video lessons, a set of books to work from, very well defined assignments, and the type of guidance you would expect from formal lessons.

During these years, life intruded and I have long been "on again, off again" with the piano.  I recently retired, but since have taken to contract engineering work with the intention of working a few months a year.  Since that is hourly rather than salary, I am working a regular 40 hour week rather than the kinds of hours demanded in this field of full time engineers.  With much of the year not being spent working, I expect to have a fair amount of time to play piano.  Recently I purchased a Roland V-Grand piano.  This is priced alongside many lower end grand pianos and well above the typical digital piano.  It is, quite literally, a digital 5 foot 6 inch baby grand piano, and is a wonderful instrument with its modelling technology rather than the typical sampling that most digital pianos use.  Because of this technology, the V-Grand responds and plays very much like an acoustic piano.  The cost of the V-Grand definitely makes a person take piano playing seriously and is an absolute joy to play.  The other product Roland has with this technology is the V-Piano.  Though there are numerous videos over on YouTube showing concert classical pianists performing concerts on the V-Grand, it is the stage piano version V-Piano that most people know about.  Both are fine instruments as are many of the better digital console piano available today that use sampling technology.

After having spent time reviewing other courses, I have decided to back to the Duane Shinn 52 week Crash Course.  Also, my musical goals are much more clearly defined now than they had been in the past and I am able to recognize more clearly what I need to reach those goals.  I find that working alone, I benefit from the solid guidance and structure this course provides.  I do much better knowing exactly what I am doing each time I sit at the piano.  Duane provides much guidance with regard to how to practice, specific things to watch out for in terms of common mistakes students often make, and ways to maximize return for effort expended.  This information comes from many years as both a piano player and teacher. 

At this point, I am well into the second week of the course, having gone through all the preliminary information all over again and completed the first week, also again.  Several years ago, I got a ways into the course, but had to put in so many hours at work for an extended period of time at several points in my career, that I got away from it.  Instead of going back to this course, I fooled around with some other courses that seemed to have a more immediate appeal.  This is the downfall of the self-teaching environment, folks tend to jump from course to course looking for that "magic bullet".  Unfortunately, despite the claims made in various ads, there is no "magic bullet" other than commitment, persistence, and day-to-day consistency.  Especially now with the internet, there are many flashy courses clamoring for our attention, each promising what the others supposedly can't deliver, and this makes it all too easy to jump around rather than staying the course with one method.

I have several courses from Yoke Wong, Bill Romer, Glen Rose, and Willie Myette that I intend to explore AFTER I have built a solid foundation in piano technique with the Duane Shinn course.  Since I have these other courses stored away on DVD, they will be there when I am ready so thee is no hurry or pressure to get to them.  These courses are all rather short and focus on specific areas that, in my opinion, complement the year long 52 week course from Duane Shinn.  These shorter courses focus on various aspects of creating and playing professional quality arrangements from lead sheets, improvising, and playing new age piano styling.

Rather than being "flashy" or "exciting" the way many of the current self-study piano courses seem to be presented, the 52 week Crash Course marches solidly from one week to the next, gradually building very important skills that cover both reading sheet music and creating your own arrangement from either a lead sheet or the sheet music in what Duane Shinn refers to as "chord style" piano.  It s clear that his course takes sustained and consistent effort to complete, but he provides everything a student would need to be successful.

I have replaced the original blog posts I had here from several years ago with this current post and will follow with more as I progress.  I have almost finished an interesting book called "Play It Again" by Alan Rusbridger.  His book is his own story of working on mastering a complicated Chopin piece to perform for friends and family later in life.  His job certainly interferes with his efforts at times, with its demands for long hours, but he is as persistent and focused as he can be under the circumstances.  The book has been a real influence on me even though my interests do not involve classical music.  I want this blog to be similar in content to what Mr. Rusbridger wrote in his book, in that I will periodically write about my progress with the 52 week Crash Course.

In the pianoworld.com forums, I recall that from time to time, somebody would ask if any of those engaged in self-teaching courses have actually finished such a course and can any of these people actually play piano well as a result.  These are perfectly valid questions.  As far as I can determine, the only folks who seem to have accomplished this are a few who have worked with the Piano Magic "play by ear" site.  There was ONE person some years ago who had actually finished the 52 week Crash Course and, based on some recordings he posted, really could play.  That is certainly hopeful.

It is my hope that by maintaining this blog and being somewhat active in the beginner's forum over at pianoworld.com, I will be "kept honest" and on track with my efforts with the 52 week Crash Course over the coming year.