I took up piano in the autumn of 2020 as something to fill the vast stretches of time I had during COVID lockdowns. I wasn't a complete beginner, I took some lessons as a child, then also played very casually as a teenager, I was never what you'd call a particularly committed student though. With starting it again for the 3rd time, I decided things were going to be different though, I wasn't expecting to be an amazing pianist, but I at least wanted to focus on being what you might consider a decent player.
I actually did fairly well at holding myself to a pretty strict practice regiment, I wanted to make sure that I was never simply falling into the comfort zone of endlessly replaying the songs that I already knew, rather than pushing myself to learn new ones.
I even ended up getting myself a piano teacher, not because I necessarily felt like I needed the guidance, but because I wanted someone to help hold me accountable to continuing to actually learn new stuff rather than fall into that comfy safe zone of replaying the pieces that I already know.
My goal was to be a well rounded musician, who can perform somewhat complex pieces, read music at an acceptable enough pace, do a certain amount of improvisation, and have a decent enough musical ear (more about that here).
The motivation for these goals was that I got frustrated as a guitarist that if ever anyone asked me to play something for them, my mind would try to cast back over all the songs I'd learnt, and come back with nothing. So I'd be sitting there looking kind of dumb not really knowing what to do with myself. I'm definitely not at the point yet where I can just sit at a piano and freeball it, but that is ultimately still where I'd like to aim to get to.
There have, however, been a couple of setbacks in my learning. The first was one of motivation. I discovered that not too far from me was an amateur piano meetup group. The description said that they allow people of all skill levels to perform, though I quickly discovered the reality that almost everyone there was exceptionally skilled at playing....I guess they're the only ones who are confident enough to actually go up and play in front of others. I did perform a few times there, though got incredibly demotivated that it seemed regardless of how much I practiced, once I actually got up in front of others, my fingers would go stupid and forget everything they're meant to do. The best performance I gave was of One Summers Day from Spirited Away, viewable here:
One great plus side from that group though is that the first time I went was the day after a pretty rough breakup, where I happened to run into Jack, a fellow Brit who'd just moved to Toronto that I shared a bunch in common with. He ended up becoming an important part of my friend group that I currently have in the city.
The other setback that I had was my house-sitting. Travelling light meant I had to sacrifice my piano playing for the year that I was doing it. Though again, looking on the bright side of things...now that I'm in my new place I've started playing a bit again and it's honestly kind of shocking just how much of what I knew before I still remember.
So that's pretty much where I'm at right now. I'm back to my piano, trying to improve at it slowly but surely, and will hopefully eventually get to the point where I can just jam along with others in a truly natural way that expresses myself.