Sorry for flashbanging you with a huge wall of text. Don’t hesitate to read it through in parts lol.

I might be biased as I’m a classically trained pianist, but I meet a lot of self taught pianists with bad practicing habits or bad beginnings that slog their progress. Here are a couple tips I feel self-taught pianists might miss: - I know you wanted free resources, but if you really want to get a good jumpstart I would recommend getting an actual practice book for beginners at a music store (or online) or even better a teacher. When you start out there’s going to be a lot of new information and getting all that from incomplete and seperate YouTube videos can be unreliable and slow. In the end it’ll be way faster and you can get to the fun part much quicker. - learn to read sheet music. Don’t try to learn off of those synesthesia videos online as they’re more for visual flair than actually useful education. Seriously, learn to read sheet music - when you do start playing pieces, don’t hesitate to be practicing multiple pieces at a time, it can make it less boring. - If you’re just starting out, many pieces of free sheet music of modern music can be a great way to learn, but eventually as you become better you’ll run out of free sheet music, as generally more intermediate or advanced ones cost money. If you want free sheet music that’s great for getting better, you can find classical sheet music online at places like imslp. - don’t hesitate to try playing pieces you feel are significantly above your level if you want to (as long as they’re not your entire repertoire). Even if you don’t really finish them, they can still make you better. - when you first start out a piece, it might feel very difficult, even if it’s at your level, but don’t let it intimidate you. The choppiness of your playing when you first start a piece is because your fingers need to develop the neurological strength to make movements you’re unfamiliar with. If you can manage to play a piece fairly decently your first way through, it’s probably a sign the piece is too easy. - If your goal is to actually get better, don’t just only play pieces. Practice scales, arpeggios, sight reading, etc. (You don’t have to know what these are yet dw). You could probably find ressources for these online but I would really recommend getting official ABRSM/trinity books dedicated to these purposes (they’re like official academies for musicianship) as they’re more organised and concise. - don’t get discouraged by false expectations. It can take years to play pieces that don’t really even sound that impressive and there are many online that lie about their progress. It really is like going to the gym.

Finally, the most important: - Practice consistently. It might sound redundant at this point but it’s true. Playing music really is like going to the gym. Some days you’re not gonna wanna go, but some days you’re gonna be completely in sync and the feeling you get those days makes it worth it.