Can I start learning my dream piece right away?
I get this question from time to time from those who are just beginning their piano journeys. First of all, if your dream piece is Mary Had a Little Lamb, then the answer is a resounding “yes!” (it’s my favorite piece to use with a new student and a great teaching tool). But more likely, you are thinking something like Für Elise or the first movement of the Moonlight Sonata, River Flows in You, or even La Campanella. And I get it—they are well-known and beautiful pieces, would be great for impressing family and friends, and are a great inspiration for kickstarting your piano journey.
The problem is that most pieces that make people’s dream-piece list are at least at an intermediate level (which is the case for the first three pieces listed above), which you can think of as middle school in terms of academics. So a complete beginner, whom we can think of as a first-grader, would need at least 3 to 5 years of active practice to get there, even if they can “skip a grade” or two. Some pieces are much more advanced (like La Campanella), and these are akin to high school, college, and even Ph.D level of academics. So it generally takes 10 years or more to achieve the proficiency to do them justice.
It is possible to start learning some of these pieces within the first year or even months of your study, as some people are eager to do, but I personally don’t recommend it, because:
Even if you do manage to learn and play all the correct notes, you will still sound like a beginner just barely making it through the piece, because you haven’t built up the necessary technical skills and musical understanding required to really deliver a convincing performance of it. Think of it as the difference between a tourist in Paris who learned to say a few things in French from a travel phrasebook but still sounds unmistakably like a confused foreigner, versus someone who is actually fluent in French and can get around town confidently.
It will take a very long time to get through just one piece, because you’d be like a first-grader trying to read Shakespeare, figuring out one word or even one letter at a time. In the same amount of time, you could get through many more easier pieces and gain a lot of skill and satisfaction. You could perhaps opt to only learn a portion of the piece, but that would be like reading only a portion of a novel.
And most importantly, you are not really building true musical skills. Most of the “learning” process would consist of deciphering the notes on the page and brute-forcing them into muscle memory, rather than understanding and practicing the building blocks and syntax of the musical language that the piece uses. Again, it would be like learning to recite Hamlet letter by letter with little understanding or appreciation of what is being said.
So does this mean that you should put your head down, accept your humble reality, and start from A-B-C’s? Well, yes, that’s how you learn anything as a beginner, at least if you are somewhat serious about it and want true proficiency at some point. Kids actually have an easier time with this fact because they’re actual first graders or pretty close to it. For adults, sometimes it takes a bit of a reminder to keep a beginner’s mind, as the Zen monks say, and to think about the long-term goals. Ask yourself, is it absolutely important that you play this piece right now? If the answer is yes for whatever reason (maybe you want to impress that girl at your next date), then maybe you should, but keep in mind the warnings mentioned above and don’t mistake the end product with true proficiency. Or are you looking to get good at the piano and eventually play the pieces you want with finesse and fluency? If that is your true goal, I suggest building from the bottom up with solid foundations, and using your dream piece as a north star that pulls you forward. You’ll get there someday if you keep at it, but don’t forget to also enjoy the journey with all its richness and rewards.
Caveat: There can be somewhere of a middle-ground for those who are not necessarily looking to master piano but just want something to enjoy at a casual level—find a simplified arrangement of the piece you want to play and learn it slowly as a side project, devoting no more than 20% of your practice and/or lesson time. It can be a fun break and a good motivator, and with proper guidance, you might be able to glean some concepts or skills that will help you with your overall study.
Happy journeying!