I started playing the piano when I was 8 years old and I’ve been playing regularly for the last 25 years. Here are some things that helped me: - As others have

I started playing the piano when I was 8 years old and I’ve been playing regularly for the last 25 years. Here are some things that helped me: - As others have mentioned (and you’ve said you have), find a good teacher. Apps, etc., can be helpful supplements but nothing beats having a real person sit next to you and give you feedback. - As with a teacher, nothing beats consistent and quality practice time. The more time you spend in front of the piano the more comfortable you’ll be playing. Also: Don’t use those stickers you can buy that show the notes and letters of the keys. They’ll become a crutch and make it more difficult to read music in the long run. - Ear training and sight reading are very useful tools, as well, and really are vital for most people to become competent musicians. There are many apps and programs out there to learn these two skills. - This probably seems obvious, but listen to music from many different genres and time periods. I naturally learn by ear and listening to a piece before I sit down to learn/play it helps tremendously. - Lastly, make sure this is something fun for you and your kids. I’ve tried to learn a few instruments and I was miserable with some of them but stuck with it anyway. It made my playing sloppy and honestly pretty terrible. Spend some time at the piano just messing around and enjoy the process of learning. Don’t expect yourself to be the next Rachmaninov in a year. I’ve been playing for many years now and I’m still learning and fixing things. There are many pieces out there that I just physically can’t play. So keep the pressure off and enjoy. :) Some specific recommendations: - The Suzuki Piano Method (book) - Alfred’s Basic Piano Library (books) - EarMaster (ear training app) - Tenuto (theory app, learn notes, intervals, chords, etc, from https://www.musictheory.net/ https://www.musictheory.net/) - The Virtuoso Pianist by Hanon (This is a book to learn dexterity and finger independence. It’s somewhat advanced, but you can tackle it slowly and gradually increase your speed as you get better.)