Nadim Piano Diary

Welcome to my piano learning diary! I’m 35 years old with zero piano experience, but my love for Toby Fox’s music (Undertale, Deltarune) has inspired me to learn.

My goal is to, by the end of 2026, play at least two Toby Fox compositions competently. My number one dream is to one day be able to play The World Revolving.

Will I succeed? Let us find out together in this very boring diary which I use as a public accountability mechanism to shame myself if I fail or slack off, and where my foibles will be on full display! Also it will be really, really boring! Why would anyone read this?

Enjoy?

Day 6

I have conquered Jingle Bells… …and have moved on to the next challenge, Mary Ann: Mary Ann requires more nimble and varied use of the left hand for bass clef notes. Essentially this seems to be switching up the use of the left and right hands compared to Jingle Bells, while also introducing some new chords and combinations. ...

Day 5

Jingle Bells is seriously such a challenge for me (see yesterday for context): I’ve been practicing it like a madman today. Playing this thing correctly while (1) using both hands (2) reading the notes (3) not making any mistakes (4) following the correct tempo and rhythm is so hard that it’s making me sweat. Yes, I know it’s just Jingle Bells, but the truth is that I am finding the correct execution of this exercise incredibly challenging. I can plainly see that learning the piano such that I’m skilled enough to play my dream songs is going to be among the most difficult challenges of my whole life and will certainly require maybe 5+ whole years of dedication. This stuff is really hard! ...

Day 4

Meet my greatest opponent, “Jingle Bells”: Of course this is a very easy piece, but I found it challenging not because it’s a difficult melody but because it forced me to both, at the same time: Get better at reading notes, Get better at playing with both hands. Open question to mankind: why are the notes on the bass staff written differently than on the treble staff?! On the treble staff, the C is all the way at the bottom. On the bass staff, it’s somewhere near the middle?! Why??? It’s because it makes the notes on both staves equidistant from middle C. ...

Day 3

Today, did roughly 2 hours of piano: Lots of drills on correct hand positioning, memorizing notes. Removed the silly stickers indicating positions of C and A keys. Lots of practice playing The Legend, Ode to Joy, the Freedom Motif from The World Revolving… Essentially, I got to page 25 in Alfred’s Basic Adult All-in-One Course, Book 1: I also got in touch with a piano teacher with whom I might start taking lessons soon. His first request: stick to the book so that I avoid learning bad habits, and also, get a piano pedal before any eventual lessons with him. So I ordered this one. ...

Day 2

They should really write the notes on the keys!

Day 1: I Will Learn the Piano

I’ve decided to learn the piano at age 35 so I can play Toby Fox melodies.