Does the idea of taking piano lessons make you cringe? Does it make you remember some old lady beating you over the knuckles with a ruler when you were eight years old for not practicing your scales enough? Do you think back to the old woman with thirty-three cats that stunk of urine and cheap perfume that your mother made you learn scales from when you were a child?

Now that you are an adult you don’t have to be traumatized any more. Simply dissociate your bad experiences and learn how to play piano online. That way, you’ll never have to smell a smelly piano teacher again.

Know that you are not alone out there. I remember taking the piano lessons from Hell when I was in elementary school — about the 2nd grade or so. My instructor, we’ll call her Wilma (mainly because that was her name) was in her eighties — at least it seemed that way to me — she might have been much younger than that. She reminded me of the wicked witch of the West, with her long crooked fingers and a sharp nose. Looking back, I’m fairly certain that she ended up teaching piano lessons to children because she needed the money.

My piano lessons took place in a music shop that seemed ordinary enough from the selling floor. Once you entered the back room for lessons, however, you were overwhelmed by the stench of urine and cigarette smoke. Apparently, Wilma wasn’t so hot at keeping her area neat and tidy. If she only knew that a little bit of Lysol goes a long way, my nose would have been so grateful!

After a few minutes, I would get used to the smell. At least, I would become less horrified by it the more I was forced to breathe it in. What I simply couldn’t get over, however, was the giant growth on Wilmas’ hand. Yes, a huge tumor-like growth joined me and Wilma every Tuesday afternoon for lessons. It was about the size of a quarter, and since she was my piano teacher, I was forced to stare at it for a hour every week. There was simply no avoiding the sight of that awful, purplish thing that seemed to be getting larger every time I visited. How any 7-year-old can be expected to concentrate on music lessons while being forced to stare at an anomaly straight out of a medical textbook – or perhaps even a science-fiction show, considering the size of it – I have no idea. And she used that hand to slap my fingers when they didn’t play the correct note, or I didn’t have them in the shape she wanted.

But, I really wanted to learn to play piano. So, I suffered through the piano lessons from Hell for a little under a year before my folks switched me to another teacher. What do I remember from my lessons from Wilma? I most remember the trauma of being forced to play music that seemed old and boring to me at the side of an old crotchety lady whose goal in life seemed to be to make the lives of little boys miserable

Perhaps your piano lessons from Hell were a bit less traumatizing. But still, who wants to make the effort to leave the house when you can teach yourself by studying online? Such a luxury would have made my 7-year old musical life immeasurably more pleasant, and perhaps I’d even be a better piano player for it. (Presuming, of course, that I had the discipline to take advantage of it!)

So, if you’ve had bad experiences with piano lessons in the past, you can still learn to play without that weekly feeling of dread. With the advent of the Internet, you no longer need to hunt down an expensive instructor. Simply look for a great course online, and start plunking your way toward your true destiny as a piano virtuoso. Even if you only end up a virtuoso in your own home, you’ll be amazed by how quickly and easily you can learn to play piano online at your own pace.

Enjoy the comforts of your own home as you learn, and trust me, your knuckles will thank you for the absence of piano teachers slapping them around if you miss a few practice sessions.

PS Having been a piano teacher for many years, I am well aware that there are many wonderful teachers who lovingly teach kids. But I also have heard a few horror stories over the years…