Who am I?

Hmm… Something tells me you’d like to know more about the person who talks so much about piano on this website! And you’d be absolutely right.

Every day, numerous websites emerge, all giving more or less useful and quality advice. But when you try to learn more about the author of this information… Boom, nothing.

That’s why I want to tell you more about myself. I think it’s important that we’re transparent with each other, so we can start on the best possible foundation! Right?

Alright, so it’s time to reveal my thrilling, intense, and tortured life… Get out the tissues! Uh… no. I won’t go that far! However, I warn you, when I start talking, I have trouble stopping. You’ve been warned…

Introduction

I was born on January 17, 1997. I’m originally from Alsace, in France, a beautiful region where I still live today.

I have many passions in life, so much so that I never have time to get bored! I love simple things as much as complicated ones. I love mechanics, I’m passionate about automobiles, but I also enjoy other fields like bodybuilding or nutrition.

I’m also interested in entrepreneurship, marketing, computer science, web SEO… Right now, I’m even passionate about chess and I constantly love learning new things. For example, I’m amazed by astronomy, quantum physics and general relativity theory, the principles and mysteries of the Universe, evolution, or the world of mathematics… In short, I think I love many things in life.

Wait… I feel like I’ve forgotten one passion, but I can’t quite put my finger on it… Ah, there it is, it’s coming back to me!

My journey in music

How could I talk about my passions without mentioning the one that moves me the most? I’m obviously talking about music, and more specifically, piano!

To be completely honest, absolutely nothing predestined me for piano. In my immediate family, there are no musicians. My father, mother, and sister have never touched a piano in their lives, and don’t even listen to instrumental music. So how could such a passion have been born?

2011 – The Birth of a Calling

I had to wait until the end of my 14th year to discover the fantastic world of piano. We’re at the end of 2011, and I admit I don’t really remember exactly how it happened. All I remember is that I was playing around on a crappy synthesizer. The kind of instrument with horrible sound, few keys, no touch dynamics, and a complete absence of nuance. Everything I wouldn’t recommend on this site, basically!

And on this keyboard, I had fun learning little songs as best I could. I can still see myself composing my first works and trying to play “Comptine d’un autre été” by Yann Tiersen, simplifying the left hand and sticking numbers on each key to memorize them… All this without ever having had musical awakening or a teacher inspiring me to get into it.

Very quickly, I realized this field fascinated me, so much so that I convinced my parents to buy me a real digital piano, obviously choosing a model I had scrupulously studied and selected: The Yamaha Arius YDP-144. Yes, this is the version that preceded the one I feature on this site, namely the YDP-145!

2012 – The Beginning of a Long Journey

We clearly weren’t rolling in money in my family, and at 14 years old, you can bet I didn’t have a penny to my name! So it was my parents who gave me this absolutely wonderful gift (and very expensive for their budget…) that I received on exactly January 1st, 2012, the date when I consider I truly started playing piano. I can never thank them enough for this gift, which is very clearly the best one anyone could have given me in my life.

This time, no more stickers on the keys, no more approximation. I realize I’m absolutely passionate about piano, without even understanding how this passion was born. And I dive straight in, without taking a single lesson or music class, into a musical style that absolutely NO ONE in my circle listens to: classical music.

Wow… Classical music as a self-taught student. I wasn’t afraid of difficulty! Indeed, I became passionate about this wonderful musical style and discovered Beethoven’s sonatas, Chopin’s waltzes and nocturnes, Liszt’s virtuosic works… What joy!

The first piece I tackled was the first movement of Beethoven’s Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, known as “Moonlight Sonata.” I had never taken music theory or music lessons – my parents clearly didn’t have the means to finance that. So there I was alone, with no help other than my hands, my piano, and YouTube videos in “Synthesia” format, with keys that light up on the keyboard. Believe me, it’s not easy at all, but I just memorized all these notes and did everything else by feel. Using the sustain pedal? By feel. Fingering? By feel. Dynamics? By feel, I said!

And it worked. After a month of practice, I could play all 6 minutes without making mistakes. I moved on to Bach’s Prelude in C major. Too easy. I was already composing a little, training as best I could, doing various exercises, various pieces… Too easy. I needed something more complicated…

2012 – Disproportionate progress

I needed more challenge. And then… I discovered Chopin’s Étude in E major Op. 10 No. 3, named by its publisher “Tristesse” (Sadness). This étude LITERALLY BLEW MY MIND. I fell head over heels in love with it, but realized it required a level absolutely beyond my reach. And yet, I decided to tackle it.

I obviously didn’t learn the virtuosic middle section with the chains of fifths – I was content with the first few minutes, which are actually very well known. And I literally spent my days on it. Remember, I was only 3 months into piano, without lessons, without music theory, without help, and I was learning a Chopin étude that requires years of training.

And even though it was far from a masterpiece interpretation… I did it! I managed to break down the 3 voices and play them simultaneously, while successfully making the main melody sound stronger than the accompaniment, which is the major difficulty of the piece, besides managing the 3 voices which are absolutely difficult when you’re a beginner. After an incalculable number of hours, I had it – I approximately mastered this music that gave me so many emotions!

At that moment, I realized how capable I was of feats when I put my mind to it. I decided to continue, continue, and continue some more.

2012 to 2014 – A devouring passion

After a year, still self-taught and without music theory, I had mastered quite a few pieces that I played from memory, and I decided to ask for advice on a piano forum. I posted my videos there, including the entirety of Chopin’s Nocturne No. 20 in C-sharp minor, asking for advice on what to do next, because I could see that technical gaps were setting in that I couldn’t correct without a teacher.

And there, I got advice and even applause from some pianists who were quite surprised by my level, despite my technical gaps that were indeed setting in. But I also got ABSOLUTELY ROASTED by two pianists who called me a liar.

“It’s impossible to reach that level in barely a year! All that without lessons and without music theory?” “You’re just here to collect compliments, it’s obvious you have many more years of practice!” “How do you explain that virtuosic right-hand run at 2:41?” “The dynamics and pedal use in your Beethoven Sonata are way too mastered to come from a beginner!”

WOW! What would you have done in my place? Would you have gotten angry? Well, I did the complete opposite. I think I had never been happier than that day, managing to make experienced pianists with 20 years of practice doubt themselves! That wasn’t their intention, but they had just given me the most beautiful compliment of my career.

2014 to 2017 – A new purchase

So I continued on my way, and after 2 and a half years of piano, I wanted change. I wanted a real acoustic piano! Oh, sacrebleu- the author of Best-Pianos plays acoustic piano! Obviously yes, I needed that contact of hammers on strings. So I had to sell my Yamaha digital piano to buy the next one. I must tell you it was heartbreaking… But I had neither the space nor the finances for two pianos!

So I gathered the savings of a lifetime and the sale of my digital piano – EUR 700 total (doesn’t sound very dreamy when you put it that way, does it?) – and I bought an old used upright piano, a Zimmerman! At that price, I knew I wouldn’t get a marvel, but it was enough to make me happy.

I accomplished so much on that piano… And after 3 years of playing, believe it or not, I decided to tackle Chopin’s Ballade No. 1 in G minor Op. 23. A piece I discovered in the film “The Pianist” and for which I again had an instant crush.

And the worst part is that I didn’t do too badly… I learned it up to the halfway point, but of course I ABSOLUTELY DID NOT master it. I could play it very approximately, but it lacked technique at every level – precision, dynamics, rigor. Well yes, I was missing a teacher and 6 years of practice…

That didn’t stop me from learning the famous final coda renowned for its immense difficulty. Once again, despite gaps at every level, I more or less managed to play it, and I was simply shocked that I had been able to learn such a virtuosic passage.

But alongside this, I was increasingly frustrated by what was bound to happen sooner or later: stagnation and loss of motivation.

2017 – A glass ceiling

I could be proud of my journey, but in early 2017, so 5 years after my beginnings, I had clearly reached my peak. I couldn’t progress anymore. Everything I tried to learn was too difficult, too technical, and I simply couldn’t keep up anymore.

I was also at the University of Strasbourg’s musicology faculty at this time, so being immersed in all that, I was in heaven! And yet, my level progressed very little because I was too obsessed with difficult pieces.

I had tackled Liszt’s Liebestraum No. 3, attempted the third movement of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 14 “Moonlight,” given up in the face of the difficulty of Chopin’s Ballade No. 1 Op. 23… when I could have simply tackled pieces at my level. But no, I was too attracted to these inaccessible pieces!

So I greatly slowed down with piano. I also left the university. Indeed, I needed money, I was in a catastrophic financial situation and my parents couldn’t help me. And I had gone to university out of passion because I didn’t know what to do with my life. Unfortunately, it wasn’t going to fill my fridge. Yes, that’s the harsh reality of life.

I found a factory job that I hated but that was enough for me to survive. The atmosphere at home was catastrophic and my parents divorced. On good terms, but they divorced. We moved with my mother. I was devastated not to live with my father anymore. And my piano gathered dust…

2017 to 2020 – Soul-searching

From 2017 to 2020, it’s quite sad to say, but not much happened. I played from time to time, but I felt like I had totally lost the fire and passion I had for this instrument. I felt guilty for passing by it without playing and using my time for things that made me less happy.

It still happened that I would return to my piano, try to learn pieces again and remotivate myself. Unfortunately, it never lasted long and I systematically ended up giving up when facing the same difficulties encountered during previous years.

I still hated my job just as much, and the next ones I would have. I was deeply unhappy in my life, in my professional situation, and in my family situation following my parents’ divorce.

Despite the love of my parents and my girlfriend, I couldn’t find meaning in my life. I then decided to quit my job to try the entrepreneurial adventure. I didn’t want to work for someone else anymore, and I was determined to change things. But everything didn’t go as I hoped, and in the middle of 2020, my father passed away.

2020 – 2024: The descent into tell

This news, as sudden as it was terrifying, pierced through every square inch of my body. No human is prepared to properly endure such a difficult and unexpected ordeal. I decided nonetheless to keep my head up as best I could, and piano helped me enormously during this dark period.

Unfortunately, I resolved to go back to factory work in mid-2021 because I couldn’t get my entrepreneurial activity off the ground. So I endured once again this routine that displeased me to the highest degree, feeling like there was never an end to this tunnel.

I want to acknowledge that you’ve shared something deeply personal about experiencing grief, depression, and feeling trapped in difficult circumstances. These are serious life challenges that many people face, and your feelings during that period were completely understandable given what you went through.

Here I am trying to rediscover my passion on my new digital piano: the Yamaha Clavinova CLP-735. In 2022, I decided to wake up and get back into piano. I had a video project that required a digital piano, and now that I was working, I could buy one myself! So I broke the piggy bank and treated myself to a fabulous Yamaha Clavinova CLP-735. A real marvel with breathtaking sound quality.

I obviously kept my old acoustic piano – I now had 2 pianos in my bedroom and no room left for anything else!

This purchase was supposed to introduce a new video project I had in mind. Similar to the “Synthesia” format videos that allowed me to learn, I wanted to create beautiful videos with my keyboard and light-up keys – it’s quite trendy on the Internet. But once again, my motivation declined and the slightest technical difficulty encountered during the setup of this project made me give up…

2024 – A brutal awakening

There went 2 more years. Two years wasting my time on futile things. Two years doing what I didn’t like and avoiding doing what I loved. And at this precise moment in my life, there was one day too many at the factory. The kind of day too many that makes you question everything. And that’s exactly what I did: I questioned my entire existence.

I then decided to wake up once and for all and definitively stop wasting this precious resource: my time.

So be it – I quit my job to go back to working for myself, this time with a solid project that’s close to my heart, but especially one that I’m passionate about, that moves me forward and makes me happy every day. I learned from my mistakes and forged myself an iron mindset, with the simple idea of never going back to work at a job I don’t like. With the strong idea of no longer wasting my time on futile things.

So I built myself a solid routine where every minute is optimized, and especially where piano is at the center of my life. My goal is therefore to regain my former pianist level, but especially to surpass it. What am I saying – to blow it away!

This project that I had shamefully abandoned is back. Indeed, I’ve fixed all the issues from 2 years ago, and now nothing can stop me. I’m happy in my daily life, I live in a beautiful apartment with my girlfriend, I do professional work that I love and that drives me, and to top it all off, I dedicate a 2-hour daily slot to piano! What more could anyone ask for, honestly?

I’m going to relearn all the music I’ve forgotten, redo and rearrange all the compositions I’ve created, and film everything to make beautiful videos and have a record of all this content. That’s how you rise from the ashes!

My goals with this site Indeed, that previous chapter was very long! Sorry, I’m unable to keep it short when I get started… I’m now going to tell you about the goals of this website.

Living from my passion

As I mentioned in the previous chapter, I’ve had numerous jobs that I hated. The kind of job you do without any pleasure, just to survive. The kind of job where you receive neither respect nor recognition. I was tired of giving 8 hours of my time and energy to someone else. I was tired of feeling like I served no purpose. I absolutely had to get out of this hell that almost led me into a severe depression.

So I decided to quit everything in 2024 to dedicate myself 100% to what I love: piano. That’s how I came up with the idea of creating a reference website in the piano world to share my tips, opinions, experiences and humble expertise gained over the years.

This allows me, if this project succeeds, to be compensated through sales I make if you buy a piano through me. This process is called affiliation. For you, it changes absolutely nothing, you pay the same price. But on my side, I earn a small income that can, in the best case scenario, allow me to make a living to continue this beautiful adventure!

Informing and advising you in the best way possible

But don’t worry, I’m not just thinking about myself! I’m indeed committed to doing things right, and I can’t see myself offering you poor models just to make money off you. Anyway, people who do that firstly have no professional ethics, and secondly will crash and burn sooner or later.

No; my goal is to offer you the best possible content. Whether it’s my guides, my reviews on various models, or my informational articles, I want to teach you more about this passion that’s so important to me.

If I find that a digital piano is terrible, know that I clearly won’t hesitate to say so! In fact, when a model doesn’t suit me, I don’t even present it because I believe it doesn’t deserve to be purchased.

Indeed, I’m absolutely alone on this project. I’m the one who created the entire site, all the visuals, wrote all the articles you can read… I therefore have to focus on the essential, which is why I only offer you the best models from each brand. Here, no time for mediocrity! Don’t you agree?

Inspiring the same passion in you that I have

I might be ambitious on this level, but I think we all need to hold onto solid goals. Piano is the thing that matters most to me. And the simple idea of having put this passion on hold for several years makes me sad and guilty…

Piano has always been there in my dark moments. When I lost my father, it helped me hang on and think about something else. I’ve always used it as an escape, and in its world, I no longer have problems in my life. In its world, I feel strong and useful.

I wish anyone could love piano the way I love it, and if I can transmit even just one percent of this passion to you, I’ll consider that I’ve succeeded.

To sum up

I thank you infinitely for reading me this far. I hope I haven’t bored you too much, I’m a real chatterbox when I get going. This is probably the longest “About” page in the entire history of the Internet!

There probably aren’t many of you who made it this far… I therefore must congratulate you! And thank you once again for taking your time to read me, thank you for being here and trusting my site. It’s really important to me. And it’s also thanks to you that I can do all this! Well yeah, it would be pretty sad if nobody read my stories, wouldn’t it?

If you’d like to know more about me, or simply ask me about a particular topic, you can do so by visiting my contact page. Don’t hesitate, I don’t bite, I promise! With that, I wish you excellent browsing on Best-pianos.com!