I took the approach that anything can be done if using the internet as an aid. Pick a popular song that you genuinely love to listen to. It helps to start out with slower songs. In my case, I picked the song from Amelie, the theme song to The Legend of Zelda, and a song from a japanese anime show, Naruto. I printed all the sheet music, which was all available in some form or another online. I slowly marked out all the notes that I could not readily read in under 2 seconds, and wrote which notes were flat or sharp on the side. Then I practiced with each hand individually until it was ingrained in my hands’ muscle memory. After that, I started playing it all together at an extremely slow rate. It helped tremendously to view other people play these same songs on Youtube. That way, you can see the fingering that they use and any other tricks that make playing a song easier. After you master each song, many of those same techniques can be applied to newer songs, and some notes that I would have to count up saying “Elephants Got Big Dirty Feet” or “FACE” soon become instantly readable to the point that I’m marking significantly less notes in new pieces. My wall in learning was playing with both hands simultaneously. I could never progress beyond that point until I found the anime song from Naruto called “Sadness and Sorrow.” After practicing over and over at a slow pace, my hands just started to “get” it, even if I couldn’t actively visualize both parts in my head yet. At the moment, I am also watching an anime show called Nodame Cantabile, which you can probably watch on Veoh.com or something. It’s about 2 piano majors working to improve and probably inspired me the most to want to learn. I would also recommend downloading Synthesia (http://www.synthesiagame.com/), which is like Guitar Hero but for piano. So if you have a midi/USB cord, you can plug your keyboard into a computer and try it with your favorite songs.

So don’t pick the hardest song in the world to start out with, mark your music, play slowly, and pick a song that you love, watch other people play the same song, and repeat until it’s ingrained in your muscle memory. Good luck!