Context
I was born with a natural ear. Since early childhood, when hearing others sing, I would naturally do four-point harmony, without any training. I also imagined numerous ways for a song/piece to sound, outside the box. People mistaken me for being "perfect pitch" but in reality I have a combination of "natural relative pitch" combined with some ADD (always composing in my head), and natural talent for harmony and non-taught music theory. Perhaps because of that, I loathed when my parents forced me to learn piano by sight reading. I found it very limiting for my strange brain. I'm also an audiophile who loves good sound (more on that later).
When I truly started piano
I grew up at a church, where contemporary religious music was the norm. Guitar chords, basically. Think of people like Chris Tomlin and Matt Redman. When my high school crush who was the keyboardist, left for college, I asked her who would replace her. She said I should replace her. I thought she was insane-- I had no real piano training (other than my 1 year of forced, then quit training), and no idea how to play chords. But I ended up getting some chord charts, and just figuring it out, by accompanying guitarists and vocalists. Several years later it became clear to me that I had a knack for composition/ leading a band, and I also realized I no longer needed chord charts at all.
Several years later I ended up using the chord approach, into all genres of music - pop, R&B, soul, movie soundtracks etc. I enjoyed playing anything by ear and just improvising. To laypeople, they were very impressed, so I had a high esteem about being "really good at piano."
Humbling moment
My wife made it very clear to me, that although I could do somewhat uncanny things on the piano, that I sounded horribly, from a mechanics standpoint. That anyone who has formal training would think that although I could play some really cool things note-wise, and come up with fun tunes, that my voicing, phrasing, tempo, dynamics completely sucks. And I agreed with that. This was exacerbated by playing with a keyboard for so long, where I used the volume control to mask all my deficiencies.
Turning Point
In 2021, I told my wife I wanted to get a Shigeru Kawai. She had mixed feelings. She said if I were to purchase that instrument, then she'd plan when she's not in the house, so that I could play my own way (which is pretty "masculine," banging the keys, like a rock pianist who's lost his hearing). It was my wakeup call, that if we were going to get a nice piano, I better learn to play correctly (as in, get the basic fundamentals down). We agreed that I won't be forced to learn classical repertoires per se, but if I would at least do the basic techniques and drills, then my contemporary style would sound so much better than a raw, talented, but uncouth pianist.
So we bought the Shigeru. And I practiced my tail off on the Kawai VPC1 for hours a day on Hanon, scales, arpeggios, and doing ToneBase kind of stuff. Again, there's no expectations for me to read music, play classical pieces, but instead at a minimum I need to still learn the fundamentals.
Fast Forward to Today
Just recently, my wife said I sound good. This was a huge accomplishment for me, because she is hyper critical (in a constructive way) of piano playing. So now, when I'm doing a self-made mashup of chords/ melodies that combines Chariots of Fire, with some Rachmaninoff phrases, with some Stravinsky phrases, followed by Bach "Prelude in [whatever key I feel like], followed by Interstellar, it sounds cool.
I'm grateful that I have the gift of ear, and can figure out, and play whatever I want without a score - a bit of a self-looped learning mechanism. And I'm glad that I've gotten much better mechanically.
My "niche" is going to a random piano (imagine at a Waterloo train station, airport, or having guests over). I ask them "give me a song- any song" and then they name something. So long as it's a conventional progression, I'll usually make it up on the spot, on any key. And improvise. It's cool for "showing off" but otherwise I get bored in the middle of the song, and ask for another song. Today I am going to practice "Bach Prelude in all Majors" - playing it in all 12 keys, in order to strengthen my technique while simultaneously practice my ear training and muscle memory.
Looking Ahead
I plan to keep playing piano as an amateur. I've played in numerous gigs in the past, but realized that it's more fun to do my own thing. I have seen Youtube's of folks who hear a song, then five minutes later play it, and felt I do it more proficiently than them.
I will never be a classical pianist, will never sight read, will never sound fully polished. And I'm fully content about that, as my brain operates completely different (not saying it's better or worse), and I'm glad I have pianos/keyboards I can continue the lifelong learning, making our pianos sound good (the Shigeru and Bose), and to sound less crappy than I did before.