The world's first "Clair de lune" piano lessons on Instagram

I might be wrong, but as far as I can tell, these may very well be the world's first piano lessons on how to play "Clair de lune" through Instagram.

What is Instagram? It's a popular app primarily for shooting and sharing pictures shot with a smartphone. It's a great way to display your summer vacation photos without the social media and advertising clutter that plagues Facebook and Twitter. But piano lessons?  Can someone actually learn how to play the piano on a picture app/website like Instagram?

Two years ago, Instagram added the ability to upload 15 second videos. Again, this was originally meant for uploading videos shot on a smartphone. But with a bit of fancy file sharing workarounds, I've been able to produce a series of high quality videos using my nifty pro-production video cameras. The result is a series of 10-15 second videos showing how to play Claude Debussy's piano masterpiece "Clair de lune" a measure or 2 at a time. This project reminds me a bit of my first attempt to teach "Clair de lune" through an extensive series of YouTube videos (my popular "Clair de lune from Scratch" series) around 6 years ago. 

So, can you learn to play the piano through a series of 15 second videos? One main benefit from the short video time is that it actually forces you to focus on a small portion of music at a time. The video automatically loops, so you can carefully study exactly which fingers go on which keys over and over until you get it right, before moving on to the next video lesson. 

If you've always wanted to play the piano and want to start out playing something really beautiful, give these Instagram lessons a try. They're completely free, and hey - you'll be a part of making musical history! Search for #learnclairdelune or #hughsungpiano within the Instagram app or website to see the lessons. I'll be posting 2 lessons a day until we get to the end of the piece. Be sure to let me know what you think of these in the Instagram comments!