I played the piano since 5. I'm now 30. I studied classical piano. Then I taught piano , both pop and classical at a school.
I learnt pop by myself (Theres classical elements in my playing). My skills really deteriorated badly due to injuries and illness.
But starting next month, I'll be learning jazz piano from a very famous performer and I'll practice hard and get good again.
You don't need to play for many years to attain this result. However, playing by ear and arranging your own style is quite difficult because we don't rely on music scores. We play whatever we "feel".
If you practice hard under a good teacher, I think just 2 years and you'll play better than me. In my school that I taught previously, one of the students was so good, he was asked to teach.
