Billy Joel used to know how to read music, but he forgot over time, and he still regrets it. The man behind “Piano Man” had classical lessons for almost twelve years before the skill slipped away.
How Billy Joel Learned Piano and Lost the Ability to Read Music
On WNYC’s “Here’s the Thing,” Billy Joel said he began playing piano somewhere around the age of four or five. When he was about sixteen, Joel no longer wanted to read other people’s dots, and the idea of becoming a concert pianist was out of the question.
Asked whether he can still read notes, he said he once could but “forgot how,” likening an unfamiliar score to a language he stopped speaking. Joel also admitted he never practiced enough to use all the fingers of his left hand, which is why he plays octaves and bass notes and lets the right hand compensate.
How Billy Joel Writes Songs Without Reading Music
In a Steinway & Sons interview, Billy Joel explained how he writes: he works out a progression or theme on the piano, and doesn’t think about lyrics yet. He allows the music to move him to want to finish the piece. He admitted he still can’t read music, that he regrets losing the skill, and stated notation is “a great tool to have in the toolbox.” He described his approach as naive.
Despite this, Joel doesn’t seem to want for ideas. In the same interview, he said fragments pile up, and when a good one pops up while he’s away from an instrument, he goes looking for a piano.
For example, while walking through Manhattan one day, Joel had a flash of inspiration. He approached the staff at the old Steinway showroom on 57th Street for a piano, and wrote a waltz there almost in one sitting. He named it “Steinway Hall.”
And while he can’t read notes, Joel credits his classical years with shaping his sense of melody, dynamics, and chords. He noted that rock music lacks the harmonic movement and variation he learned there.
How Billy Joel’s ‘Fantasies & Delusions’ Got Around Notation
When he turned to classical writing, he was once again confronted with the problem of notation. Joel struggled with it, so he played his pieces into a computer and a copyist transcribed them. The result was “Fantasies & Delusions,” released on October 2, 2001, performed by pianist Richard Hyung-ki Joo.
It reached No. 83 on the Billboard 200 and spent 18 weeks at No. 1 on the classical chart. Joo played sessions in Glen Cove, New York, but eventually re-recorded the material in Vienna.
Billy Joel Tells Rick Beato He Still Can’t Read Music
Speaking to Rick Beato in July 2026, Billy Joel confirmed he still doesn’t read music. He had learned Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony by ear, which he considered the lazy route. He’d only done it out of curiosity, wishing to see if he could figure the music out by himself.
He tried picking up Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto the same way, but couldn’t do it. Joel got the opening bells, then gave up, because past that point “you have to read the notes.”
