<p>I'm curious. How does it look to self-teach yourself the piano as an extracurricular?</p>
<p>what do u mean by that, do u mean on the computer???</p>
<p>Well, it doesn’t look particularly impressive. Have you competed in national competitions? How long have you played it?</p>
<p>I’m also self-taught. Just by figuring it out…I can’t even explain it. I didn’t learn from a program or anything but I do write music, perform locally. Can this be an impressive EC even though I’m not into competitions? I like to compose…but not compete!</p>
<p>Yes, I suppose, to some extent. Teaching yourself and writing your own music is pretty impressive.</p>
<p>I saw this post and I was curious:
I taught myself how to play piano, and now I accompany musical productions (community theater), and I use it to teach music for my school shows and my school choir. How would this look on a college app?</p>
<p>It’s not spectacularly impressive. Piano is a very common talent and there are a lot of piano virtuosos out there with awards, performances at Carnegie Hall, teaching music lessons themselves etc. etc.</p>
<p>@PetitPapillon</p>
<p>Is that your best EC?</p>
<p>It will look good because it demonstrates dedication and commitment. Did you compete in any piano competitions?</p>
<p>You can only teach yourself so much piano, and you have to be careful that you don’t play too much with bad technique since you haven’t had a teach show you good technique, as that can lead to injury. I’m going into piano performance in college this fall. But if you have done some piano on your own, I suppose that would count as an EC on an app.</p>
<p>I know there are other people who are far more gifted piano players than I but I hope I’ll stand out because I went the other route. Instead of competition I chose composing and local performances. It seems like piano awards are a dime a dozen but on chance threads and stuff I never see anyone talk about writing their own music…</p>
<p>so you don’t think that it would matter that much unless I play at Carnegie Hall? 
I know many people play piano really well. But virtually all of them have tutors. I was wondering if it’ld show dedication and commitment, doing it myself…</p>
<p>I think it most definitely shows determination and discipline. You should probably use the short answer question on ECs to elaborate on it, since that is the best way to explain your commitment and all the work you’ve put in. That’s what I’m going to do…</p>