The Sims 4 Piano Skill Guide
Playing an instrument immediately makes you 10x more impressive, especially if its piano.
The piano skill has been in the game since it was released and is such a fun skill to have your sims learn.
Just be sure to turn down your volume when they start learning, the noises aren’t pretty.
What is Piano Good For?
Piano is great for giving your sims a cool hobby, licensing songs for money, or being in the musician branch of the entertainer career!
Your sims can even learn to sing and play at the same time if you have City Living, or just play for tips for some extra cash.
How to Gain The Piano Skill
There are two ways you can gain the piano skill in the game. The first way is to read skill books for which there are three books for piano:
- Piano Vol 1: It’s Pretty Black and White
- Piano Vol 2: Sharps, Flats and Naturals
- Piano Vol 3: Concertos, Minutes, and Sonatas
You’ll want to start with the very first volume of the book until your sim reaches level four of the skill, then switch to the second. You’ll switch to the third at level 7!
The other way to gain this skill is, of course, to play the piano. You can purchase this gorgeous instrument in the buy catalog and just start practicing.
The next way your sims can gain the piano skill is by using a computer. You’ll find a research the piano option under web > research and your sim can gain more of thee skill this way!
When your sim reaches level 5 of the skill they can click on a sim who is playing the piano and choose listen and learn and can gain the skill by listening too!
Best Mood to Practice Piano
When TS4 was released we were given emotions for our sims and it was a huge selling point. These emotions have a big impact on our sim’s skill gains because each skill has an ideal mood that will let you gain the skill more quickly.
The ideal skill for all instrument skills including piano is inspired. To get inspired the easiest way is to take a thoughtful shower and when you reach level 2 of the skill you can research the piano on the computer for an inspired buff too!
Best Traits for Musical Sims
The traits you give your sims are so important and can help you gain skills more quickly with mood boosts!
- Creative: Creative sims are more likely to become inspired at random times which you can use to your advantage to gain the skill more quickly.
- Music Lover: A sim with this trait is going to get happy moodlets when they are playing instruments and those moodlets can boost inspired.
- Cheerful: Cheerful sims get happy moodlets more often and those will stack and boost inspired moodlets.
You also want to consider lot traits that you add to your sim’s household. Here’s a good option for gaining the sims 4 piano skill:
- Great Acoustics: This trait makes it easier to gain all musical skills.
How to Cheat The Piano Skill
If you don’t feel like gaining this skill the old fashioned way you can always decide to cheat it instead! The cheat you need is stats.set_skill_level Major_Piano 10 to max out the skill.
If you want a different level you just change the 10 to whatever level you’d like, for example, stats.set_skill_level Major_piano 2 will give your sim level two!
Piano Skill Levels
| Skill Level | Level Rewards |
|---|---|
| Level 1 | Your sims are able to practice on the piano. |
| Level 2 | Your sim can now rhapsodize about piano sonatas to other sims. Also, they can research the piano at the computer and appreciate classical music at the stereo. |
| Level 3 | Your sim can now play traditional songs and Plunk for Inspiration. |
| Level 4 | Your sim can now play a concerto and play blues songs. |
| Level 5 | Your sim can now play romantic songs on the piano and can listen and learn from other pianists who are more skilled. They can also mentor others in piano. |
| Level 6 | Your sim can now serenade other sims and play post-bop songs. |
| Level 7 | Your sim can play Latin songs. They can also promise to dedicate songs to other sims. |
| Level 8 | Your sim can now write, scrap and name songs. They can also play ragtime songs and perform jazz up the place. |
| Level 9 | Your sim can now play classical songs. They can also license songs they have written at the mailbox. |
| Level 10 | Your sims can now play avant-garde songs. |
Writing & Licensing Songs With Piano
When your sim reaches level 8 of the piano skill they are able to write their own songs and at level 9 they can license this song on the mailbox. Doing this sells the song and lets you have royalties come in each day at 10 AM.
Unfortunately you can only do one song per instrument at a time, so it’s not like writing where you can have tons of books earning royalties at once. It’s free money every single day where you can earn a few hundred dollars a day depending on the quality of your sim’s song.
Playing Piano For Tips
If your sim is a starving artist and you’re strapped for cash you have the option to play concerto for tips. To do this you’ll need to add a piano to a public lot, you can’t do this at home because not enough sims will appear to pay you.
You’ll get more tips depending on the level of the skill your sim has, so having level 10 of the skill will get you the most tips.
Using Piano For Love
Instruments are fun because you can use them to make other sims fall in love with your sim.
You’ll unlock the ability to serenade a sim at level six of the skill which gives the sim being serenaded a flirty moodlet for 8 hours making them perfect for romancing.
You can also give them another flirty moodlet by promising to dedicate a song to them!
Piano Mentorship
At level 10 of many skills in The Sims 4 your sims are able to mentor other sims in that skill. What does this do? Thanks for asking! Mentoring will help the mentee gain the skill more quickly during the time they are being mentored.
If you have The Sims 4: Business & Hobbies installed in your game you have the option to mentor for money. You can click on any sim, choose mentorship and you’ll see options to mentor for free or mentor for 430 simoleons per hour.
Making The Sims 4 Piano Skill Better With DLC
When you start adding DLC to your game you get even more fun gameplay and there’s a few packs that have some fun things you can do with the piano skill!
City Living
With The Sims 4: City Living we got the addition of the singing skill and with piano you are actually able to get your sims to play piano and sing at the same time. This is great because it means your sims can gain two skills at once!
Get Famous
When you add The Sims 4: Get Famous to your game your sims are able to gain fame when they are playing songs in public. This works for a few interactions including:
- Play Concerto
- Plunk for Inspiration
- Practice
Your sims are also able to gain fame when they write and license songs which is awesome!
Discover University
There are two fun ways your sims can gain this skill with The Sims 4: Discover University. The first way is by going on campus and choosing to sit in on a skill class.
This task will cost your sim ยง250 and a few hours of their time, but it’s a nice hands off way to gain skills.
The next way you can gain piano is by taking a piano elective when trying to get a degree in University. Your sims will gain the skill any time they are in class and when they work on their coursework.
High School Years
When you have The Sims 4: High School Years in your game your sims can earn a few points of the entrepreneur skill every time they earn tips when playing piano in public!
