If you are watching Four Hands, Two Sonatas, you may have wondered:
Are Song Kang and Lee Jun-young really playing the piano themselves?
It is an understandable question.
The piano is not simply a background prop in the tvN drama. Song Kang’s Kang Bi-o and Lee Jun-young’s Choi Jeong-yo are supposed to be exceptionally talented pianists, and the camera frequently shows their hands, posture, movements, and reactions while performing.
So did the two actors actually learn to play?
The answer is a little more interesting than a simple yes or no.
The Short Answer
Yes, both Song Kang and Lee Jun-young prepared to perform piano scenes themselves—but they approached the challenge very differently.
Song Kang said he began taking piano lessons several months before filming.
Lee Jun-young, meanwhile, openly admitted that he was not good at playing the piano, so he memorized the music and the movements required for his scenes.
At the drama’s production presentation, Song Kang explained that he had taken piano lessons for months before filming. Lee Jun-young described his own approach much more simply: because he wasn’t a skilled pianist, he memorized what he needed to perform.
So what viewers see is not simply two actors sitting at a piano while someone else does all the work.
Both actors trained specifically to make their pianist characters believable.
But that does not necessarily mean every note heard in the finished drama is the actors’ own live recorded performance.
That distinction is important.
How Much Piano Did Song Kang Learn?
Song Kang appears to have taken the more traditional approach.
He began piano lessons several months before filming started.
Once production became too busy for regular lessons, he continued studying by watching videos from his piano instructors and observing the movements of real pianists.
Song Kang explained that he was particularly interested in capturing not only the technical movements but also the emotional state of Kang Bi-o while playing.
That makes sense because Bi-o is not simply “a guy who plays piano.”
His entire personality is built around it.
He is an elite student and perfectionist whose life has been dominated by competition, discipline and the desire for recognition.
Official promotional material describes Bi-o’s playing style as precise and meticulous, matching his perfectionist personality.
For Song Kang, therefore, learning the piano was also part of learning how Bi-o moves.
Song Kang Studied the Habits of Real Pianists
This may be the more interesting part.
Song Kang did not focus only on pressing the correct keys.
He said he watched performance videos to study the gestures and habits pianists display while playing, especially for the drama’s faster classical pieces.
That detail explains why some of his piano scenes can look convincing even to viewers who know he is an actor rather than a professional concert pianist.
Think about what makes a fake instrument performance obvious.
It isn’t always the fingers.
It can be:
- awkward posture,
- unnatural wrist movement,
- looking at the wrong place,
- body movements that don’t match the music,
- or an actor who appears disconnected from the instrument.
By studying how pianists physically behave at the keyboard, Song Kang could make Bi-o look like someone who has spent most of his life sitting at a piano.
What About Lee Jun-young?
Lee Jun-young’s answer was refreshingly different.
He did not pretend that he had suddenly become an accomplished pianist.
At the production presentation, he explained:
“I didn’t know how to play the piano well, so I memorized the entire piece.”
That’s actually a fascinating acting technique.
Instead of trying to become a pianist in the traditional sense, Lee concentrated on learning exactly what was required for specific scenes.
He memorized the pieces and paid particular attention to moments where the piano performance had to connect with his acting.
Director Park Hyun-seok reportedly knew the pieces in enough detail to direct scenes measure by measure, helping Lee coordinate the music with Jeong-yo’s emotions.
Lee Jun-young Still Practiced
Lee Jun-young’s comment that he “memorized” the music should not be misunderstood as meaning that he did no preparation.
He said he practiced whenever he had time and listened to classical music on his days off.
He also described Four Hands, Two Sonatas as particularly attractive because he had long been interested in music.
That background is interesting because Lee Jun-young is already a singer and performer.
But being musically experienced and playing classical piano convincingly are very different things.
Rather than trying to hide that limitation, his preparation appears to have focused on what the camera needed:
making Choi Jeong-yo look and feel like a pianist.
Their Different Preparation Actually Fits Their Characters
This is where things become surprisingly appropriate.
The two characters are deliberately written as contrasting types of musicians.
Kang Bi-o — Song Kang
Bi-o represents:
discipline
precision
perfectionism
relentless practice
He is the elite pianist who has followed a structured path and works obsessively to remain at the top.
Choi Jeong-yo — Lee Jun-young
Jeong-yo represents:
instinct
freedom
emotion
natural musical talent
Official drama material specifically contrasts Bi-o’s precise approach with Jeong-yo’s freer, more explosive style.
And strangely enough, the actors’ preparation mirrors that contrast.
Song Kang spent months building piano fundamentals and studying pianist movements.
Lee Jun-young concentrated on memorizing what his scenes required and connecting the music directly to acting.
The actors did not intentionally become their characters through identical training.
They found two different routes to looking convincing at the piano.
Did Song Kang and Lee Jun-young Record the Piano Music We Hear?
This is where we need to be careful.
There is a difference between:
playing the piano during filming
and
providing the final piano recording used on the soundtrack.
The actors have publicly discussed lessons, practice, memorization and performing the movements required for scenes.
However, the available interviews do not establish that every finished classical performance heard in the drama is an unedited recording played entirely by Song Kang or Lee Jun-young themselves.
Film and television productions frequently combine actors’ physical performances with professionally recorded audio, editing and other production techniques.
So the safest answer is:
The actors genuinely trained and performed piano material for the camera, but viewers should not assume that every note on the final soundtrack was recorded entirely by them unless the production specifically confirms it.
That’s a much more accurate description than either:
“They played everything themselves.”
or
“It’s all a fake.”
Neither extreme is supported by what the actors have actually said.
Was a Piano Double Used?
This is another question viewers naturally ask.
Based on the interviews currently available, we can confirm that both actors personally prepared for their piano scenes.
But those statements alone do not prove that no hand double, professional pianist, insert shot or other production assistance was ever used anywhere in the series.
Unless tvN or the production team releases detailed behind-the-scenes information covering individual performances, it would be misleading to claim that every visible piano shot was performed entirely by the actors.
What we can say with confidence is that the production clearly invested in making the actors’ physical performances believable.
And the actors themselves were part of that process.
Why Four Hands Makes This Especially Difficult
Playing one piano convincingly is difficult enough.
But Four Hands, Two Sonatas is built around something even more demanding.
The title refers to four-hands piano, in which two pianists sit together and play the same instrument.
That requires timing and coordination between two performers.
The drama’s promotional material emphasizes that Bi-o and Jeong-yo eventually move from rivals to friends and then to piano partners, sharing the same keyboard.
That means the actors cannot always fake their performances independently.
Their body movements have to work together.
Their hands must occupy the same keyboard space.
Their timing has to appear synchronized.
And their emotional reactions must match what the audience is hearing.
Song Kang even joked that sitting together at the piano could become physically uncomfortable because of the actors’ builds.
It’s a small comment, but it illustrates how physically close the two performers actually had to be for those scenes.
Why the Piano Performances Matter to the Story
The piano in Four Hands, Two Sonatas is not simply decoration.
It is effectively another language between Bi-o and Jeong-yo.
Bi-o is technically disciplined and obsessed with perfection.
Jeong-yo has extraordinary natural ability but a much more complicated relationship with music.
The drama uses their different approaches to piano to express their personalities and their evolving relationship.
When they compete, the piano becomes rivalry.
When they perform together, it becomes communication.
And when one understands something in the other’s music that cannot easily be expressed in words, it becomes intimacy.
That is why convincing piano acting matters so much in this particular drama.
If viewers don’t believe these two characters are musicians, a large part of their relationship stops working.
The piano also reveals something deeper about Bi-o and Jeong-yo’s relationship. Their rivalry, admiration, and emotional dependence have led viewers to ask an unexpected question: Is Four Hands, Two Sonatas actually a BL drama?
So, Can Song Kang Actually Play Piano?
The most accurate answer is:
Song Kang learned piano specifically for Four Hands, Two Sonatas and trained for several months before filming.
He also continued studying pianist movements through instructional and performance videos during production.
That does not make him a professional pianist comparable to Kang Bi-o.
But his piano scenes are backed by genuine preparation rather than simple imitation.
Can Lee Jun-young Actually Play Piano?
Lee Jun-young himself gave the clearest answer.
He said he wasn’t good at piano, so he memorized the pieces and movements necessary for filming.
In other words, viewers shouldn’t come away thinking Lee Jun-young secretly had Jeong-yo’s prodigious classical piano ability.
He didn’t.
What he did have was an actor’s solution to the problem:
learn exactly enough to make Jeong-yo believable.
And judging by how much attention the piano performances have received, that strategy appears to have worked.
Final Answer: Are They Really Playing?
Yes—but with an important qualification.
Song Kang and Lee Jun-young genuinely prepared for and performed piano material for Four Hands, Two Sonatas.
Song Kang trained for several months and studied the physical habits of pianists.
Lee Jun-young, who openly said he wasn’t skilled at piano, memorized the pieces and movements required for his scenes.
What has not been established is that every note heard in the final drama soundtrack—or every single close-up throughout the entire series—comes exclusively from the two actors without production assistance.
And perhaps that’s not the most interesting part anyway.
The impressive thing is that the two actors prepared differently in a way that almost perfectly reflects their characters:
Bi-o learns through discipline.
Jeong-yo plays through instinct.
Even behind the scenes, the contrast at the heart of Four Hands, Two Sonatas somehow remains.