Learn Hardcore Japanese: sainou ga nai to omotte ita piano mo, mainiti tudukereba motto zyouzu ni nareta kamo sirenai to ima ni natte omoimasu. - I now think that even with piano, which I believed I had no talent for, I might have become better if I had kept at it every day.

Japanese lets full clauses come in front of nouns like this to describe them, instead of using that or which like in English. The implied subject I is just omitted because it’s clear from context.

Why is 才能 followed by が and not は in 才能がない?

With ある / ない (to exist / not exist), the thing that exists or doesn’t exist normally takes が.

お金がある = (I) have money / there is money
時間がない = (I) don’t have time / there is no time
才能がない = (I) don’t have talent / there is no talent

So 才能がない is the natural pattern: X がある / ない.

If you used 才能はない, you’d be contrasting it with something else:

才能はないけど、努力はできる。
I don’t have talent, but I can make an effort.

In this sentence, there’s no strong contrast, so が is standard.

Why is there no は or を after ピアノ? It’s just ピアノも.

も itself is a particle, so you don’t add は or を after it.

Here ピアノも is functioning like a topic with も instead of は:

ピアノも、毎日続ければ…
As for the piano too, if (I) had continued every day…

We can understand the structure as:

(私は) 才能がないと思っていたピアノも、(練習を)毎日続ければ…

The direct object (練習を) is omitted as understood. ピアノ here really means piano practice / piano playing, and the whole 才能がないと思っていたピアノも is the big topic: even the piano (that I thought I had no talent for).

What nuance does も have in ピアノも?

も adds an “also / even” nuance.

So ピアノも suggests something like:

Even the piano,
The piano too,
That piano as well, (in addition to other things)

It implies there are other activities the speaker might have improved at by continuing every day, and even this one that I thought I had no talent for might have turned out better.

Why is it 思っていた and not just 思った after 才能がない?

思っていた is the past progressive / past continuous form and gives a “used to think / had been thinking” nuance:

才能がないと思っていた
I used to think I had no talent / I had been thinking I had no talent

If you said 才能がないと思ったピアノ, it would sound more like a single moment of realizing “I thought (once) I had no talent for piano”, which is not what we want.

Using 思っていた emphasizes a continuing, long‑held belief in the past, which fits the regretful, reflective mood of the sentence.

In 毎日続ければ, why is the conditional 〜れば used instead of 〜たら or something else?

〜れば is the hypothetical / conditional form and is very natural for “if (one were to) … then …”:

毎日続ければ
if (I) continue every day / if (one) continues every day

Here it expresses a general condition: given the condition of practicing every day, the result (becoming better) would follow.

You could also say:

毎日続けていれば – if I had kept on continuing every day
毎日続けたら – if I (had) continued every day

These are also possible but carry slightly different nuances:

続ければ feels more like a neutral, logical condition.
続けていれば emphasizes ongoing continuity more.
続けたら is more casual and often used for concrete, specific, or time‑linked conditions.

The original 毎日続ければ is a standard way to talk about such a hypothetical in this type of reflective sentence.

The sentence is about the past, so why is the conditional 続ければ in non‑past form?

Japanese often uses a non‑past conditional (like 続ければ) in “if I had done …, X would have happened” type regret sentences. The pastness is shown in the result part instead:

毎日続ければ もっと上手になれたかもしれない
If I continued every day, (I) might have become better

Because なれた is past, we understand:

If I had continued every day, I could have become better.

So the non‑past conditional + past result combination is normal for talking about unrealized possibilities in the past in Japanese.

Why is it もっと上手に and not もっと上手 or もっと上手く?

上手 is a na‑adjective (上手な), so to use it adverbially (modifying a verb like なる), you typically add に:

上手な人 = a skillful person
上手に弾く = to play skillfully
上手になる = to become skillful / to become good

So:

もっと上手になれた
could have become even better (more skillful)

もっと上手 by itself would usually need something like だ / な:

もっと上手になれた (as in the sentence)
もっと上手だった (was better)

上手く is the adverb form of うまい, another word for good / skillful. You could say:

もっと上手くなれた

That’s also natural, just a different word choice (slightly more colloquial/common in speech). Here they chose 上手に.

What exactly is the role of なれた in もっと上手になれた?

なれた is the past potential form of なる (to become):

なる → potential なれる = can become
なれる → past なれた = could become / was able to become

In this context, with 毎日続ければ and かもしれない, なれた is talking about an unrealized possibility in the past:

もっと上手になれた
could have become better / might have been able to become better

So the full idea is:

If I had kept practicing every day, I might have been able to become more skillful.

What does かもしれない mean here, and is it different from かもしれない written together?

かもしれない means “might / may / could (be)”, expressing uncertainty or possibility.

上手になれたかもしれない
I might have been able to become better.

Writing it as かもしれない with a space is just a way of visually separating the parts:

かも – short form of かも知れない, a sentence‑ending particle indicating possibility
しれない – from 知れる (potential of 知る), but as a total expression かもしれない is fixed and is generally not analyzed literally in modern usage

In normal Japanese text you’d usually see かもしれない as one unit. The meaning is the same.

Why is there both かもしれない and と思います? Isn’t that like saying “I think it might…” twice?

They play different roles:

かもしれない – marks the content of the thought as uncertain:
“might have become better”
と思います – shows that this is what the speaker now thinks.

The structure is:

…上手になれたかもしれないと今になって思います。
Now I think that I might have been able to become more skillful.

In English too, “I think I might have…” is natural: “I think” (meta‑comment about your opinion) + “might have” (uncertainty about the content).

So it’s not redundant; the two are at different levels:

かもしれない = maybe X
と思います = I now think (that) X

What does 今になって add? How is it different from just 今?

今になって literally is something like “now that it has come to this point”, and it often carries a nuance of:

“only now”
“now, after all this time”
often with a hint of regret or “too late now”

So:

今になって思います
now (after everything that’s happened / at this late stage) I think…

If you just said 今思います, it would be more neutral: “I think now”.
今になって highlights the timing and adds emotional color, like:

Only now do I realize / only now do I think this.

How does the と near the end work in …かもしれないと今になって思います?

That と is the quotative particle. It marks what is being “said” or “thought”.

X と思います = I think “X”

Here, the whole clause:

毎日続ければもっと上手になれたかもしれない

is what is being thought. So structurally:

[毎日続ければもっと上手になれたかもしれない] と今になって思います。
Now I think “if I had kept it up every day, I might have become better.”

Earlier in the sentence, 才能がないと思っていた uses the same と in X と思う:

才能がないと思っていた = I used to think “I have no talent.”

So both とs in the sentence are the same quotative と, just for two different thoughts (a past one and a present one).

Why are the inner verbs plain form (ない, 思っていた, 続ければ, なれた) while the final verb is polite (思います)?

In Japanese, it’s normal for subordinate clauses (relative clauses, conditionals, quoted thoughts, etc.) to use plain forms, while the main sentence ending carries the politeness level.

So:

才能がない
と思っていた
毎日続ければ
もっと上手になれたかもしれない

all appear in plain form because they are just parts of the content. The speaker’s attitude to the listener (politeness) is expressed at the very end:

今になって思います。 (polite)

If the whole thing were casual speech, you’d likely see:

…なれたかもしれないと今になって思う。

Same structure, but final verb in plain form.

Can you restate the whole structure in simpler English to check if I understood it correctly?

Piece by piece:

才能がないと思っていたピアノも、
Even the piano (playing) that I used to think I had no talent for,
毎日続ければ
if I had kept doing it every day,
もっと上手になれたかもしれない
I might have been able to become better at it,
と今になって思います。
is what I now think (only now, looking back).

So the overall meaning is:

Even with the piano, which I used to think I had no talent for, I now think that if I had stuck with it every day, I might have become much better.