Kobe Bryant Learned to Play Beethoven's 'Moonlight Sonata' for Vanessa by Ear

Kobe Bryant is not one to take the easy road.

Even when it comes to learning to play the piano—which he did by ear. No formal lessons.

Why? Well, he wanted to play "something nice" for his wife, Vanessa.

Mr. and Mrs. Mamba have faced their fair share of tests in their 15 years of marriage, the series of trials well-documented by ESPN's Ramona Shelburne in her recent piece "Mamba Out."

Below is an excerpt from The Undefeated's story, which details Bryant's devotion to learning Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" on piano for Vanessa in perhaps the most unconventional (yet completely logical) way:

"

"Sitting down and taking lessons would be too easy," he says. "So I taught myself by ear." ...

Taking lessons wasn't enough. Anybody can do that. Kobe had to be exceptional. So he'd put headphones on, listen to "Moonlight Sonata" on loop, and try to figure out the music on the keyboard in front of him.

"If you just sit down and say, 'I'm going to learn this thing until I do,'" he says, "there's not really much out there that you can't figure out eventually."

"

It didn't turn out half bad, either:

Jesse D. Garrabrant/Getty Images

[YouTube, h/t Complex Sports]