The first tutor Beethoven had was Van den Eeden, a court organist too old to be of any help to him. The young Beethoven got to practice the organ everyday by playing for the morning mass in the churches of Bonn. His next tutor was Tobias Friedrich Pfieffer, a skilled pianist. Pfieffer and Johann would come late at night, totally drunk, and drag the poor little boy from bed to the piano. Beethoven found a better teacher in his maternal uncle Franz Rovantini who was the court violinist, but this came to an abrupt end with his death in 1781. .
In late 1781, Beethoven became an apprentice of Christian Gottlob Neefe, the new court organist. Neefe trained Beethoven in playing the organ and the piano. He recognized his apprentice's genius and made him his assistant as court organist in 1782. Neefe helped Beethoven publish his first composition Variations on a March by Dressler in 1783.
In 1784, Maximilian Francis became the new Archbishop-Elector of Cologne. He was a man of culture deeply interested in music. He transformed Bonn into a culturally vibrant city and invited several opera companies to Bonn. This is how Beethoven became familiar with the works of such composers as Gluck and Salieri. The court now had an orchestra of 31 pieces. Beethoven was appointed to play the viola at the age of 14 and was later made the deputy court organist. He was paid a salary of 150 gulden a year.
Beethoven's blossoming talent brought him recognition, and in 1787, the Elector allowed him to go to Vienna to study musical composition under Mozart. Beethoven impressed Mozart with his inventiveness but the lessons did not last long. Mozart's father had died and Beethoven himself had to rush back to Bonn where his mother was on her deathbed. His mother died of tuberculosis on July 17, and this caused untold grief to Beethoven.
The grief of losing his wife and the progressive deterioration of his voice made Johann turn to alcohol even more.