Dealing with the September slump
Today’s post is for anyone who signed up for piano lessons or a keyboarding in college at the beginning of September and are now finding themselves at the end of September wondering what on earth they signed up for!
Piano lesson fatigue is a common phenomenon that I notice every year in my work as a teacher. I call this the “September slump”, and it’s basically when the motivation and thrill of new lessons at the beginning of September starts to wear thin.
At this point you might be overwhelmed by how much you’ve had to learn. Maybe the homework is getting monotonous. Or, perhaps you’re frustrated by how slow progress seems to come.
If that’s what you’re experiencing right now, this post is for you. I want to provide you some encouragement and some advice moving forward.
First, the encouragement! I commend you for signing up to learn something new! It’s not easy for anybody to acknowledge that they’re a beginner in something, yet when you sign up for weekly lessons or a course, you’re basically signing up to be constantly reminded of what a beginner you are! That wouldn’t be easy for anybody! By signing up for these kinds of lessons you are showing incredible determination and courage, and I commend you for trying to learn something new.
Second, I want to encourage you that this learning curve will not last forever. The learning curve really is limited to the start of your lessons. It starts out with a lot to take in, but after a bit of time you’re going to start coasting on the trajectory of the new knowledge you’ve built, and learning piano will become much easier for you!
Last, I want to provide some advice. If you’re struggling with something in piano, I really encourage you to try to pinpoint what exactly it is that you’re not understanding or that you’re finding difficult to do. Then, try to formulate that difficulty into a question that you can ask somebody. Hopefully your teacher is someone who welcomes your questions, or maybe if you’re taking a college course you could talk to your prof or TA. Or, if you’re worried about coming forward with your question, you can reach me on social media with any questions you have about learning piano, and I will do my best to help you through a video response!
Or to put it another way, you can get the most out of your learning experience if you take control of your learning, and the best way to take control of your learning is to formulate the unique questions that you need answered in order to move forward.
I hope that helps! Again, I commend you for trying something new, and I really hope that the lessons you’re taking will set you up for a really enjoyable hobby for the rest of your life. Take care!