When a viewer let their teacher choose their music

In my previous post, I encouraged beginner piano players to choose the kind of music they wanted to play before signing up for piano lessons. It seems to have struck a chord (no pun intended!) for some viewers, because I received some comments back about it.

Here’s a response from a viewer that really drives home the importance of being purposeful in your music lessons.

This commenter wrote a thread describing how they signed up for music exams before they really knew what it entailed. It ended up being a disaster for them because they despised the focus on perfecting their performance. They much rather preferred playing songs for fun, but by the time they realized it, it was too late. They were already locked into exams! This musician ended up quitting their lessons and even their instrument because it had become such a struggle to enjoy practice—unfortunately a very common trajectory for many musicians who take up lessons!

If you have a TikTok account and want to read this viewer’s entire thread, you can view the original post here (will open in a new window).

My response was that I was really sorry for this person’s trouble, and that this is the exact situation I wanted to help avoid when I started this blog! I believe that knowledge is power, and being available to help you gain the knowledge you need is my main purpose in being here. I want to give you things to think about and to be a person you can ask questions of. So if you’re wondering anything about piano lessons—how to start, what to play, what the exam routine looks like, anything—just reach out and I’ll answer your questions as best I can.

If you want to be in the musical community, I want to help you get there! An email or comment doesn’t cost a thing, and could be your next step to playing the instrument of your dreams :)