My piano students often know they want to give up on a song weeks before they build up the courage to tell me! Often the reason they hesitate to admit how they’re feeling about a song is because they don’t want to appear undisciplined. There’s a longstanding tradition of suffering through piano lessons in order to “get better”. No pain, no gain — right?

Well, no.

I think there are certain kinds of pain that are actually really detrimental to growing musicianship, and that’s what I’d like to talk about today.

I’ve spent some time in the past talking about why I think it’s important to choose the music you want to play before you start piano lessons. I still think that’s really good advice. Choosing music that’s going to motivate you is a really great way to set goals and to develop sustainable practice habits, especially when you’re first starting out.

But I also know that it can be difficult to choose music, especially at the beginning of your piano journey, simply because you can get overwhelmed with choice! So if you need some help choosing musical goals for yourself, this post is for you.

If you’re interested in learning how to play piano this year but you know that you’re going to struggle with the routing of practicing every day, I have a suggestion for you that will not only honour your creative flow but is also backed by educational science.

Ready?

Rather than choosing a behaviour-based goal (such as practicing 30 minutes a day), instead choose a project-based goal (such as a song you want to learn next). Here’s why that works.

Over New Year’s, I published a video on social media asking people how I might help them in 2023. It seemed like a timely thing to ask, as I suspected a few people might have created New Year’s resolutions related to piano and I love to support people in achieving their goals.

Although the occasion of New Year’s prompted this question, I think it’s important for me to ask all the time, not just at the beginning of the year. Goals come up all the time, and I want to be available to support them anytime they do!

If you want to grow in your independence as a piano player, one of the best skills you can learn is the ability to isolate and identify the things that are bothering you.

For many people, this means resisting mental and emotional habits they’ve surrendered to for years.

Today’s post is for people who are supporting other people in learning piano, rather than learning piano themselves (so parents, teachers, etc.). The question I have for you today is, what kind of energy are you bringing to piano lessons?

Talking about “energy” doesn’t have to be spiritual woo-woo. I think we can talk about energy in an objective way if we think about it as the way that your unique combination of interests, values, goals, and expectations merge to create the attitude you bring to each new endeavour.

The process of learning how to read note names in piano music is really similar to the process of learning how to find your way to a friend’s house.

The first time you visit a friend, you need specific instructions in order to get there, usually in the form of an address.

Once you visit a couple of times, you won’t rely on the address as much because you’ll start to build little mental shortcuts to help you find your way.

If you’re a parent who would like to support their child in learning piano, help them find opportunities to teach other people what they’re learning in their piano lessons.

Have you ever heard the saying, “If you really want to know a subject, teach it?” In my experience, that saying is very true — I constantly learn new aspects about music the longer I teach it — and it applies to kids as much as it applies to adults.

In my experience, the people who struggle the most with performance anxiety are musicians who identify as sensitive people.

Here’s why I think that is.