Piano & Perseverance

Leaning to play the piano is not a quick pursuit. It’s a skill that’s developed over days, months and years. And it’s about so much more than just the act of playing the notes. 

When learning anything new, there will be times you’ll want to give up. Piano is no different. In order to get better, you have to constantly push yourself, little by little. And it can be hard to do! The easiest thing to do is to give up. Why risk failing at something when you can choose to stop? When I’m practising a challenging piece, there’s any number of small moments where I want to stop. My brain thinks “this is hard/how long will this take etc.” And no-one would know if I did give up on the particular piece. Except myself. I keep going for myself, and just like practising piano, practising perseverance gets easier the more you do it.

With students, they often need a teacher/parent/guardian to be their voice of perseverance, encouraging them to “keep going” when the temptation is to give up. And slowly, they can develop their own internal voice, pushing them forwards.  

Learning perseverance is key to learning the piano. And it’s a skill that will permeate into other areas of students’ lives. Piano doesn’t offer the instant gratification that is so common these days. It’s a long-term skill that can bring a deep sense of achievement. Not doing the easy, short-term thing (giving up) but investing in your future self and doing the hard, long-term investment (regular practising, keeping going) can do wonders for self-esteem.

We can all have wobbles from time to time, and with piano, perseverance is a team effort between student, teacher and family members. Stick with it, and thank yourself later.