Piano lessons are definitely an investment of your time and money. But there are many good reasons for this investment:
- First of all, your piano teacher helps you stay committed in the long run. Alone the fact that you are presenting your piano home work to another person can motivate you to practice more.
- Your piano teacher helps you find easier way to overcome common difficulties in playing piano. He or she will give you exercises, tips, and tricks that will take you much sooner to your desired performance. Your piano teacher will trouble shoot, if you are stuck in a problem.
- Through immediate and frequent feedback you always know exactly the state of your progress and what next milestone you have to reach.
- Your piano teacher will open to you new music styles, and encourage you to try new ideas.
- In the class of your piano teacher, you are likely to meet other piano students. It is simply fun to share the hobby with same-minded people, to exchange experiences, and to look forward to the same events like concerts or festivals. Music is a very social activity.
There are a lot of benefits of taking piano lessons. But not every student takes the maximum out of them. This is a pity, since those students move slower forward in their piano carrier than they actually could. If this happens, they might have a hard time to motivate themselves and to continue practicing.
What can you do to stay on track, to feel motivated, and to take the maximum out of your piano lessons?
Practice regularly. Piano is a handcraft. If you want to be good at running, you need to run; if you want to be good in drawing, you need to draw; if you want to be good at playing an instrument, you need to play your instrument, particularly your piano.
Plan a regular time at your piano home. If possible, you should practice at the same time of the day. We all are children of custom. You will have less motivational issues, if you have a custom to play piano at the same time every single day. And if you practice regularly, your piano teacher won’t need to repeat same information over and over again, but can move faster with your syllabus and repertoire instead.
Learn theory. To be literate, you needed to learn letters, to build sentences and phases according laws of grammar, until you could read, understand, and create meaningful texts, right? Now, imagine that you are learning a different language – the language of music. This means, that you need to learn notation, laws of rhythm, harmony, music intonation. And soon, you will be able to read, understand, and compose music.
By investing your time in theory, you raise your performance lessons on the higher quality level. Your piano teacher won’t need to explain basics of music to you any more, but can focus on your piano performance only.
Groom your identity as a pianist. Our identity is all what we really have. If you want to be a good musician, groom your identity of a good musician.
Hans Zimmer, the composer of music for movies Gladiator, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Lion King, Inception and many, many others told once in the interview that his success came only because of his strong identity of being a musician. “I didn’t have any other choice as to succeed,” he said.
Little things can help you to groom your identity daily. Those things can be for example wearing t-shirs with music design, following music websites, or participating in music forums. If you have to introduce yourself, don’t forget to mention among other things that you are playing piano. Piano teachers (same as all other teachers) love working with motivated students. They put more efforts and go an extra mile for those, who show the interest in and passion for their subject.
Boost your positive self-image. The quality of your identity and your positive self-image are crucial for your success in every area of life, also for your progress in piano. Your self-image, which is unconscious, is the product of your self-talk that you can steer consciously. And this is a Rockin’ good news. Because it is in your power to make your piano lessons more positive, resourceful and effective.
With the positive self-emage, you are not afraid of asking questions and trying new things. In such creative collaboration on the same wave-length with your piano teacher you will be able to take the maximum out of your piano lessons.
Try the following exercise to boost your positive self-image.
Go to your piano lessons in positive mood
Take a couple of minutes to stay undisturbed. Seat comfortably, relax, and think about following question:
What do you think about yourself while playing piano or listening to someone else playing piano?
Listen mindfully to your self-talk: If it is mostly negative, change it willingly.
If you say in your mind phrases like: “I will never play like this,” “OMG, it is so difficult,” or even worse: “I am not sure, I have a talent,” – you block your mind and yourself on your way to success.
Also, saying positive but not true phases, won’t be helpful: “I am famous,” or “I am the most talented.” These phrases are better than the negative self-talk, but still not very useful, because your unconsciousness knows that they are blaff, so it doesn’t react on them.
Instead, use phrases that boost your identification as a pianist, that are true, and feel right.
Your conscious and unconscious mind will adapt them and use to help you in reaching your goals.
Say yourself phrases like for example. “I am a pianist,” “I love to play piano,” “I love listening to music,” “I love meeting friends and discussing with them music performance”, etc. Choose only phases that are right for you. You will recognize them, if you feel relaxed and happy by thinking these thoughts and having this kind of self-talk.
As you can see, these tips are easy to follow, and they feel really good. By following them, you will make yourself feeling proud, you will become more motivated and
confident at your piano and on stage. And as a result, you will become more successful in your piano carrier.
But the best out of it is that you can apply these tips in other areas of your life. Try them and share your experience with us!