“Piano just may not be for you.” “Piano just may not be for me”

I heard a student say both of these to me this week. The first was a quote someone had said to her, the second, was her restating it and applying it to herself. It’s a tragic thing that someone would ever put such a limit on someone else or themselves!

Hopefully, they both now understand just how wrong such a statement is. There’s only one requirement to determine if piano is for you; desire. Do you want to play the piano? If the answer is yes, then the piano is for you! But you have to choose piano. This means choosing to study piano, choosing to practice piano, and choosing to play piano. All three of those verbs are entirely different by the way, and all three are essential to learning to play piano well.

I have never known a student that could not learn the piano if they wanted to and put in the effort. Will every piano student become a musical wonder, a technical master, a crowd pleasing concert pianist? Probably not. But, every student can learn piano to the point of playing great music, bringing beauty and joy to themselves and others, and having fun!
 
We don’t think limiting learning or goals is healthy. You CAN do it. Do you want to play piano? Then choose piano! By the way, I said those seven words. I may have said six, “piano is just not for me.” I studied piano for maybe a year and gave it up. I never picked it up again until college. Today I teach probably over a hundred piano students a week!  And that student, they know all of their major scales, most of their minor scales, and has completed nearly four different books in her curriculum. Piano is definitely for her. We have had self-proclaimed professional musicians interview and audition to teach for us that have less of a grasp of piano! Even for them by the way, piano isn’t necessarily not for them either! Teaching piano just isn’t, yet. It could be—if they chose to do a lot more study, practice, and playing piano! But teaching piano is also so much more than just knowing how to play, it also requires knowing how to teach, being a great listener, a person of compassion and care, and encouragement. 

Do you want to play piano? Choose piano!