Lessons of a Piano

It has been almost eight years since I first learned to play the piano. That means I’ve been learning to play the piano for half of my life! Years ago, my parents encouraged me to choose an instrument to play in hopes of expanding another range of abilities for their child to try out. They had always told me that they thought the piano was a beautiful sounding instrument and would love to be able to play it themselves one day. Being a young child at the time, I thought that choosing to learn the piano would hopefully mean that I could teach my parents to play the piano immediately. Well… that wasn’t a very well thought out decision!

I’ll just come right out and say this, learning to play the piano was not easy. Learning to play any instrument is not easy. Although I’ve grown to love playing the piano with a true dedication now, it has not always been this way. When I was six years old, my parents signed me up for an after-school program. From then on, attending piano classes became a component of my everyday schedule. The program didn’t have many students, which allowed multiple teachers to teach only a few students. They began each piano lesson simply, teaching us the concept of both the grand scale and note-identification, then applying this information to be able to read off musical pieces.

These piano lessons taught me about developing concentration and building enough patience from a young age to understand the music. Although maintaining these habits was difficult as a kid, thankfully, all of my teachers, classmates, and friends were able to help along the way. They made each piano lesson a much more fun learning experience!

Afterwards, the school year ended, and so did the piano class program. My parents had to withdraw me from learning how to play the piano for a couple of years, because the program wasn’t offered again. Years later, my parents decided to sign me up for private piano classes at another program, a different one that included a separate location. During this time, feelings of frustration and annoyance with my parents resonated within me, because I was no longer interested in relearning how to play the piano. I knew that I would have to work much harder to retrieve previously attained knowledge and I was out of practice after not being able to play the piano for so long. Every time I had new piano pieces to learn, I didn’t have the motivation to try or speak with my piano teacher to discuss how to improve my piano playing. Thankfully, my parents pushed me to continue learning how to play the piano. They told me that perseverance is crucial to success and insisted that hard work would always be able to reflect through me with perseverance. Throughout the following years, I’ve slowly but surely retraced my footsteps within learning how to play the piano, working from the bottom all the way back up to the top.

When learning to play the piano, it is crucial to incorporate practice into everything you learn. Whether you’re learning piano techniques, song pieces, or understanding the theoretical history, they all require constant repetition to get it through your head. Finding a perfect balance between your every day schedule will be complicated at first, but it does become more of a routine when you stick to practicing piano everyday. Learning to play the piano has allowed me to focus on developing skills such as time management, organization, and self-regulation. These skills have especially benefited me during online schooling and became the foundation for avoiding procrastination or demotivation. 

Piano lessons continue to teach me a lot until this day! Each piano lesson I take provides me with the necessary skills to resolve real-world problems from different perspectives. Learning to play the piano has become more than a pastime activity to me, it has shaped my personal development as an individual!