Dealing with boredom

It's really common for piano learners to try to stifle or ignore any boredom they experience while studying piano. But is that a good thing to do?

When I started paying closer attention to the source of my boredom, I learned to see it as an important indicator of how aligned my actions were with my true goals.

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Joyful practice, Student empowerment, Theory Sarah Cashmore Joyful practice, Student empowerment, Theory Sarah Cashmore

What key should I teach?

Whenever I teach sight reading, I always encourage my students to analyze their music before they start to play. But that’s hard for them to do without knowing a little bit about the key they’re working in.
This usually requires us to pull out the music theory books.

But teaching music theory out of a book is very frustrating for me as a teacher for two reasons.

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Joyful practice, Student empowerment Sarah Cashmore Joyful practice, Student empowerment Sarah Cashmore

Study your music before sight-reading

It’s really common for my piano students to just start reading a piece of music from the beginning, with no preparation or planning. But just launching into sight reading with no preparation is an easy way to get lost and frustrated.

You can set yourself up for breezier success if you find some relationships between your notes before you start to play.

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