It’s really common for piano teachers to use rewards (like stickers, points, and earning game time) to build positive feelings after a student has achieved something on the piano. Generally the hope is that the positive feedback loop teaches that good feelings are associated with piano lessons.

But notice the direction of those good feelings. When the good feelings follow the reward, lessons start with hard work and good feelings follow. I think this is backwards. In my experience, if piano lessons start with good feelings, the hard work naturally follows without any need for external motivators.

Whether you are new to piano or have studied for several years,

Whether you are studying with me or not,

Here is my wish for you:

If your child or student is stuck in a habit of resisting their piano homework, chances are there’s a really good reason.

It’s important to be mindful of our assumptions when we hit a stress like this. Often, when a student resists practicing, they end up taking on blame for the problem, for being either lazy, unfocused, or lacking discipline.

These are unfounded fears.

The conversation around piano practice is built on a very peculiar form of reasoning. The single metric of whether or not you practice everyday is taken by so many people as the primary qualifier of whether or not someone 1) can call themselves a musician, 2) is a good piano student, and/or 3) is dedicated to their instrument. It baffles my mind. Why does this single metric mean so much to people?

Kids love attention when they’re learning and practicing piano! But sometimes it can be hard for a parent to know how to encourage their child, especially if they don’t know how to play piano themselves. You can only say “Good job!” so many times before you wish you could give them a little more.

Last month I started a new teenage student who wanted to learn to play piano, but didn’t really want to start with a beginner book. They knew they had to start with the basics of sight-reading and rhythm, but didn’t want to start with Old MacDonald Had A Farm. They asked, did they have to start with a beginner book? Or could they start with something else?

I think most adults are familiar with the connection between having an intrinsic source of motivation and being able to stick to a task when the going gets tough. Usually, the intrinsic motivation stems from the reward we know is ahead with just a little bit of grit and determination.

But how do you teach this idea to kids? Because kids are young, most haven’t experienced the payoff that comes with hard work. So how do we encourage them to stay motivated before they even understand its value?

In my last post, I talked about ways you can support yourself when learning a new song on piano. (If you missed that post, you can read about my 5-step process here.) One of the things I mentioned in that post is knowing when it might be a good idea to step away or hold off on learning a new song if it’s too difficult for you. But I didn’t explain how exactly you can know if a song isn’t right for you, so I thought I’d expand on that today.

Today I want to share something that I wish someone had shared with me back when I was first learning piano, and that is how to bring some structure to the way you approach a new piece of music.

By structure I don’t mean a checklist that you have to get through every time you sit at the piano! I mean seeing your practice time as a series of stages or phases that give you little goals, and little wins, throughout your playing.