Practice and Motivation

There's a hotel lobby near my apartment with a baby grand that anyone can play. For months I walked past it, fantasizing about casually sitting down and impressing strangers with my skills. One year into learning, I finally worked up the courage to try. I sat down. Positioned my hands. And immediately forgot how to […]

Yesterday I sat on my couch for 47 minutes avoiding my keyboard. It was right there. Five feet away. I just… didn't want to. No reason. Not tired. Not busy. Just zero desire to practice. The keyboard might as well have been on the moon. This happens. Not every day, but often enough that I've

Standard practice advice: play scales, use a metronome, practice slowly. Sure. Important. But some of my biggest improvements came from completely unexpected places. Here are the weird things that actually helped: Drumming on my desk at work. Seriously. I started tapping rhythms with my fingers while waiting for code to compile. Left hand tapping quarter

Month five. I'm struggling through a piece that should be getting easier but isn't. Meanwhile, this person on Reddit posts about learning the same piece in two weeks. Two weeks! It's been six for me and I still can't play it cleanly. The thought arrives like it always does: some people just have natural talent.

There's this guy on YouTube. You probably know who I mean. Plays insane covers of pop songs. Hands flying everywhere. Makes it look effortless. Has like three million subscribers. I used to watch his videos religiously. For "inspiration." That's what I told myself anyway. Really, I was torturing myself. I'd watch him play some incredibly

For months, I was convinced I just couldn't memorize music. Some people have that gift. I wasn't one of them. I'd play a piece over and over with the sheet music. Take the music away. Blank. Complete blank. Maybe the first four bars. Then nothing. Like my brain had a leak. My strategy was brute

A few years in and I'm nowhere near done learning. Not even close. The more I know, the more I see how much there is to know. At first this was discouraging. Now it's the best part. Piano isn't a skill you "complete." There's no finish line. Concert pianists with 50 years of experience are

First time someone asked me to play something, I froze. Could play fine alone. The moment someone was listening, my hands forgot how hands work. Mistakes everywhere. Stopped three times. Wanted the floor to swallow me. Performance anxiety is real and doesn't just go away. But it gets manageable. Here's what helped. Practice performing, not

Month three. I'd been practicing the same piece for two weeks. Not just no progress – it was getting worse. Mistakes I'd fixed kept coming back. Passages that were smooth became choppy. I thought I was broken. This is a plateau. They're completely normal. Everyone hits them. Understanding what's happening makes them less terrifying. What's

Month seven. Hadn't touched my keyboard in two weeks. Kept walking past it feeling guilty. The excitement from early months was gone. Playing felt like a chore. I was seriously considering quitting. This happens to everyone. The honeymoon phase ends. Progress slows. Real life gets busy. The thing that once excited you becomes another obligation.