Why most students (young and old) quit piano lessons
Last week on February 17th, 2025, I was teaching two of my favorite students. Two sisters one 11 and the other 14. They both love music and are very musically talented in their own respective ways. One of them however, is particularly ambitious. We have been working on a piano arrangement of the song, “Burn” from the musical Hamilton. The arrangement itself is fairly intermediate. However my student has only been playing for 5 months! And while we have covered many piano fundamentals, technique and basic note reading on the grand staff, we spent our 30 ish minute lesson on two measures!
Now it is not uncommon for piano lessons and practice to look this way! After all, to understand and coordinate both left and right hands on a particular song or passage and can take serious brain power. And this is when I became aware of something profound
See, after our lesson it was time for her older sister’s lesson. And her sister was sitting in and observing the whole time before it was her turn. And I spoke into the room something along the lines of, “Do you guys feel that?” What I felt, was that we used up a lot of brain power in our analytical, problem solving portion of our brains. Then sister #1 said, “Oh yeah like right brain”. And then a light bulb went off in my mind! Note: it is the left brain that is responsible for analytical thinking, problem solving, logic and our right brain is more for our emotions, spacial awareness, intuition and creativity
I began to remind the girls about the importance of using the right brain (even though I said left in the lesson) when playing piano and living life! If you remember blog post #1 where I spoke briefly about the benefits of meditation for musicians, I mentioned being in flow state. And although we had a great time working on those two measures, we were using our left brain primarily!
So with sister #2, we spent the lesson learning and playing my composition “C song”. Which is a basic 1, 6, 4, 5 song in C major with the melody being the major scale. Go to my Youtube to listen and learn it! This song is used as a vehicle for improvisation. After the melody is played, the chords are perfect to play basic riffs and motivs in C. And newer piano students and can just use the “C 5 finger scale”. I often put on drum tracks from youtube and we just jam and get lost in the music! THIS is more along the lines of using that right brain of ours.
After the second lesson, I spent a few minutes speaking with the girls about the importance of both aspects of our brains. And how when we learn a musical instrument we do have to use some portion of our logical brain. However, for sustained joy in the process of learning music, it is essential to learn to use our more intuitive emotional and spacial aware part of our brains. This is what a great music teacher can do for students!
In conclusion, student will more than likely quit piano lessons because it’s mentally exhausting. Kids are in their left brain for most of school and do not learn/practice yoga regularly. Adults work and take care of life resposibilites and therefore are also in their left brain. To add another left brain activity can burn oneself out. What we can and should do if we seek fulfilment for ourselves and our students is to be aware of this first and foremost and to then find ways to merge both of these ideas in and outside of the practice room.
Some practical tips for more balance and longevity could be:
Meditate daily, find peace in where your current skill level is
Approach the instrument with curiosity daily
Don’t learn music that is entirely too difficult
Leave the ego at the door, yes we all want to play Mozart, but it is not necessary to play Mozart to find joy at the piano. Perhaps ask, “Why do I want to play Mozart so badly?” (I’m just using Mozart as an example but we could easily replace it with any artist like Oscar Peterson or Led Zepplin)
Learn to find joy in friendship and bring that to music. Competition is cool but co creation is better
Play drums! Learn different drums grooves and styles. When I was in Middle and High school my friends and I were notorious for beating on the desks
Play along with songs
If you wish you were somewhere further along your musical path than you are, know it’s okay to feel the emotions around that. Perhaps you seek validation from being a great musician. I KNOW this from my own personal experience and it is something I am unlearning every day.
Pray for the answers to find you. Trust your intuition
Dance daily! Find a spot that feels safe and as Gunter in the movie “Sing” says, “Let the music take control of your body parts!”
Create deeper body/somatic awareness. Per my last point, imagine the bodily awareness a hip hop dancer has, a master yogi, or a belly dancer has! It has to be different than someone who doesn’t take part in movement practices like those mentioned. Find your home back in your body.
