Are You Learning This From Your Piano Teacher?

We know how important it is to find a good piano teacher to help us achieve our dream of playing the piano at some point in our learning and playing.

Piano teachers can help us learn rhythm and where to put our fingers to play certain passages in the music easier. They can show us tricks to learning that will help us play pieces faster and grow into playing more advanced repertoire. They help us play with expression and teach us how different techniques can express different sounds and feelings in the music.

This isn't all that good piano teachers teach us though. There are other things that are sort of in the "unseen" realm that they teach us; meaning that they aren't about piano technique, but could be considered more 'life' skills, than piano skills.  

Let's take a look at three specific  life skills that you are learning from your piano teacher.

• Self-Discipline: A good piano teacher will always reinforce your practice habits and encourage them. The result for you is that you get to experience first-hand the positive results from steady work. There is an important lesson in having to be patient and watch something grow a little each day. This is what happens when we practice on a steady routine instead of spurts of practicing when we get the time. The habit of applying ourselves daily to the piano carries over into other areas of our lives eventually, creating more positive results from exercising the self-discipline that we've learned from our teacher. 
• Courage:  Think about how many times you looked at a new piano piece or finger exercise and thought, "I can't play this!" Then, your piano teacher helped you start with one note, then the next, and onward until you actually got through the whole page of music! You've probably heard your teacher encourage you to try something new, something challenging, and then showed you how to master the notes. Or, what about the crazy amount of nerves we feel when we have to perform? Good teachers know how to present us with challenges that won't overwhelm us but will keep us from getting too settled in our comfort zone. Every time we allow our teachers to lead us from our insecurities into action, we learn that facing our fears helps us accomplish our goals. Then we learn that we can apply this same principal to all of our goals, and will end up getting a lot more accomplished overall. 
• Self-Acceptance:  If you ask most musicians what one of their biggest fears is, the response will be, "messing up!". Mistakes aren't allowed, right? Not according to good piano teachers. In fact, a good piano teacher will encourage you to make mistakes, so you can see that the world won't end, if you do make one. :) We just can't possible learn, without messing up in the process. Music is a great place to find out how one mistake doesn't ruin a whole piece. Think about that. Think about that in terms of other areas of your life. If you realize that you're going to make mistakes, it becomes easier to stop the self-criticism and negative feelings that are attached to making mistakes when we play. When we get too caught up in seeing only our mistakes and feel fearful about how they're going to affect everything, we lose sight of our goals and the good things that we accomplish. Mistakes show us where we need to slow down, take a closer look, and then fix them. This is true in all areas of our lives. Acceptance replaces self-judgement. 

Can you think of some other positive things that you've learned from your piano teacher? Think about it the next time you have a lesson and be aware of things that you learn that you can apply to other areas of your life. Be sure to share with your teacher some of these things, because that will encourage them as well. 

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