Motivation, commitment and practice!

[markstuartbell]

Hi!

I am writing a magazine article on commitment and motivation and am really interested in speaking with those who are learning to play the piano, or are improving their playing.
There are many things competing for our time in modern life and, perhaps consequently, despite opportunities that we all encounter to learn or master a skill or language or instrument many of us never focus our energies and commit to excelling at one thing or in one particular area.

I would really appreciate the opportunity to hear your thoughts and experiences with this.

*What attracted you and continues to attract you to dedicating time to learning the piano?

*Do you have a particular goal in mind with your playing? Is there a particular piece you hope to master? Do you enjoy the aspect of self-improvement in and of itself? Is there something that reinforces this commitment to you, like seeing how much family or friends enjoy hearing you play, or being able to learn pieces quicker?

*Why do you think other people who start to learn playing the piano lose their motivation, or stall with their progress or cease playing?

*How did you develop self-discipline with regards to practicing? Did that motivation originally come from yourself or a teacher or somebody else?

*What had maintaining this commitment to the piano taught you? Does this skill translate to other areas of your life? Are you pleased, ambivalent or regretful at all about the time spent to reach your current level of playing the piano?

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and ideas! I really look forward to hearing what you have to say.

[faulty_damper]

I'll bite.

I continue piano studies because of the pleasure I get from learning new pieces as well as improving my keyboard skills.  At this point, technique is usually not an issue and I spend time learning to play pieces that I enjoy.  The downside is that my interest waxes and wanes, sometimes months in between before I pick it back up.  So I never really finish learning pieces quickly.  A large part of the reason is that once I learn a piece in its entirety, I don't get pleasure from playing it.  I hate playing pieces from beginning to end probably because of all the time I spend practicing it that its musical value has diminished greatly.  That's why I prefer practice to playing.

When I sit at the piano, I may or may not have a goal.  If I do have a goal, my practice time is highly focused and I usually accomplish it quickly.  If there is no goal, I practice whatever I feel like at the moment but don't actually improve at anything.  It's just a waste of time, much akin to watching the television.  But I'd rather waste it at the piano instead of staring into the boob tube.

One piece I'd really like to learn is Alkan's Concerto for Solo Piano.  It's 50 minutes long and requires an incredible technical vocabulary.  It also requires a piano capable of producing the pianist's intentions, which I don't currently have at the moment.  It's also an incredibly loud piece so I can't practice it due to fear of disturbing the neighbors and tenants.

As for the aspect of self-improvement, I don't think of practice this way.  It's inherent to it, but I'm not consciously aware that I'm doing it to improve.  It just happens, like walking down a street and suddenly, you've walked miles.

I have very little social reinforcement for my piano studies.  Neither from family nor friends.  I'm pretty certain that my family just tolerates my practice since by nature, it's highly repetitive.  No one wants to listen to someone practice, especially non-pianists who don't understand why a passage is repeated hundreds of times.  It's just terribly obnoxious and annoying.  While I know my piano friends would appreciate hearing or seeing a video of me playing, I don't really feel too compelled to record for them.  There is definitely a feeling of justification if they heard it because I can play very musically with a technique that is as smooth as a pane of glass, but it would feel more like I'm showing off my talents instead of expressing music.  I don't make hard pieces look hard.  I make them look easy.  Perhaps this is why I'd rather people not see me play because I don't like comments about how easy I make difficult pieces look.  The truth is, playing is easy.  Learning it was the difficult part.


Speaking as a teacher/tutor of various subjects including piano and music, many students become frustrated at their lack of progress.  In school subjects, they have social reinforcement since everyone else is learning the same material, and they also have frequent feedback.  Feedback is key to know if they are doing it right or not.  But in piano studies, with lessons once a week, there isn't enough feedback that helps shape their time practicing.  And even during lessons, it's very probably that issues the student was struggling with may not even come up.  Thus, their frustration builds to the point where it's just so much easier to cease this activity and do something that provides more instant feedback.

My original motivation to learn the piano was due to my desire to play a piece, Pachelbel's Canon in D.  While I never finished learning the arrangement for piano (because it sounds terrible on this instrument), my early motivation was the desire to make music.  Soon, technical difficulties forced me to focus on improving my technique, which took many years.  Much of that time was spent practicing things that never improved my playing but instead, worsened it.  The self-discipline I have is inherent to myself.  I'm incredibly patience and can wait years; instant gratification is not something I expect.

My commitment to learning this instrument led to the understanding that the piano is not the instrument.  I am.  The piano does not make music.  I do.  And when I learned how to play the piano, I also learned that I could play nearly any other instrument.  Why?  Because these wooden boxes with steel strings are just tools.  Just like the violin, flute, and guitar are just tools.

The skills I learned from the piano has benefited me in many areas.  I currently study dance and aside from knowing how to practice, I also know how to use my body.  I've been told that I'm a very good dancer and many people are quite impressed by my moves.  It's all about balance, something vital in piano playing.  If the body is unbalanced, it will look bad.  This applies to many areas in life.  Balance is key to success.  This is vague but experience will show that this is true.

Lastly, I guess I would say that I'm pleased at the outcome of my studies.  It has affected nearly everything important to me.  I'm far more confident in my abilities.  I'm far more knowledgeable due to knowing how to learn.  So many things that require learning have become so easy.  I wish more teachers knew the things I know because it could make their occupation so much easier.  

I used to say that the smarter you are, the smarter you become.  I still say this.  But getting smart, getting over the first learning hump, is difficult without knowledgeable guidance.  And while many things can be said so simply, putting it into practice without that guidance can sometimes be impossible.  It's far easier to do nothing and forget that you've done nothing than it is to do something and remember that you've failed.  I've failed so many times and wasted so many years failing that I've gotten pretty damn good at it.  But being good at failure also means being good at learning.  These are things that no one can teach you.  You have to experience it to understand.

[karenvcruz]

Hello, I hope I am not too late in giving you my answer.  I just saw the post now.

*What attracted you and continues to attract you to dedicating time to learning the piano?
When I was young, I was considered gifted. Sadly, although I studied and even entered the coservatory, I quit because I did not have the passion and discipline.  Last year, I made a serious decision to go back to studying and revisiting the instrument once again, after 25 years.  However, I played more modern and pop music but mostly by ear.I am now 53 years old and I told myself, that before I reach 60, I should at least bring back the dexterity I once had, and if possible, even better.

*Do you have a particular goal in mind with your playing?

As a matter of fact, yes.  Play as many classical pieces as possible, particularly the more challenging ones and hopefully, conquer and master the instrument,

 Is there a particular piece you hope to master? All the Beethoven sonatas, and Lizst concertos. 

Do you enjoy the aspect of self-improvement in and of itself? Yes. 
Is there something that reinforces this commitment to you, like seeing how much family or friends enjoy hearing you play, or being able to learn pieces quicker? It's more eventually being able to perform with my partner who is taking up voice lessons. We hope to perform together one day so that we could raise funda for charity causes we believe in such as helping cancer survivors, as well as just performing for our closest friends and recording ourselves.


*Why do you think other people who start to learn playing the piano lose their motivation, or stall with their progress or cease playing? For me, it was the kind of teachers I've had.  One teacher who was a maestro was the one who helped me improve my technique.  Another encourage me to have a recital and play pieces I liked from Gershwin. One professor however from France was a turn-off for me.  Today, I enjoy my teacher so much because she is sooo patient and  very encouraging, and honest in giving feedback for me to improve. Teachers do make a difference, but it is also partly you.  Another is time.  Since I was already working, playing the piano became less priority.

*How did you develop self-discipline with regards to practicing? Did that motivation originally come from yourself or a teacher or somebody else? In my case, age and the desire to find a productive stress reliever propelled me to be disciplined. Playing the piano puts down my blood pressure, blood sugar and relaxes me so I found it quite therapeutic.  And even if I do feel some pressure about preparing for recitals, I enjoy the pressure and the fulfillment after learning pieces I like, and discovering new ones.

*What had maintaining this commitment to the piano taught you? Does this skill translate to other areas of your life? Are you pleased, ambivalent or regretful at all about the time spent to reach your current level of playing the piano?  Come to think of it, yes. Everyday practice of 1-3 hours on weekdays and 5-6 hours on weekends helped me focus and concentrate, even in my work which involves a lot of writing, consulting work, projects.  I noticed I became more productive, energetic and inspired. My negative mindset in some areas of life somehow seem to have disappeared.

Thank you.