Being Discouraged by Stupid Things

[frederic_choping]

I'm having a hard time staying motivated.
I love piano, but let me give a list of things that have discouraged me:
-Scars all over the back of my hands (that will be faded really well really soon)
-Small mistakes that took ages to fix
-polyrhythms
-Songs I couldn't learn
Someone please give me motivation tips... also are there any other pianists with hands that aren't beautiful and perfect? I feel like I'm the only one I know... it sucks I'm childish I know...
(Age 13, just finished Grade

[indianajo]

I think we went through this.
In traditional piano performance, the player sits on stage, above the audience, and nobody can see the tops of his hands.  Nobody should care anyway, the music is what is important.  Yes I realize critics drooled all over Glenn Gould only because he was about 6' 3" and had long messy hair, but through an audio only media like an LP, he was an idiot that hummed tunelessly while he played.  
As far as making mistakes, my teacher's method was practice so slowly, no mistakes were made.  This was one hands alone for weeks and weeks in the beginning.  If you can't make no mistakes at 1/2 bps, try easier repretoire or take up landscape painting.  I started on John Schaum pre-A method which was dreadfully easy.   If you can make no mistakes at any speed, try a week of that then turn up the speed 20% the next week.  Playing while making mistakes just entombs the mistakes within the inner brain.  Correct practice, however slow, cements in correct movements in the inner brain.  
The talent of my teacher Mrs N. Jelson was finding pleasant repretoire I could play, even when I was a young student.  I was very lucky my Mother found her, and she wasn't expensive, either.    Perhaps you should try to find one like that.  
BTW the end is cut off my 3 finger, making the nail very claw like.  That is why I was assigned piano, to learn to use my finger again after the injury.  It clicks when I hit the key sometimes.  Also, I have a big scar on the back of the other hand.  I don't get a lot of hot dates, I was never popular that way, but at Christmas people don't run away when I play piano.  
I handle polyrhythms by learning each hand independently, all the way up to full speed.  Then I just turn both hands loose at full speed. Viola, amazing polyrythms.  One of my small but satisfying talents, which most listeners could care less about.  One guy, a cleaner, did applaud last Advent when I played George Winston's version of The Holly and the Ivy (as transscribed off the LP by me). I play at a charity dinner downtown, and services in little tiny country churches, for no pay and not much applause.
The beauty of the music is what motivates me.  My Sohmer piano sounds so much better than a hifi appliance, as did my teacher's Sohmer grand when I was a child.  Lecuona's Malaguena, I did age 11, that piece still give me a thrill to play.  The whole span of the keyboard in three minutes.  Even playing one hand alone very slowly, every note has such a beautiful ping.  If your practice piano sounds like  ****, look around.  The church downtown just took donation of a free console, a no-name Windsor?, which has especially beautiful tone in the uppermost and lowest octaves.  $50 would have bought that piano the week before the donation, because the brand is so forgotten.  Also the bench was a different color.  

[chopinlover01]

Viola, amazing polyrythms.  

I hope to never hear a 3-4 polyrhythm played quickly on a viola

[bernadette60614]

My suggestion:

Work on one small, but mighty goal:

A good practice session.

Don't worry about how "good" you're going to be over the long term...cause, my, oh, my with any type of mastery the long term is a very, very long term, indeed.

Just focus on relaxing into one goal:  A good practice session.

I find if I focus on the distance from my performance to my ideal, I discourage myself.  If I focus on what I can do:  A good practice session...just today, each day brings satisfaction.

Take care.

[keypeg]

I hope to never hear a 3-4 polyrhythm played quickly on a viola

I'm rather sure that the OP meant to write "voila" rather than "viola".  It's a common misspelling.