Piano Lessons - Do You Hate to Practice?

Your time spent practicing piano should be nothing less than a positive experience aimed at fun, productivity, and self-discovery. If you are at the point where your piano practice is something you despise, then it's time to reevaluate your situation. There is still hope.

If you are currently studying with a private instructor, I strongly suggest that you communicate with this person, letting him/her know exactly how you feel about practicing - really invite a serious discussion about the matter.

Although I would not interfere with the communication going on between a student and teacher, but I can say a few words here:

First of all, I would recommend being honest with yourself and ask yourself what exactly it is about practicing that you are not comfortable with. Is it the material, the fact that a certain amount of time is expected of you, etc.? Once you can acknowledge this, then you can more clearly come up with a solution - again, if you're studying with someone, by all means this gives you something to go on.

A very important thing is to acknowledge one basic fact: we resist what we don't like - now, taking this into consideration, look at this for a moment or two: you "hate practicing" and you're involved with practicing an art form that one must love in order to perform to his or her potential. It's important to get yourself in touch with methods/strategies that will bring out the inner passion you have for music. It's true that being stuck in a rut with practicing routines can certainly get in the way of this. That is why it is important to come up with alternate strategies.

If, for example, you dread the thought of practicing even before you get started, it is likely that you have trained yourself to dislike your time practicing from the very first minute of your practice session. If this is the case, I would strongly advise that you change how you actually start your practice session. Instead of adopting the mind set of dreading the half hour, hour, or more that you have ahead of you, concentrate on loving the very first minute or two, and don't look ahead. Try this. Surely, there are things you very much love to play - start with something like this - get into it!! Practice with passion, as I so strongly promote in my 88 Keys to Learning program, for the next week (and longer, of course), really concentrate at making those first couple of minutes at the piano something you look forward to. You can ease into the more "serious" side of practicing, of course... but again, for now, I really thing it's so very important for you to start

refreshing your relationship with the piano.

I'll say that again... START REFRESHING YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE PIANO!

Do whatever it takes to love playing! And, you know what works? Instead of just setting aside one super long session, try giving yourself a few two-minute sessions per day, just going to the piano, playing something you love, and then leaving it for a while. Do this again and again, constantly developing a healthier relationship with the instrument...smile, have fun, play something you enjoy, relax, take a break... at some point during the day, ease into a longer session, adding a few minutes here and there. So, perhaps you will eventually have three or four "two minute thrilling sessions" at the piano and one longer more "serious" (methodical might be a better word) approach (which should still ultimately be thrilling!) where you start off with just fun material and ease into material you want to improve.

Make every minute count! Make every minute fun! Not because you have to, but because you want to!

PRACTICE WITH PASSION!