Progress in Music

Nothing feels as good as making progress. Whether it’s getting an “A” on a difficult test or shaving a few seconds off your lap time, the feeling of seeing your hard work pay off is unparalleled. Finding that same feeling in music can be difficult. Music is a very individual discipline. Instead of practicing with a team, you’re sitting in a practice room by yourself. Instead of seeing a teacher for hours each week, you get 30-60 minutes once per week. Instead of weekly games, most of us get one or two recitals per year. Even the most talented and dedicated students can get frustrated and lose steam. But if you want to succeed, regardless of what level you want to reach, you need to give yourself 1 thing above all others: time.

Music requires physical proficiency, mental fortitude, and emotional stamina and each of these factors needs dedicated, focused time to develop. Your growth will not be linear. You will have periods of tremendous growth, then you will plateau. It is perfectly natural! That period of plateau is when your consistency becomes most important. So, here’s some advice to get through the plateau and on to the next breakthrough:

1. Choose YOUR goal. Not your parent’s goal, not your friend’s goal. Yours. What do you want to accomplish? It can be small, like learning how to find middle C, or huge, like wanting to become a working professional. Give yourself a plan to achieve that goal. Your teacher can help you!
2. Recognize what has improved. It can be easy to not see the small successes, as a species we tend to acknowledge only the big wins. Appreciate the little wins too, they’re moving you forward and will add up quickly.
3. Give yourself time. It’s said that true mastery takes 10,000 hours. Fit your practice into your daily schedule. Sixty, thirty, ten, or even five minutes of consistent practice each day will take you further than you’d think.
4. Find the practice flow that works for you. Maybe you’re not the “sit down and practice for two hours straight” type of person. Maybe you’re a “ten minutes here, ten minutes there” person. Even a mental rehearsal where you’re just looking at your music is practice. IPad games that help you learn your notes is practice!

Remember, we’re all climbing the mountain together! Lean on your community for support, take breaks when you get frustrated, but please don’t give up. You’re doing a great job!

Olivia Spencer, Piano Instructor