“Just a Piano Teacher”: Six life skills taught in piano lessons

Many years ago, when I was at a social gathering, I was asked what I do for a living. I got caught off guard by the question and felt an unwarranted uneasiness of my occupation. I timidly uttered, “I am just a piano teacher.” It was a time when I had barely started teaching and my knowledge of pedagogy was scarce. I often reflect on that moment and wished I knew what I know now.

Piano teaching is more than just reading notes and playing the pieces; it teaches universal principles. It is a microcosm of life. How you practice and play the piano reflects your way of living. When piano teaching is done right, we can help students to unlock their potential and achieve excellence in all their endeavors. A teacher’s responsibility is to equip students with tools that are essential to personal development and to establish a way of life that is positive, empowering, and fulfilling. These tools can also translate to real-life applications. I have summarized these teaching principles into six skills: proactive mindset, goal setting, time management, problem-solving, repetition, and optimal performance.  

Proactive mindset:
Having the right attitude is the first step of success. It is imperative for students to have a proactive mindset and understand they need to take accountability. A proactive mindset describes the ability to take control of one’s attitude and actions despites unfavorable circumstances. I can feel unmotivated or lethargic, but I am not obliged to abide by this feeling. I can still practice and be positive about it. There is no one to blame but myself if I do not practice. On the other hand, the sky really is the limit if I am willing to put in the hard work. I often tell my students that they determine their destiny, and it is up to them as to how successful they can be. I help the students develop a proactive mindset by reminding them to stay positive, and teach them they do not have to react to unmotivated feelings negatively. Rather, they can be the master of their emotions and dictate their behaviors. It will take time, patience, and practice, but I deem it a necessary step in creating healthy practice habits, or anything they do in life.  

Goal setting:
Having goals is like having a GPS in one’s musical/life journey. They lead us to our destination. I categorize goals into three levels: the ultimate goal, subgoals, and small goals. When planning goals with the students, we need to have the ultimate goal in mind first, work our way down to subgoals, and eventually to the small goals. The ultimate goal usually describes a big project, such as a competition, a recital, or an audition. Once we know what the students desire to achieve, we then establish the subgoals. It is critical to ask the question, “what are the things that will lead us to the ultimate goal?” Take playing a recital as an example. Subgoals can be something along the line of “learning this Beethoven sonata within two months,” or “have all the repertoire in fingers in 4 months.” The small goals can be broken down into weekly goals, daily goals, and even hourly goals. The more specific the small goals are, the more effective the results are. “Memorize this section by knowing the harmonic structure,” or “map out how my hands need to move preciously” are examples of what a small goal looks like. And the most important part is to have the teacher to follow through the goals with the students, so that they are held accountable. It is a lot of work, but it will be worth the effort as it shortens the overall time to the destination.

Time management:
After knowing what we need to achieve, the next step is to allocate time to accomplish those goals. Since practicing requires a lot of mental energy, I advise students to choose a time when their mind is the most alert and fresh, be it morning, afternoon, or evening. Once a time is chosen, create a consistent schedule and stick with it. It is better to have a fixed schedule than to be arbitrary with our practice. Consistency will help us create a habit, and that habit will keep us practicing instead of only doing so when we feel like it. For example, I like to practice in the morning from 7 am to 10 am when my mind is clear and fresh. I do it every day so my body learns the pattern and understands it is my time to practice. In addition, piano is a craft that needs honing every day. There is so much information to absorb, and it is best if we reinforce that information daily. I often tell my students I rather they practice every day with less time than cramming everything the day before their lesson. The next question is, “How do I make the best use of my time?” That leads us to deliberate practice, in which problem solving plays a major role. 

Problem solving:
Problem solving is one of the major components in deliberate practice. There are three basic parts in problem solving: identify the problem, find the root of the problem, and come up with a solution. Whenever a mistake occurs, it is far too common for students to play the whole passage again, only to realize the same mistake keeps happening. The students repeat the same process, but little do they know, they have already ingrained the wrong information in their head indelibly. Therefore, pinning down exactly where the problem occurs is extremely important. A lot of times, the precise spot of the problem is so small that it comes down to the transition between one note to another. Once the problem is located, the students need to understand why the mistake happens. Is it because the students are not practicing? Are they not motivated? If they are practicing, are they engaged in deliberate practice? Or are they simply “performing” and wasting time? These are the questions the teachers need to ask to find the root cause of the problem. It is impossible to discuss conclusive solutions because each situation is unique and different. However, I can share what I find to be the most common among my students. The problem can be a cognitive problem or a physical problem. Cognitively, the students may not know the score well enough, or they do not have fingering planned. Physically, it usually has to do with the lack of mapping of the hand choreography. This is where the teacher comes in, to help the students by showing them what kind of physical motion will be most efficient physically and beautiful musically for the targeted passage.

Repetition:
After the students establish the correct motion to execute a passage, it’s time to repeat it. To understand repetition, we need to talk about neurons and myelins. Neurons are cells that send and receive signals from our brain. When you play a note on the piano, our brain shoots out neurons, thus creating a signal to our muscle telling it to move. When you repeat the action, a layer of myelin will wrap around the wires that carry neurons. The more we repeat, the thicker the layer is. When the layer is thick, our action becomes faster and stronger. Without this kind of purposeful repetition, the myelins will never get a chance to establish a thick layer. This is why we need to know what the “correct” motion is before we repeat it, and when we repeat it, we repeat the motion in the exact same way every time. Another aspect of repetition that is overlooked is cognitive repetition. You can only play as fast as you think. While a lot of students focus on playing the passage in a correct way physically, which is important, they often do not “think” ahead of their fingers, and thus they only develop muscle memory. We all know how unreliable muscle memory can be, especially under pressure. I always tell my students, “Thinking perfectly is far more important than playing correctly.” If you play something correctly without knowing it in your mind, you are only lucky. You will feel truly secure if you know the music in your head. What does “thinking perfectly” mean? It means the ability to visualize what you are about to play (how your hands should feel, what your hands need to do) before you touch the keys. I advise my students to visualize what they need to execute in every repetition, and this strategy works especially well for technically challenging passages. I personally find engaging in visualization during practice gives me the most security. While we need to think a lot in practice, it is best not to overthink on stage during the performance.

Optimal performance:
Musicians often need to perform under immense pressure. Being able to conquer stage fright and perform optimally is an important skill not just in music, but in many aspects of life as well. We have heard a lot of top performers such as concert pianists, athletes, and Olympians talk about entering the “flow,” a state where someone can perform at maximum efficiency at a high level. It is important to point out these skilled performers unanimously stress the importance of thorough preparation as the prerequisite of initiating the flow. Once the hard work of preparation is done and the price is paid, one simply needs to just let go and let the music speaks for itself. Letting go is to refrain from any kind of negative thoughts, completely free your mind of worries, focus on the music, and just go with it. At first, it seems like a very risky thing to do, especially if there is a live audience waiting for your performance. But I find it is in those very delicate moments of intense pressure that I am able to perform the best when I let myself go. I admonish my students to do the same: to overthink in practice, and not think in performance. It does not mean we do not “think” about the music, but the principle is to strip ourselves of any kind of negative thoughts. It will take practice and a lot of failures, but when you enter the state of flow, you will realize all the effort and pain are well worth it.

Piano teaching is so much more than just learning pieces. It is the teaching of principles that will help anyone who engages in them to achieve a way of life that is positive, empowering, and fulfilling. This is how piano inspires. With the experience I accumulated, and the assistance of professors, colleagues, and family, I now truly realize the value of a piano teacher. If anyone asks what my occupation is now, I will tell them, with pride and gratitude, that, “I am a piano teacher.”