Piano Blog -How Important is Focus When Playing Piano?

So yesterday, I had a full load of students from noon until 9 PM. Kids and adults. There was something that I really noticed that differentiated the people who made progress from the ones who got stuck in the mud, so to speak.

I'm talking about focus on the task at hand and play a passage repeatedly until you get it right. With some students, every time they make a mistake, they berate themselves with negative comments ("I used to be able to play that!", "What's wrong with me" etc.... Or some students will just sigh with frustration at any error and have to start their song from the beginning.
>br>Then, there are other students who find much more success and they improve at a faster rate. How does this happen? Are they more talented? Not usually. But what they have is attitude of trying and trying without the self-blame if can't get it right the first second or even the tenth time. They just keep going at it and eventually they get it. It's actually quite amazing and impressive to observe, especially in a child. I am there as a coach and cheerleader, encouraging them to push through another time to teach those little fingers where to go. Build that muscle memory.

Some students will work on a song, 12 measures long, for a full half hour and not get frustrated. Imagine that. And guess what? Sometimes they don't even fix the mistakes in that session but they will at home or in the next lesson. It's all about sticking with it, believing you will get it and not beating yourself up when you get stuck.

Your attitude toward learning the piano is just as important and predictive of how fast you will learn as your aptitude. Lots more important, when I really think about it.

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