3 Shocking Reasons Why You Quit Piano That You Never Realized

How many us can raise our hands and say “I wish I had continued learning to play the piano?” So why did you quit? These are three reasons why and it might surprise you to know it may have not been your fault you didn’t like piano.

A Piano Teacher Tried To Figure Out What You Like

Sounds like a great approach, your piano teacher asked you questions about what you liked, and indeed it’s a great question. The issue is that many piano instructors will then try to start teaching you what you like right off the bat because they want to inspire you to play faster.

What you like and what you can play when you are a beginner piano student are two different things. What your piano teacher knows (or should) is that in most cases, A has to come before B, which has to come before C, so you can learn certain skills in progression from one to the next.
Having a piano teacher that knows how to teach you is indeed a good thing. Having one that also listens is better, and having an instructor who has listened to you and is self confident enough to teach you to gradually play what you hope to play on piano is the best!

You Never Stopped To Learn A Song

It sounds strange that someone taking piano lessons and for sometime wouldn’t know how to play a song right? It does to me. All to often though piano teachers miss the opportunity to point out to their students that the songs they are learning in lessons need to be played after a sticker or check mark in the book shows the piece as complete.
The issue is that piano instructors want to get to the “good stuff”, the music that makes them tick. The music that makes their hairs stand up. The issue is it takes a long time to get there so something has to give.
Piano teachers need to stop reaching for the next page and show students that the current page is a lot of fun and also that the song they are playing in their Faber and Faber performance book is indeed a song that should be part of their repertoire at least for some period of time.
It’s easy to fix (if your student doesn’t know they can yet play a song). Instead of putting a sticker on the page and moving on, keep on asking them to play that piece on their weekly piano lesson plans. Make one of the requirements to play the piece for a friend or a family member and Follow Through.

Your Piano Teacher Never Got Passed You Not Practicing

If you got beat up and made your piano teacher mad because you never practiced you’re not alone. Millions of people quit piano lessons because they never practiced. There is no doubt that practicing makes it easier to learn and therefore easier to enjoy and consequently easier to not quit piano but it’s not the only way.
New and more imaginative piano teachers are finding ways to teach piano students that don’t practice as they should. In essence, these really great piano teachers don’t just give up or become overly frustrated with students who aren’t spending as much time as they’d like on their piano. Instead the piano teachers end goal is to inspire a harbor a fun and positive piano lesson attitude so that a student is going to want to play and practice in-between their lessons.
A smart teacher rarely asks the student what they’ve done in between lessons but focuses on what comes out of the student during a piano lesson. Seasoned teachers can tell by how the student is playing how much work as been done. My favorite question to ask a student at the beginning of the piano lesson is “what do you want to start with this week, any song or scale or book you’d like to begin with?” This question gives the student an opportunity to put their best foot forward and changes the whole attitude of a lesson.
My advise to piano teachers who are tired of students who aren’t practicing enough…. Get over it! Find new and more exciting ways to share with students how fun and simple piano lessons can be.

Quitting and Re-Starting Your Piano Lessons

If you quit piano and want another crack at it, go for it. Learning should be fun and low pressure (unless pressure is what you’re looking for, if you want that, let your teacher know, that’s easy for us). Out of all the reasons above why you might have quit, make sure when you do learn again you’re able to play a song no matter how simple that song is. Enjoy that skill of playing the song, that’s why we learn how to play.