PPP133: What’s really going on when your piano kid says, “This is too hard!”

Doing new things can be challenging for all of us. Piano students are asked to do new things constantly. Once they master one concept, another is given to them without pause.

Faced with something new, in this case a new musical concept to master or a new song to play, students have to exert a lot of conscious effort. They have to intentionally think about what they want their hands to do. That is hard work! 

Piano kids will often resist and not even try because they don’t feel they will be successful. Rather than try and fail, they choose to give up. They feel like the music is too hard. Parents can help their kids look at music and their abilities differently. It’s not too hard; it’s too new.

As students practice and put in multiple, slow repetitions, their hands and muscles “learn” how to do the movement and play the notes and rhythm patterns. The effort becomes less mental and more automatic.

Automaticity definition: The condition of being automatic. The ability to do things without occupying the mind with the low level details required. (i.e. tying your shoes, driving a car [highway hypnosis], multiplication facts)