Piano Video Lesson: Why You Must Underestimate Yourself When Practicing the Piano

Hi. I'm Robert Estrin. This is LivingPianos.com, your online piano store with a very important message today, which is why you must underestimate your intelligence when practicing the piano. Now you might think, 'Why would you ever want to think less of yourself? Isn't that going to make it a harder to figure anything out if you'll underestimate your intelligence?'

It's quite the opposite and here's why. Particularly with adult beginners, any of you out there who are relative beginners as adults, it always feels like coming to the piano like, "Man, I can't do anything. I can't. I should be able to do this. Why is it so hard? Why can't I do this?"

Well, the fact of the matter is people who can play really well have figured out their baseline, how low they have to go, how simple they have to break things down in order to be able to achieve the desired results. So it's really important not to think that you can learn more than you could learn than if you can learn faster than you could learn. If you start accepting those limitations, that's when you could be really productive.

So you're always better off taking a smaller section, taking a slower tempo and really perfecting something than biting off more than you can chew because that's the surest way to get discouraged. Let's say for example, you're learning a piece of music and you take a section that is just a little bit more than you could absorb. You keep pounding away at it, you'll never quite get it. You'll leave the piano feeling dejected feeling, "What's the matter with me?"

Let's flip that now and let's say instead you went to the piano. You took a section half or even a quarter of the size and said, "I'm going to focus on this." You go, "I'm not even going to do both hands. I'm just going to take the right hand and see if I can really nail it down." That is extremely satisfying, to get something really perfected. Even if it's a small part, and by taking small sections and building them up and taking slow tempos and getting them gradually faster, you will develop tremendous security in your playing that you'll never get by overestimating what you can do. I have a video, as a matter of fact, how to approach a new piece on the piano in which I take Chopin Mazurka at random. I literally flipped through the book and started memorizing a piece. You'll see how many times I go over even the smallest sections to learn them.

I treat myself very gently in my practice. I don't over exert my mind. I try to just give myself something I know I can accomplish in a short amount of time and doing that again, and again, and again, it's possible to sustain a long productive practice.

So remember, when you sit down at the piano and you think, "Why can't I do this?" Try something simpler. Try a smaller section, maybe even a simpler piece. Maybe you're working on the last one of the Moonlight Sonata when you should be working on a Bach minuet. You're much better off learning that minuet and being able to play it on a high level than kind of butchering through and never really getting a satisfying performance or security with something harder.

So that's the secret, not just to piano playing, but in life itself. Don't overestimate your driving ability or your ability to do almost anything. Give yourself a break. We're all human. You have certain things that you're going to excel at and certain things that's going to take longer than other people. If you'll accept that one basic fact, you could be very productive by just giving yourself what you can master at that moment, and you can sustain a long practice. It's much more satisfying.

I hope this was helpful for you. Any of you who are beginners or just feel your practice isn't going well and you think something's wrong with you, there is nothing wrong with you. It's just hard. You've got to realize that. So break it down and put it together. You will be rewarded with much better performances and the satisfaction of doing something really well. Again, I'm Robert Estrin here a LivingPianos.com. Keep those questions coming in.

Find the original source of this video at this link: https://livingpianos.com/piano-playing-techniques/why-you-must-underestimate-yourself-when-practicing-the-piano/

Automatic video-to-text transcription by DaDaScribe.com

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