# How can I stay motivated?



## sakansi

Hi everyone,
Ive been playing piano for 4 years now but Im losing interest. There is still something in me which just wants to keep on going but Im getting less and less motivated. I dont want to quit because apparantly I am very talented. I hope someone can help me. 
Sakansi


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## Vaneyes

Maybe read or re-read a few biographies of artists in any endeavor, not only pianists...to see how hard they worked, and obstacles they overcame, to get "there". That's the one common denominator in achieving. Good luck and have fun. :tiphat:


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## Aramis

sakansi said:


> I dont want to quit because apparantly I am very talented. I hope someone can help me.


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## Ukko

We don't know what _doesn't_ motivate you, which gives us free rein to to suggest things you know don't work.

So... Find recordings of pieces you like - a lot - which are a notch or two beyond your current ability. Then get the scores, and, and, you know. repeat every four weeks as necessary.


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## PetrB

I will just add that about the four-year mark is really where it just begins to get interesting.

It is a matter of faith that if you keep going, it will seem "all of a sudden" one day your playing and reading will be just that much more fluent than it seemed but weeks ago, and that often happens within the fourth or fifth year of study.

The more advanced you get, the longer it is between plateaus, i.e. you think all is static and you are not going forward, but something is being built up. When you get further along the line to the higher levels of ability, progress is neither as dramatic or obvious as it was in the earlier phases.

It is precisely this juncture you are now at when _a lot_ of people give up... only to be heard in later years to say with much regret, "I wish I had not stopped music lessons."


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## maestro57

Something that always, always gets me in front of ivory again is watching DVDs or YouTube videos of talented pianists young and old - they're all very inspirational and "motivational".


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## Ingélou

This is all good advice; I would also find a type of music - not on your practice repertoire - that you really really love and save ten to fifteen minutes every day to let your hair down and play it. Hopefully you can lose yourself in the beauty of it, and you just wouldn't want to live without being able to enter that magical music-land daily.


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## csolomonholmes

I feel for you. I can tell you some of the things that motivates me and perhaps it will give an idea or two. 

I write and record my own music for my own listening pleasure so I do a lot of "sketching". If one of the sketches catches my ear, it motivates me to start chipping away at it. That's not to say I always end up with a finished piece. A lot of times I get to a point where I need to put it back on the shelf for later. 

I play several different instruments because each one allows me to express myself in a different way. Right now I'm on a piano kick working on my fingering technique. Over the summer I went through a period where I was on a bee-bop and avant guard jazz kick so I got out my drum set and played along to Coltrane and Miles Davis records.

I listen to all kinds of music from doom metal to blip-bleep. Lately I've been watching youtube videos of Georges Cziffra playing some amazing improvisations. There's an idea - try getting away from the sheet music and just go for it! Play for the sake of playing for a while.

Or just wait it out until it comes back... or not.

Anyway, hopefully something I said helps you out.


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## Jonathan Wrachford

I understand. I've almost done the same thing a couple times. But sometimes you need to determine not to base you actions on what you feel, but on what you know that you will not regret in the future. Just keep going. You've got a talent, then keep going!!


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## Stephanie Martin

One thing that helps me is to temporarily put less emphasis on the pieces I'm working on. Don't drop them completely, but maybe practice them 10-15 minutes a day instead of 30-45 minutes. Maintain them, but play fun pieces for the rest of your practice time. Look for songs that intrigue you and that can help you keep music itself fun. Another thing that motivates me is watching movies about pianists and musicians. For example, "Mr. Holland's Opus" and "The Pianist" are definitely keepers! I know how burnout feels, I've been there several times! But I can definitely tell you that after sixteen years of playing piano, I'm REALLY glad I didn't quit when I wanted to...which was about three or four times over that span of years. Hang in there!


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## Varick

PetrB said:


> I will just add that about the four-year mark is really where it just begins to get interesting.
> 
> It is a matter of faith that if you keep going, it will seem "all of a sudden" one day your playing and reading will be just that much more fluent than it seemed but weeks ago, and that often happens within the fourth or fifth year of study.
> 
> The more advanced you get, the longer it is between plateaus, i.e. you think all is static and you are not going forward, but something is being built up. When you get further along the line to the higher levels of ability, progress is neither as dramatic or obvious as it was in the earlier phases.
> 
> It is precisely this juncture you are now at when _a lot_ of people give up... only to be heard in later years to say with much regret, "I wish I had not stopped music lessons."





Stephanie Martin said:


> One thing that helps me is to temporarily put less emphasis on the pieces I'm working on. Don't drop them completely, but maybe practice them 10-15 minutes a day instead of 30-45 minutes. Maintain them, *but play fun pieces for the rest of your practice time. Look for songs that intrigue you and that can help you keep music itself fun.* Another thing that motivates me is watching movies about pianists and musicians. For example, "Mr. Holland's Opus" and "The Pianist" are definitely keepers! I know how burnout feels, I've been there several times! But I can definitely tell you that after sixteen years of playing piano, I'm REALLY glad I didn't quit when I wanted to...which was about three or four times over that span of years. Hang in there!


Great advice here! My piano teacher knew that I had A LOT of interests as a teenager besides piano, and often, piano took a back seat to everything else that interested me (sometimes I would practice only an hour or two certain weeks and was always amazed that my teacher knew...). So, among the classical pieces he would give me to learn, he always threw in a pop/R&R piece I liked to keep me motivated. So, along with whatever you are practicing, make sure you are also learning something you REALLY WANT to learn.

Think about anything else that took you years to learn or get good at/master. Think about all the time you spent doing that thing. Now look at how satisfied you are because you can that thing better than most people can, maybe better than anyone else you know. Always keep in mind that satisfaction, that sense of accomplishment.

Keep on going!

V


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## jimeonji

^^my piano teacher just did that with me my last lesson! I practiced my Chopin lots that week and she noticed, so she left me sightread an arrangement of the Pirates of the Caribbean theme during my lesson.  Can't say it was very productive, but it was fun.


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