I've Lost My Motivation to Learn Piano - Tips

Losing motivation is never a good thing. Especially when it happens because learning to play a musical instrument is giving you tough time.


When the phenomena of vanishing motivation occurs, the best thing to do, in my opinion, is to go on YouTube and look up someone who represents your category of musical instrument. The musician has to be exceptional, otherwise this won't work. Now, listen carefully to what s/he plays, and think about this: "Did this person lose his/her motivation? Did s/he give up learning the instrument?" The answer for question a) is quite commonly "Yes." but you don't have to worry about that. If you did like I told you to do above, the answer for b) should be a clear "No."


Now, this may seem like a load of utter manure, but there is a reason why you should do it.


What I am trying to help you do, is to see what you will be able to do if you carry on practicing and playing. I've gone through it. Many times, actually. Even nowadays I may experience a sudden feeling of worthlessness and question the reason I am doing what I do. However, when I see someone way more advanced than me doing magic on an instrument, I realize that it all depends on the effort I put into the music myself. It's something in which you cannot lose anything. Consider the time an investment.


Children


The same thing applies to children, but it is more crucial than with older people. Let them watch some truly amazing video, and they will want to learn how to play the piano or the cello like "that crazy man/woman in the video". This can be used whenever they feel like they're not learning anything. Another little trick you could use is to make them learn any "epic" song, or just a part of it. This will re-orientate their interest back to music and not think too much about the difficulty of the learning process.


Conclusion


Seeing someone else who has worked hard to achieve success is a great motivator. It helps you to see what you can achieve as well, if you are willing to put the effort and time into it. The typical rule-of-thumb "10,000" hours before mastering a skill should be considered here. That would be approximately 15 years if you practiced 2 hours EVERY SINGLE day. However, you should not take this negatively. The 15 years is an estimation for mastering the skill. This doesn't mean that you wouldn't be able to create awesome music before that. I learned to play well after 3 years. After 8 consecutive years of playing, I can play, compose and improvise whatever I like, really.

Keep it up!