Is learning piano fun? I should say it’s fun right? I’m a piano teacher after all? 

In school, learning was not an option. There were things you had to learn whether you were interested or not. 

So what do we do, when we need to work against our own natural curiosity and instead force ourselves to learn this thing in school because everyone said that’s what we were suppose to learn? 

Well, I would hold my breath, I would tighten my eyes so I wouldn’t get distracted with other things that were more interesting to me (music, plants). I would tighten my jaw so I wouldn’t talk (I LOVED talking in class) and I would tighten everything else to keep still so I wouldn’t dance (I loved dancing/pretend gymnastic-ing as a child) 

So when adults who have been learning piano on their own or with another program begin working with me, one of the first beliefs we start to question is that learning has to be hard and unpleasant. Is that true? 

Babies learn to walk, with no instruction manual…and most of them figure it out and seem to be having an absolute BLAST while doing it. 

Fast forward 30+ years of forced learning and here you are, in my piano class, holding your breath, tightening your eyes, trying to make yourself learn. 

But soon enough, we’ll transition. We’ll take a moment to notice our breathing, to feel and release tension in the hands, to notice how you feel, to find a more  pleasant way of moving…and then we come back to the piano…and oh! It feels really nice to play again. 

You hadn’t yet realized that the way you were moving, the way you were paying attention, was getting in the way of the learning. It's harder to learn if you’re not breathing. Its harder to see the sheet music if you’re tightening the muscles around your eyes. 

So is learning piano fun, relaxing, fascinating, inspiring? 

It depends how you show up. 

What is so special about this piano class, why I know in my soul it makes a difference in the world, is because it is transforming our attitude to learning. It’s making learning fun again. It's making learning mindful. It's connecting the dots between the calm feeling you get relaxing at the beach or meditating, and how to bring that ease into learning, creativity and action through learning piano. 

That’s why in every class, we bring awareness to how we are moving and feeling as we play. By building a new relationship to learning, yourself and music, you can build a relationship to piano that lasts a lifetime. 

When I touch the piano, I feel pure joy. That wasn’t always the case. I had to learn how to enjoy learning. I fell in love with piano, lost my way, and fell in love again, this time knowing how to keep my fire alive. This wasn’t taught in school…and you’ll rarely find it in most music programs. For me, it is front and center, because that is the only way you’ll play forever.