Practicing to Build Your Brain Power

 

Many of my adult students tell me that one of the reasons they want to play the piano is because they want to keep their brains young and ward off the dreaded dementia of old age. Most people seem to be aware that research clearly shows that certain activities help keep the brain "fit," and playing a musical instrument is high on that list. Playing the piano is said to be at the very top of the list. There are several reasons for this.

But this does not mean that any old way of playing the piano will do the trick. There are certain habits and skills that must be developed in order for the brain to get the most benefit. In this post I will cover the major ways to practice that will keep your brain young. Many of these topics have been covered in previous posts, but here I will highlight how they help the brain.

1. Play hands together as close to 100% of the time as you can. 

Using both hands simultaneously builds the corpus callosum, which is the area between the two hemispheres of the brain. Essentially it is a tightly packed network of connecting nerve fibers. Everyone has this area, but playing the piano causes more connections to be formed. I have read that when an autopsy is done and the brain examined, it can be determined immediately whether the person was a pianist, just by observing the highly developed corpus callosum. People may say "but it's so difficult to play hands together!" That is because the corpus callosum is not yet developed enough. That is why you must play hands together anyway -- so that you build the corpus callosum, which in turn will make it easier to play hands together. Even if you just play a simplified part in one hand -- just so long as one hand is not in your lap -- the corpus callosum will continue to grow.

If you are a more advanced player and want to take your brain skills to the next level, play with hands crossed. I don't mean a whole piece or a difficult piece at full speed. Just start by taking a short passage from the music you are playing and literally cross your hands, so the right hand plays the left hand's part and vice versa, and play as slowly as necessary to accomplish it. Then immediately go back to playing it normally and see if it doesn't feel amazingly easier! I can't explain the scientific reason (although there is some research on this), but I am 100% certain this helps build the brain's capabilities.

2. Develop the ear. 

Of course when we speak of the ear in music, we are talking about the auditory cortex in the brain. Again, the ear is being used and minimally developed even with the most basic playing. But if you want to really develop the ear, you have to challenge it (just like stressing muscles makes them stronger). This can be done by playing by ear and transposing. When I speak of transposing, I am referring to taking a piece of music and playing it in a different key. This can be done by eye (if using written music) or by ear, or a combination of both. Using the ear as much as possible is what will help build the ear. 

Another way to strengthen your ear is to sing! If you stop to think about it, you will recognize that the ear and vocal chords have a direct connection. You cannot see your vocal chords or direct them how to sing a given note; the brain just sends the signal and the vocal chords respond. Many people have trouble singing on key, but this is not a deficiency in their vocal chords -- it is a deficiency in the auditory cortex. So sing whenever possible and make every effort to sing on key. It helps to have a teacher to guide you through this if you find it difficult, but it can be done to some degree on your own. Make a habit of singing. (Hopefully it will also bring you joy!)

3. Memorize.

It is well known that one of the first things to go as most people age is their memory. If you want to keep your memory strong, you must use it! These days with all your phone numbers, birthdays, and much other information programmed into your phone or computer, there are far fewer opportunities to use your memory than there used to be. I recommend you try memorizing the phone numbers and birthdays of several people, just to make sure you can do it. Then expand to more quantity of information. It might seem like a hassle, but your brain will thank you for it.

Memorizing music is among the best ways to keep your memory strong. If you find it difficult to memorize, start with a very simple piece that you have learned and commit it to memory. Then keep going with progressively more complex music. There is a great deal to be said about how to memorize securely, too much for this post. Again, a really great teacher can help you. If you have learned the piece by ear, as opposed to from reading the written notes, then you automatically have it memorized. This proves that ear and memory are intimately connected. The more you build your ear the better your memory will be, and vice versa.

4. Recognize patterns.

Music is full of patterns. Repeating themes and motifs are what hold music together, so to speak. Without patterns it would just be rambling unrelated tones. Some patterns are obvious and some are more subtle. In any music you play, learn to identify the patterns. Pattern recognition is a part of many IQ and other cognitive tests, which shows it is an important skill for the brain. 

It is believed that playing an instrument such as the piano uses more parts of your brain simultaneously than any other activity. It uses the parts of the brain that control motor skills, auditory, visual (as in reading music), cognitive ability and emotions. (Don't forget about always playing with emotional involvement or you will miss out on that part!) So you can see why playing the piano is the ultimate brain-development hobby. No sport or other artistic endeavor can even come close. 

First Do No Harm

You are probably familiar with the Hippocratic Oath, the one that medical doctors take, which says "first do no harm." I also believe in this oath and take it very seriously when it comes to teaching the piano.

I will talk about two kinds of harm: physical and psychological.

Physical Harm

Pianists are prone to all sorts of injuries and chronic issues with their hands, wrists and arms -- IF they don't have proper technique. You can be an advanced player but still have pain if you haven't learned how to use your body ergonomically. The most common problems are tendinitis and carpal tunnel syndrome.
The first thing I cover at the lesson with a new student is how they sit at the piano. Sitting too low causes the wrists to sink below the hands, and puts a lot of strain on the wrist, which is a delicate joint. This can lead to carpal tunnel. Even when you type on a computer keyboard it is recommended you have a pad beneath your wrists so they can't sink. At the piano it is much more critical. You must sit high enough that there is a gentle downward slope from your upper arm to your hand. Sitting too high has different issues, but I find invariably people sit too low, not too high. If your piano came with a standard bench, it may not be the right height for you. Generally the benches are too low for people who are short, and they are absolutely too low for most children. Although I don't teach children anymore, I often am shown videos of kids playing at a recital, for example, and am always appalled at how they are sitting. Sometimes they are so low that there hands are reaching up almost to shoulder-level to get to the keys. Any teacher who allows this to happen, whether at the lesson, at home, or at a recital, is derelict in their duties.
Not only is sitting too low a potential source of injury, it also makes having great technique almost impossible. I say "almost" because there are a few cases of famous pianists who sat extremely low and still had big technique. But this is rare. (And for all we know, they may have had pain but they didn't like to talk about that.) You need the power of your upper arm for any kind of forte (loud) and powerful playing. (You also need it for extremely delicate playing, but it may not appear that way to the novice.) The power of the upper arm is "cut off" if the wrist is below the hand.

Another way that physical harm is done is too much repetition, usually of "exercises." These are often done in a way which emphasizes the small muscles, which can fatigue easily. Pushing through the pain is "supposed" to be the way you get better at it, but it is just a road to problems such as tendinitis, or even dystonia, which can be quite paralyzing. It is not the repetition itself, but the manner in which these exercises are taught which is wrong. Doing them even a little is not good, but doing them a lot is positively harmful. (See my earlier posts on exercises.)

Psychological Harm

Over my many years of teaching I have heard a great deal of what I call "piano horror stories." (I may put them all in a book one day!) That refers to the early years of piano lessons which, people tell me, were negative experiences and almost destroyed their love of the piano. Often, they hated the lessons and begged their parents to let them quit. Teachers would chalk it up to the child "not having enough talent" or "not willing to work hard enough." In fact, it was their psychologically damaging teaching methods that was the cause.
Too much emphasis on dull exercises and repetition (see above), focusing on "wrong notes," and insistence on playing the music the student does not like are just a few of the ways in which teachers harm their students. (See previous posts on these subjects.) They often forget about the "fun." Everyone wants it to be fun!! If the teacher is unable to make it fun, that teacher needs to find another profession. Fun is my top priority, even for the so-called "serious" student. Years after they leave lessons with me, I want them to have only the happiest memories of their time at the piano.

Shortcuts

In these times when many people are so busy, many products and services advertise themselves as "time-savers." In some cases it is true, and who wouldn't want to buy or use something that enables you to get somewhere or achieve something in less time? We often find ourselves looking for a shortcut....

Piano is no different. People who have always wanted to learn to play, but haven't had a lot of time to devote to it, may be looking for a shortcut, a way to play, at least at a basic level, without a huge investment of time (and money).

So it is no surprise that there would be those who try to capitalize on that desire. They offer books or online courses (even TV shows) that claim "Learn Piano in a Day!" or "Teach Yourself Piano!" They claim to have a method that bypasses all the supposed long hours of lessons and practice. Why would anyone choose the long, possibly difficult path, when there are "shortcuts" available?

Let's explore whether, in fact, there are shortcuts to learning to play the piano.

The shortcuts that you will find all basically boil down to one idea: you learn songs, which of course, being songs, are not originally written to be played on the piano. They are not "piano music." Nevertheless, songs are what a lot of people want to play, because they are familiar with them. You would first need to learn the melody of the songs, played with the right hand, and then you would need to learn chords, or the harmony, played with the left hand. (When people learn to play the guitar, they usually are singing the melody and playing chords on the guitar. It's totally possible and very common to learn to do this on the guitar, at least for simpler songs, providing you can, and want to, sing.)

Let's take each of those elements:
There would be three ways of learning to play the melody. The first is "by ear," which means you just figure it out, using your innate auditory ability, along with some trial and error. Some people can do this but many can't. The second way would be to learn to read music. Musical notation is quite complex, having to convey both the notes and the rhythm, at the very least. So if you can't quite manage to figure out your melodies by ear, you will need to learn to read. Just like when you learned to read English (or any language), you started with VERY simple material and gradually progressed to more complex. Most "shortcut" methods do not teach how to read music, because it takes time and there is really no shortcut. The third way is the "copy me" approach. If your course is online, you would watch the teacher's hands and try to copy exactly. Or, if your book or course has graphics, it may indicate where to place your fingers by means of a dot or other symbol on the key(s) you need to press. Even so, you would need to be quite familiar with the songs, since the dots cannot indicate the rhythm of the melody.
Next, you would want to learn to play chords to harmonize your melody. Again, there are a few ways you might do this. The easiest (or so it may seem) way is for the book or course to just show you which keys to depress for a given chord. Most shortcut approaches will start with three basic chords. There are thousands of songs which can be played with just three or four chords. Or, you could learn to read the chords in actual music notation, but again, reading is a skill that takes time. If you've learned the melody and you only need to use three chords, it seems pretty simple, right? Not necessarily. The two hands doing different things at the same time is the singular challenge of the piano, and you may not be able to master it just by copying someone else. The last method to learn chords -- the best way -- is to really learn the system, the theory, if you will, of chords, which will enable you to learn to construct any chord you want. But again, this takes some time and shortcut approaches wouldn't even try.

I also need to mention that all shortcut approaches will have you playing only in the Key of C, at least for a while, which means you will be playing on all white keys. These approaches will put all the songs you play in that key, which is fine. However, once your course is finished and you find music you want to play that is not in the Key of C,  you won't know the chords you will need and won't be able to figure out how to find them.

With shortcut methods, every time you learn a new song you are starting from scratch. You will always need the teacher or the graphics to show you exactly what to play. You won't have learned "the system" or the skills to do it on your own. As soon as the course is done, you may find it difficult, if not impossible, to continue on your own. You may not even be able to remember the songs you have already learned, unless you go back and watch the video again each time.

Another huge problem with all of the above is that no one is watching you, to see if your physical coordination needs help, or if you are doing things in a way which is awkward and prone to give you problems down the road.

It is a classic case of giving a man a fish versus teaching him to fish. The shortcut methods give you one fish at a time; they don't teach you the skill of fishing.

My approach to teaching beginners is different. I do stress learning to play melodies by ear, because it is fun, and helps develop your ear, which is essential. (See my post on The Importance of Playing by Ear.) If you are finding it difficult to play by ear, I help you improve that skill. I also teach chords, but I do it by teaching the structure or chords, so you will gradually, over time, be able to find any chord you need. I also teach how to read music. If you already understand chords, for example, it is much easier when you start to read them, because what you are reading will make sense to you.

Learning in this way does take time, dedication, and yes -- money. It is essential to find a highly skilled and intuitive teacher who has an interest in teaching beginners and guiding them through this long -- and rewarding -- process.

It's tempting to find shortcuts. But you may find your shortcut landed you at a brick wall or a dead end.

Everything you do has the potential to become habit

There are thousands of self-help books on how to establish new habits -- for healthy eating or exercise, for example. And equally as many books, I would imagine, on how to break undesirable habits, such as smoking. Our habits determine a huge percentage of what we do in life: our thoughts, our interactions with people, our daily routines, just to name a few. If only we could go back in time, to the time before we developed those habits, and make sure we formed only the most desirable ones! The problem is, however, that most of the time we are developing our habits, we are not even aware we are doing so.

This is true of playing the piano as well. The habits you develop will, to a large extent, determine your physical technique and even how expressively you play. And perhaps most important, your practice habits, what you do (or don't do) when you sit down to practice, will be a huge factor in whether you make progress or spin your wheels.

This is why I tell my students: Everything you do has the potential to become habit.

If you are a student of the piano -- whether beginner or advanced -- you have an opportunity every time you practice to develop the habits you desire and let go of the ones that don't serve you. If you have already played for a number of years, chances are you have developed some "bad" habits that prevent you from playing as well as you would like, or progressing at the rate you want. (This is very likely to be the case if you tried to teach yourself, or had a bad teacher.) Even so, those habits can be replaced with better ones, over time, especially if you have an insightful teacher who can help you become aware of those habits.

I'm still always surprised (and yet also not surprised) that people don't see the connection, for example, between how they practice and how they would ultimately want to play, say, in a performance, even if it's just for friends and family. They mistakenly believe that they can do one thing when they practice, but when it comes to "showtime," they will do something different. (Of course I am not talking about the highest level professional artists here, but of your average person who just wants to learn to play.)

The best example of this is the immediate "correction" of wrong notes. (The reason I put that in quotes is that the wrong note still happened and the new note does not "replace" it. There is no backspace key in music!) Almost everyone has an automatic reaction to playing a wrong note of correcting it with the right one immediately. You usually do it before you even realize it -- it is a knee-jerk reaction. Unfortunately, some teachers will even tell you that this is what you must do, otherwise you will continue to play the wrong note. However, this is not how the brain works. The more autonomic part of the brain does not know you meant the second one you played is the one you want; it just "thinks" this is how it is, the first note followed by the second one, and will very likely continue to make that same mistake. If you don't address the reason you have played the incorrect note (it is very likely having to do with your technique), playing the correct note afterwards won't correct the technical problem. In addition, stopping to "correct" has now destroyed the rhythm of that part of the music, which is something your brain will also absorb. It's funny to me that students are so concerned with getting the right notes, but are willing to throw the rhythm under the bus every time!

I often say that if stopping to correct really worked, we'd all be playing all the right notes all the time by now. But you will find, from your own experience, that is not the case. It may seem counter-intuitive, but you must let the wrong notes go by and focus on playing with continuity and beauty. A better solution is to simplify that passage with fewer notes (see my post on outlining) and gradually build up to all the notes. There are many more techniques to address wrong notes, too numerous and complex to explain here.

In addition, if you always stop and fix, then you can be sure that is what you will do in performance as well, even though you think you won't. After all, it's the habit you developed.

Another example of developing a habit you don't want is practicing without expression and musicality. I can't tell you the number of people with whom I've had this disagreement. They insist that you must first learn "the notes" and then add the expression later. But how can this be? If you are playing with expression, there is something you are doing, physically, that you didn't do when you practiced without it (or vice versa). So why would you practice in a way you don't intend to use later when you perform? You won't be able to change your habit of playing without expression at the flick of a switch.

Maybe there are some things in life or at the piano that we do that won't become habit. But everything you do has the potential to become habit, and almost certainly will if you do it most of the time. When you sit down to practice, be mindful of this. You have an opportunity every time you play to develop the habits you want.

Musical Numerology

I'm always fascinated by the connection between music and math. Music is full of mathematical relationships. And it seems to be the case that many people who have an affinity for music also have an affinity for math, and vice versa.

There is also a connection between music and numbers themselves. I'm calling this "Musical Numerology."

Many spiritual and philosophical teachings have discussed the importance of certain numbers in our cosmos and in creation. For example, the philosopher/teacher G.I Gurdjieff talked about the "rule of three" and the "rule of seven" as playing a large part in our solar system and in the organization of many aspects of life on earth.

There are three numbers which play an important role in music: three, five, and seven.

Three:
There are many instances of three in our culture, such as the Trinity in Christianity. In Western music, three can be seen in the construction of the most basic chord, a triad, consisting of three notes. In triads and in "expanded" chords, such as seventh and ninth chords, each tone is always separated by the interval of a third.
Many of our forms that larger pieces use are three-part forms. The most common of these is known as an A-B-A form, which consists of a first section (A) followed by a contrasting section (B), followed by another A section, which can be an exact repeat, or somewhat altered. One of the most enduring forms in our music is Sonata Form, which uses this ABA form on both a macro and micro level. Most symphonies, sonatas, concertos, and many of the large-scale pieces from the last three centuries or so have three movements (although many composers deviated from this and had anywhere from two to four movements); the first, in the original key, was often fast; the second movement often slower, and in a contrasting key, and the third movement again in the original key. The first movement itself is in "Sonata Form" which consists of three parts, an Exposition, a Development, and a Recapitulation.
This three-part form has proven to be so satisfying to both the composer and the listener that we just don't seem to be able to abandon it.

Seven:
There are many instances of the importance of 7 in religion and philosophy, probably starting with the Creation Story of 7 days. This of course is why we have seven days in our week.  In Western music we have a basic building block, the scale, consisting of seven tones. Composers have experimented with other options, but none of these have taken hold. There is something about the 7-tone scale that seems cosmically right. It is believed that the Greeks took the "distance" between a given tone and the tone that vibrates at exactly twice the frequency of  the first tone, and the division of that distance into 7 tones ensued from that. (They are not equal divisions of the octave, however.)That distance is referred to as the "octave." (There is quite a bit more complexity to this which goes beyond the scope of this post.)

Five:
The importance of five in music is one of my favorite things to talk about. Many cultures (not ours, however, as explained above) have based their music on a 5-tone, or pentatonic, scale. As an example, just about every Spiritual you can find has a melody based on 5 tones.
In Western music the importance of five can be seen in the Circle of Fifths. On the most surface level, this is a picture of the relationship of the tonalities to each other. The key of C Major has no sharps or flats; go up 5 tones (in that scale) and you get G Major with one sharp. The significance of this is that the most closely-related key or tonality is five tones away. On a deeper level, music tends to want to move by the interval of a fifth. This is seen in the roots of chords as they progress from one to another. The most common cadence (or ending) is V to I. (We use Roman Numerals when we refer to the degree of the scale.) The next most common is IV to I (which can be heard in the "Amen" of almost all religious music). It should be noted, however, that IV to I is also the relationship of a fifth, but going the opposite direction around the Circle of Fifths.  This is not just true of Classical music; in jazz, the most common progression is II-V-I; the II is five away from V, so II-V-I is a "chain" of fifths.

This post just scratches the surface of understanding Musical Numerology. There are hundreds of books and articles written on this subject. I always have felt that music is somehow an auditory representation of our cosmos, closely related to physics, math and astronomy. Hopefully this piques your interest to find out more about this amazing connection.

Can you teach yourself the piano?

Over the years, many people have come to study with me having previously tried to teach themselves to play the piano. At some point, they get frustrated that they seem to be making little progress, and that it takes them forever to learn something new. In addition, once they learn it, they find they quickly forget how to play it.

You would think in these days of having YouTube and all kinds of people giving tutorials online that one could just learn that way. How tempting, to save the many thousands of dollars one would spend on years of lessons and just use the internet instead. Unfortunately, it is almost never successful.

Another method people often try is just to teach themselves the names of the notes on the staff, and then try to pluck their way through a piece, slowly, note by note, one hand at a time, and often trying to memorize a measure or two as they go. (When reading is difficult, people try to memorize right away; but this is like cramming for a test -- the memory doesn't stick long term.) With this method, they usually don't learn to read rhythm correctly and have to supplement their learning by listening to the piece on the internet to get the rhythm right. This method is excruciatingly slow. It often takes many months to "learn" one short piece. People taking this approach will be likely to choose pieces that are light years beyond their abilities. Even if they manage to play the piece, slowly and haltingly, they are not really learning any skills, and will have to repeat the process with the next piece. They know the piece doesn't sound beautiful when they play it, but they can't figure out what to do about it. Many people mistakenly believe that learning to play is simply a matter of hitting the right notes. If this were true, there would be many more great pianists than there are. Just like playing by copying someone on the internet, this method also never works.

Here are some of the reasons.

1.The physical aspect
Playing the piano (or any instrument) is highly physical, much more so than it may look to a non-educated observer. It is just as physical as any sport, and in fact, probably more so.
Without developing a good technique you will be limited as to what you can learn to play and master. And you run the risk of doing harm to your hands, fingers and arms by practicing with bad technique. Even something so basic as sitting at the wrong height can cause problems such as carpal tunnel syndrome.
For this reason you must have a teacher who is observing you as you play, and teaching you technique. Watching someone play on YouTube is not the same as having someone working with you one-on-one. And the person you are watching online may have bad technique as well, but you can't always tell by how it looks on camera. In fact, the camera is usually just showing their fingers. You can't see at all what is happening in their arms, which is equally, if not more, important. When most people watch a video of someone playing, they are just trying to copy "the notes" and are not focusing on technique. With this approach, you will have to start at square one learning each new piece of music, because you won't really have learned skills. I say to my students that I am teaching skills, not pieces.

2. Understanding
In most of the videos and tutorials I've seen, the person giving the tutorial just focuses on showing you the notes to play. If you spend a great deal of time watching it over and over, you can eventually copy what the person is doing. But you won't know why. Very few explain in any detail why you would play a certain jazz tune, for example, in this way. Or they explain it in terms which they understand, having played for years, but which you, as a beginner, will not understand. So again, you are stuck with just copying what you see. You won't have the understanding to apply it to another piece of music on your own. So you are locked into finding a video for everything you want to play.
This is so time-consuming you will probably eventually give up.

3. Expression
When you watch a video and copy the person, you are also copying their interpretation of the music. This is true regardless of the genre -- classical, jazz, etc. Consciously or unconsciously, you will tend to play the piece just like that person, with the same dynamics, nuances of timing and phrasing, and so on. Once you hear something a certain way, that may just be how you will continue to hear it, especially if you are a beginner. And why would you want to play like someone else? Hopefully, one of the reasons you want to play the piano is to express your self.

4. Ear training
Playing an instrument is an "auditory sport," I often say. As such, you need to be training your ear. This aspect of music education is often overlooked. If you are not working on your ear, you can't progress as fast or play very complex music. It is also the reason you may not be able to memorize, or, if you do memorize a piece, you quickly forget if you don't practice it constantly. Watching something online requires mostly using your eyes and is doing very little to develop your ear.

Learning to play the piano takes a lot of work and dedication, but of course can be hugely rewarding. If you are going to invest the time and energy into learning to play and adding the joy of playing to your life, it is essential to invest in good training. It is not easy to find a teacher who has the knowledge and experience to teach all the many aspects of playing the piano, but the posts in this blog may give you some insights into what to look for in a teacher.

Everything I know about life I learned from playing the piano

This title may be a bit of an exaggeration, and on top of that I stole the idea from a book written some years ago....but I've been thinking about writing this for years.

The longer I live and the more years I spend playing the piano, I find it to be true. Playing the piano is a microcosm for life.

Here are some of the life/piano lessons that I've learned.

Let Go of Fear: Many of the problems we have at the piano -- and in life  - are due to fear. Fear of making mistakes and playing wrong notes is the biggie. It makes us tense and changes our technique, not for the better, of course. When you see a great pianist play, you can see how free and fearless they are. I work with my students to change their technique to one that is more free and less fear-based.
See my two previous posts titled "Fear" to read some of the specific ways fear affects us at the piano.

Be in the Moment: Many philosophies and books teach us the importance of living in the present moment. In fact it is really all we have. The past and the future are really just constructs of the mind. It is only in the "now" that you can do anything. When you play the piano (or any instrument) you must be only in the moment. If you are thinking about what you'll have for dinner, or even the part of the piece coming up next, or the little mistake you just made, then you cannot be listening to what you are playing, and you cannot possibly play your best. Your hands may go through the motions and play the music, but it won't be as expressive and as authentic as it could be. Plus, what is really the point of playing, if you yourself are not even really present to enjoy it?

Be a Good Listener: We all know people who are not good listeners. You start telling them about an experience you had, and immediately they are off and running talking about something similar that happened to them, and they never really heard you or listened to you. All relationships depend on good listening to be successful. This statement is so obvious -- we all know it. Yet it is difficult to learn to be a good listener. Luckily, if you are a musician, you get lots of opportunities to practice listening. This goes along with being in the moment, above. If you can truly listen to yourself as you play, you may learn to be a good listener in other aspects of your life as well. Ear training will also help you be a more astute listener. I am always working on improving my ear through playing by ear and transposing.

Forgive mistakes: People hate to make mistakes. At the piano, most people would agree they don't like all those pesky wrong notes they keep hitting when they are learning to play. For some people it prevents them from ever relaxing and just playing for enjoyment. But not only can we learn to forgive our mistakes, but we can realize how important they are. In life, it's almost a cliche to say we learn from our mistakes, but we know it's true. Mistakes can give us information about what is not working in our technique, for example. Some mistakes seem to be just random. You suddenly miss a note that you never missed before. You just have to let it go. Forgive yourself. Learn to love the wrong notes as much as you love the right ones.

Relax: Most people in our modern society are physically quite tense. We do yoga and meditation to help us learn to relax. At the piano, we cannot be relaxed like a cat lolling in the sun, but we can be alertly relaxed, like a cat ready to pounce. It may take years to develop this but it can be done. When people comment that my playing seems very relaxed, I respond "I've worked very hard to be this relaxed." Being relaxed will help with letting go of fear, listening, and the other items mentioned above. A good teacher who really understands the body and piano technique can help you learn to be more relaxed.

Rhythm is Paramount: People who are new to the piano (and even some who are experienced) focus so much on "the notes" that they don't learn rhythm properly or have lifelong struggles with rhythm. For my students who are beginners, I teach rhythm first, and then note reading. I continue to work with them on rhythm all through their studies. So many students have said to me: "Can't I just play the notes without the rhythm?" To which I respond "There is no such thing as NO rhythm, so what you are really asking is can you play it with the wrong rhythm." You wouldn't want to practice a rhythm you'd have to un-learn afterwards. Rhythm plays a role in our lives too. If we can learn to be aware of the rhythms of life -- the ups and downs, unexpected twists -- perhaps we can accept and enjoy it more.

Express Yourself: I don't think this needs much explanation. Both life and music are much better when we express who we are and how we feel. I find that at the piano, many people don't always play as expressively as they could. I ask "What are you saving it for?" Always play with expression. And live that way too.

Set Big Goals and Have Confidence: I am a very accomplished pianist, yet even as recently as 15 years ago I believed there were many pieces I wanted to play that were too hard for me, and I accepted the fact that I would never play them, even though I wanted to. I decided to try to change my way of thinking. I wanted to play the Brahms Handel Variations (a difficult 25 minute piece) and Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition (30 minutes, very difficult). Even though I may have still had doubt about whether I could master them, I started work on them. To my surprise and joy, both did not seem as difficult as I had imagined, and I learned both and have played both in concert several times. I now don't think of ANY piece as too difficult. It may take me a longer time to learn and master, but I have confidence I can do it. I wish I had this confidence in other areas of my life. Perhaps I can learn to do that if I keep at it.

This list is by no means complete. I am constantly finding aspects playing the piano that have a parallel with some aspect of life. Perhaps you will start to notice these too.