"The Mental Toll of Perfection: Understanding the Guilt of Musicians"

Well now, I dare not admit this as I know by now you have this image of me being continually fabulous and continually passionate about what I do. Yes, piano playing is not only my profession nowadays, but it still remains my biggest hobby (although I do dare say when I wake up on a Saturday morning...I try and avoid it now - other hobbies are available!) So it may come as a surprise to you to read that I do, in fact, struggle with days whereby the piano is a million miles away from what I want to be doing. In principal it may seem like a good thing, and I still appreciate piano music in a dissociated sense (for example - reading about piano, watching videos etc. - anything away from me having to actually sit and physically play the instrument!), but the harsh reality is that I am only as good a pianist and musician as I will allow myself to be by plonking myself in front of the keyboard and practising or - at the very least - playing through some repertoire in an effort to reignite my passion.

But this got me wondering, and I confess it is something that I caution my own pupils on as well;

Should we actually be forcing ourselves to do something - such as practice - if our heart isn't feeling it? If we're not in the mindset, could we ultimately be doing more damage?

There are pros and there are cons, naturally, but I suppose that aside from the marginal cop out judgment of 'only you know you', there are things to consider that are universal truths amongst musicians of all walks of like:

There are many ways to practise away from your instrument. Keep reading to learn more...

Breaks are NOT necessarily a Hinderance

A few weeks ago, one of my pupils came to me feeling enormous guilt at having recently been on a trip for a mere two nights in Stratford-Upon-Avon. This means that she had two nights of not practising. Criminal, right?

Wrong.

In spite of the fact that she had enormous guilt, what actually showed that was of interest was that her playing - whilst not necessarily a great improvement from the previous time I had seen her - was soon back up to scratch and she actually found herself able to take on board advice and - more impressively - put them into quite immediate practice in comparison to what she may have done in previous lessons.

Why was this?

I conclude that it was down to a simple case of over practising prior. It seems almost ridiculous that over practising is a thing, but it is. Consider writing the same word 100 times repeatedly on a piece of paper (or better still - 100 different pieces of paper so you can't look back). Eventually that word is going to start looking odd, you'll question if it's a real word. It will look as if it's spelt wrong. If you've been vocalising it simultaneously it will sound wrong. Same principle.

By giving herself a couple of nights off - especially given that it was time away rather than replacing it with something else that was intently focused - my pupil came back rather refreshed and more able to take on board advice, information and just generally with a better attitude towards playing.

Other forms are practice are available

Practising piano sounds like a very intense scenario whereby you sit down at your piano with your music in front of you, maybe set a metronome and scrutinise and practice your exercises, techniques and pieces.

However, it is not.

One such simple way to approach your guilt of not actually sitting at your instrument is to consider other ways in which you can fuel your brain with piano knowledge, understanding and even skill without having to formally be there.

Here are some examples:

• Reading Music: This doesn't necessarily have to be a piece of music that you're working on. If you are working from a workbook or towards a grade, find another score within that book that you haven't looked at and just pick it apart in your mind. You'll be nourishing the brain, improving your understanding of how music all fits together! If you consider yourself a beginner or intermediate, don't be afraid of scores that are above your playing standard. Learn to not be intimidated and replace that fear with a feeling of inquisition. What does that symbol mean? How can I learn how to quickly recognise notes that are several ledger lines above the stave?
  

• Listening to Music: The inspirational quality of listening to a piece of music that you are working on is priceless, for frankly - not enough of us do it. I myself confess that I am guilty of choosing scores that I actually own - whether or not I know them (I buy a lot from charity shops and then just start playing them one day!). I can progress right through to the end of a piece (sometimes even a full sonata!) without even listening to a different rendition of it. And whilst I have ample trust in my own interpretations and sight reading ability, I am always tremendously excited at hearing how other performances differ from my own. And whilst I am all for interpretation, sometimes a little penny will drop. A note may sound different and for some reason I may in my mind have read it is Ab instead of A natural - and now the whole mood of a passage or harmony changes. Perhaps upon listening I am going too fast, and this can help me too if it is a piece I am struggling to get crystal clear - for obvious reasons! Maybe a performer's use of pedal is much more excessive than my own but it creates a lush undertone by doing so - something I can't wait to replicate myself when I get back to practising. Point being, I could practice at the instrument for weeks and weeks and never take my performance to the same level that 10 minutes of listening might push out of me!
  

• Practice Theory: You may consider this one to be slightly boring, but being human our brains are just sometimes wired towards logic and practicality rather than expression and emotion. If you're feeling guilty but you don't necessarily feel 'expressive' then simply swot up on theory! The Internet is rife with information, whether that be blog posts (I have some!), videos (see below) or even - if you're feeling academic - past papers from exam board websites. When it comes to the academic approach of learning, you know best how you pick things up. Dig out that blank manuscript paper and copy - or write from scratch - some musical transcription of your own. Or learn some theory and then go applying it to musical scores you haven't yet studies (see 'Reading Music' above!).
  

• Videos: Videos are wonderful tools for learning in a similar way that listening to music that you are learning is a useful tool. Aside from the obvious tutorial videos that you can find in abundance on YouTube and TikTok etc., you can find performances of most any piece of music my most any reputable performer and several other professional and non-professional pianists, learners etc. - not to mention even step by step tutorials for getting the most out of every bar of just about every piece you could ever hope to play! But anyway, use the opportunity to watch how different pianists approach different areas that you have been struggling with. Try and find videos that are of the hands solely and watch. Do you use different fingers? Do they have a gentler wrist motion? You may just have another penny dropping moment, like those that can come when listening to music!
  

• Visualisation: This one takes a little bit more effort to focus, but it requires you to be able to picture the keyboard mentally and see your hands in front of you. Hold the score of a piece you are learning in front of you (or close your eyes and test your ability to play without the score) and play through it, visualising your hands playing the keys and hearing the music in your head. Music is a complete circuit, and if you can visualise what your hands do but can't remember how the music goes, that area needs attention. If you can remember how it goes but can't see your hands doing anything, that area needs attention. If you can visualise strongly enough from beginning to end, it may just be as powerful a tool as actually playing through the music!

These are mere examples of alternate ways to practice and learn, but you might just find that doing one starts to reignite enough excitement to get back to your instrument! So let's say that's happened.

You're back at your instrument...

Is your playing feeling sluggish?

If you are bounding through your pieces without a care in the world - you're happy or you're lost in the music - that's wonderful. Welcome back!

If, however, you're finding yourself hitting notes for the sake of it, not really caring, not really thinking about what you're doing and your mind is wandering, you're not really in a practicing mood yet. But don't worry...as previously covered, breaks can be a wonderful boost for your musical journey.

Re-evaluate the necessity of your practice

Perhaps the most disjointed feeling of guilt that I find with my pupils is based on what they're not doing vs. what they're trying to achieve.

Let me try and put that a slightly different way;

I offer my pupils the option to learn how they wish to, and normally this will take one of two routes:

• they wish to learn casually, OR

• they wish to learn academically (i.e. for exams)

The casual learner will almost certainly not have a specific need to have a piece or pieces of music ready to perform, whereas an academic learner will always have a finite amount of time to prepare a set number of specific pieces and exercises for an exam.

The pressure, therefore, is on for the academic learner.

However, who feels the more guilt when they don't practice?

The casual learner!

Perhaps it is the obsessiveness with which the academic learner does practice when they do that means they can afford to miss the odd session here and there, whereas a casual learner is doing it for a hobby and therefore - having no ties - will practice routinely but not necessarily to the end that anything learnt within that session has transferred from the short to the long term / muscle memory. Therefore, they feel vulnerable at having missed a session in the same way as which you may feel vulnerable for skipping a dosage of medication before they've fully kicked in.

BUT...

As can be proven quite without question by my pupil who decided to spend a night watching RSC's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' rather than practicing, it should be stressed and always remembered that good intention will always reap good rewards. It didn't take her long to find her footing again and be back up to scratch (assuming that she had in any way dipped for that couple of days away) and that is because she does practice and - most importantly - whenever she does physically practice she does so out of sheer passion and pleasure for doing so.

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#piano #pianist #pianopractice #pianolesson #pianoteacher #pianotutor #pianopupil #macclesfield #congleton

Purple Day - Tuesday 26th March 2024

As Easter approaches, I think back to Easter of 4 years ago - in particular Good Friday 2020. This was a very different Easter for me, as it was about to change the course of my life.

Prior to this, I had assumed (as many do) that epilepsy was a condition that always manifested as a big seizure (a tonic clonic) and usually (if not always) as the result of lights flashing or photosensitivity.

In a way I'm a bit annoyed that I didn't realised until the day itself (today - Tuesday 26th March 2024!) that it is Purple Day, as I might have been able to organise something such as an event or other fundraiser, or thought of a more ingenious way to spread awareness than putting it onto my blog.

However, here we are, and for what it's worth, I'd be delighted to share with you my experience of Good Friday 2020 in the hope that it might not only educate those who were as unknowledgeable as myself, but also perhaps help some people identify that they, too, may be affected by epilepsy.

"Jerky Hands"

For years and years, I had been plagued with a slight something that I dubbed as my 'jerky hands'. These were involuntary spasms that often affected me in both hands and they would crop up daily - several times a day. They were at their most frequent when I was doing something considered 'hands on' (such as playing the piano, inconveniently!), but I never thought much of it. I actually thought it was normal - that everybody got them.

The sensation was a little sharper than you may expect when I say that it was just that my hands 'jumped away' from certain situations, and it was always accompanied by a little shock in the brain. Not a painful one, mind, but just the type of thing that made me have to reassess where I was up to, what I was doing for no more than a second afterwards. Nonetheless, this is not a good situation for anybody who requires any amount of concentration and fluidity (such as somebody who plays the piano!) - and I did identify that my jerky hands were indeed enhanced, for want of a better term, in one of two instances;

• Stress and / or concentration - contextually, learning a new piece of music could be a nightmare for me!
  

• Alcohol. This one stands to reason, but I have somewhat amusing memories of a different Good Friday making a Simnel Cake and throwing half of the batter around the kitchen rather than in the tin. A worse case of jerky hands than normal, almost certainly down to the after work party we had on the Thursday!

Astonishingly, I never connected any dots. Stress is unpleasant and I figured that if we put ourselves through it, of course it's going to manifest badly somehow. So even if I hadn't considered that the jerky hands specifically were normal, I was on track for assuming that everybody had something as an outlet. And I considered the alcohol thing just stood to reason - probably still does. Alcohol has an uncanny ability to enhance pretty much everything we go through, good or bad.

Good Friday 2020

You must remember that by the time it got to Good Friday 2020, the UK (and the world, frankly) was in a state of misery at having been locked down for the first few weeks. People couldn't go anywhere - not even to work in many cases.

So I figured I'd bring a bit of cheer to people by asking them on Facebook to name me a song that brought them joy and then when I had enough I'd record a medley of me playing through them.

A fairly simple task, especially seeing as the list was made up largely of nice, simple pop songs. From 'Things Can Only Get Better' to 'In My Life', 'Hold On' to 'Three Little Birds' and from 'Always Look on the Bright Side of Life' to 'Go Your Own Way', this was not a difficult challenge.

So I wired my electric piano into the laptop (luckily, for a microphone would have picked up some soon to be rather unsavoury language - by my standards, anyway!) and set out to recording a melody. What was supposed to be a one take wonder had to be done in many takes and frankly it didn't work.

But because my laptop was recording this video to be uploaded to Facebook to bring a smile, I was able to put together this montage of highlights of me suffering more than I had ever suffered with my jerky hands. Note also, I was getting increasingly stressed and the more I failed to play, the more I concentrated, so that wouldn't have helped either:

Well, this went on for about an hour and I would love to be able to say that I just shut the computer down and decided to come back to it. But me being stubborn and determined that people would have a smile raised at the beginning of their Easter weekend I persisted. Or I tried.

And then I had a complete manifestation of all the warning signs of that past hour - a tonic clonic seizure.

Whilst I do remember the first second or two of the actual seizure itself (somewhat like being in the electric chair, I imagine...), I was grateful that I was unconscious for most of it. And a lot of the aftermath too. First thing I remember is 'waking up' lay down in an ambulance (apparently I'd been talking to the paramedics and even walked myself to the ambulance - who knew?!) being waved goodbye to by my parents. My neck was hurting because evidently I'd fallen backwards off my stool onto the floor, and then straight onto A & E.

Fortunately, I wasn't an urgent case. However, unfortunately for the time this was (COVID), non-urgent cases were extremely low priority. I did, therefore, spend a night in hospital where I was extremely well looked after and fed, sparingly using my phone to save battery (good job I had it - but nobody was allowed to bring me a charger in because of isolation!).

Aftermath

I was initially put onto an extremely high dose of Levetiracetam. I would argue an uncomfortably high dose! The purpose of the medication kicked in right away and suddenly all these jerky hands were at bay. And to be honest, I wasn't necessarily happy about this. In a daft way, it felt like losing an old friend. More interestingly, my brain was still very aware of the need to spasm, got me prepared and then...nothing. Being a completist, this was most inconvenient! However, I got used to it.

I was signed off work for a few days because although I went back on the Tuesday (I worked in the medical centre, so was still fortunate enough to be able to go to work), this was just enough time for the side effects of Levetiracetam to kick in. And this included drowsiness and, as I like to say, 'zombification'. I could barely walk in a straight line and not half as fast as I used to, but interestingly my mind was incredibly active. More-so than ever before. I was requesting to watch films that were much more complex than my usual choices as a means to unwind (I think 'American Psycho' was watched), and I found that I was able to write an entire suite of music because my concentration had drastically improved. My mind was sharp, but it couldn't effectively translate to the rest of me!

Naturally, this led to further consultations and I was moved off that medication to Lamotrigine which cancelled out all the side effects but also cancelled out the effectiveness of keeping little jerks at bay. So I was put onto Sodium Valproate (Epilim), which I remain on.

But in the midst of all this, I sent the consultant the video I put together and asked if this were a warning sign. And he simply referred to them as myoclonic seizures. And so it turns out I'd been having mini seizures for several years! He also referred to 'focal seizure manifestation' - in other words it happens when I concentrate. Something I knew but never considered a condition.

Which opened my eyes to epilepsy. And whilst I'm grateful that it is very much under control, I still do think it is something that we can all learn more about and help to assist people with. I'm OK - aside from the one big seizure my life was hardly debilitated to begin with. However, they were often annoying and inconvenient, and when they were bad they could be preventative of certain things. So if you recognise anything from above in yourself then;

• listen to your body and don't push yourself to the extremes of stress and

• Speak to a GP and see if you can be referred to an epilepsy specialist or neurology clinic.

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#purpleday #epilepsy #pianist #pianoplayer #macclesfield

"8 Effective Practice Techniques for Musicians: How to Perfect the Art of Practising"

You did, in fact, read that correctly!

How many times do you as a pianist - whether beginner, intermediate or advanced, sit down at the piano with the intention of practicing (i.e. not performing or playing) and just stare blankly at your instrument. Or the four walls. Or maybe you just go down a rabbit hole of guilt-playing. That's when you play music because you feel you ought to be, but the intention is no longer there and you're doing it just to fill the audible silence that otherwise pierces the space?

If you have never and do never do this, chances are you're already past the need of reading this article.

But...if you have had this happen to you just once, maybe you just need a read through of the following tips and tricks to help you prepare for your practice sessions and get the most out of them.

Find a Regular Practice Slot

The first thing you need to establish is when you are going to devote to practice. We all lead busy lives - even those of us fortune enough to work as a musician may find it difficult to fit in the time - but practising is something that we should benefit from twofold:

• we should enjoy our practice and

• we should be better as a result of our practice

Regularity does not have to mean daily, although it should be noted that the more you practice, the more you will pick up and learn, reinforce or develop a piece, technique or skill that you are working towards. Our subconscious minds are continually being proven as amazing things - sometimes we can push ourselves so hard in a practice slot that by doing another one too soon after we can overload (even if we practice and reiterate the same things!) - so a break between can sometimes be good. However, humans are also creatures of routine. Thus, if you say you're going to practice Monday, Wednesday and Friday...best try sticking to that as closely as possible!

The second step towards regularity is to do with the time of day in which you practice. This is well worth playing around with and trial-and-erroring to make sure you get the best out of it. For me, personally, first thing in a morning. If I start the day with some technical exercises, I am then motivated to keep practising to develop other pieces I am working on. This isn't to say I can't sit down at a piano in the afternoon - but my focus is completely different.

And believe me - I'm not what you would class a typical 'morning person'!

But doing it first thing with a fresh (if sometimes initially tired!) mind stands me in much better stead. This may not be the case for you of course, but don't forget that it's worth bearing in mind. Practice may be more or less productive for you following two hours of casual playing. It may be more or less productive before or after a day's work (if your neighbours can tolerate it!). But this is really the first obstacle you need to overcome: when?

Structure Your Time

OK, we now have our slot! Excellent news.

What next?

Well, we need to establish how long we're going to spend overall practising. And this varies between person and between standards.

As a general rule I would recommend a 30 minute practice session for an absolute beginner at any one time, whereas those more advanced may spend several hours every day practising. There is an element of trial and error here, too, but ultimately you mustn't forget that we're not talking about playing for fun. We're talking about very focus driven practice here. We can all play for hours on end exploring and learning and playing over and over some nice pieces we enjoy, but practise sessions are a somewhat different ball game.

Now let's work with our 30 minute benchmark (great for the absolute beginner).

How do we structure this?

Your piano teacher will probably be going through things with you and giving you a clear idea as to what you need to focus on, but as a general rule we all have the following things we need to work on:

• technical exercises

• pieces of music

• music theory

Technical exercises are the like of scales, arpeggios, broken chords and - moving into more intermediate / advanced territory - dominant and diminished sevenths, chromatic scales and finger strengthening and independence exercises.

Pieces of music refer to pieces that are in the workbook from which you are working - specifically music that has more contradictory structure between the two hands as well as more discernible melody than technical exercises. Naturally, if you are working towards exams, these will be your grade pieces.

Music theory relates to your understanding of absolutely anything that comes from a working knowledge of music before you even touch the keyboard. How do you know which note is which on the keyboard? How do you know which note is which on the stave? How do you know how quickly to play a piece of music? How can you transpose a piece from C major to D major without the sheet music? A lot of people are tempted to skip past music theory, but it really is an essential part to being the best pianist you can be.

The most obvious division between these three areas is 10 minutes, 10 minutes and 10 minutes if we are looking at a half hour practice session. This may work well, but make sure you are continually aware of what goes well and what goes not so well. If your scales are effortless but a piece you are learning is flawed, just reduce the scales to 5 minutes and have 15 on the music. If you can play a piece of music really well but don't understand fully how the score represents it, replace some (if not all) of your time studying the score and working it out. Don't be tempted to ask your teacher to explain everything, or to Google for advice. Working things out of your own accord is one of the strongest learning tools there is.

Make sure that you give yourself a fair dedication across the week of practice to all areas. If you do substitute music theory for playing one day, make sure you play more the following. Better still, move onto a brand new piece and put your newfound reading music skills to the test!

Write Down Goals

Just head over to Amazon and type in 'music practice journal' or such as the like and you will be treated to a wide array of choice. And these are fabulous because they really do work.

But scientifically (apparently!) we actually respond better for the sake of writing things down anyway. So even if you just write your goals on the back of a napkin (as some of the best ideas allegedly were) you will be well in the running for success!

But you need to ensure that your goals are achievable.

If you have just started learning a piece of music that spans 10 pages and is rather complex (Rachmaninov, Chopin etc.) then your goal by the end of the week may not be to have learnt it. Perhaps you would like to play with reasonable fluidity to the end of page 1. Maybe you would like to play each hand separately to the end of page 1. Maybe you would like to have learnt the first 2 bars. It really doesn't matter as long as it is achievable for you - you know how much you may be able to achieve by the end of the week.

One reason why practice journals are so good is because they provide a sort of permanent record of your achievement, and if you don't set yourself achievable goals then you're going to be looking back at all the goals you set and consider yourself having failed at. The truth is...you're not failing. No degree of improvement - no matter how small - is a failure, in fact. And nothing boosts morale, motivates more and just encourages you to keep going than being able to put several ticks against several things. And if you forget something by the time you get to your next practice session? Not a problem - that's your new goal. 'Relearn / Revise this particular passage...' for example.

Re-emphasise or Push Yourself?

Ah, now we get down to the nitty gritty of what transforms a 'practice session' into an actual practice session - and it is so simple that I can't believe it took me so long to realise. And I wish someone had told me sooner.

Practising a piece of music is not about playing it over and over again so that it sticks. Practising is about honing in very specific parts or passages with the intention of getting them performed to the best of your ability.

And it was only when 'practising' scales the other day that I realised this. I don't do scales every day. I do, however, do some sort of warm up every day (technical exercises etc.). So what I had a scale session, what I would do is put the metronome on and play through, say, all the major scales hands together. Maybe play one a couple of times until I got it right. Then moved onto the next.

But I never actually appreciated why I was getting any of them wrong.

PLUS - they never got any better than the stale way they were.

I have been studying so hard as to ways to develop scales since this lightbulb moment and I have been spending 15 minutes at a time focusing on individual octaves in one hand and working on building up comfort and speed - with and without metronome. Getting the thumb under at the right time, moving the fingers into place so I can comfortably continue. Studying my own performance and recognising where I could either feel or hear (if not both) where the drags were. For example, descending in the left hand was almost always more slugging and a bit less regimented - even at the comfortable speeds I'd been playing all through my life.

There is a time to play through your scales and your pieces fully (read on) and a time to really pick them apart. And - surprise, surprise - a practice session is a time to pick them apart!

Identify Pain, Problems, Discomfort and Error

This ties very much into the previous point. If something hurts - why? If something is disjointed, uneven or uncomfortable - why? If you are playing something wrong - why?

Sometimes the answer is not as easy to solve as just slow it down a few times to practice playing the passage or exercise with alleviated tension, so don't be afraid to seek advice from your teacher. Hand position, wrist action (or lack of), fingering etc. may all be the case, and your teacher might further be able to recommend exercises to help alleviate and progress through the problem. If they do, wonderful - schedule it into your practice session! Write a goal in your journal such as 'practice playing ... with emphasised wrist movement' or whatever you need to write.

Unfortunately, pain and discomfort are part and parcel of the practice process. However, the more you work with them the more your technique will develop around them, leading to minimal tension and pain during your actual performances.

Schedule Breaks

Even if you are only working to 30 minutes, you need to schedule at least one break. A break doesn't have to be long. In fact, little and often does well. I like to work with a 5 minutes per 15 minutes structure and it works well. Not only does it help to rest your hands - particularly important if you've been pushing them for the sake of learning an awkward exercise of passage of music - but it actually helps to refocus the brain.

I dare say that you can reward yourself in breaks too. I find a cup of tea on about my third break is always very welcome!

Of course, there are many things you can do to help during your break that aren't specifically related to playing the instrument. You may find stress balls, hand massagers, power balls, heat pads / warm water and even exercise help! Just make sure that you at least give your hands a few minutes to themselves, whatever else you do with them in your break!

Play for Leisure at the End

This is so, so important.

You have got to resist the urge to get carried away and just start playing the piece the way you enjoy playing it during your practice session. Save it all up for the end! We have now entered...rehearsal mode! And rehearsal mode is going to be used interchangeably here with leisure mode.

Everything you have been practising (technical exercises and entire pieces - or as much of them as you have so far learnt) - go for them! But don't just go for them thinking you can stop and start and correct. Consider that you are now in rehearsal mode. Rehearsal mode is different to practice mode because you are no longer focussing on individual aspects of a piece to develop them. You are practising the entire performance of the piece and you need to put the pressure on yourself to keep moving through it with minimal - if any - stops and mistakes (and if you do make mistakes, practice working through them rather than being tempted to stop and go back!).

Rehearsal is the last step for you before you are let loose with a piece of music, so it is in your interest to develop it into the best performance you can. However, there is one final test that you can do to ensure you're up for the job when all your practice sessions towards a particular piece have paid off...

Perform for a 'Crowd' or a Camera

Note the inverted commas on crowd!

Because crowd can be one person.

And if you live alone, set up a camera or your phone and video yourself.

The pressure that you put yourself under in your rehearsal sessions is somewhat superficial - you know you're only accountable to yourself. But, much as audiences are almost always forgiving, you will feel greater pressure playing for even just one other person - or harder yet - recording (I wrote a whole blog on how difficult recording is!)

Parents - be prepared to go to your child at the end of a session and ask them to perform (note perform - not play!) what they have been practising. Ask your husbands and wives, children or flatmates! Don't be shy - even if they really couldn't care less, this is about you getting into the feel of the situation!

That pressure can translate to your performance, but ultimately you have to remember that if you do consider yourself to have made an absolute mess of it, you probably just haven't focused your practice correctly.

Go back to the top of the blog and re-follow the steps and - when you feel ready - try again. Don't forget that even if you're not getting it right, playing with an audience or to a camera is still a great confidence builder for when you really do feel ready to do it!

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#piano #pianist #pianoteacher #pianotutor #learnpiano #pianopractice #pianotips #pianoblog #musicblog #musician #learnmusic #music #instrument