When will your musical breakthrough happen?

How do you envision yourself playing piano? Yes, it’s important to enjoy how you play right now, today, but at the same time, we all have an image in our minds of how we’d like to eventually play, right?

Here’s the thing: your musical breakthrough will happen, but you can’t predict when it will happen.

I just saw this once again yesterday. I was giving a Skype piano lesson to a teenager who’s been struggling with keeping a steady beat while playing jazz tunes. He’s been working on this for about a full year, and yesterday it all clicked. Wow! It all came together in the past week and he’s playing “All of Me” and “So What” at a whole new level!

This didn’t happen for him just in one week, however. It was the result of a year’s worth of grit, determination, and persistence. Most of all, it came about because he was able to enjoy playing piano even though it wasn’t “perfect” yet.

No one can predict exactly when your musical breakthrough will happen. It may come tomorrow or it may come next year. But it will happen, as long as you keep at it. But it won’t happen if you don’t sit down and practice. That’s a sure thing too.

Keep at it, and one day you’ll surprise yourself. (I myself won’t be surprised when it happens to you, though. I’ve seen it happen with every single pianist who’s persistent over time.)

Good luck, and remember to enjoy every step of the way!

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