This week, I heard the same thing in several different lessons:
“I don’t really like this song.”
That’s a fair thing to say, right? Students are absolutely allowed to have preferences. In fact, as a teacher, asking students what they think about a piece is something I do regularly to help them notice and understand their own musical tastes.
So in response to this statement, I asked what they didn’t like about it.
“I just don’t,” was the response I got.
But in every one of these situations this week, something else was also true: the student couldn’t really play the piece yet.
I accepted the critique and asked the student to play it for me. And while some students could get through a couple of lines, their playing was often riddled with wrong notes, incorrect rhythms, and very little attention to balance, articulation, and dynamics — all critical elements of music.
No wonder they didn’t like it.
In these cases, students either had not been very motivated to work on the piece, or were likely avoiding it because something about it felt unfamiliar or challenging. So while they still may not end up loving these pieces, it seems that what they were really trying to tell me this week was:
“This feels hard.”
Hard music can feel uncomfortable. It exposes what we can’t do yet. It asks for patience, focus, and repeated effort. And for kids especially, it’s often much easier to say, “I don’t like it,” than to say, “I’m struggling with it.” Neither response is wrong — but they lead to very different outcomes.
This situation highlights two important life skills that I want to help students develop in my studio: the ability to work through something that feels challenging instead of immediately backing away from it, and the ability to articulate their opinions, ideas, and preferences.
Learning how to describe what we hear, feel, and notice in music is important. It teaches students how to reflect, communicate clearly, and trust their own thinking. These are skills that matter in many areas of life, not just at the piano.
That doesn’t mean pushing students past their limits or forcing them to stay with music that truly isn’t a good fit. My teaching is always individualized, and I choose repertoire carefully to meet students where they are. But it does mean helping students develop the confidence to say,
“This is hard right now… but I can break it down and make progress.”
After lessons were over this week, I spent some time recording the pieces and creating short, focused “practice help” videos for my students. I shared these as extra encouragement and support, hoping they would make the music feel less intimidating and the challenges more manageable. Maybe the piece won’t feel so overwhelming. And maybe the student will discover that it isn’t so bad after all.
In my studio, learning piano isn’t only about notes and rhythms. It’s also about learning how to stay with something that doesn’t come easily at first — and learning how to put words to our thoughts and preferences along the way. Those skills matter far beyond the piano bench, and in the long run, they help students become not only stronger musicians, but more confident, thoughtful learners.