3 Ideas To Decrease Stress And Increase Your Chops

When I began my piano career, I taught young kids.

And let me tell you what: Teaching a child how to play jazz piano sometimes felt like pulling teeth!

So when someone tells me, “I bet it’s SO much easier for a child to learn piano than an adult…”

…I simply let them know, THAT’S NOT TRUE.

As an adult, you actually have a HUGE advantage over young kids in a lot of ways!

Here’s a list of a few advantages YOU have:

  • You’ve developed your fine motor skills. This means you can develop good playing technique much faster than a kid.
  • You’ve developed basic music skills back in elementary school. These include keeping a steady beat or repeating and performing rhythms. Some kids don’t have these skills and will have to learn them.
  • You’ve developed reading and math skills. This makes reading music a WHOLE lot easier. Young kids don’t have these skills, so they’re not capable of reading music until they’re eight.
  • You can comprehend abstract ideas, like music theory. Kids struggle with the abstract, making music theory much harder to learn.
  • You have a higher attention span. When you sit down and practice, you’ll be more focused than a kid.

Now, don’t get me wrong; kids do have a few advantages over you.

Here a list of a few advantages KIDS have:

  • They’re far less self-critical. Most young children don’t judge themselves when they fail. They just keep going until they get it right. Adults, on the other hand, criticize themselves a lot more and will throw in the towel much more quickly than a kid.
  • Kids have far less everyday commitments. While you might have a job, a family, bills, and a million other things on your plate, kids don’t. They can spend a lot more time thinking about and playing the piano.
  • They have parents and teachers holding them accountable. Accountability is one of the keys to growing long-term, and most adults simply don’t have this.
  • Kids are younger. They simply have more time to build their chops than you.

Now, I’d like to take a moment to be the bearer of good news:

You can use a kid’s natural advantage to YOUR advantage too!

Here’s 3 actionable ideas you can take from kids and apply TODAY:

  1. Accept you’re going to struggle at times. It’s just the nature of the beast. When you accept the road to piano mastery will be challenging, it becomes easier to walk.
  2. Block off time every day to practice, even if it’s only a few minutes. Doing this will help you stay focused on creating beautiful music and less distracted by other issues.
  3. Get A Teacher. They will hold you accountable better than anyone else out there.

If you use these 3 ideas TODAY, you’ll start to feel less stressed and grow your chops tremendously!

Now if you’re looking for someone to help you with your playing and hold you accountable, then make sure to check out our “Jazz Inner Circle Program.”

Inside, we work with you 1-on-1 to double, triple, or even QUADRUPLE your playing chops over the next 12 months.

Here’s the link where you can apply: https://www.freejazzlessons.com/inner-circle

We only have a few spots open a month, so check it out now.

Sincerely,
Steve “Adults Rule” Nixon

Posted in

Mark A. Galang, OTRP, MAM-MT(c)

Mark Galang is one of our contributors at FreeJazzLessons.com. He loves teaching all styles of music especially jazz, blues, rock, classical, and Christian music. Mark is also a licensed occupational therapist in the Philippines that combines music therapy intervention with occupational therapy.