Camryn Bradshaw shares how piano practice turned into a lesson in patience.
When I was 9 years old, my grandma asked if I wanted to take piano lessons from her. It sounded fun, so I said yes, not expecting how challenging it would be or how slow progress would feel. I had lessons with my grandma over Zoom every day, and soon I was learning many new songs and skills.
But as the music slowly became more advanced, I struggled more and more to play the correct notes. One day when I reached a particularly difficult song, I kept pressing the wrong keys, and it seemed like no matter how many times I tried, I could never get it right. Every mistake was like a hit to my self-esteem, causing my face to become hot as tears filled my eyes. “Try again, you’re doing great!” My grandma encouraged me.
But tears began to trickle down my face and I felt like I didn’t have it in me to keep going. When she saw that I wasn’t calming down, she asked, “Why don’t we stop here and try again tomorrow?” I felt defeated and disappointed in myself, but the next day I attempted the same song again.
Although it was still equally as difficult as the day before, newly gained confidence helped me keep going until my fingers were smoothly racing over the keys. It wasn’t perfect, but it sounded much better than before. I’ve improved at piano over the years, but it is rare that I am able to play a song perfectly with zero mistakes.