I think everyone has their own kind of superpower. Whether it’s cooking up tasty meals for your loved ones, turning your yard into a bountiful garden, being a great listener and a loyal friend… everyone’s got something they excel at.
A lot of people just assume that my superpower is playing piano. But that’s not really true. I’m not the world’s greatest piano player or performer. This didn’t all come naturally to me. But knowing what I know about myself today, I would say that enjoying teaching piano is a whole different thing. I don’t have to be the best pianist to teach people real piano techniques that work. And my own students don’t have to be professional teachers to help teach others what they’ve learned from me!
Theresa is one of my students who has been a huge inspiration to others in our community. She’s playing songs she loves and she has really hit her stride when it comes to unconscious competence in her abilities.
Early Beginnings and Inspiration
Like me, Theresa started piano lessons as a child, but they weren’t really fun for her. Even though she has a lot of respect for classical music, the traditional way of learning piano didn’t click for her as a child or even later when she tried again as an adult.
But she drew more recent inspiration from pianists in dueling piano bars, people who could just glance at a paper or their phone and play songs on request. They seemed to have a process that was almost effortless. No long hours of practice to play one song! She realized later that they probably were playing from chord notation similarly to how I teach in my course.
Theresa’s brothers were also a source of inspiration, entertaining the family during the holidays even without any sheet music. She wanted to be able to join in, to do more than just pick out tunes by ear, one note at a time.
Finding Piano In 21 Days
When the pandemic hit, Theresa was looking for ways to spend her extra time at home. She searched “improv piano lessons” and eventually found her way to my free 5-day workbook. Soon she was playing with both hands, and understanding how to play common chord types. It started to sound like real music when she played!
That was an important turning point. Because Theresa doesn’t just love the idea of playing piano: she loves the piano itself as an instrument. When she speaks about it, you can really hear her passion for this. Being able to start expressing herself on the instrument that she had loved and appreciated for so long? Game-changing.
Taking Initiative and Putting in the Work
I have to give Theresa a lot of credit, because here’s what I know from the other side of this story: lots of people were searching for piano lessons when the pandemic started, but not everyone followed through. A lot of people just couldn’t or didn’t prioritize piano the way Theresa did. But I’m always so glad when people do pick this over binging Netflix every spare moment, because these are the stories that show why it’s worth it!
I asked Theresa what her journey with my resources looked like. What was her experience, and what were the obstacles she faced?
She told me that she has gone through several stages of progress along the way. Arpeggio patterns, hand coordination, playing in different keys… certain skills came easier than others. But after about six months, here’s how she assessed her playing:
“I am able to do it, really without thinking about it. It just flows if I look at a song. I may not always play it the same way, but it sounds good. It sounds beautiful.”
She feels that the childhood lessons she too did provide some benefit, but that the practice times she dedicated to Piano In 21 Days is where everything came together and became second nature.
The Journey Towards Competency
Theresa and I discussed unconscious competence a bit during our conversation. If you’re not familiar with this concept, let’s go through the four stages of competency and how they relate to learning anything new.
- The first stage of learning is unconscious incompetence: not having a skill and not even being fully aware of what that skill would entail. If you’ve already begun your piano journey, you’re past this stage and already in the next one: conscious incompetence.
- Conscious incompetence means knowing that you don’t know. It’s the stage where you can explore your options, but you don’t have the skills yet. Most new piano students are moving through this stage towards…
- Conscious competence! This is probably the stage where people struggle the most. Learning a new skill isn’t quite the same thing as being able to apply it with ease, and that’s what this stage is.
- Unconscious competence is the stage that everyone wants to get to: the part where it feels like second nature to use your skills. This is the stage that Theresa is at now: not having to think too hard to apply what she’s learned. The music feels like it’s flowing, it’s very comfortable. The fact that she is at this point within six months is amazing!
What it Took to Get There
How much time and effort did it take Theresa to make this much progress? Some days she would spend multiple hours practicing per day. Other times she would come home from a long shift at work, but she still prioritized piano as much as she could.
“I became so involved and engrossed in the course and how happy I was with how quickly I was progressing… I would sit down and play piano and then all of a sudden, three hours would pass by. That’s how enjoyable it is to me.
Looking Forward
Theresa isn’t resting on her laurels: she is still practicing and working on songs she love! She loves playing anything by Elton John, Billy Joel, and The Beatles, and is starting to find ways to incorporate her voice too.
When Theresa’s brothers are in town, she’s looking forward to jamming with them as a family. Her mother and grandparents are also supportive (though they hope she also returns to classical music someday).
While Theresa still feels a bit of performance anxiety if others are watching her play, she has been posting progress videos inside the Piano In 21 Days student community. I know for a fact that her videos have been very inspiring to other students, which is so great to see. The whole point of our community is to help students encourage each other and learn from each other.
Advice for New Students
It made my day (okay, more like my week!) to hear Theresa talk about how easy it is now to find and play new songs when she hears something she likes on the radio. That’s exactly what I want for each of my students: to help them become competent at doing this for themselves, not just memorizing specific songs or staying dependent on tutorials.
So what’s her advice for new piano students?
“Be patient, practice, and go at your own pace. [There are no] strict guidelines that you have to go by… Have your own goals that you set for yourself. If you’re frustrated, take a break [then] go back to it later. And just do what makes you happy.
Don’t worry about what other people think… if someone else is critiquing you [about] not playing in the traditional way, if you’re happy with what you’re doing and happy with the process… just go for it!”
I couldn’t have said it better myself!
If you’re inspired by Theresa’s story and want to begin your piano journey, get started here. My free 5-day workbook will ease you into learning the chord-based techniques that I teach without overwhelming sheet music or long, boring practice sessions. What are you waiting for?