Got a really interesting, and personal question from Joe (current student) the other day.
“Have you every been in those moments where you are in a situation with other musicians who are clearly more advanced than you. If you have how have you dealt with it?” Joe

ummm….

…yes, like pretty much every time I play with other musicians. Believe it or not there is a dark side that every musician battles. But before we get to that…

…here’s the thing we have to remember when it comes to playing the piano.

When you learn as an adult,there are a couple of things that will always be true.

1) You will never play like Beethoven or somebody who has taken lessons their whole life.

This is because as adults we don’t have the time or desire or will to sit at the piano for 2-4 hours per day or MORE to become a master of the piano. And..

2) The only people who are out there playing that you would run into are most likely ones who took 18 years of lessons and then started to figure out how to use the Layer Method way of thinking about the piano to break free and actually use that 18 years worth of knowledge. The other ones still are stuck at home with their bag of sheet music.

So where does that leave us?

Those who have finally learned to play the piano with both hands, songs we love, and have it sound awesome, but aren’t Beethoven esk? …

It leaves us in a pretty darn good place if you ask me. Like being stranded in the desert with a water truck.

Here’s the behind the scenes of REAL musicians.

Every musician I know, even the ones who would be considered MASTERS always feel less talented than someone else.

So it’s not really about your skill level.

It’s about how you think.

And if you take time to realize how far you have come with the piano, what you are able to accomplish you should be able to gain a little better perspective.

For instance, I was at a hotel in Savannah a while back and started to play the piano in the bar. You know the one with the sign that said “DON’T PLAY”

As I was playing the “Layer Method” way a lady came up to me and asked me how many years I had been playing. She mentioned she had taken 8 years of piano lessons and would give anything to play like that.

Well…

… I told her I have been playing about 10 months at the time.

Her jaw dropped.

Here’s the point.

She has way more knowledge and could be a much better (technical) piano player probably than me.

But she doesn’t know it. And that is the tragedy.

So…

Now what?

Understand this.

There is no level of musician you are trying to get to. Your goal should be, as an adult, to get to the point you enjoy playing and call yourself a piano player. PERIOD. Thats a win.

And if you’re not there yet.

You can be today.

First step to learn to play piano by ear?

Sign up here: www.pianofool.com/layermethod