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of all of my teachers, there is no way I would have forced myself to do all of the technical work that I needed to do.

I took lessons from before first grade through high school. By the time I reached my junior year of high school, I was burdened by the demands of high school, the pressures of college entrance exams and applications and a lot of school work. I also wanted to take advanced placement classes, so I gave up the piano. I still practiced regularly, but without the structure that my formal lessons provided me, all that I had accomplished throughout those years of lessons started to slip away.

Outgrowing a piano teacher doesn't necessarily mean that it is time to stop taking lessons or that one no longer needs to take lessons. Sometimes it helps to take a break from lessons so that a student can access what they've been doing and what they hope to accomplish in the future. For many students, formal instruction offers a kind of structure that not only motivates the student, but forces them to practice on a regular schedule. It gives them an incentive to go beyond what they've done in the past, and much of the time, without that structure, there is nothing to motivate or inspire a student to push themselves and they won't practice regularly or for long enough to continue to improve.

Learn more about this author, Theresa Rose.
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