Motivation – Pianodao

Developing Motivation

Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Written by Andrew Eales

The question of motivation is one of the most important for all piano players and teachers, and turns out not to be a straightforward one.

• Why do we love the piano?
• How do we fan that flame and keep it alight?
• What motivates us to practise, play, and perform?
• How do we help to motivate others?

Psychologists and educators talk about different types of motivation, which can help us understand the various factors that drive us, and which will enthuse others.

Here on Pianodao, there are many articles to unpack this vital subject in plain English, including in-depth advice, motivational encouragement, and reflections on how to discover more joy at the piano.

Do Grade Exams Motivate?

Pianodao Articles • Full Archive

Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Written by Andrew Eales

What part do the Grade exams play in fostering positive motivation? Do they provide a necessary framework for musical advancement, or distract from more important goals? Are they signposts to success, or might they put some learners off playing a musical instrument altogether?

Most teachers will recognise that for some learners, entering for a grade exam seems to spur them towards progress, while for others they can prove less positive.

For more than three decades, I have helped prepare some (but not all) of my students for grade exams, so have had plenty of opportunity to reflect on the pros and cons. I have observed many good reasons for “taking the grades” as well as a few rather misguided ones, and have discovered why many (despite using graded music books and materials) prefer not to take exams.

In this post, I will explore this complex question from various angles and perspectives. I hope that my balanced conclusions will help readers pursue a well informed pathway of progress that suits their individual needs and goals, whether choosing to take the grades or not.

True Fun at the piano

Fermata • Pause and Reflect

Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Reflection by Andrew Eales

Piano teacher discussions can sometimes assume the appearance of a boxing match between, in the one corner, experienced stalwarts who stress the point that learning the piano should be a serious business, and in the other corner, teachers keen to emphasise inclusion, and the need for learning to be ‘fun’.

It is understandable that we neither want playing the piano to be cast as laborious, nor as lightweight. But can’t ‘fun’ be a serious business?

In her outstanding book The Power of Fun (2021), award-winning science journalist and author Catherine Price gives a lengthy but glorious exposition of what she calls ‘True Fun’, and to my mind she resolves the confusion. In this post, I am going to share and comment on a few highlights.

Developing an interest

Fermata • Pause and Reflect

Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Reflection by Andrew Eales

As a child, I developed a number of fleeting interests, including the history of art (a major scrapbook project, winning a prize at the school hobbies exhibition), counting the spots on ladybirds (for which I received fewer accolades), exploring Bedfordshire by bicycle, and Russian literature,

That’s right – I was a bit of a nerd! But at a fairly young age, I had discovered an important truth:

Anything can be interesting
If we approach it with enough interest.

But none of the aforementioned topics could ultimately compete with the profound interest I developed in music from the age of eight. That was when I first heard an LP of Mozart’s Horn Concerti, which changed my life forever…

A Lifelong Love of Music

Fermata • Pause and Reflect

Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Reflection by Andrew Eales

I have previously quoted Andor Földes’ eminently humane views about talented children (he himself achieved fame at a prodigiously young age) from his book Keys to the Keyboard (1950).

Here is another equally thought-provoking snippet from the same passage of the book, and for continuing reflection:

“I heartily agree with the words of the great Hungarian composer Zoltán Kodály, who, in an interview some years ago, stated bluntly that nothing a musical child produces before the age of eighteen really counts. What matters is a person’s work between the ages of eighteen and seventy-five.”

When children take up piano lessons, have we yet sufficiently understood that this is just the beginning of what will hopefully be a lifelong love of playing the piano, or do we take too short-term a view?

A Streak of Calm

Fermata • Pause and Reflect

Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Reflection by Andrew Eales

A few years back I purchased an app called Calm, which has subsequently become one of the most popular mindfulness apps around. With its range of guided meditations, ambient music, soundscapes, breathwork exercises and ‘sleep stories’, Calm has grown to become a superb lifestyle resource, and a deserved success.

Interestingly though, Calm also delivers user stats after each session, with a badge showing one’s ‘streaks’ of consecutive days of practice. I’ve regarded this feature with vague amusement; it seems to owe more to the culture of the gambling arcade than to the ethos of the meditation traditions.

There’s even the opportunity to share your official streaks on social media platforms, something I recently did myself having reached the modest achievement of 100 consecutive days, and curious to see whether it would generate much discussion with friends.

But then an odd, and instructive thing happened: it must have been less than a week later that I ‘missed’ a day…

The Power of Returning

Fermata • Pause and Reflect

Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Reflection by Andrew Eales

It is possible in our piano journey, and not uncommon, to take a wrong turn. Sometimes, a single step is enough before we get cold feet. Other times, we persevere, venturing in a direction which instinct warns might not be our right way, but stubborn in our commitment to see through a decision.

Putting the PLAY back into Playing the Piano

Pianodao Articles • Full Archive

Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Written by Andrew Eales

A Radical Manifesto for Piano Education

According to Plato, “life must be lived as play”.
How might this attitude to life benefit piano education?
We teach others to play the piano, but what do we really mean by play?

Why do we play the piano?

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Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Written by Andrew Eales

The question of why we play the piano would seem to be both an obvious one to ask and an easy one to answer. And yet it rarely is. In this article I am going to consider four ‘types’ of player, while recognising that many of us combine aspects of most or all of them.

The Gamification of Musical Learning

Pianodao Articles • Full Archive

Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Written by Andrew Eales

The rise and rise of electronic video, console and computer games over the last two decades has been spectacular. From Pokémon to Grand Theft Auto, and from Minecraft to Wii Sports, games have become hugely popular and lucrative, and some academics even suggest that they are now the dominant cultural form of the 21st century.

In his much-discussed paper Manifesto for a Ludic Century, Eric Zimmerman suggests that while the twentieth century was the age of information and of moving pictures, the twenty-first is the ludic (game-centric) century.

Zimmerman enthuses,

“Increasingly, the ways that people spend their leisure time and consume art, design, and entertainment will be games, or experiences very much like games.”

We certainly see growing evidence of gamification in music education, and in this article I will be considering and reflecting on the transformative impact this may be having, for better or worse…