Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum I don't want to play piano anymore. What should I do?

A month ago, I started to take piano classes. But I am now considering to give up.

Why to play an instrument? I like to listen to music. Why not just listen to them, instead of playing them?

The online classes are boring. I feel like they are slow, and I am all the time doing rhythmic reading with my voice. I don't like the material either, and I feel like I am wasting money to sing and play boring compositions, with dissonances.

I was learning violin, but switched to piano because of the presence of both harmony and melody. But I don't know whether my choice was well done, because I prefer other instruments sounds. Yet, the musics are "dirty" with only melody.

Life is too short to spend it doing stuff you hate, especially if that stuff benefits no-one but yourself.

Pick your battles wisely.

You’re free to do whatever you want.

I don’t see how anyone can know whether they want to continue learning anything after one month... but if you do, no harm done to quit. Is beginning music always exciting? no, but neither is learning anything new. If you learn a new language, you start with learning sounds, then simple words, then phrases and conversations. Such is also true with learning to play the piano.

You must enjoy the process of learning and the steps it entails. If you aren’t willing to accept the work and the process, find another hobby. Life is too short.

Personally, listening to music, no matter how well it is played cannot hold a candle to making music with my own two hands.

Maybe try some other lessons, materials, approaches, etc. Give it a go for a bit longer?

If you don't like the sound of the piano I would say to stop. But before you do have you listened to a range of musical styles done on a piano?. It is amazing how different a piano can sound from piece to piece and the huge variety of styles.

If you do like the sound I would suggest to give it a bit more time and talk with your teacher. Let them know that you're feeling bored and feel like you're not making progress. Maybe they can change things up a bit. Use a different approach. Start on some pieces. This may ignite the spark that led you to piano in the first place. Let them know of what kind of music you like what you aspire to play and why. Is it classical, pop, jazz, blues, etc.? Maybe finding and adding pieces you like will add some variety to the fundamentals.

Out of curiosity how long did you learn on violin? I would think that should have jump started your learning another instrument.

Either way it is a long journey to learn an instrument and patience will be the key no matter which one you choose.

This sounds good. You are building a foundation as a musician. When you get more involved with the actual piano side of things, you'll be better able to judge. I think it would be a big mistake to give up based on what you are doing now, unless you're absolutely certain that learning to play music isn't worth the effort.

Learning to play music is like learning to read. Once you can read to a certain proficiency level, there are tons of books to choose from. A teacher may tell the class to read fictional novels. I'm into history so my focus is on that topic. Music is the same. You can pick your genres & composers.

We all go through the boring process of playing beginner pieces & exercises in order to get to the ones we enjoy playing regardless of the instrument you play. Many people listen to recordings. It's a different experience when you play the same pieces yourself. Can't say the same thing for everybody.

My music teacher holds weekly group lessons through Zoom. We play Classical & Jazz pieces arranged for easy piano. The teacher would play a few measures of a piece and we decide whether to get into it. I also download pieces online. The last piece I downloaded was John Lennon "Imagine". You enjoy playing more when you pick your own pieces. If you don't like Classical, you can play Led Zeppelin "Stairway to Heaven" or pieces you like.

In my school days I took up violin playing. After a few years of lessons I quit. I started piano as an adult without a teacher for a few years. Choosing my own pieces was a lifesaver from the beginning. Even after starting piano lessons, I always have a piece that I'm learning on my own to keep me engaged. You don't have to let the teacher decide the pieces you want to play until you are at the advanced level many years later. There are all sorts of easy arrangements of pieces that even a beginner can get into.

Whatever you decide, good luck on your future endeavors...

Gabriels

I would suggest set a goal and follow through. As a coach/mentor, I advise people if you keep changing direction you never accomplish anything, you do yourself a disservice. You played violin however you already quit. Listening to music passively is a lot easier than playing it. Online classes may be boring at first, however you are just starting and generally it is with the basics. Classes may be slow for beginners as a group, you may want to consider private lessons, I believe you will find it more engaging. I have been taking for 7 years, I still struggle it is hard, but it was so easy everyone would do it. After 2 years I just passed my RCM Theory 8, which was a lot of work and effort. Learning is hard. Education is never a waste of money, your developing skills. Moreover, music is good for memory, mental health, coordination, and focus just to name a few. There is a lot of peer-reviewed literature that discusses the benefits of playing music.

I take wellness classes for personal knowledge. We discussed starting something new and not following through. One lady about 55 years old is now is a second degree black belt. She relayed, she was really bad at it when she started, this is her 10th year now and she said I'm really good. However, it took years to get to that level.

I see people start and quit things all the time because it is the easy thing to do. Have perseverance and follow through, I know it can be difficult. I felt like quitting my PhD program numerous times, but that would have been easy and i would have never graduated.

Unless you have tried - after reasonable and considered research - more than one "boring" online piano class, perhaps you are judging hastily and should give another source a try. Before the pandemic most of us studied with a teacher on a one-on-one basis, and even that required considerable searching for the right "mix." Basing piano study on one online course seems a little precipitous.

On the other hand, if you really have decided, after a brief experience, to quite piano, I wonder why you came here to say so. Do as you feel you must do.

Good wishes.

Regards,

I don't really know what to say to that and what kind of response you are expecting. If you don't like playing the piano, then quit. There are a bunch of courses that take a more modern, motivating approach to learning, like Simply Piano, but in the end there is always going to be slow going and phases where you don't feel motivated. Learning an instrument takes a long time and isn't exactly a walk in the park. That's just the reality.

1 of the reasons I got into piano is because I heard a man play some demo pieces with chords. He had a lot of fun turning simple chords into arpeggios. The main reason was to learn the Bach French Suite #3. In my school days when I was still playing violin, our class did a project on a great composer. My group used a harpsichord recording of the Fr. Suite #3 for the class presentation. Fell in love with the piece and eventually learned to play it 3 decades later. I also learned the Bach Counterpoint Fugue #1 which I listened to way back.

Many instruments only allow you to play single notes including flute, oboe, clarinet, trumpet, trombone, etc. Violin & cello you can play broken chords. Piano allows you to play serious Classical pieces as well as fun Jazzy tunes that can be improvised. It's a flexible instrument that can be played solo or accompany other instruments. Around Christmas my piano teacher got us into playing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas".

Although I like Classical music, I wouldn't appreciate playing as much with a strictly Classical repertoire. I belong to a music group that played in church regularly so church hymns is a big part of my music. I also include other genres including Pop tunes from the Beatles and old Jazz tunes. I know a few people who play folk tunes on a violin. In the learning process they played a few Classical pieces but it's not their main interest.

A piano class can be boring but it's only 1h / week. The teacher got the class to play Hanon 60 exercises & Czerny Etudes. Outside class I learn interesting pieces on my own. The 1h session is only a stepping stone to get to the pieces I enjoy playing besides the pieces I am required to play for learning techniques.

Very interesting post because you know, I've been there, done that with other instruments i.e The harmonica and the guitar.

What I learnt after trying and giving up those instruments and becoming with them a kind of a jack of all trades master of none, is that you'll never discover your instrument of heart unless you try those which appeal to you and then you will never fully appreciate any of them unless you let your proficiency develop more than the beginner stage and this requires patience.

With the harmonica I enjoyed the "feeling" of playing a blow&draw instrument. It felt really good and inspiring to be able to play in a scale easily and to improvise and to learn by ear. Not to mention, the ability to color the notes using various techniques.
With the guitar, touching the strings and connecting with it felt awesome, with all the strumming and rhythms.

But none of them were as versatile as the piano in my eyes, and the choice of repertoire was very limited compared to the piano, and this was specially true of the harmonica, though it's a better scene with the guitar but it's an accompaniment instrument by nature and I wanted to be able to play solo as well.
And I chose the piano ultimately because of the above reasons and I'm going to stick with it (OK I recently bought the recorder as well :p but at this point it's just a hobby/side-project instrument meant for fiddling around).

So it comes down to two things ultimately:
Love for the feeling of playing an instrument, besides the sound.
Patience to learn and "personally" discover the potential of it because learning anything can become boring in the beginning stage.

P.S Listening to music versus playing it are two different worlds that you'll only appreciate when you consider the above-mentioned points.

To the OP, just to echo some of the other comments...

If you truly don't want to play piano, then there's no reason to continue.

But if you do want to play piano, but are unhappy with what you're doing now, then the solution is make some changes and see if that helps. I suspect this is where you are, otherwise you wouldn't have made this thread.

First, it sounds like you may need to either get a new teacher, or discuss with your current teacher what can be changed, because that seems to be the root of your problem right now.

Next, you may want to articulate some clear goals (e.g., be able to play a specific piece, or specific type of music etc.). Then discuss with your teacher (or with a new teacher) how to work towards those goals.

After that, the trick is to find a practice routine that is both enjoyable and the takes you closer to your goals. Every minute of practice will not be "fun" or even necessarily musical, but when you've finished practicing, you should feel like what you did in the short-term (one individual lesson or practice session) was relevant to your long-term piano goal.

Good luck!

Sometimes it's better to forego lessons and teachers and work your way thru the piano yourself. Just doodle, poke around and improvise till you find a sound you like. I believe innate musicians can figure out how to play keyboards by themselves. I've known 2 pianists who did so and they were pretty good. Eventually both moved on to become composers.

Then drop them and get a real teacher.

Don't want to spoil the fun, but OP made this single rant post and then left again . I'm following the discussion with great interest, OP is not though...

I was going to post something similar. I don't think brand new users should be able to create threads. Have them post comments, maybe 5 to 10, and then allow them to create new threads.

And I recall someone showing some stats that we have a very large number of users (over 50% that have registered?) that have only ever made 1 post? I have 100 cents that the OP will not return ;0

Agree. Maybe it'll help someone else in the same position who comes searching the thread and finds it useful

Quite likely. If you go to the Member List, you can sort them by Post Count and as it turns out there are many hundreds, actually more like several thousand, that have zero posts. And probably almost as many with just one post. Too many pages of them to scroll through quickly.

This is true of most large forums.