How to set your piano goals for the new year
The new year represents for many a time to set goals to be achieved over the coming months. For musicians, this could be a moment where you find yourself looking back at the practice you’ve been doing and wondering what else you could achieve within the next 12 months. Here are some tips to help you figure out what kind of piano goals you could set to keep yourself motivated and excited to learn more about your instrument.
Keep the goals realistic
We’re in January, there is a whole year ahead of us, so many weeks and months where you could practice and get really good at playing the piano. As such, it’s easy to fall into the trap of aspiring for too much. Between dreaming of going from grade 2 to grade 7 over just a few months to suddenly being able to master one of the hardest piano pieces overnight, you might find yourself setting some unrealistic goals.
Make sure that you focus on making your goals more realistic. This does not mean that you shouldn’t dream big and aspire to really make big progress in your practice. Ultimately, your motivation is more likely to benefit from overachieving a smaller goal than failing a bigger one that deep down, you knew you would never be able to achieve. In fact, sometimes it’s that feeling of already knowing you can’t do it that might stop you from making the progress you plan to achieve.
Set measurable goals
Another trap of goal-setting within music learning is to keep your goals vague. If you aspire to ‘get really good at the piano’, how will you ever know if you have achieved it by the end of the year? The idea of ‘good piano playing’ can vary from being able to fluently play a piece to mastering the instrument. Instead, goals like ‘I will pass my grade 5 piano exam’ or ‘I will practice every day for at least X amount of minutes’ are more likely to actually motivate you to work hard at the piano.
Plus, you’ll be able to confidently tick something off your list of goals!
Remember about technique
If you’ve finally reached a point in your piano learning that sees you confidently learning new pieces, you might be tempted to make your goals all about the kind of pieces you wish to learn.
It’s important that your goal-setting is varied and considers all aspects of piano playing, including technique! After all, how much progress would you really be making if you had a vast repertoire but you kept making the same mistakes with every piece you play?
Just make sure you mix things up so that when you look at your goals, you feel motivated to make the kind of progress that will really benefit you long-term.
Ask for help
Still unsure of how you can keep your goals realistic and appropriate to your level of piano playing? Don’t be afraid to ask your piano teacher to help you set the goals. They will know better than anyone else what you can achieve and help you set the kind of goals that not only will feel doable, but will also keep you motivated.
Ultimately, you just want to make sure that your goals keep you excited to learn more about the instrument. Try and find the middle ground between challenging yourself and having fun with your practice. That’s the secret to starting the year off feeling motivated and ready to tackle your next practice session!
