On my way home from my piano lesson today, I felt so happy, encouraged, and grateful. You see, last spring I asked a friend who is involved in local music educators activities if she might know a teacher who accepts adult students. She answered quickly, “I know the perfect teacher for you.” She took the time to help me connect with this teacher who has become such a bright light in my life. It was love at first lesson and at every lesson since.

I smiled as I thought of the many times I get asked why I still “need” to take piano lessons. The assumption is that I don’t need any help. After all, I started my piano journey nearly 59 years ago. I know how to read the notes–the dots and lines on the page hold meaning for me. I’ve learned quite a bit of piano literature. I have experience accompanying soloists and choirs. So, why would I want lessons?

I’m going to try to articulate a few reasons why:

1. I believe in the magic that can happen when a student-teacher match is right. My current match with this teacher is definitely magic.
2. I know the technique that I still need to learn and master to be able to play the music I want to play. In other words, I know what is still hard for me.
3. At my first lesson, I learned one small thing about rotating my forearm that opened a new world to me when it comes to trills. (Think about how understanding a vocabulary word opens a whole text to the reader.)
4. A teacher can introduce me to music I may never have found on my own. Already, I’m in love with literature that I had never heard before. (Just like matching books with readers, my teacher matches music to me.)
5. Read here about the effort-driven rewards cycle. Working with our hands helps the brain.
6. I know that practicing the piano puts me in a state of FLOW. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi wrote about this in his book, FINDING FLOW.

In other words, playing piano is my happy place.