I am letting my piano teacher down.

For four and a half years, I’ve had a terrible upbringing in the art of playing piano. My teacher wouldn’t teach me any theory, scales, anything – it was simply finger exercises and getting through as many pieces as possible, not even bothering to put any real feeling into them or learn them to perfection.

In June I got a new teacher. He has a lot to teach me, and tells me that I have a lot of potential, that I am very technical and pay attention to little details, and that if my abilities had been directed properly from an early age I would be a lot better than I am now.

The problem is, I am not taking piano seriously any more. Part of the reason is that my love for classical music seems to have faded ever since I discovered the awesomeness of metal. Another is that many people in my grade are amazing piano players, and since I tend to compare myself to others, I always get the feeling that I’ll never be like them and that putting the time into practicing just isn’t worth it.

I only practice for like 15 minutes a week, which is terrible. I’ve barely made any progress with the piece I’m supposed to learn. I always give my piano teacher lame excuses like ‘I had to study for a test’, etc. whereas really I’m just on the computer the whole time surfing YouTube or playing games. How much longer can I keep up this lie?

I’ve decided to practice an hour a day, starting… today or tomorrow. If I can keep this up for several months, I’ll consider this goal to be complete.

EDIT: Yes! Played for a whole hour today. I feel better already.

EDIT #2: Been playing a lot more, my piano teacher says the piece I’m learning is almost ready to be performed. Yes! Also doing some very minor composing.