What motivates me to practice?

What motivates me to practice? What is my mission as a pianist and teacher?

Anyone who’s at least in grade school and is taking piano lessons needs to first ask: why do you want to play the piano?  What motivates me to do anything in life?  What makes my work more efficient and productive?  Why are we practicing? Why are we studying?  Sadly, so many students often live busy but mindless lives, led by peer pressure or by parents. They burn out easily because they work hard without knowing why they are working hard.

In this blog, I would like to share my own beliefs and mission statement as a pianist and a musician.

First, I believe music is one of the most powerful tools and languages that we can use to communicate, connect and convey our emotions. It doesn’t matter what language you speak, or what your background may be, it unites and brings people together.

Leonard Bernstein famously said that music can name the un-nameable and communicate the unknowable. I am sure that resonates with many of you.  So many intricate and indescribable emotions can be delicately and precisely delineated through music – in a way that words can’t.  I often feel a deep sense of satisfaction when I listen to or perform great music, because my deepest emotions are being understood and acknowledged.  Great music speaks of longing, regret, frantic excitement, terror, and love in a way that words can’t.  I experience true contentment when these feelings deep in my heart, that I couldn’t speak out loud, are recognized and connected to similar feelings in your own heart.  Music is truly an indispensable force that makes our lives fuller and richer.

Second, music comforts and heals people. 1 Samuel 16:23 says: "And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took a harp, and played with his hand: So Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him.” Music has power to refresh, renew and revive our souls.  The biggest compliment that I ever received as a performer was when an audience member came to me after the recital with tears in her eyes, telling me that she was encouraged and comforted by the music that she heard in that evening. Hearing such feedback makes the countless hours and work that I put in worthwhile.

Music truly is one of the most beautiful creations of God and a gift, a blessing.

Who does God use to create such beauty?  For generation after generation, God has inspired composers to write music. We, performers who are living in the age of the internet, smartphones and electric cars, are performing music from hundred and hundred years ago. How did such great music manage to survive and be preserved for that long? It is because we, the performers, have breathed life in all those notes. No matter how great music is, that music lacks meaning unless it’s played, brought into life through sound, and heard by an audience.

I am thus a communicator of a very specific message.  Composers have written music in such incredible detail, painstakingly notating markings and instructions.  In doing so, they trust that we, the performers, will do the best we possibly can to bring to today’s audiences the best version of their composition. I don’t take that privilege for granted.

So whenever I don’t feel motivated or catch myself working half-heartedly, I tell myself to not to take my privilege lightly.  I remind myself that the purpose of my practice is not just to play a passage well or a piece well, so I can win some competition, get into the college or whatnot. There is a greater purpose- making the world in which we live more beautiful and richer though the gift of your musical performance. It is because of your work that the music, the jewel of God’s creation has been preserved year after year, generation after generation.

And for that same reason, the music is not just about me, the performer.  Music is only complete when the composer, performer and listener come together in unity.  This is why I practice.  This is why I don’t take my part in fulfilling the great purpose of music lightly. And so I’ve told my students the following countless times:  what’s important is not that we play “perfectly,” but that we play music with sincerity and authenticity by giving our absolute best.

What about you?  Understanding why you are doing what you are doing… knowing clearly what your mission and goals are as a pianist will help you to practice more effectively and consistently and to persevere, no matter how difficult or challenging the process may be.