There are certain times of year when students and parents decide it's time to take a break from piano.
Heading into middle school or high school are big ones. So is January as families decide which activities are on the docket for spring semester.
Or sometimes, the time of year doesn't matter.
Sometimes, it's feeling like a break would be better than dealing with the challenges of practicing.
And it's hard to disagree. It's a lot easier to say, "We'd like to take a break and try again in a year or two when Mikey's more mature," than it is to say, "We're going to try everything we possibly can to help him stick with it."
Here's the danger of taking a break from music. Or anything that's building a skill.
Unlike casual activities like sports, dance, archery...or anything else where you can just show up, do the thing, and nobody's paying much attention...
Music is like building a muscle.
What would happen if you took a break from working out? Took a break from eating healthy?
After several months, would you be "feeling more up to it?" And when you come back to it, will it be as easy as it was before?
I didn't think so.
Over the years, we've all had so many students who took a break.
The ones who decided to hold off until October instead of starting back in September. The ones who decided to take a year off. The ones who felt like it wasn't the right time, and they'd come back when the kids were older and it would be easier.
None of them ever came back.
When you want to learn a skill, there is no taking a break.
Limp through the hard days if you need to.
If it's a busy day, just get five minutes in. Something.
Fight that part of your mind that tells you, "This is hard work. Breaks are healthy. Let's take a break for a while."
Lies! All lies! Many broken dreams started with taking a break.
Don't take a break. There's plenty of time to regret not taking a break later.
But at least you'll be able to play the piano.