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January 26

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Under-Complicate Things

We humans tend to overcomplicate things. With piano, we think it's harder than it needs to be. We worry about too many things. 

And discover a level of self-consciousness that borders on paranoia. 

But you know what isn't a word in the dictionary? Undercomplicate.

It shows up with the red squiggly line under my editor, telling me it's not a real word. If I hyphenate it, it's a little more forgiving. So, for the sake of being grammatically correct, we'll go with under-complicate.

As a society, we need to under-complicate things. 

When something's stressful, figure out how to make it less stressful.

When a problem feels overwhelming, ask yourself what the simplest way is to solve it. Under-complicate it.

I'll give you an example.

In one of my previous jobs, there was an issue with student enrollment. The administration went into crisis mode and overcomplicated it. 

There were expensive marketing initiatives launched. Enrollment and retention committees formed to figure out what the problem was. I'm sure dozens of spreadsheets and complex analyses were created.

But, you know what the problem was? (And I only know this because multiple students came our direction, telling us the same story.)

The person at the front desk wasn't returning phone calls and emails...

When you have a big problem, find the most under-complicated solution.

It's probably the right one.

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For parents, students, and anyone else who believes that music can and should be a meaningful part of everyone's life.

About Jonathan Roberts

I am the founder and director of the South Shore Piano School, and I have been teaching the piano for nearly 20 years. My work centers around bringing music to the lives of kids, parents, and adults in an enriching, meaningful way. At the South Shore Piano School, my incredible colleagues and I accomplish this through skill-based teaching, community, and an innovative, people-first business model. You can read more about me here.


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