Yesterday, I kicked off Piano Ninja Tricks Live Lab with a question that sounds almost too simple to matter.

Why do you play piano?

I watched the Tricksters type their answers in real time. Some took thirty seconds. Some took five minutes.

I noticed the common thread

• Listening to mom play as a toddler
• Dad's own composition, written for Mom
• Uncle playing Christmas music, while he was held in his lap
• Family members who played, wanted in
• A piano at someone else's house they couldn't stay away from, then got their own and taught themselves from their mom's sheet music

... it started with hearing someone else play

Four out of five trace back to a specific person playing for them. Not lessons, not a teacher assigning it.

Nobody wrote "because I have to."

A parent. A teacher. A stranger at a wedding. Someone they loved, playing, and them wanting in on it.

If you've never traced yours back, try it.

It's not there for the good days.

You don't need it when practice is going well, when the piece is clicking, when you sit down and just want to play.

You need it when your hands feel wrong. When the piece you've played fifty times suddenly falls apart.

That's when your why does its job.

Not as motivation. As a tether.

🎼 A tiny practice experiment for you

Go back to that first moment. The one that made you want to play piano.

Then find one physical object that represents it.

📷 A photo
🎫 A ticket stub
🎵 A note you wrote yourself once

Put it on the piano. Somewhere you'll see it every time you sit on the bench.

Not for inspiration.

For the day it gets hard and you forget why you're even trying.
​
Play On,
Lisa Spector
Piano Practice Strategist
Founder, Piano Ninja Tricksters Club​