Learning is meant to be fun and easy. There is also this perception that if you are finding something hard to learn, then you are not really applying yourself or trying hard enough. I find this thought can be quite common but not necessarily true.
Sometimes learning can be confusing or daunting and sometimes it is even overwhelming. This applies to just about everything in life, not only to learning to play the piano.
If you experience the feelings of being confused or daunted when you are learning to play the piano, then congratulations, you are normal. Every student I have ever taught has felt confused by something new or just felt daunted by a new piece of music, not just a new concept or new technique.
I remember very clearly when I was a piano student that my teacher had given me a 10 page piece of music to learn. By this stage I was not a beginner, I had been learning for quite a few years and I was comfortable with playing 4 pages. This was my comfort zone. The 10 pages of music was well out of my comfort zone and I did not say a single word to my teacher as I flipped over the pages but internally was a very different matter. With each page I saw, my internal monologue was panicking and screaming at the sheer size of my new task, which was 10 pages long!
Later that day when I had a few quiet minutes to look over this 10 page piece of piano music again, I really paid attention to the music and noticed that there was huge sections that were repeated, not just mostly the same, but exactly the same. After taking notice of this, I worked out that there was really only six and a half pages that needed to be learned and the rest were repeated sections. I was no longer overwhelmed and panicked, but calm and ready to start my new challenge.
I know that at times it is easy to feel overwhelmed or panicked when you are learning to play the piano. If this happens to you, give yourself the opportunity to become calm and have another look at what you are trying to learn. If you still feel this way, then talk to your piano teacher, or someone who might be able to help you.
If you feel daunted or confused, then this means you are about to learn something new, which will expand your skill and improve your technique. Feeling daunted is a sign of learning and growth and even though it might actually feel really uncomfortable, it is a sure sign that you are becoming better at playing the piano. It also means you are normal, because even though it is not something that is often spoken about, it happens to everyone – including all of the very gifted piano students that I have taught over the years.
So even though feeling daunted is not a fun feeling it means that you are actually learning and becoming a better piano player.