Maybe it is just me, but so often I get stuck with thinking that things have to be perfect or else they are not worthwhile. In reality, I know I am not alone in this type of thinking, as there exists a term to completely discribe this – perfectionism.
Perfectionism can cover a huge way that some people think and while some of us like to aim for perfection and love the idea of perfection, it is just not practical.
If I was insisting on perfection, their would have been so many things that I would have never even attempted – including playing and teaching the piano. Yes, you read that correctly – I am not a perfect piano teacher and I do not play the piano perfectly, even after all these years. I know I am not perfect at these two very important things in my life, because I do not know everything. Just because I am not perfect at playing the piano or teaching the piano, doesn’t mean I’m not any good. I consider myself someone who plays the piano well (not brilliantly) and some who teaches reasonably well ( all my students have learned what they have wanted me to teach them). With both of these endeavors, there is always more I could learn.
Don’t let the concept of having to be perfect be a barrier to you learning to play the piano. You don’t have to be perfect, you don’t even have to be good at playing the piano. You only need to be good enough for yourself. No-one can impose how much skill you need to have in order to be worth your while. If you wanted to play modern music, you could learn as little as 4 chords, to play a huge number of songs, everything from The Beatles to Ed Sheran.
Even though some of us as driven to perfection, realistically, it is not very helpful at all. You need to be able to put up with average, slow, even wonky when you are first starting out. Even when you have mastered a few of the basics, you still need to be able to accept less than perfection as you gain more skills and confidence. Even when you have all the skills that you want to have, you still need to accept less than perfection. Perfection is severely overrated and has the potential for preventing you take up the piano and having an enjoyable time.