Robert Estrin - piano expert

Why You Must Accept Your Limitations

How can your limitations improve your music playing?

In this video, Robert shows how accepting your limitations can improve your musical results.

Released on March 27, 2024

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DISCLAIMER: The views and the opinions expressed in this video are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Virtual Sheet Music and its employees.

Video Transcription

I'm Robert Estrin, you're watching LivingPianos.com, your online piano resource. And today I'm talking about something really important, why you must accept your limitations. Now I don't want me to bring you down, as a matter of fact, it's quite the opposite.

Anybody who's really accomplished anything great, it's because they accept their own limitations.

You look at people who are masters at any craft or art and you think everything just must come easily to them.

What you don't see is the hard work that goes into it. I can't tell you how many times I have students who think they're the only ones that piano is so hard for.

It's actually really hard for anyone. Now there are different things that are difficult for different people. Some people excel at some things, some people excel at other things. But the key to being able to accomplish anything is to accept where you're at and what it takes. And it takes way more than you think it does. And this goes for everything. You see a beautiful painting that's absolutely photorealistic and you're in awe of the quality of the work and you can't imagine how it's done and you think they're just geniuses. No, if you lived with that person, you watched them work, you'd realize the countless hours, the meticulousness they spend working and crafting that painting to look like that. It doesn't just happen. They accepted what it takes in order to create that masterpiece.

The same is true in your piano practice. It's very easy to dismiss things and think, oh, I should be able to get this. Why can't I get this? You know what? It's because you're human.

And if you look behind, I have a video, it hasn't come out yet actually.

The editing has been mind -bogglingly difficult because I want to put the scoring in the whole thing. I sat down one day and practiced for a while and a piece that I studied years and years ago very briefly and I just showed how I practiced.

When it comes out, it's a Mozart fantasy and there's a fast section in there and I talked about how I … and it goes on. And I practiced really just that part of it and it's about a 40 -minute practice session but I knew it was like too long for anybody to watch or maybe you would enjoy it but I have parts that go in fast motion so you realize how long I take to learn something to really get it under my fingers and into my head. And you realize, yeah, it's not a snap. Just because I can play all this music from memory doesn't mean that it just comes to me like boom, the score is absorbed. It's a meticulous process. I have a video I did years ago.

I flipped open randomly the Chopin and the Mazurkas and found a Mazurka I'd never even heard before and I started memorizing it. And you should watch it. I'll put that in the description and then Mozart, be watching for it. My editor, I thank him so much for the hard work he's doing putting all the scoring in there. And you'll see what it takes. So don't beat yourself up.

Accept that this is what it takes. Then you decide, is it worth the effort or not? But to think that it should come more easily than it does, you're not going to get anywhere with that. You'll just get frustrated and you'll think less of yourself. Just accept your limitations and from there you can accomplish almost anything.

That's the message for today. I hope it's inspiring for you, not discouraging. Let me know in the comments how many of you have experienced this and come to this realization of what it takes and whether it's worth it to you. And share it with everybody here at LivingPianos.com. I'm sure everybody would be really, really happy to hear from you. And I'm so glad that you're here joining me. Again, I'm Robert Estrin. This is LivingPianos.com, your online piano resource.
Find the original source of this video at this link: https://livingpianos.com/why-you-must-accept-your-limitations/
Automatic video-to-text transcription by DaDaScribe.com
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Comments, Questions, Requests:

Susan * VSM MEMBER * on June 27, 2024 @2:42 am PST
I have belatedly returned to the piano after nearly 50 years of business in other things. I studied 8 years in my youth which has helped my return and I have kept my old music to reacquaint myself with and it is surprising how well I can play some of it after all these years. However, my arthritic fingers ache and some knuckles are too misshapen due to the damage from arthritis to fit between the black keys. I don't expect to ever play for anyone except my husband and my dogs (who don't like to hear it - I think it hurts their ears). I also have weakness in my baby fingers. Do you have any suggestions how I can strengthen them?
Joe on March 29, 2024 @9:40 am PST
I’m an intermediate level mandolin player. Not great mostly self taught and far from a beginner. There are songs that have taken me years to get down—the timing, finding the right key, getting intro, the bridge, the ending and just putting everything together. Ah, but when everything clicks. Your lecture hit home. Joe
reply
Robert - host, on March 30, 2024 @8:03 am PST
It's worth the process!
Tosh * VSM MEMBER * on March 28, 2024 @5:05 pm PST
Thanks for your comment Robert...agree with it completely. But to ensure no one misunderstands what I said in my original comment, I'd just add that I was talking about "public performance"...of course, when it come to improving one's technique one would then tackle increasingly more difficult pieces and etudes etc., and with intelligent practice one would hopefully begin to master such pieces to the point that they could be performed publicly with panache and skill...whereas when first encountered that wouldn't be the case...such pieces would at the beginning be beyond one's skill level.
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Robert - host, on March 29, 2024 @10:59 am PST
Even some great concert artists suffer from nerves in performance after many years. People’s temperaments are different in this regard.
Anne Iams on March 28, 2024 @1:46 pm PST
Thank you for the comments on accepting your limitations. I have learned thru the years that this is an important tool to use. It keeps one humble, I think. I have been playing piano since I was 5 years old and had a wonderful piano teacher who taught me so much. I am now 81 years old and perform at senior citizen centers for them to sing . It's very rewarding and this helps to keep me practicing piano.
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Robert - host, on March 28, 2024 @2:18 pm PST
There is no better way to develop your piano playing than playing for people. And you are spreading joy!
Anne Iams on March 29, 2024 @3:00 pm PST
Thank you!!
Tosh * VSM MEMBER * on March 27, 2024 @2:57 pm PST
Excuse me for making a preliminary humorous comment on this topic: I recall a Clint Eastwood movie called Dirty Harry where he plays a police detective who
says in regard to a perp who wanted to shoot him, though this guy
was clearly outgunned so to speak by the detective who already had a 357 magnum pistol trained on him...and who then says "A man has got to
accept his limitations!" With regard to performing music, the
message also means "not" performing pieces which clearly are
beyond one's abilities. In regard to that, an example which comes to my mind is that many years ago I attended a student recital of young violinists (in their early teens), and one student performed very badly a very difficult Bach partita, which even professional violinists would find challenging. That student should have performed some other piece that was well within her abilities. I've also attended
other student recitals where the same sort of awful performance occurred by a student who was trying to perform something well beyond his or her abilities. This sort of travesty should never occur: I blame their teachers for allowing this sort of thing to happen, since such an awful performance can only diminish any confidence the student might have had with regard to performing.
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Robert - host, on March 27, 2024 @6:19 pm PST
Many teachers give pieces well beyond students’ abilities. Sometimes it can be a growing experience for a piece that may be performed much later. But often times students are better served by studying the vast wealth of great music on their level.
KP * VSM MEMBER * on March 27, 2024 @8:09 am PST
Once you get over delusions of glory over one impossible piece of music you cannot achieve, a whole new world of music opens up for you. Things you will really enjoy.
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Robert - host, on March 27, 2024 @9:31 am PST
It's also possible that time away from a difficult piece and learning other pieces can help you when returning to difficult pieces.
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