Last week, our Forum Q&A discussion was about saying goodbye to piano students before moving away. Today, I’d love to hear your thoughts about students who are perfectionists. We’ve all had them! Sometimes they are so hard on themselves when it comes to making mistakes that they stop having fun. They may even stop making progress in their piano study as a result of their intense fear of making mistakes.
On the other hand, as a professor at my alma mater once said, music is one of the few professions where perfection is not only expected, but it is considered the norm. We have to admit, our goal is perfection in a way.
And so, I think a balance is necessary.
What are your thoughts? What can we do about students who become too hard on themselves? How do you help the perfectionist student become “okay” with making mistakes? How do we help students achieve a balance when it comes to reaching perfection?