10/08/2026
🎹She came to try a piano lesson. She left calmer than she arrived.
She wrote to me afterwards to say she'd enjoyed it, and that she'd left feeling calmer than when she came in. Not what most people expect to say about a piano lesson. But that's what she said.
That happens more than you'd think. Adults often arrive nervous, and what they're nervous about isn't usually the piano. It's that I might take one look and decide they're not worth teaching. I've never once thought that about anyone, but I understand why they arrive braced for it.
A lot of them are carrying a bad memory. One of my students, nine years with me now, started as a child and stopped at fourteen. She remembers no enjoyment in those lessons at all. She came back in her fifties, and this is what she says about the difference:
"Maria doesn't tell me off if I make a mistake. She calmly repeats what she wants me to do and asks me to try again. My lessons last an hour and the time flies by; they're absorbing, and I 'forget' about anything else that might be happening in my home life."
And then there's the part nobody warns you about, which is how good it feels. Another student, who started from nothing in his sixties, can now read music and play pieces he's proud of. What he remembers most is his family looking up and saying, "Hey Dad, that sounds really good."
The practical answers, since these are what people ask: you don't need to have played before; you don't need to read music; fortnightly is fine if weekly is too much; and there are morning and evening slots. We also run Piano Lab, where students play alongside each other if meeting people is part of the appeal.
🎹The introductory lesson is free, and there's nothing to sign. It's a chance to try a few things and see how it feels. If it isn't for you, then it isn't for you.
I heard the composer Kevin Olson say that courage tends to come before confidence. In this case, the introductory lesson is the courageous bit, and it's a privilege to be there for it. Everything after that is just turning up🙂
Maria, Pianista Music Studio, Castle Street, Hinckley 🩷
