One of the most common things I hear from adult students is, “I should be better at this.”
Maybe you’ve said it yourself.
It’s usually spoken after a missed note, a challenging lesson, or a week when practicing didn’t go quite as planned. It’s a simple sentence, but it carries a lot of weight. Hidden inside those words is the belief that somehow, you’re behind—that you should have learned faster, practiced more, or mastered a piece by now.
But compared to whom?
As adults, we’re often our own toughest critics. We hold ourselves to incredibly high standards in our careers, at home, and in our daily lives. It’s no surprise that those same expectations follow us into the music studio.
The truth is, learning music doesn’t happen on a schedule.
Some weeks everything clicks. A song you’ve been struggling with suddenly feels natural. A difficult rhythm finally makes sense. Your fingers seem to know exactly where to go.
Other weeks? Progress is harder to see.
Life gets busy. Work demands more of your time. Family responsibilities take priority. You practice less than you’d hoped, and suddenly that little voice returns:
“I should be better at this.”
What if we replaced that thought with a different question?
“Am I making progress?”
Progress doesn’t always look dramatic. It can be quiet and subtle.
It’s showing up for your lesson after a long day at work.
It’s simply sitting down at the piano after a long day instead of convincing yourself you don’t have time.
It’s having the confidence to sing a little louder than you did last month.
Those moments matter.
One of my favorite parts of teaching adults is watching confidence grow alongside musical ability. Students often don’t notice their own progress because they’re focused on what still feels difficult. Meanwhile, I can see all the things they’re doing today that they couldn’t do just a few months ago.
Growth has a funny way of happening gradually. We rarely notice it while we’re in the middle of it.
Think about learning to drive a car. At first, every movement requires your full attention. Over time, those same skills become second nature. Music works much the same way. The things that feel challenging today won’t always feel that way.
Learning music also gives us something that’s increasingly rare in adulthood: permission to be beginners.
As children, we expected to learn through trial and error. We understood that mistakes were part of the process. Somewhere along the way, many of us forgot that lesson. We began expecting ourselves to get things right the first time.
But mistakes aren’t signs that you’re failing.
They’re signs that you’re learning.
At our school, we celebrate progress, not perfection. Every lesson is another opportunity to discover something new, solve a musical puzzle, and enjoy the process of growing.
So the next time you catch yourself thinking, “I should be better at this,” pause for a moment.
Instead, ask yourself, “Am I better than I was when I started?”
For almost every student, the answer is yes.
And that’s something worth celebrating.
Music isn’t about arriving at perfection. It’s about enjoying the journey, embracing the challenge, and discovering that growth often happens one small step at a time.
Keep showing up. Keep learning. Keep making music.
You’re doing better than you think.
