How to Quit Piano Lessons? Telling Your Teacher&Parents

Wondering how you can quit piano lessons?

Playing the piano was fun, or you hated it but kept taking lessons because your parents were putting pressure on you. Either way, now you’re at a point where you can no longer continue taking piano lessons and you have to do something about it.

While there are a bunch of articles out there about how to start playing the piano, I couldn’t find a single one about how you can quit the piano.

Quitting piano lessons is not a simple decision if you have been playing for a long time and put a lot of effort into it. The decision to quit the piano is as significant as starting it, which should be thoroughly considered and planned before taking any action.

Quitting piano lessons shouldn’t stress you out. If you have a good reason to stop lessons, you should explain your feelings and thoughts to your piano teacher. He/she will likely understand this because most piano teachers are aware that piano lessons take a lot of time, effort, and money.

When Should You Stop Taking Piano Lessons?

There might be a lot of reasons for one to stop piano lessons. Let’s see some of them.

You Can’t Find Enough Time to Practice

Learning the piano requires strong dedication and discipline, and taking private lessons can be really time-consuming. If you are a working adult or a student, I know how hard it is sometimes to find a free space in your busy day to dedicate to piano practice.

Taking lessons with a private teacher means that you are expected to show progress every time you come to the lesson. However, it is likely that you couldn’t practice the pieces you were supposed to learn and play that week, which often results in an unproductive lesson.

If you feel like going to piano lessons every week is a burden rather than a fun activity, it is a better idea to stop taking lessons to save your energy, money, and time.

However, taking piano lessons is not the only way to learn the piano. In fact, there are many other greater options than taking piano lessons nowadays for busy people. I recommend ArtistWorks, which is an amazing online piano course that is the same quality as the private piano lessons but requires much less time and devotion. You can read my full review on ArtistWorks in this post.

You Can’t Progress

It can get really exhausting if you can’t see good results out of your hard work. Most of us didn’t start playing the piano to become Evgeny Kissin, but still, we want to progress enough that we can get motivated to keep going.

If you start to feel exhausted because you can’t progress while dedicating your time to piano lessons, it may be a good idea to quit lessons. However, there may be many reasons for the lack of progress.

Maybe you don’t like the genre you are learning, which hinders your motivation to practice. Or, your teacher is assigning you the pieces that are far above your level and expecting you to master them.

In this case, you can talk with your teacher and work on a new curriculum that will include a variety of genres and pieces from different difficulty levels that you are more willing to practice.

You Want to Focus on Something Else

Playing the piano may only be a hobby for you, which means you don’t have to keep playing it forever. Maybe you have something new in your life that excites you more than playing the piano, or you want to focus on something else that you don’t want piano lessons to take your time anymore.

Even if you stop piano lessons, you can still play the piano to relax and have fun sometimes. You can see playing the piano as a mental activity to clear your mind and chill after a long day.

You Can’t Afford It

It is no secret that piano lessons are expensive. If you can’t afford them anymore, there are many cheaper options you can try.

In fact, I stopped taking piano lessons just because I couldn’t afford it anymore along with all my college expenses. However, I still play the piano and improve myself every day without taking private lessons.

I listed the alternatives to taking piano lessons in this post, some of which I personally use to progress without having to pay for private lessons. I suggest you check them out if you are looking for some cheaper options.

How to Tell Your Piano Teacher You Want to Quit?

Whatever reason you have, it’s time to tell your piano teacher goodbye, and you need to find a way to tell her/him this without stressing yourself out.

The best thing you can do is being honest with your teacher. Don’t ever lie to her/him if you plan to change your teacher, because generally, the piano teachers know each other. If your teacher finds out later that you continue taking lessons with someone else, it will result in an unpleasant situation.

If you want to quit because you can’t afford lessons, you should directly tell this because it is not something to be ashamed of. Most teachers will understand this situation and won’t have any problem letting you go.

If you are simply bored with the piano and would like to dedicate your time to something else instead, you should tell this right away as well. Piano teachers are aware that not every student will take music very seriously and drop it when they lose interest.

How to Tell Your Parents You Want to Quit?

Parents can be really annoying about forcing you to play the piano even if you hate it.

Sometimes, quitting piano lessons doesn’t mean that you are entirely quitting playing the piano.

If you want to quit piano lessons not because you don’t want to play the piano anymore but rather to follow another piano learning method or a different musical path, explaining this to your parents shouldn’t be a huge problem.

Tell them that you still enjoy playing the piano but taking piano lessons is not what makes you happy. Make them see that you are passionate about playing the piano but not about taking lessons.

Alternatively, you can tell them that you want to learn another instrument because you can’t get any joy from playing the piano anymore. In any case, your parents will be understanding if you plan to keep music in your life in some way.

However, what if you don’t want to play any instrument anymore?

Well, this situation is not as scary as you might think. Mostly, parents want their children to be engaged in extracurricular activities such as music, arts, dance, and sports. You should provide a good explanation for why you don’t want to keep taking piano lessons and offer another activity that you can engage in instead.

If you can replace the piano lessons with a sports activity or something, it will become a lot easier for you to convince your parents about quitting the piano.