How Do You Know When a Piece of Music Is Too Hard for You?

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CEFR Level B2-C1

At a piano lesson recently, my teacher followed the typical pattern by asking me to start with a scale. I groaned out loud and stopped just shy of banging my head on the keys. She looked at me incredulously and asked, “Did you seriously just say ‘ugh!’?”

I’ve been with this teacher for at least seven years. I took voice lessons from her for the first six. Singing is one of the hardest things I do; I would much prefer to hide under a table. That’s a story for another day. The point is, my teacher has seen me in all the moods but never once have I vocally groaned. 

In preparation for this piano lesson, I had been working on a challenging piece. I knew the reason I groaned was because I felt like I hadn’t made progress. Unfortunately, as a child it was deeply ingrained in me that you never contradict a person in authority, that it was bad to even have a desire different from that of an authority figure. I know better as an adult and try to speak up for myself, but under stress, old habits take over. 

I know from experience that my teacher welcomes my honest feedback, but instead of telling her that I was struggling with the piece, I went sideways and talked about the frustrating week I had had with a grad school project. It was true and probably affected how much music I learned, but the entire time I was talking, I couldn’t figure out how to get my mouth to say what my brain was thinking: “Daisies: Waltz”* feels too hard and I’m frustrated.

I eventually talked myself into being able to focus, played the opening scales well, and the lesson proceeded as it should. I even managed to play “Daisies” reasonably accurately, if excruciatingly slowly - as in the quarter note equalled 40 BPM when the dotted half note is marked at 54.

That night, I Googled numerous variations on “how to know if a piece is too hard for you.” I found a few music teachers advising on how to pick a piece of music at your student’s level. There were some good tips there, but I couldn’t find anything that answered my question in my situation. 

Ultimately, I decided to focus on other pieces while slowly working on Daisies. I also came up with some tips for knowing when a piece of music is too hard for you, or at least, when you might want to put it aside for a bit.

Questions to Ask If You Think a Piece Is Too Hard for You

• How do you feel about it day to day? Do you always feel frustrated or does that come and go?
• Are there any sections that feel easy? About what percentage of the entire piece are those sections?
• Is the piece hard overall or only in specific spots? For example, if it weren’t for the transitions between phrases, could you play it faster or more smoothly? 
• Is there a commonality among the parts that are hard? As a piano example, do you have to move both hands and you keep ending up a note off?
• Are the hard parts working a technical aspect that you’ve been avoiding because it’s hard?
• Do you just not like how the piece sounds?

These questions might get you thinking about other things to ask yourself. Hopefully, they help you come up a path forward.

I don’t have a formula for how to use those questions when deciding whether or not to continue learning a piece. I think your answer will come to you through the process of questioning. 

I do, however, have some ideas for what you might try, depending on your answer to each question.

If you are constantly frustrated and dread practicing a piece, I suggest working on something else. If your feelings vary by the day, then I suggest that you keep working on the piece, but maybe make it a secondary piece and put most of your focus on something you enjoy more. 

If there are enough sections that are easy(ish) and you feel motivated by those sections, then maybe keep working on the piece. How many sections are “enough”? That’s up to you.

If the piece is overall hard, then maybe work on a different piece for a while.

If there are commonalities between the hard parts, then work on technique with relevant skills. If you have a teacher, they can help with this. For example, I once had a piece where one hand played legato while the other played staccato and then they switched. I could only get the articulation right about half the time. The transition between which hand was which articulation was the sticking point. My teacher showed me how to play scales with one hand legato and the other staccato. As I got better at playing scales this way, I got better at playing repertoire that uses that skill. 

I know it’s satisfying to have a tidy checklist that gives you a formula for making a decision. The reality is, humans and music are more complex than that. What the right answer for me is as someone with 30 years of overall music experience, but only a few years of piano experience, and who plays for personal enjoyment will be different than it is for someone with only a few years of music experience overall who wants to enter music school, and that will be different than someone with 30 years of instrument-specific experience whose job relies on their learning a variety of repertoire.

At the end of the day, music should be enjoyable. Especially if you’re playing as a hobby, music should be fun. We have to do a little bit of the hard stuff to get the most enjoyment out of playing music, but it shouldn't be so hard that you avoid practicing. 

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other tips for deciding if a piece of music is too hard for you.

*Florence Price