The other day, I was chatting on Instagram with someone who didn't seem all that enthusiastic about piano (this is someone who’s been a client of mine).

I remarked that this lack of enthusiasm was why I didn't want to waste my time chatting about piano. In response, they sent the following message:

"In one of our early conversations about piano, you said something like piano is a lifetime journey. I don’t have the specifics, but I agree, piano is a similar to a vocation vs a job or hobby. It is a skill to be studied (even an elementary study) and practiced. Piano is definitely on my top 5 list of life endeavors."

OK, so my question is: do you think you're using our time well with that reply?

I’m a piano teacher. Is this a good use of my time? Is this a good use of your time? Even if we’re just two people, even if I’m not a piano teacher, is it still a good use of time?

Let me give an analogy.

Imagine you eat at a restaurant and you find a spider in your food. You say to the manager, "there's a spider in my food."

Manager: "Yes, there is."

You: "Can you do something about it?"

Manager: "Not now."

You: "It doesn't sound like you're enthusiastic about customer satisfaction."

Manager: "No, customer satisfaction is actually on our top-5 list of business endeavors. But, we view customer satisfaction as more of a long-term journey. It's something to be practiced. We're not going to get it right every time."

As a piano teacher, that’s what I’m hearing.

It’s like I’m the customer at the restaurant.

—Michael

P.S. I know I sound like a jerk in this email, but actually I agree with you. There's no urgency to "piano" and there shouldn't be. Let's get more specific. We should at least be talking about a Chopin nocturne or something like that, if you want to talk about urgency, about something we can do right now, before the end of our life. That’s the kind of thing I’d think would be a good use of time.

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