The most expensive piano lessons in the world

What is the cost of not flying? (Image by Jan Vašek)

Suppose you wanted to learn to play the piano. (It’s fun, I recommend it.) 

If you were to do what most people do, you would start lessons, stick with it for a few weeks or months, and then become overwhelmed with your other commitments.

You would feel bad about spending so much on lessons when you weren’t really practicing enough to make it worth the money, so you would quit.

The idea is that the lessons are too expensive to waste.

I would argue that the lessons don’t cost enough. Hear me out.

The average teacher would probably charge $100 - $300 per month depending on the length of the lesson, their experience, and the cost of living in your area. 

What if the cost of the lessons were ten times that? 

What if you committed to paying $2,000 for a month of lessons? 

Your goal is to learn to play piano, right? That’s the whole point of the lessons. So if you don’t learn to play, the lessons are a waste, no matter what they cost. 

How much would you be compelled to practice in order to get $2,000 of value out of that month of lessons? 

I’m guessing that you might be willing to  practice as much as two to three hours a night. Maybe you would put other activities on hold in order to find that time. After all, you probably wouldn’t have committed to spending such a high sum if you didn’t have the time, right? 

In contrast to the guy paying $200 per month who is practicing about an hour a week (I have a lot of data to back this up), you’re playing 15 hours a week. 

At the end of the month, you’ve played 60 hours, where the other guy spent four hours at the piano (not including the lessons themselves). 

That’s 15 months’ worth of payoff. It would have cost the other guy $3,000 and 15 months to get that result; for you, it was $2,000 and just one month. A bargain! 

Not only have you gotten a ton of value for your money, you have tremendous momentum that will prevent you from fading away and quitting. You will actually achieve the goal of learning to play the piano. 

The real cost of learning a skill is your time. But if you are intentional about the way you spend it, that time becomes an investment. 

The most expensive lessons in the world are the ones that don’t give you the results you’re looking for.

Where do you find yourself hesitant to invest in yourself, whether it’s time or money? How might you change the way you approach this challenge?