Playing the piano is not a trivial task: it involves many different skills at the same time and how well you play is subjective. Progress is usually slow and gradual which may discourage students because improvement may not be perceptible. Thus, it is very important to be able to gauge your own progress. But how do you do it? How do you determine if you are getting better or not? Here are a few ways:
          ♪ Levels and Certificates;
          ♪ Competitions and Recitals;
          ♪ Journals and Self-Assessment.

Levels

One easy way to determine if you are getting better or not is by seeing which "level" you are at. This is in reference to music books which are sold as Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, and so on. If you start at Level 1 and progress to Level 2 then obviously you are getting better.

But that's not the whole story. Finishing the Level 1 Book and going into the Level 2 Book indicates that you can play the songs in Book 1. It does not measure your ability to interpret the music. It doesn't reflect your understanding of harmony and rhythm.

As well, keep in mind that the "Levels" are not standardized thus, Level 3 in one book may not be the same as Level 3 from another book. Nevertheless, you can still get an idea if you are getting better or not by seeing yourself advancing from one level to the next level as the years go by.

Certificates

Another way of determining your progress is by the acquisition of "certificates". There are a number of programs and organizations that require students to achieve certain tasks in order to receive a certificate. These can be graded exams or performances with judges or similar. Once the tasks are performed, a certificate is awarded and the student "passes" to the next level.

Goal-oriented people find these certificates rewarding and use it as an indication that they are getting better and better as each task is completed and each certificate is granted.

However, some people do not enjoy this way of studying music: it is too structured and lacks the freedom of expression that you might want in playing music. In fact, some people completely stop playing the piano after they have finished the program. Perhaps the achievement of reaching the next level, or getting the next certificate, became more important than the music, and the innate desire to learn music was somehow pushed aside.

Competitions

Like certificates, competition are very goal-oriented events. The problem with using competitions as a measure of your progress is that you're most likely not going to win. If you win, then you're at the top of the world! But what happens if you don't win? Does that mean you're not good?

The student who wins the competition probably spent an inordinate amount of time playing one piece just for the purpose of winning. I've seen some competitive students practice 4 hours each day.

First of all, just because you can play one song perfectly, it doesn't reflect your overall progress. Are you really getting better? Or are you getting better at playing that one song only?

Secondly, most students do not want to be conservatory-trained pianist. So instead of practicing one piece over and over again, it might be more beneficial to play a few different pieces. Perhaps by exploring different kinds of music, the student might learn to play for themselves and not for others.

Recitals

Every year, I offer my students the opportunity to perform at a non-public, piano recital. The recitals can be in a studio, in a church, or even in someone's house; but, they are always stress-free. The student can choose to memorize their piece, or they can bring their music sheets - whatever is most comfortable. A lot of teachers require that you memorize your songs for a studio recital but I do not. I see it more of a show-and-tell experience rather than a competitive one.

Over the years, my students and their parents have started to recognize one another; the recital is a social event. It is during these recitals that people can gauge the progress made by themselves and their fellow students. In this non-competitive environment, students can shown how they have improved since last time. A student can look back at last year's recital and know that they are getting better if:
  ♪ they are less nervous;
  ♪ they play more complicated pieces;
  ♪ they like playing music for themselves and for others.

This type of "fuzzy warm" understanding of progress is different from the information achieved by earning a certificate or winning a competition.

Journals

Students should keep a diary or journal of their progress. A journal can be as simple as a spiral bound notebook, or it can be a music-specific planner with sections for assignments, recital dates, staff paper, and more.

After every lesson, the teacher should write a new entry with the date and the list of things to be worked on during the week. Sometimes it is a list of songs to play. Other times it is aspects that need more attention such as, "left hand rhythm" or "dynamics".

A list will help you keep track of where you have been. If you are discouraged and wonder if you're getting better or not, just look at your list. Your journal will help you gauge your own progress. It may be in the number of songs you've completed, or the complexity of the songs you are playing.

Alternatively, a look at your journal may also tell you that you have been struggling with the same song for a long time. In this case, you may choose to
  ♪ drop the song and move on;
  ♪ give it a rest and come back to it again at a later date;
  ♪ isolate the problem areas, find a strategy to progress instead of stagnating.

On the short term, a journal helps you remember what you are supposed to do for the coming week. In the long term, a journal documents your progress over a period of months and years.

Self Assessment

It is hard to assess whether you played better this week compared to last week. You might be able to say that you started a new song, or that you played a song with fewer mistakes. But learning to play the piano is like many other disciplines: it shows itself as plateaus: stretches of stability followed by sudden leaps of progress.

If your journal tells you that you have played many songs which are getting more and more complex but you are still unsure of your progress, then you should ask yourself:
  ♪ Am I becoming more relaxed, stronger? Is playing becoming easier?
  ♪ Am I becoming more expressive and is my creativity being encouraged?
  ♪ Is the music I am playing becoming more complicated or challenging?
If the answer to these questions is "Yes", then you are getting better!

As always, piano students and/or their parents should think about their reasons for taking piano lessons. You can only "progress" if you know what you are trying to achieve. If a child does not want to learn piano, but is told to do so, then progress will be slow and perhaps non-existence. This is because the parent's goal is for the child to play better but the child's goal is to play worst so he can be allowed to quit.

Though, children are odd creatures especially when they reach the teenage years. Consider this story:

I had a student for a few years who did the bare minimum - the absolute least amount of work possible. After a couple of years, I said to the mother, is this really what you want? You know that he never practices? She agreed that it seemed futile, but the student did not protest or rebel and he was somewhat ambivalent about the whole thing. She decided to continue piano lessons. When the boy was in high school, he developed a much higher appreciation and interest in music. He even went and bought a keyboard so that he could play music in his room at night. All of a sudden, at every lesson, he had a new stack of popular sheet music for us to look at and work out. It was incredible. It turned out that he really did learn what I was teaching him all that time...his understanding of harmony, scales, and rhythm seemed to jump out of nowhere. He had been learning all along - he was internalizing the information without expressing it. All those years of lessons did pay off! When he went to college, he started his own band. People embrace music in different ways; sometimes they choose not to showcase their skills at a competition or a recital. Progress can be personal. Even when I have a student who quits due to a lack of interest, I always encourage the parents. Someday, when their kid grows up, they might want to start playing the piano again. And at that point, all the lessons they learned will re-surface.

Summary

There are plenty of people willing to teach your child, or sell them books, whether your child likes/needs it or not. Similarly, there are plenty of people willing to tell you that your child is talented and getting better everyday, whether they are or not. So make sure that you have a way of measuring success that is independent of the market.

Determining progress is a very tricky thing. Keep in mind that sometimes you (your child) are "in process" of getting better and have not quite gotten there yet. This is fine as long as they are not regressing. At some point, progress will make itself evident. It is important to have goals and realize that everyone is different; so the method of determining progress will also be different.

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