Sense check please - Am I getting too much pressure?
Hi community! I will try to keep this somewhat vague so I don't accidentally dox myself or my teacher.
I'm an adult learner and have been learning piano for just over a year and have weekly lessons. I work full-time and am coming to the end of my Master's degree, so piano is ultimately a hobby for me, although I genuinely want to improve.
My teacher expects around 3–3.5 hours of practice every week (quite reasonable from what I gather, I am working towards one of the lower grades) and can get quite frustrated if I don't manage it. Last week he seemed annoyed when I said I was going to my home country for the weekend and wouldn't have access to a piano.
At my lesson on Thursday, one of my songs wasn't good enough, so he asked me to send him a polished recording by Monday. I left for my home country at 1am Friday morning, got home Sunday night, and my dissertation is due tomorrow and still not fully proof read/ready for submission. A recording is still requested today.
I'm finding that piano is starting to make me stressed because I constantly feel an urgency to improve rather than enjoying learning it. I sat down at the piano on Monday evening and instead of feeling relaxed, I felt stressed because I couldn't perfect one of my songs.
Is this a normal level of expectation from a piano teacher, or is it reasonable to ask him to ease off the pressure? I don't want to wind up hating this instrument, but also don't want to be wasting my money on lessons if I can't deliver the required effort to progress.
Posted Aug 10, 2026, 4:25 PM UTC