Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Excuses--let's hear 'em!

What are the most pathetic, lame excuses you have come up with for not practicing? You know, those along the lines of "the sun was in my eyes" and such.

Here is one I used as a teenager: "But, Mom, I can't play for a while because I have to grow out my nails for the dance next week!"

Lately, my pathetic excuses have been more along the lines of "I'm too tired" or "I'm just not feeling it today."

And, how about legitimate, but not typical excuses like Dan's: "My grand was carted off to storage."

C'mon! Spill the beans! Tell us your excuses. We promise not to use it against you! :said with fingers crossed behind the back:


tk

The dog ate my music.

The dog ate my piano.

You guys is bad!

I've been trying like heck to get poison ivy - for years, I'd get it every time I did yard work 'til my hands looked like swamp thing and Prednisone was the only answer. Since starting lessons, a miracle seems to have occurred and I no longer seem able to catch it all - even while pulling the vines up while not wearing gloves. Then rubbing them on my fingers. And wiping them on my hands. And carrying them, bare-armed, to the compost heap... Liz

Mark,

Does your dog have a big flat tail & buck teeth?

it's just too ?!@#$!$ hot outside!

"Maybe I shouldnt practise too much on this old thing, I'll get a new one soon, and THEN I will practise"

before a meal: Too hungry, I'll do it after food.

after a meal: Too full, I'll let this food settle down first.

once food's settled down: *yawn* bedtime!

Here's one strange one for cancelling a lesson (clarinet in this case):

The spring on my A key (the key just above the top tone hole) came loose, and the A doesn't come out at all.

A pathetic excuse for not owning a proper piano, from a parent:
"We don't have the room for it." (and the family was living in an expensive home, there was clearly enough space (I took measurements), sent their son to a private school for several years, and took expensive vacations 2-3 times a year. Needless to say, I no longer teach this student.)

Meri

My neighbor's dog ate my dog who ate my excuse. Heck, I don't even have enough time to think about a good excuse, let alone practice.

I have a student's family like that, they go to private schools, and go paris and mexico for vacations, 2-3 times a year....both girls still have a 60 keys keyboard.

I don't know why people do that to screw up their children's music education, basically they just want a baby sitter for 30 minutes who knows how to play the piano.

I work for a music school, the painful thing is that I can't dismiss students.

I also have one who eventually quit, they have no piano at all for more than a year while I was teaching him, upon his withdraw, his mom complained his son lost interests in music, and didn't learn much.

K, here is a real one:

There are so many new posts to read on PW, I'll do it once I'm done (and darned, while I'm trying to get them all read, new ones keep coming which I now have to search for--does Sysiphus ring a bell?)

(besides, I'm at work, how can I practice!)

1. Not tonight.... I have a headache.

2. I can't play today because I will be too tired to play well for my recital.

3. I'm allergic to my old piano and can't get another one.

4. My fingers are too short to do that.

5. My fingers are too wide to do that.

6. My fingers are too slow to do that.

7. I drank too much caffeine with the latte I had today and now I cannot play the piano as my hands are to jittery.

8. I can't practice right now as I need something caffinated right now first to wake me up.

9. I have a hangover from the party last night.

10. I am going to a party tonight. No time to practice now. Maybe afterward. (& then use the excuse #9 the next day).

LOL

I had a hysterectomy and can't sit at the piano yet.

Oh, you meant FAKE excuses!

1. I just got my piano tuned and I want to keep it that way. LOL

2. Because my piano got tuned, now when I make a mistake people who might here me can tell that I made a mistake better than before. Heck now I can tell what notes I am hitting aren't right.

3.My ears are hurting.... my eyes are hurting from reading the notes.... my hands are tired.... my feet hurt..... my butt hurts from sitting on the bench... my brain is hurting and so on and so forth.

4. My parents told me to stop playing too much....
the same thing they said when I was learning to play my trumpet.

5. My kids say I am keeping them up at night.

6. I don't want to get my pretty piano dirty.

Here's mine: I'm at piano camp (Suzuki Institute)with my son (Wootness) and there's a lot of piano going on here. Except it's not for me; it's for the kids. I'm here to chaperone and cook and take notes!

I did bring the digital and am practicing a little, but we're living with three other families in a suite of rooms, sharing a tiny kitchen, and there's a lot going on here with 7 kids (one other pianist; the rest are here for strings).

Michele

Yes it does, but there's a vaccine that will clear it right up.

Some people will do anything to get out of practicing. The next time you don't want to practice, Shelly, just choose one of the excuses listed here and save yourself the discomfort and expense of having surgery. :rolleyes:

The piano's out of tune.

It is possible to play the piano standing up, you know.

Doug - aka "Mr. Sympathy"

I don't NEED an excuse. I am 56 years old and can do what I pretty well WANT!!!
(Besides, the cat was sleeping on the keyboard.)

After a while, all the white keys look the same, and I don't want to practice and be totally confused at the same time.

My baby sister/brother/cousin/cat/dog (ommit as appropriate) superglued the fallboard down so there was no way i could possibly practice...

x

I'm committed to the July practice challenge and it's still June.

The President is giving a speech tonight.

I can only water my yard on even numbered days.

Wow! What a creative bunch of people!! I think I know what has happened... We've all gotten too good at coming up with excuses for why we can't go to work, take out the trash, do the laundry, etc. that the not-practice-piano excuses are child's play!

These are hilarious!!

And, wolfindmist--my butt does hurt from sitting on the bench! I believe I can count that as a "real" excuse!!

(Aside to Michele--They're making you cook?!? You're such a good mom! )

(Aside to Shelly--Hope you're feeling better! Did you get that donut I sent you? No, not that kind--the other kind!! )

1. I'd tell you why I didn't practice this week but I can't remember right now.

2. I don't want to be a piano bench potato; and besides my favorite TV shows have all new episodes on right now.

3. My piano just doesn't go with my outfit today.

4. The black keys keep getting in my way.

5. The dog said I just should stop it. I listened to the dog.

6. Bad Feng Sei (is that how you spell it???) in my music room.

7. I read my horoscope and it sounded like practicing would be a really bad idea for the time being. My Psychic concurred.

8. I am not being paid enough to practice also.

9. Got sucked into reading the latest "As The Piano World Spins" flaming hot threads.

10.MY FAVORITE EXCUSE SO FAR: I'm holding out for a grand.

Another:

"I tell you why I wasn't able to practice; but then I'd have to kill you."

From a student wearing a dark trench coat, sun glasses, and talking in a low voice.

1. My dad said he'd give me ten bucks if I didn't play on the piano.

2.I spent to much time on my computer typing up excuses for not practicing on a Piano world Thread. This author can relate....

3. I had to go away.... or else.

4. I stayed up too late to catch David Lettermen's top 10 list last night.

5. I am still holding out for a grand.

1. I'm much too excited about my P250 arriving tomorrow!!!!

"But Mom...I don't think the metronome is keeping accurate time."

That was I like to throw at my mom many years ago to get out of practicing. Unfortunately my dad was a violinist who would bust be each and every time...

Can't blame a teenager for trying : )

I can't practice today because my wife is going to conceive this afternoon and I'd like to be there when it happens.

Oh dear....my excuses are more for the things I should be doing INSTEAD of practicing.... dishes, cleaning, laundry, cleaning, shopping, cleaning, baking, cleaning, cooking.. Did I mention cleaning?

My mum says anything I say is an excuse. When I told her I didn't play the piano because I had a headache, she didn't belive me until I was found to have sinositis three months later. So... I don't have any excuses left now... um.. how about.. because I busted my brain doing war tactism?

Signs of the times.
A real-life excuse in Zimbabwe some 4 years ago which emerged in a weekly newsletter of the UK Piano Teachers Group.

"I couldn't practice because my Mom has used the piano for storing food".