The surprising benefits of encouraging your child to play the “wrong” note first

Mistakes are how the brain learns best

Our brains are incredibly efficient learning machines, and that’s especially true for children. In fact, each of us has built-in mental circuitry specifically for learning from mistakes. When we play a wrong note, for example, our brain fires two separate signals: one for “noticing” the error before we’re even aware of it and another for considering it and beginning the process of rectifying it next time. If you’re hearing stray notes while your child practices, it’s natural to want to rush in and help — but perhaps consider simply giving their brain some time and space to do what it does best.

Children who are allowed to make mistakes become better problem-solvers

The benefits of learning to play piano, as anyone who has successfully done so will attest, extend far beyond the piano bench. Likewise, the benefits of making mistakes on the piano can have positive consequences in other areas of our lives.

Allowing children to make mistakes and find their own solutions while learning piano helps them to commit the correct notes to memory more effectively than simply telling them what to play. It’s also a low-stakes way to teach them resourcefulness and resilience — two skills that will come in handy in many seemingly unrelated situations.

Perfectionism in young pianists is directly linked to anxiety

Piano lessons, as our community has told us, can be downright scary. And that’s particularly true for children (and adults) who exhibit perfectionist traits. A 2025 study found that typical methods of teaching classical instruments placed a disproportionate emphasis on achieving perfection, leaving the 12-year-old subjects of the experiment afraid of making mistakes in front of an audience.

It seems we may have been teaching piano lessons to children the wrong way all along. Instead, it seems, we ought to encourage them to make, and eventually correct, their own mistakes — particularly when playing in front of others. In doing so, we instill a sense of security that helps them enjoy the process of learning and stick with it in the long term.

Making mistakes helps foster a growth mindset

Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck is renowned for an elegantly simple idea that took decades of research to uncover: She noticed that some people seem to be crushed by the experience of failure while others simply bounce back, even after repeated failures.

The difference, she found, was one of mindset. Those with a fixed mindset tend to believe abilities in a certain area are innate. You might, for example, hear them talking about how some people are “musical” while others aren’t. Those with a growth mindset, on the other hand, believe that abilities are the result of effort, strategies, and — yes — making mistakes. These are the folks who bounce back.

Remember the “error signals” in the brain from earlier? These have been found to be stronger in children with a growth mindset — they literally pay closer attention to mistakes and improve their performance to a greater degree after making them.  By responding with curiosity instead of correction when your child makes a mistake, you can help to foster a mindset that will serve them well throughout their life.

Fixing every mistake kills musical flow — and fun

At ROLI, we’re as much about playing to learn as learning to play — and kids love to play. When they’re enjoying the process, they’re learning more effectively in the moment and developing motivation to keep learning. Keeping the fun in each session helps them find what psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi calls the “flow state,” a deep absorption in an activity that facilitates the kind of effortless performance that athletes, authors, and professional musicians all strive for.

But flow is frustratingly fleeting, and stopping to fix every mistake is a surefire way to disrupt it. Letting the wrong notes live happily alongside the correct ones can, over time, help kids to remain happily engaged with their practice, ultimately helping them progress faster, further, and more independently.