I am 16 years old and I have been playing piano since I was 6 years old. Since then, I have practiced around 1-2 hours a day. Through the years I have always been told that I had talent and had even once been described as a 'prodigy' by a leading pianist in Berlin when I was 8. I reached grade 8 aged 15 after starting my grades at 8. However, all the pieces I have ever learnt bar around 6, have been completely self-taught. I have learnt Chopin and Rachmaninov by myself. I go to a piano teacher for 40 minutes per week and the teacher is quite useless. Before that, I had a teacher that I had for half an hour per week but she let me go saying she felt she could no longer teach me.

My dilemma is, however, that for the past few months, I have been stuck in a rut. I can't seem to find the motivation to play or learn a new piece. I love to the piano more than myself, don't get me wrong, but I sit down to a new piece and don't seem to get that spark and excitement anymore like I used to. I have tried to remedy this but I feel it also comes down to support. My teacher is quite useless and my family are not musical at all so they don't understand what it takes to be great. Every once in a while, after playing a somewhat complicated piece that took me months to learn, I'd get a "sounds good."

I want to become not just 'good' but excellent player. I know I have a talent, my music teacher (not piano teacher) says I'm excellent and my friend recently reluctantly admitted to me that part of the reason they gave up the piano at age 10 was due to the fact that they weren't as good as me and never would be. That makes me sad because I'm really not as good as they say I am. It seems to me that its always strangers who say I'm good; I really do feel I'm lacking support and comprehension.

I want to be great and at this particular moment in time, I really don't know how to achieve that.