I’m 17 and have played piano for about 12 years. I’ve received a lot of useful instructions from my piano teacher, and the more I’ve reflected on them, the more I’ve realized that they are also valuable lessons for life in general. Here are four instructions I commonly receive in piano that also apply to life.

The first thing I hear a lot is that the melody must be the loudest. In life, this means you must prioritize. With piano, no matter how many busy things are in a piece, it’s important to be able to hear a main theme. Likewise, there are parts of life that must be the most present, prioritized and emphasized. There are other elements in music—and life—that add nicely to the tapestry, but they must never overpower the melody. If you can’t hear the main theme clearly, the piece is confusing and not as enjoyable as it could be. Without priorities, our lives would be confusing and far less enjoyable.

The second thing I hear a lot in piano lessons is to loosen up. It’s so easy to hold tension when playing piano. I once played Chopin’s “Butterfly Etude,” which was almost exclusively octaves in the right hand, and I held tension in my wrist instead of keeping it loose and floppy. As a result, playing the piece not only hurt, but I also had trouble getting it up to speed. In life, I’ve learned if we become set in our ways, we slow down. We can’t get caught up in doing things a certain way. We must always be ready to change things up to get better results. If we are too stiff and refuse to change, it will really hurt our progress.

The third instruction I have received is to put your weight into it. Certain parts of pieces simply won’t be as loud as the composer intended if the pianist doesn’t fully lean into the keys. Putting your weight into playing is the difference between playing all right and being impressively deafening. In life, the same rule applies. We have to put all of our effort into everything we do. We can’t just go through the motions. I’ve learned that if we throw ourselves into every activity, the results will be powerful.

The fourth and final lesson I’ve learned from playing the piano is that accuracy is more important than speed. Playing fast is great. But if playing fast means messing up more, missing notes or losing all musicality, then it’s more beneficial to slow down just a little bit and take the time to play everything correctly. I’ve learned the same in life: Don’t rush through things just to finish them quickly. We should strive to do everything as perfectly as possible. Any sane person would rather see work done well than work done quickly. Of course, the same goes for piano: If you can do things rapidly and accurately, that’s even better.

So, if life gets a little hectic, if it’s hard to keep focused, make sure the melody is the loudest—that the priorities are right. That will clear up all confusion. If you feel stuck, like you can’t get any better in a certain area, loosen up and try to do things differently. It could even speed up your progress. When you do anything in life, put your weight into it. That can maximize your results. And remember, accuracy is more important than speed, so take the time to do things right. These are four piano keys to life that I’ve learned. There are many more keys—probably even over 88—but hopefully these few will be a good start to playing life more beautifully.