watmekiasu:

miltonia:

hi watmekiasu, thanks for sharing your info. at least now I've got a better idea. Still, I was hoping to have a teacher who can be a bit more flexible / accommodating in their schedule, I mean occasionally.

Actually, most music teachers who teach at home are more flexible. I understand that many charge by per lesson and not per month, whether there's lesson or not.

That's what I thought too!!

Before we had a young piano teacher who'd taught my older girl until grade 5, then she recommended we find another teacher, a more professional teacher, since my girl had shown interest to pursue higher grades in piano. She recommended her own piano teacher, aka master teacher. That's why we made a switch only abt 8 mths ago.

Frankly, I'm not a paper-chaser. Since my kids told me of her keen interest in learning piano, I try my best to get a good tr and give them a good learning environment. I believe in establishing good foundation.

I must say their techniques had improved under the new teacher, even my neighbours could tell the difference when they practised on the piano.

Still, I feel restricted by the terms & conditions laid down by the teacher and am hoping to see if I could find other alternatives. I'm looking into music school too (e.g. Methodist School of Music), are they better as compared to private teacher?? I'm also searching the internet for NAFA teachers. Do you have any recommendation??

Thanks for reading.

hi watmekiasu, thanks for sharing your info. at least now I’ve got a better idea. Still, I was hoping to have a teacher who can be a bit more flexible / accommodating in their schedule, I mean occasionally.

Hi, I’ve just joined the forum, am new here!!


Just want to do some comparison on individual piano lesson charges.

My kids are learning piano from a new full-time teacher at her place. Her charges as follow :

Grade 6 @ $210 (1 hr); Grade 2 @ $150 (45 mins)

Terms & Conditions
4 lessons per month.
No lesson on Public Holiday (no make-up). No lesson on every 5th week.
No make-up lessons if students go on vacation or missed lessons during exam period.
Month of December - only 2 lessons (3rd & 4th week - tr annual leave). But must still pay full month fee.

Are such fees and terms normal for a full-time piano teacher? The fees seem ok for me but I thought the terms seem to benefit the teacher more than anything else.

In a calendar, there are bound to have certain months whereby public holiday falls on either 1st to the 4th week. But there is no replacement lesson. Effectively, only 3 lessons in that particular month even though there may be a 5th week in the same month. And if we choose to go on vacation, we’re penalise (no replacement), but we still have to pay her full month fees in Dec, supposingly vacation period.

Having said that, if the terms stated above are normal, then I rest my case.

Hope to hear some advice. Thanks.

unflappable_chicken:

hello;D

actually i'm not a parent, but a student myself.
I happened to chance upon this website and when I saw some of these forum posts, I really wanted to say something based on a student's pov.

I'm thirteen this year, and I was from NAFA (I left 4 years ago)
I went into NAFA when I was in pri.1, having learnt piano for only about a year, my parents brought me there to try for grade 2 piano.
I'm not sure why you brought your kids to NAFA, but for my parents, that was because my earlier piano tchr moved hse & it was troublesome for us to go there. Thus, my parents wanted to look for a new piano tchr & they heard that NAFA had gd tchrs.

anyway, so I tried for the test & in my opinion, flunked the test really badly- I don't really remember well (i was only pri 1 back then) but I guess I did well for the playing section & the sight reading one, though I completely failed the aural section because I just can't sing...even when I did my grade 8 two years ago, I still failed my aural section.

However, much to my surprise, I got into NAFA!
nevertheless, life in NAFA wasn't a bed of roses for me starting then, and I found it to be very stressful. I wasn't the type who would practise piano for 4-5 hours a day nor was I gifted/talented in music. I remember attending additional theory lessons & aural lessons outside of those provided by NAFA as I couldnt cope with them. and certainly the terrible memories of crying my hearts out after being reprimanded & shamed at masterclasses. but no, I was not a crybaby, I just couldnt stand e shame at being scolded by the principal in front of everyone.

eventually, after failing my aural tests quite a no. of times, and getting warning letters (yes, nafa gives warning letters to those who are not performing well), my parents & I decided to leave NAFA when I was in pri.4.
Luckily, I had a gd tchr in NAFA whom I continued lessons with until I finished grd 8 in pri.6. Currently, I am continuing my diploma course with another tchr (also from NAFA) after stopping e lessons during e PSLE period last year.

Okay, so why I am sharing this 1st hand experience here?
I guess it's because I really want parents to reconsider about what choices they make for their kids- even if it's for their own gd, you may say.
for me, I'm really glad that my parents arent kiasu parents, and they would let me try things I wanna do, and they would stop me in time if they realise that I'm struggling (such as the case in NAFA) perhaps that's why I would think I'm doing okay in both my academic and other pursuits.
yes, I would encourage you to let your child try for nafa- if he/she has the talent in music/ she is willing to work really hard. but if he/she doesn't meet the criteria, dn force him/her. Afterall, isn't learning piano supposed to cultivate a good sense of music appreciation- it's supposed to be something that one shld enjoy.
Right now, I still have friends in NAFA who persevered until diploma, but honestly the no. is very little.
oh, just some last words-- the tchrs in NAFA are gd, but some tchrs (fortunately not mine) are very strict & fierce- they r known to smack their students' hands shld they not play well. Yes, there is a chinese proverb that says gd students come frm strict tchrs, but I kind of think that some tchrs are too strict to cultivate any gd sense of music appreciation in students. Also, some tchrs in NAFA focus too much on the technical aspect of playing that e general feeling of music is lost.

yupp, that's all ;D on my part as a student.
btw, even though i didn't score very well for my grd 8, I still love music

Hi, I'm a mother of two girls. I've just joined the forum and am looking for a good piano teacher for my children. I'm glad to have come across your posting. Thanks for sharing your experience as a NAFA student.

Would you be kind enough to recommend me the NAFA teacher whom you've been learning from? I'm not a pianist myself, but I hope at least to provide my children with a good learning environment.

Thank you.