All About Choosing Piano Schools And Teachers

[jedamum]

metz:

My daughter is strong at hearing, so she tends to memorise the song instead of relying on the score once she is familiar with the piece. If she plays a part wrongly, she tends to search out the right notes by hearing. However, if I am beside her, I'll make her read the bar/stanza and practise a couple of times. But usually these are the longer pieces with 6 semiquaver notes in one bar. One of the current 'old' piece is 3 pages long, with some repeats though.

my son also memorise once he is familiar. and also search the notes by hearing.
during practice, i know he needs to read that bar/stanza and practise a few times, but this boy doesnt want to! :stompfeet:
then after a few times, he will increase the tempo or pedal some parts or merge with other songs :faint: ..rather do these kind of stuff then polishing the piece :rant:

[metz]

jedamum:

metz:

My daughter is strong at hearing, so she tends to memorise the song instead of relying on the score once she is familiar with the piece. If she plays a part wrongly, she tends to search out the right notes by hearing. However, if I am beside her, I'll make her read the bar/stanza and practise a couple of times. But usually these are the longer pieces with 6 semiquaver notes in one bar. One of the current 'old' piece is 3 pages long, with some repeats though.

my son also memorise once he is familiar. and also search the notes by hearing.
during practice, i know he needs to read that bar/stanza and practise a few times, but this boy doesnt want to! :stompfeet:
then after a few times, he will increase the tempo or pedal some parts or merge with other songs :faint: ..rather do these kind of stuff then polishing the piece :rant:

Don't worry. As he goes higher level, he will know what he needs to do. When mine was still around 6~7 years old, she hated reading notes and depended mostly on memory and hearing.

Have faith

[jedamum]

metz:

Don't worry. As he goes higher level, he will know what he needs to do. When mine was still around 6~7 years old, she hated reading notes and depended mostly on memory and hearing.

Have faith

thanks!
i am worrying that as he grows older, piano takes a back seat. ie i have to drag him away from his books (he browse them only! not even those detailed reading... :roll: husband said i should stop stocking up books from NLB as it is hindering ds2 from other activities..... :faint: ) so now looking for a teacher who can motivate him.

[Dreamaurora]

jedamum:

Dreamaurora:

[quote=\"jedamum\"]For lower grades, how many pieces a week for a n average player?



Do you guys sit in for the practice?

Or any form of debriefing after practice?

That will depend on what how much practice. But in general for lower grades, my students work on 2 core pieces per week and at least one easier piece (to improve sight reading).

For 5-6 year olds, recommended to sit in as the kids might not have developed sensitivity to mistakes and not critical about their own playing yet; very important especially when acquiring proper technique and posture. 7 years and above should be more independent and normally you can just check after the end of the session if required practice is done, although I do recommend parents to sit in practice for at least first couple months to provide feedback about the technique.

2 new core pieces every week? need to perfect them?

sorry so many questions. we are not going for pract exam next year, so the practice sessions/requirements seem to have shifted and we dont know what to expect. son used to need to only prac exam pcs and maybe 1 or none new pieces a week. after the exam, we were given 3 pcs and son was like :faint: . teacher only went through half of the first pc and told him to attempt the rest. but week after week we only chose to focus on polishing 1 and try sight-reading the others.

noted...will request to sit in if we start on the new one. current centre does not allow parent to sit in.[/quote]Err, quite hard to learn 2 new pieces per week unless extremely dedicated. I typically teach around 5-6 pieces per grade level, but the students must practice them to a decent performance level. What I mean is my students do not usually work on 2 simultaneous pieces at home so they are more focused in learning. The piece may take up to few months to fully internalise and performance ready.

The actual note reading should be done mostly by the students. What I do is I normally demonstrate the piece once and go through at least a few bars, then the rest of the piece student should attempt at home. This way they will cultivate independence and most of my students by the time they reach grade 3 they are capable of picking up a new piece by themselves. Then after the note is done can work on polishing up the pieces.

[Dreamaurora]

jedamum:

metz:

Don't worry. As he goes higher level, he will know what he needs to do. When mine was still around 6~7 years old, she hated reading notes and depended mostly on memory and hearing.

Have faith

thanks!
i am worrying that as he grows older, piano takes a back seat. ie i have to drag him away from his books (he browse them only! not even those detailed reading... :roll: husband said i should stop stocking up books from NLB as it is hindering ds2 from other activities..... :faint: ) so now looking for a teacher who can motivate him.

Hmm, maybe stock up music books from NLB Esplanade instead?

[Dreamaurora]

metz:

jedamum:

[quote=\"metz\"]
My daughter is strong at hearing, so she tends to memorise the song instead of relying on the score once she is familiar with the piece. If she plays a part wrongly, she tends to search out the right notes by hearing. However, if I am beside her, I'll make her read the bar/stanza and practise a couple of times. But usually these are the longer pieces with 6 semiquaver notes in one bar. One of the current 'old' piece is 3 pages long, with some repeats though.

my son also memorise once he is familiar. and also search the notes by hearing.
during practice, i know he needs to read that bar/stanza and practise a few times, but this boy doesnt want to! :stompfeet:
then after a few times, he will increase the tempo or pedal some parts or merge with other songs :faint: ..rather do these kind of stuff then polishing the piece :rant:

Don't worry. As he goes higher level, he will know what he needs to do. When mine was still around 6~7 years old, she hated reading notes and depended mostly on memory and hearing.

Have faith :)[/quote]Not all students will. From my experience, if good habits are not incorporated from the very beginning, it's very hard to pick them up later.

[metz]

Dreamaurora:

metz:

[quote=\"jedamum\"]
my son also memorise once he is familiar. and also search the notes by hearing.
during practice, i know he needs to read that bar/stanza and practise a few times, but this boy doesnt want to! :stompfeet:
then after a few times, he will increase the tempo or pedal some parts or merge with other songs :faint: ..rather do these kind of stuff then polishing the piece :rant:

Don't worry. As he goes higher level, he will know what he needs to do. When mine was still around 6~7 years old, she hated reading notes and depended mostly on memory and hearing.

Have faith

Not all students will. From my experience, if good habits are not incorporated from the very beginning, it's very hard to pick them up later.[/quote]That's where the expertise of the teacher comes in - to motivate and encourage the child to sight read.

[ammonite]

I am pretty good at sight reading and very poor at memorizing. I am personally very impressed by those who can memorize a piece easily or play by ear!

[happyfeet11]

Dreamaurora:

happyfeet11:

Hi jedamum,


Thank you so much for your reply! Good to know it's close to market rate. Was just getting a bit concerned what I did a google search & found much lower rates.

Anyway what is your view on necessity of grading & also just how of curiosity, how to determine if piano teacher is good or not? Like will they share tips on piano learning etc. Current teacher sort of just go through piano scores & then self practice thereafter I mean is this the norm? I mean like to put it bluntly, can just self teach...you know what I mean...

I have some worries that if change & the next teacher is worse then need to go through whole cycle again... =(

I wonder why theory lessons need to separate charge?

What is a good teacher will depend on what you are looking for in music lessons. To some, a good teacher is one who can produce consistent distinction results and push his/her students through the grades fast. To some, a good teacher is someone who is inspirational, motivating, and can impart love and appreciation of music. And often a good trait may conflict with others e.g. a teacher who produces very good results may not be the most motivating and patient teacher and vice versa.

But what I feel is a common trait among all good music teachers is a focused and methodical approach towards learning. This means a good teacher sets clear long and short term goals that the student can work towards to, whether it's something simple such as completing pieces or major ones such as exams.

Regarding practicing, good teachers would be specific in what the students should aim for in practicing e.g. by next week these bars should be faster etc. If a teacher just say practice the piece without being specific what to achieve, probably he/she is quite clueless.

Actually I'd prefer someone who is inspirational, motivating, and can impart love and appreciation of music. After all that is the joy in piano playing. I'm not really too concerned in results but just want to check like what's the gauge for comparison? How to know if they are really at the level that the teacher say they are? I wouldn't want my child to be going too fast for his ability and also as you know charges differ for every level upgrade.

Currently teacher did not really set goals but to be fair I didn't ask. But anyway I wouldn't know what to ask haha...But a progress book have been kept on his progress so far and what needs to be improved etc.

[happyfeet11]

Dreamaurora:

jedamum:

[quote=\"Dreamaurora\"]

Err, quite hard to learn 2 new pieces per week unless extremely dedicated. I typically teach around 5-6 pieces per grade level, but the students must practice them to a decent performance level. What I mean is my students do not usually work on 2 simultaneous pieces at home so they are more focused in learning. The piece may take up to few months to fully internalise and performance ready.

The actual note reading should be done mostly by the students. What I do is I normally demonstrate the piece once and go through at least a few bars, then the rest of the piece student should attempt at home. This way they will cultivate independence and most of my students by the time they reach grade 3 they are capable of picking up a new piece by themselves. Then after the note is done can work on polishing up the pieces.

[/quote]
Hi Dreamaurora ,

Are you a piano teacher? Mind sharing what good habits do you mean?