All About Choosing Piano Schools And Teachers

[waiyean]

metz:

Waiyean,

I see. My daughter started doing grade 1 at around 4.5 yo. Her 1 hour lesson was enough to cover aural, theory and mostly practical. To be fair, her teacher did not cover aural during all lessons. But we weren't going for graded exams.

Perhaps you want to elaborate on what you mean by not enough time. By not enough time, do you mean the teacher wasn't able to cover more songs than you would like? Or she didn't get detailed enough with the playing?

Hi Metz,
Yes, I mention not enough time, because she wasn't able to play the pieces that she practiced during the week during the lesson for the teacher to comment on. Also, although teacher was teaching theory, there was insufficient time to really pace it according to the practical grade, ie. she was still doing grade 1 theory while doing grade 2 practical, and doing grade 2 theory while doing grade 3 practical.

Teacher often have to extend lessons, or call back for extra classes within the same week to catch up, or polish up certain pieces. It happened then, it is still happening now. Probably nothing to do with teachers, but my daughter just need more lesson time.

Hence, I am always very amazed by teachers who can teach practical, theory and aural in 30-45 mins a week.

[Dreamaurora]

waiyean:

metz:

Waiyean,

I see. My daughter started doing grade 1 at around 4.5 yo. Her 1 hour lesson was enough to cover aural, theory and mostly practical. To be fair, her teacher did not cover aural during all lessons. But we weren't going for graded exams.

Perhaps you want to elaborate on what you mean by not enough time. By not enough time, do you mean the teacher wasn't able to cover more songs than you would like? Or she didn't get detailed enough with the playing?

Hi Metz,
Yes, I mention not enough time, because she wasn't able to play the pieces that she practiced during the week during the lesson for the teacher to comment on. Also, although teacher was teaching theory, there was insufficient time to really pace it according to the practical grade, ie. she was still doing grade 1 theory while doing grade 2 practical, and doing grade 2 theory while doing grade 3 practical.

Teacher often have to extend lessons, or call back for extra classes within the same week to catch up, or polish up certain pieces. It happened then, it is still happening now. Probably nothing to do with teachers, but my daughter just need more lesson time.

Hence, I am always very amazed by teachers who can teach practical, theory and aural in 30-45 mins a week.

From a teaching perspective, it is not practical to go through all the pieces a student has practiced in a lesson. I would normally listen to all the pieces a student is practicing once a lesson, then I would work on one or two pieces in greater details. For theory, I don't go through grade by grade to match the practical grade; I personally feel theory should be much more hands on and has a greater synergy with the practical. For example let's say a student learns that a minim is 4 quavers in value; I will then give an easy piece containing plenty of minims and quavers to reinforce this concept.

I don't think it's possible to cover all these components in 30-45 minutes a week consistently. So teachers who teach with this limitation has to carefully ration the learning. Students and parents should also lower expectations accordingly. A student with full one hour practical with separate aural/theory sessions every week will obviously progress much faster.

[waiyean]

Dreamaurora:

For theory, I don't go through grade by grade to match the practical grade; I personally feel theory should be much more hands on and has a greater synergy with the practical. For example let's say a student learns that a minim is 4 quavers in value; I will then give an easy piece containing plenty of minims and quavers to reinforce this concept.

Hi Dreamaurora,
If the theory lags the practical by 1-2 grades, then would you face the danger of having the student at grade 6 practical, but without the necessary grade 5 theory? Or do you jump straight into grade 5 theory preparation, potentially skipping some contents in grade 3-4 theory?[quote]I don't think it's possible to cover all these components in 30-45 minutes a week consistently. So teachers who teach with this limitation has to carefully ration the learning. Students and parents should also lower expectations accordingly.[/quote]Hence in these cases, would you not suggest an adjustment to the lesson duration? This is exactly what I meant in above posts, where i mention that there is not enough lesson time. In situations where the student has the capacity to go faster, but limited by the lesson duration per week, should parents just lower expectations, or should they request for additional lessons? Would appreciate your views as a teacher.

[phankao]

waiyean:

If the theory lags the practical by 1-2 grades, then would you face the danger of having the student at grade 6 practical, but without the necessary grade 5 theory? Or do you jump straight into grade 5 theory preparation, potentially skipping some contents in grade 3-4 theory?

Much of the theory items, the child would have come across as they work on their practical as well. So a matter of rounding up knowledge and organising it for a theory exam. That's my view (as parent, not educator).

Furthermore, as most of my kids do not do piano, this is not an unusual practice - to just have practical lessons without theory and then later just have concentrated theory lessons just to take the exams. eg. my elder boy did his grade 3 theory exam when he was doing grade 4 practical. He only worked on grade 5 theory while doing his grade 8 practical. All theory work only lasted a very short while bc its concentrated work and they progress fast as a result.

[phankao]

metz:

As I understand from friends the MEP is a pretty interesting program which my son may be interested, I am letting him take the abrsm exam in the near future. .

It depends. If your child is more interested in Performing only, then MEP may bore him/her. But if the child is interested in broader aspects including lots of theory and history and composition, and aural too, then he can excel in MEP.

[phankao]

Imami:

Now that you mention, actually the teacher also tested on simple math. My son is given a numeral and then he has to pick different notes with different counts which total up to the same as the numeral. Erm something like this: numeral given: 13. He has to pick 1 crotchet (1 x 1 note) + 2 semibreve (2 x 4 notes) + 1 minim ( 1 x 2 notes).

Yes, it's good to be proficient in Math for Music. Lots of \"algebra\" and symbols there! ;D

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3824/9684911576_3682dfae72_n.jpg\">
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3824/9684911576_3682dfae72_z.jpg

[waiyean]

phankao:

Imami:

Now that you mention, actually the teacher also tested on simple math. My son is given a numeral and then he has to pick different notes with different counts which total up to the same as the numeral. Erm something like this: numeral given: 13. He has to pick 1 crotchet (1 x 1 note) + 2 semibreve (2 x 4 notes) + 1 minim ( 1 x 2 notes).

Yes, it's good to be proficient in Math for Music. Lots of \"algebra\" and symbols there! ;D

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3824/9684911576_3682dfae72_n.jpg\">
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3824/9684911576_3682dfae72_z.jpg

That answer on the first line is not correct right? Should be crotchet instead of 2 quavers?
Haha, but it's been a long time since I did theory.

[phankao]

waiyean:

phankao:

[quote=\"Imami\"]


Now that you mention, actually the teacher also tested on simple math. My son is given a numeral and then he has to pick different notes with different counts which total up to the same as the numeral. Erm something like this: numeral given: 13. He has to pick 1 crotchet (1 x 1 note) + 2 semibreve (2 x 4 notes) + 1 minim ( 1 x 2 notes).

Yes, it's good to be proficient in Math for Music. Lots of \"algebra\" and symbols there! ;D

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3824/9684911576_3682dfae72_n.jpg\">
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3824/9684911576_3682dfae72_z.jpg

That answer on the first line is not correct right? Should be crotchet instead of 2 quavers?
Haha, but it's been a long time since I did theory. [/quote]Well, it's not wrong in terms of \"math\". But I leave him be since he loves exercising his creativity. His teacher doesn't do any theory with him. We do it for fun ourselves off and on.

There is plenty time for being \"absolutely politically correct\" when he does finally eventually train for theory exam purposes lah.

[ammonite]

2 quavers is the same as 1 crochet, why wrong? Looking at the rest of the exercise, the child clearly understands the values.

[waiyean]

ammonite:

2 quavers is the same as 1 crochet, why wrong? Looking at the rest of the exercise, the child clearly understands the values.

Yes, that's why I said I did my theory long ago. The question says \"Add a note\". I would have been marked wrong and teacher will smack my head, screaming \"read the question!\"

But nowadays, children are expected to be creative. There is no wrong answers, just better ones. I must be an old dinosaur.