All About Choosing Piano Schools And Teachers

[Imami]

Dreamaurora:

Imami:

Normally, how soon would teachers get the students to play simple stuff like twinkle twinkle little star(no left hand)?

Depends on teacher. For me, I teach pieces with progressive intervals. Twinkle Little Stars has intervals of fifths along with a change in hand position, so normally the students will only encounter that after a few lessons.

Ooh ok. So that's normal. I was kind of shock that the teacher had it as a homework for my son. I didn't know what to expect and hence the question.

[Imami]

Dreamaurora:

Hmm, 10 months for grade 1 pieces are way too long. Moving on, I think if another exam is attemted the pieces are going to get harder and if the same trend continues, this will kill your son's interest. You might want to check if the teacher goes through sight-reading, aural, etc on a regular basis. Like I mentioned before, students often learn slowly because their foundation is weak.

The way your son practices is common among many young children, that is why the teacher needs to be specific in what is to be practiced during the week.

Dreamaurora, what about my case? If I am neutral to grading exam and had told the teacher that I would let my son go with the flow and see how/where he can go, what target shd I set?

While I am no keen on grading exam (I think it would kill my son's interest to get him practice and practice, nagging on the fingering etc), I am not close to the idea. I just take the cue from the teacher and see how my son respond to it.

[waiyean]

Imami:

There are just too many distraction, too many \"more impt thing\" in singapore's context. Time and money, are never enough.

Many a times, it's all about priority and what you view as important.
Instead of watching TV, child can practice piano.
Instead of going on vacation, can buy upright.
Instead of buying a new car (or maybe just the COE), can buy grand.

But, I do agree... they are never enough.

[Imami]

waiyean:

Many a times, it's all about priority and what you view as important.
Instead of watching TV, child can practice piano.
Instead of going on vacation, can buy upright.
Instead of buying a new car (or maybe just the COE), can buy grand.

But, I do agree... they are never enough.

I hv no problem for two and three. Family vacations and new car is under hubby's budget but if say I hv to pay for them, then I would have adopted what you had said. If really cannot, then have the purchase placed on installment.

But for first point, what I view as impt is not impt at all, since it's my skn who is learning the piano. He needs to see that watching tv is not as impt, not me. The problem is then how to engage him and get him to practice.

[phankao]

Imami:

Dreamaurora:

[quote=\"Imami\"]Normally, how soon would teachers get the students to play simple stuff like twinkle twinkle little star(no left hand)?

Depends on teacher. For me, I teach pieces with progressive intervals. Twinkle Little Stars has intervals of fifths along with a change in hand position, so normally the students will only encounter that after a few lessons.

Ooh ok. So that's normal. I was kind of shock that the teacher had it as a homework for my son. I didn't know what to expect and hence the question.[/quote]Don't be too shocked either. I told you twinkle was taught at first lesson for my boy. That's bc he does the Suzuki programme under a Suzuki piano teacher. As many of you might know, Suzuki starts off with the Twinkle variations. So it's just a different school of teaching .

[phankao]

Imami:

Dreamaurora:

[quote=\"Imami\"]Normally, how soon would teachers get the students to play simple stuff like twinkle twinkle little star(no left hand)?

Depends on teacher. For me, I teach pieces with progressive intervals. Twinkle Little Stars has intervals of fifths along with a change in hand position, so normally the students will only encounter that after a few lessons.

Ooh ok. So that's normal. I was kind of shock that the teacher had it as a homework for my son. I didn't know what to expect and hence the question.[/quote]Don't be too shocked either. I told you twinkle was taught at first lesson for my boy. That's bc he does the Suzuki programme under a Suzuki piano teacher. As many of you might know, Suzuki starts off with the Twinkle variations. So it's just a different school of teaching .

[jedamum]

waiyean:

jedamum:

yes...10 months was very long. he worked out the notes and committed to memory within 2months from purchase of the book. the rest of the 8months involve dynamics, reworking on fingerings

Hopefully, that wasn't the only 3 pieces he worked on in those 10 months? Is he looking forward to learning the pieces for the next exam?

I have to say that I was the one pushing for other pieces to be played. We picked out our own pieces and he just play for his teacher for fun. Lessons then was only thirty min. We did our own old songs play list too. And christmas songs, etc.
No practical exams planned next year, so I didn't ask him about exams yet.

[Dreamaurora]

Imami:

Dreamaurora:

Hmm, 10 months for grade 1 pieces are way too long. Moving on, I think if another exam is attemted the pieces are going to get harder and if the same trend continues, this will kill your son's interest. You might want to check if the teacher goes through sight-reading, aural, etc on a regular basis. Like I mentioned before, students often learn slowly because their foundation is weak.

The way your son practices is common among many young children, that is why the teacher needs to be specific in what is to be practiced during the week.

Dreamaurora, what about my case? If I am neutral to grading exam and had told the teacher that I would let my son go with the flow and see how/where he can go, what target shd I set?

While I am no keen on grading exam (I think it would kill my son's interest to get him practice and practice, nagging on the fingering etc), I am not close to the idea. I just take the cue from the teacher and see how my son respond to it.

Personally I feel just because a student is not preparing for a graded exam, it does not mean the standard is lowered. Even without exams, students should still strive to practice their pieces to a good performance standard observing all good traits of playing e.g. good sense of style, good fingering, etc. Other aspects such as technical development, aural and sight-reading are as equally as important to the development of a pianist, exam or no exam.

So, I would suggest that a graded syllabus is still followed, except without the pressure of the deadlines and rigidity of the choice of pieces. So, for example let's say a student has passed grade 2 ABRSM exam and not planning to take any exam for the time being. He will still work towards completing the requirement of grade 3 ABRSM syllabus, but he will be allowed to choose pieces outside the syllabus (as long it's grade 3 level) and he can progress at his own leisurely pace. There should be some sort of assessments to check if he has meet the benchmark e.g. perform the pieces successfully at a student concert, etc.

[Dreamaurora]

Imami:

Dreamaurora:

Often a student's real capability is stifled because of less than ideal instructions, or simply because he/she has not developed the passion and discipline yet. Or could be also the student has poor chemistry with the teacher and as such not motivated to do well.


I was once deemed not teachable to the extent that two teachers actually advise me sternly not to go into music field. But hey, look where I am now. Over the course of my teaching, I have encountered some students who are actually very musical but the parents do not believe that they are. Normally I will try my best to help them and I will try to personally teach them or recommend someone suitable for them, but unfortunately it is often the parents who are unwilling to take the plunge to invest more money and effort to develop their children.

there is definitely much truth in what dream aurora has said. If I could, I would always look for such a teacher to teach me/my kid - those who didn't have a smooth sailing learning journey but has overcome much and has a lot of passion.

There are just too many distraction, too many \"more impt thing\" in singapore's context. Time and money, are never enough.

Thank you. But to be honest, I do wish my journey was a much more smooth one. It did affect me a lot and a lot of opportunities were lost to me. For example, I always wanted to join a piano competition. But by the time I could play decently I was already past the age limit even for smaller competitions.

When I started teaching, because I had very little proper guidance up to my grade 8, I was quite clueless on how to teach because I have no reference model on what a good graded teacher is. I truly regret my first few years of teaching. Although I tried my best, I knew that I neglected a lot of proper teaching methods for my first few students; I am not going to pretend that I did not have failures. It is only recently that I have refined my teaching technique to a passable level. I do wish my first few students could experience the level of teaching I am teaching to my current batch of students now.

[Imami]

phankao:

Don't be too shocked either. I told you twinkle was taught at first lesson for my boy. That's bc he does the Suzuki programme under a Suzuki piano teacher. As many of you might know, Suzuki starts off with the Twinkle variations. So it's just a different school of teaching .

ooh.... I didn't expect something like this would come that soon. But thinking back, what has been covered is enough to do twinkle, so well, maybe it's just me. I thought we still have a while to \"walk\" and \"jump\" on the keys before my son would actually do a real piece.