All About Choosing Piano Schools And Teachers

[Blue Pearl]

From which grade should the child be able to sing in order to get the pitch correct? Wow, does not seem an easy journey.

[Dreamaurora]

pianoprincess:

littlecloud:

Hi all


Thank you for the reponses and PMs on my questions.

I have another question, albeit a bit kind of sensitive, but would appreciate your honest sharing.

If you have decided to terminate piano lesson with a piano teacher, generally what is the policy? Mine require one month notice or still have to pay one month fees. Furthermore, she is entitled to one week term break so still have to pay one whole month for Dec even if give notice now. When we stopped piano lesson with another piano teacher before the current one (they were with her for four/five years), she waived the one month notice so that we can start earlier with another teacher to prepare them for exam and to save time.

I just feel kind of meaningless to continue lessons as she will not be the one preparing them for exams, so she might just \"go through motions\"? If you had prior experience, can you share how do you handle such situations? I understand that teachers also have to pay their bills, but my girl probably feel kind of akward as she asked \"What if teacher asked if we had found a new teacher, what should we say?\".

Envy those who have the same piano teacher since they started piano lessons. But not everyone is lucky to find a suitable one all the way. Headache.

Dear littlecloud,

to answer your questions from the previous post- i think Dreamaurora has given very good answers. At your children's ages theory concepts should not be as difficult to grasp and should not take a full year to learn but considering that the theory exam your teacher has planned for is coming soon, it does make sense to want to have extra lessons during the school holidays to make sure your girls are confident of passing. Composing is required but it's very simple.

As for fees and policies they differ with each teacher, as your current teacher has already informed you of her policies beforehand and you have accepted it when you decided to register with her, it would be difficult to shy out of giving her 1 month's notice . Assuming that you are still planning for your girls to take the theory exam in march 2014, registration starts today and in such a short time from registration to exam, it may not be ideal to do a sudden switch of teachers as well.

Do communicate with your teacher about your doubts and do remember to register your girls for the exam should you decide to let them proceed with the march 2014 theory exams! Best of luck!

Giving one month's notice is one of those policies that I think can cause a lot consternations. Music schools often take a deposit that will be forfeited if the notice period is not fulfilled. I know the logic behind this is to create a safety net for the teacher so he/she can still have income during the transition period. But established teachers whose slots suddenly open up often do not have the luxury of waiting one month for the incoming student to serve the notice period; I know parents who simply forfeit the deposit or just simply pay the outgoing teacher free one month fee.

So my take is if the teacher had made clear at the start of her engagement that a one month notice period is to be given, then I think the notice period should be served out of goodwill and respect for the teacher. But if the teacher arbitrarily suddenly says there is a notice period to be served when the student wishes to withdraw, then it is up to the student/parent to follow it. In any case, I would suggest any parents who wish to change teacher to end the engagement as amicably as possible.

[Dreamaurora]

Blue Pearl:

From which grade should the child be able to sing in order to get the pitch correct? Wow, does not seem an easy journey.

From beginner. Even no exam is taken, there are many good reasons for a pianist to be able to sing decently. Anyway, ABRSM grade 1-8 requires singing for the aural tests, so no escape.

[sleepy]

littlecloud:

Envy those who have the same piano teacher since they started piano lessons. But not everyone is lucky to find a suitable one all the way. Headache.

My dd is with her 5th teacher. So you are not alone


And her current teacher refuses to teach aural. Teacher only covering exam pieces and scales. And so far neglecting sight reading.
Teacher asked us to look for another teacher to teach aural component :frustrated:

[sleepy]

pianoprincess:

One way I have found to be effective is doing vocal \"warm-up\" exercises. By singing in chromatic scales and arpeggios I have found my students who previously could not sing in tune can pitch much better after we practise these warm up exercises.

:thankyou:

[sleepy]

Dreamaurora:

I had this problem with some young students. This is often because the kids did not get enough chance if any to sing at home or school, thus leading to underdeveloped vocal cord and unfamiliarity with basic intervals. One way to fix this is to get the child to sing sight-singing exercises that progresses gradually in difficulty.


These 2 books are great for this purpose

http://www.amazon.com/Singing-Lessons-Little-Singers-Sight-Singing/dp/1450530605/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1385258314&sr=8-1&keywords=sight+singing+for+singers

http://www.amazon.com/Sightsinging-Complete-Musicians-Institute-Essential/dp/0793581915/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1385258314&sr=8-6&keywords=sight+singing+for+singers

It is also helpful to get your kid to sing along while she practice her scale to get her used to the different tonalities and intervals.

:thankyou:

I read up the 2nd book doesn't come with CD. How do we know she is singing the correctly tune?

Does the 1st book come with CDs? Suitable for which grade?

My dd is learning grade 8

[sleepy]

metz:

My son has the same problem when he was younger. He has no problem differentiating the pitch, even on violin. But singing was a great problem. However, he has outgrown this problem now. According to the teacher, his vocal cord is more developed now and that allows him to sing what he hears.

Other than growing older, how did his teacher helped him overcome this?

My dd will be 10 years old next year

[Dreamaurora]

sleepy:

Dreamaurora:

I had this problem with some young students. This is often because the kids did not get enough chance if any to sing at home or school, thus leading to underdeveloped vocal cord and unfamiliarity with basic intervals. One way to fix this is to get the child to sing sight-singing exercises that progresses gradually in difficulty.


These 2 books are great for this purpose

http://www.amazon.com/Singing-Lessons-Little-Singers-Sight-Singing/dp/1450530605/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1385258314&sr=8-1&keywords=sight+singing+for+singers

http://www.amazon.com/Sightsinging-Complete-Musicians-Institute-Essential/dp/0793581915/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1385258314&sr=8-6&keywords=sight+singing+for+singers

It is also helpful to get your kid to sing along while she practice her scale to get her used to the different tonalities and intervals.

:thankyou:

I read up the 2nd book doesn't come with CD. How do we know she is singing the correctly tune?

Does the 1st book come with CDs? Suitable for which grade?

My dd is learning grade 8

None of the sight singing currently comes with CD.

There is a very good software based solution that can check if you are singing correctly as long you have a microphone connected to the PC.

http://shop.avid.com/store/product.do?product=306686955033056

I personally use this and I find that it is invaluable.

[metz]

sleepy:

metz:

My son has the same problem when he was younger. He has no problem differentiating the pitch, even on violin. But singing was a great problem. However, he has outgrown this problem now. According to the teacher, his vocal cord is more developed now and that allows him to sing what he hears.

Other than growing older, how did his teacher helped him overcome this?

My dd will be 10 years old next year

We decided for him to attempt abrsm exam only in late Aug/early Sep this year. So, the teacher didn't work much (as in not exam oriented) on his aural beforehand. In fact, she was greatly relieved after she tested him on his singing.

But we have been attending Church and he does sing hymns now and then. At the moment, he is with the Church choir preparing for Christmas. This could have played an important part in developing his singing. (He doesn't enjoy singing at home like his sister does.)

For preparation for the exam, his teacher is using http://www.amazon.com/Aural-Training-Practice-6-8-Abrsm/dp/1848492472/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1385434974&sr=8-1&keywords=abrsm+aural+training with him. This book comes with CDs as well. For more practice, I am contemplating to get http://www.amazon.com/David-Turnbull-Syllabus-Paperback-Common/dp/B00FKYRYHS/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1385435519&sr=8-4&keywords=Aural+Time!+Grade+8%3A.

[littlecloud]

A big thank-you to Dreamaurora, piano princess and all others who pm-ed, on your honest sharing on the piano lessons, fees and one-month notice period.


Discussed with the piano teacher and she insisted on fulfilling the terms and conditions that we have signed. Whether the next few lessons are going to be effective or not is irrelevant to her.

For parents out there, just take note when you sign as we often don’t think of the bad things that could happen when the relationship first started. We will move on in our search for another piano teacher.