All About Choosing Piano Schools And Teachers
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After reading this long post, I still do not know what the teacher did wrong. Sounds like a very reasonable and patient teacher. Nowhere in the post was it mentioned that the teacher promised 100% distinction. Track record of churning distinction holders does not guarantee it, and is highly dependent on capability of the students and efforts put in.
Just try to relax. I understand the stress that parents go through before a piano exam. Parents always are more anxious than the kid who is taking the exam. Any mistakes made just before the exams feels like the end of the world.
I am just thankful that parents are not allowed to sit in during the exams.
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Hi Phankao,
Can pm me the contact of your tuner.
Thank you. -
waiyean:
Yeah lor, I think it's just a mismatch between expectation and reality. I know it's tempting when we see brilliant kids performing on the stage and then thinking that our kids can achieve the same. Basically it's tempting to believe 'if you put your heart to it, you can achieve anything'.After reading this long post, I still do not know what the teacher did wrong. Sounds like a very reasonable and patient teacher. Nowhere in the post was it mentioned that the teacher promised 100% distinction. Track record of churning distinction holders does not guarantee it, and is highly dependent on capability of the students and efforts put in.
Just try to relax. I understand the stress that parents go through before a piano exam. Parents always are more anxious than the kid who is taking the exam. Any mistakes made just before the exams feels like the end of the world.
I am just thankful that parents are not allowed to sit in during the exams.
One's natural affinity or 'talent' does play a part in achieving a very high standard in performance. Then must have self-motivation and supportive parents. I guess classymadame was just very anxious, but I just feel that it's not exactly right to blame her current predicaments on the teacher who helped prepare her DD for grade 3 despite not being supportive of the move. If a parent attempts to be more critical than me and overrides my authority, I would seriously consider dropping the student.
Anyway, classymadame, on a more constructive note. Perhaps you can try taking piano lessons yourself too and practice together with your DD? Kids tend to follow after good examples set by their parents. Maybe it will be a better approach. -
waiyean:
One of the reasons why I am so pissed off is I was misled about DD’s teacher teaching style. Prior to starting the trial, the teacher allowed me to observe two lessons of her students. She was firm, strict, and had no nonsense approach. I was impressed by the professionalism displayed. The teacher also assessed DD first and she said to me with practice, DD can be trained to achieve distinction, but true, she never promised us distinctions. For the first few lessons, she adopted this no nonsense approach with DD. DD ended up crying at the end of the lessons, but I did not mind as I wanted the teacher to push DD more. But then suddenly from 3rd or 4th lesson onward, the teacher suddenly changed her style and became this extremely patient and encouraging teacher. This is when she started ignoring mistakes DD made and praising DD even though she did not deserve it. I was alarmed and the teacher explained to me that she wanted DD to enjoy lessons and not cried at the end of each lesson. I did not agree with this. If I hire a plumber to fix my toilet, I don’t need him to tell me how nice my toiletries are to make me feel good, I want him to fix my toilet. I hired the teacher to impart a skill to DD, not to make her feel good. My duty as a parent is to ensure DD is well equipped with many skills. I don’t really care if she wants them or not now, she can thank me later when she grows up. I asked the teacher to revert to her initial style with my DD, but she refused, saying that it goes against her principle to do that. I am the paying customer here, shouldn’t she listen to me and accommodate my request? Never mind, lesson learnt, I should have changed teacher before registering DD for her grade 3.After reading this long post, I still do not know what the teacher did wrong. Sounds like a very reasonable and patient teacher. Nowhere in the post was it mentioned that the teacher promised 100% distinction. Track record of churning distinction holders does not guarantee it, and is highly dependent on capability of the students and efforts put in.
Just try to relax. I understand the stress that parents go through before a piano exam. Parents always are more anxious than the kid who is taking the exam. Any mistakes made just before the exams feels like the end of the world.
I am just thankful that parents are not allowed to sit in during the exams. -
Dreamaurora:
I brought my DD to a few teachers before settling with the current teacher. All of them said DD played well and talented. I know DD can play very well if pushed, just sad that her current teacher refused to unlock DD's potential.
Yeah lor, I think it's just a mismatch between expectation and reality. I know it's tempting when we see brilliant kids performing on the stage and then thinking that our kids can achieve the same. Basically it's tempting to believe 'if you put your heart to it, you can achieve anything'.waiyean:
After reading this long post, I still do not know what the teacher did wrong. Sounds like a very reasonable and patient teacher. Nowhere in the post was it mentioned that the teacher promised 100% distinction. Track record of churning distinction holders does not guarantee it, and is highly dependent on capability of the students and efforts put in.
Just try to relax. I understand the stress that parents go through before a piano exam. Parents always are more anxious than the kid who is taking the exam. Any mistakes made just before the exams feels like the end of the world.
I am just thankful that parents are not allowed to sit in during the exams.
One's natural affinity or 'talent' does play a part in achieving a very high standard in performance. Then must have self-motivation and supportive parents. I guess classymadame was just very anxious, but I just feel that it's not exactly right to blame her current predicaments on the teacher who helped prepare her DD for grade 3 despite not being supportive of the move. If a parent attempts to be more critical than me and overrides my authority, I would seriously consider dropping the student.
Anyway, classymadame, on a more constructive note. Perhaps you can try taking piano lessons yourself too and practice together with your DD? Kids tend to follow after good examples set by their parents. Maybe it will be a better approach. -
Kids have their ups and downs. Some kids have no natural talents but they work hard to achieve good results. Some kids are gifted but they are lazy. Parents should know their own kids well before they set relevant expectations. Your teacher was not wrong to adopt a gentler approach since your child cried. Which teacher won't want their students to do well? Music is a long journey, if the child is not disciplined enough on his or her own, there is nothing you can do. Whether gifted or not, self-discipline in practice is mandatory.
I hope you are not offended. Some kids find it a chore to sight-read properly, they rather play pop songs. (I am one of them hehe) I engaged a few good teachers and they do not always pick up all the details but my kid still scores very high distinction because he is very motivated on his own to practise. I never have to invite him to practise. I am sure I can find even better teachers at the same fees but I am contended enough because they are very kind and lenient towards him
If the child is ready, the teacher will be happier to send him for exam because the teacher can demand for higher fees when he passes a grade. Preferably, IMHO, for every grade, the child should be able to sight read around 75% for the exam pieces first, after playing other pieces the teacher have taught. If not, no point going for exam because there will be a lot of difficulty at higher grades.
Look for another teacher if you are not satisfied. Only then you will know discover more about the path. My kid was with nafa but we took him out. His nafa teacher was also very kind and had never ever raised a tone at him, contrary to what I heard. He loved nafa system but we thought with his ability, he will enjoy playing more interesting pieces learning outside. Nafa is good but I know music is not all about certain beliefs. With proper instructions and self discipline, the child can achieve the same success too, albeit the competitions
You will be amazed how many hours the kids spend to join competitions. They should be praised for such tremendous initiative and hardwork. And competitions aren't always the best gauge to determine how good the child is. I myself cannot tolerate coping at home listening to my kid playing same piece again repeatedly (unless no choice for exams) . :evil: -
classymadame:
Music is a lifelong learning process and to cultivate a love for it is really important to keep on going on the long run. I can understand why the teacher started to be encouraging and took a softer approach towards your DD after she was crying at the end of the lesson.
One of the reasons why I am so pissed off is I was misled about DD’s teacher teaching style. Prior to starting the trial, the teacher allowed me to observe two lessons of her students. She was firm, strict, and had no nonsense approach. I was impressed by the professionalism displayed. The teacher also assessed DD first and she said to me with practice, DD can be trained to achieve distinction, but true, she never promised us distinctions. For the first few lessons, she adopted this no nonsense approach with DD. DD ended up crying at the end of the lessons, but I did not mind as I wanted the teacher to push DD more. But then suddenly from 3rd or 4th lesson onward, the teacher suddenly changed her style and became this extremely patient and encouraging teacher. This is when she started ignoring mistakes DD made and praising DD even though she did not deserve it. I was alarmed and the teacher explained to me that she wanted DD to enjoy lessons and not cried at the end of each lesson. I did not agree with this. If I hire a plumber to fix my toilet, I don’t need him to tell me how nice my toiletries are to make me feel good, I want him to fix my toilet. I hired the teacher to impart a skill to DD, not to make her feel good. My duty as a parent is to ensure DD is well equipped with many skills. I don’t really care if she wants them or not now, she can thank me later when she grows up. I asked the teacher to revert to her initial style with my DD, but she refused, saying that it goes against her principle to do that. I am the paying customer here, shouldn’t she listen to me and accommodate my request? Never mind, lesson learnt, I should have changed teacher before registering DD for her grade 3.waiyean:
After reading this long post, I still do not know what the teacher did wrong. Sounds like a very reasonable and patient teacher. Nowhere in the post was it mentioned that the teacher promised 100% distinction. Track record of churning distinction holders does not guarantee it, and is highly dependent on capability of the students and efforts put in.
Just try to relax. I understand the stress that parents go through before a piano exam. Parents always are more anxious than the kid who is taking the exam. Any mistakes made just before the exams feels like the end of the world.
I am just thankful that parents are not allowed to sit in during the exams.
If the child feels motivated, he/she will practice and push on and it can go a long way. If the teacher is the one who is pushing too hard, then it will kill the interest totally.
My DS's piano teacher is also very encouraging and I think that is what kept DS going at a fast pace since he started his lessons back in Dec. DS will never not practice his piano and will often do extra theory work and learn new pieces ahead of what he is taught. His piano classes are something he looks forward to every week. In fact I think he is dying for those praises from his teacher that makes him practice and practice. -
classymadame:
I really respect your DD's teacher for staying true to her principle. I will not hesitate to do the same thing that she had done.
One of the reasons why I am so pissed off is I was misled about DD’s teacher teaching style. Prior to starting the trial, the teacher allowed me to observe two lessons of her students. She was firm, strict, and had no nonsense approach. I was impressed by the professionalism displayed. The teacher also assessed DD first and she said to me with practice, DD can be trained to achieve distinction, but true, she never promised us distinctions. For the first few lessons, she adopted this no nonsense approach with DD. DD ended up crying at the end of the lessons, but I did not mind as I wanted the teacher to push DD more. But then suddenly from 3rd or 4th lesson onward, the teacher suddenly changed her style and became this extremely patient and encouraging teacher. This is when she started ignoring mistakes DD made and praising DD even though she did not deserve it. I was alarmed and the teacher explained to me that she wanted DD to enjoy lessons and not cried at the end of each lesson. I did not agree with this. If I hire a plumber to fix my toilet, I don’t need him to tell me how nice my toiletries are to make me feel good, I want him to fix my toilet. I hired the teacher to impart a skill to DD, not to make her feel good. My duty as a parent is to ensure DD is well equipped with many skills. I don’t really care if she wants them or not now, she can thank me later when she grows up. I asked the teacher to revert to her initial style with my DD, but she refused, saying that it goes against her principle to do that. I am the paying customer here, shouldn’t she listen to me and accommodate my request? Never mind, lesson learnt, I should have changed teacher before registering DD for her grade 3.waiyean:
After reading this long post, I still do not know what the teacher did wrong. Sounds like a very reasonable and patient teacher. Nowhere in the post was it mentioned that the teacher promised 100% distinction. Track record of churning distinction holders does not guarantee it, and is highly dependent on capability of the students and efforts put in.
Just try to relax. I understand the stress that parents go through before a piano exam. Parents always are more anxious than the kid who is taking the exam. Any mistakes made just before the exams feels like the end of the world.
I am just thankful that parents are not allowed to sit in during the exams.
Guess you are one of those tiger mums. That is your parenting belief and that is your right. But nowadays most parents don't just view piano as a skill to be acquired, they want the kids to appreciate and love it as well. That is why nowadays when parents post notices looking for teachers they like to say they look for 'patient and motivating' teacher. And the music teaching industry is also evolving to adapt to this trend.
I understand during the 70s and 80s a lot of GenXs got forced to learn piano whether or not they liked the instrument. The pool of properly trained teachers were also smaller, so the quality of instruction is overall poorer. A lot of GenXs I spoke to who are now in their 40s or 50s recounted tales of extremely dry piano lessons where only exam pieces were taught (and no choosing of pieces) and fierce teachers who were not afraid to use corporal punishment (such as using wooden ruler to hit the hand or using sharp pencil to poke). A lot of them got so scarred when I asked them if they would consider sending their kids to piano lessons they don't want to because of all the negative experiences associated with piano.
But those who do decide to send their kids for music lessons understand that they don't want their kids to go through the same thing with them. And thankfully, teachers nowadays are also better trained and understand the need to motivate the students. So instead of constant negative reinforcement, positive reinforcements are used instead. Even a lot of teachers who had been around for quite some time also adjusted their approach to reflect this trend. The late Ong Lip Tat was known to be very temperamental in the 80s and 90s, but in the millennium he decidedly was kinder and motivating. And I heard even Fang Yuan nowadays have toned down her teaching approach.
So, classymadame, I do urge you to keep an open mind about different approaches to teaching. I applaud you for your dedication and foresight in equipping your DD. But like what other people have replied here, wouldn't it better that your DD be self-motivated to practice instead? That takes time and even for my students most of them take around 2 years before they can self-regulate their learning. -
anybody is going to take ABRSM this year? has the registration started?
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phankao:
Could you share with us your piano tuner? Thank Q.fifiyeo:
I am happy with our piano and the sales girl from piano gallery so far has been helpful. But this tuner is really too much!
Is it free service?
If not - use another one lah. The one I use - I only SMS or whatsapp him. We just fix the timing via texting. no mistake. haha. S$50 each time he tunes the piano.
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