All About Choosing Piano Schools And Teachers

[Fabbymum]

Hi parents,


We recently encounter the worst private home piano teacher around Seletar area and like to share the experience with you, in case you are looking for one.

Due to our ds schooling and enrichment schedules which were getting more hectic in Primary 3, we decided to switch to a nearby private home teacher, with the hope that our ds do not need to travel much for his piano lesson. We lived nearby the Seletar area and upon internet research, found a ‘good, experience, and patience – good in handling children’ teacher, as claimed in various websites. This teacher pride herself to be a top music achiever who had learnt under a renown maestro and she has produced many top scorers in the ABRSM exams. Convinced with her information, we engaged her for a trial lesson everything was fine except the feedback that our ds did not keep his fingers curved during his lesson. This will be something that our ds can improve along the way.

2-3 lessons with her passed and we realized our ds was not so excited in his piano anymore. In fact, we first observed his resisting to attend his weekly piano lesson. Upon asking, our ds told us that the teacher always scolded him and raised her voice many times in her lessons. I was shocked and decided to sit-in for his 4th lesson. True enough, I saw the teacher being so impatient to our ds and in one occasion when our ds was playing the piece for the first time, she expected him to play it perfectly – how ridiculous this is!

She sighed so many times during the lesson (which is so discouraging), nagged and raised her tones many times to our ds. There was progress seen on my ds playing the piano - I thought this was quite good knowing that it was only his 4th lesson with the new teacher.

Decided to speak to her separately on tips to train our ds, I called her a few days after the lesson to explain about our concerns, I was very surprised when she told me that she became inpatient with my son for not following her instruction. I told her that our ds wanted to quit but we will still give it a try, hopefully things will get better when we work with her. To our shock, she mentioned that it is ok for us to quit if our ds refuses to follow her technique! On the same day after the conversation, she smsed me that she has family commitment and hence not able to continue teaching our ds. Our lesson was terminated on the same day. We were utterly shocked by this abrupt behavior of the teacher.

This piano teacher is not only inpatient and liar, she has a fiery temper which makes her unfit to be a piano teacher to the children. Dealing with her is such a nightmare, plus wasting out time and I am not sure if this complaint can be made to CASE? To parents looking for private home piano teacher around Seletar/Yio Chu Kang estate, I hope you do not end up the same place as I did! If you are keen to find out about this teacher, please PM me.

Fabbymum

[Dreamaurora]

Fabbymum:

Hi parents,


We recently encounter the worst private home piano teacher around Seletar area and like to share the experience with you, in case you are looking for one.

Due to our ds schooling and enrichment schedules which were getting more hectic in Primary 3, we decided to switch to a nearby private home teacher, with the hope that our ds do not need to travel much for his piano lesson. We lived nearby the Seletar area and upon internet research, found a ‘good, experience, and patience – good in handling children’ teacher, as claimed in various websites. This teacher pride herself to be a top music achiever who had learnt under a renown maestro and she has produced many top scorers in the ABRSM exams. Convinced with her information, we engaged her for a trial lesson everything was fine except the feedback that our ds did not keep his fingers curved during his lesson. This will be something that our ds can improve along the way.

2-3 lessons with her passed and we realized our ds was not so excited in his piano anymore. In fact, we first observed his resisting to attend his weekly piano lesson. Upon asking, our ds told us that the teacher always scolded him and raised her voice many times in her lessons. I was shocked and decided to sit-in for his 4th lesson. True enough, I saw the teacher being so impatient to our ds and in one occasion when our ds was playing the piece for the first time, she expected him to play it perfectly – how ridiculous this is!

She sighed so many times during the lesson (which is so discouraging), nagged and raised her tones many times to our ds. There was progress seen on my ds playing the piano - I thought this was quite good knowing that it was only his 4th lesson with the new teacher.

Decided to speak to her separately on tips to train our ds, I called her a few days after the lesson to explain about our concerns, I was very surprised when she told me that she became inpatient with my son for not following her instruction. I told her that our ds wanted to quit but we will still give it a try, hopefully things will get better when we work with her. To our shock, she mentioned that it is ok for us to quit if our ds refuses to follow her technique! On the same day after the conversation, she smsed me that she has family commitment and hence not able to continue teaching our ds. Our lesson was terminated on the same day. We were utterly shocked by this abrupt behavior of the teacher.

This piano teacher is not only inpatient and liar, she has a fiery temper which makes her unfit to be a piano teacher to the children. Dealing with her is such a nightmare, plus wasting out time and I am not sure if this complaint can be made to CASE? To parents looking for private home piano teacher around Seletar/Yio Chu Kang estate, I hope you do not end up the same place as I did! If you are keen to find out about this teacher, please PM me.

Fabbymum

Fabbymum,

I am sorry to hear your negative experience with a teacher and I hope you can find a teacher who is a better fit to your boy soon.

Allow me to shed more light on your situation and how to avoid it in the future.

There are teachers whose main purpose is not to develop passion and interest in music. These teachers prioritize proficiency and result in their studio. Now this does not mean they are lousy teachers. It's just that their lessons cater to specific group of students who are already highly self-motivated or parents who want good results no matter the cost. For these teachers, standards have to be maintained to ensure tip top reputation. So they will not hesitate to drop students that they think will not realize their potential. As such, it is common for these teachers to have the best performing students in the country and stellar exam track records.

I think what happens here there is a mismatch of expectation, an issue that could easily be avoided if the teacher had explained clearly her rules, expectations, and teaching styles clearly before commencement of lessons. The teacher most likely realized early that your son is not suitable to study with her, hence her not so subtle hint for you to voluntarily withdraw your son. To be honest with you, there are some established teachers who are even less diplomatic when it comes to terminating unwanted students. Nonetheless, I think at the very least the teacher should have explained to you nicely the reasons she did not want to take up your son and provide references to other teachers who are more suitable for your son.

Rarely teachers will get students who are already self-motivated with high amount of self-discipline required to put in the effort to achieve high standard in playing. Most students will take time to warm up to the piano and the music, and not all may be keen to push themselves early. As a teacher, I am often presented with a dilemma. I try to maintain overall high standard in my studio, but I don't and can't cherry pick students of only the best caliber. As such, I do have my fair share of students who don't put in as much effort as they should or follow my instructions properly. Often I was frustrated to the point that I almost lost my cool. Now, it's very tempting to play dictator with these students. But I continually remind myself that I once was deemed a lousy student and a renowned local teacher actually said to my face that I should not be a pianist and study music full time. But it was thanks to an understanding ex teacher of mine who believed in me and treated me with respect despite my not ideal start in piano. She let me discover my own flaws and guided me to correct them. She could have been very fierce and impatient with me, but thankfully she didn't. If not for her, i would not be where i was today.

Not all students are going to be star performers and bring glory to the teachers by winning prizes, becoming ABRSM high scores, etc. It is important for a parent to understand what the child can and is willing to achieve. And then finding a teacher who is best suited to achieve that goal. I know it is glitzy to study under a teacher who 'trained under renowned maestros and produced high-scorers', and understandably parents tend to gravitate towards teachers with better credentials and track records even when they are looking for 'motivating' teachers. But there are plenty of teachers that do not have glitzy resumes or track records but are equally competent technically. Most important at the end of the day before commencement of lesson (or at the end of trial lesson) all relevant questions regarding learning are asked and clarified.

[Fabbymum]

Hi Dreamaurora,


Yes, you are right to say that there are teachers out there that tend to choose their students for the purpose of glamouring their schools with stellar achievers. You rightly said that teachers play an important part in grooming a talent (as in your case), otherwise this group of black sheep will only tarnish the image of piano teaching professionals. She forgotten how she first learnt piano.

I told her right in the trial lesson that exam is not a priority for us. It is the music appreciation and enjoyment of playing good pieces which matter more to us. If our ds is ready for his exam, so be it. She mentioned that was fine, and only told us that our ds need to improve on his curve fingers. The rest of the session went on well. Our ds has good musical background (Grade 3 drum since 7 years old & school brass band) so I do not think the problem lies with our ds not an achiever/cannot-make-it type. It is the teacher’s terrible teaching behavior that is questionable.

Do you know if there is anywhere complaints for piano teacher can be lodged here in Singapore ?

Thanks,
Fabbymum

[sheena ratha]

Hi mummies and dadas have find a piano teacher @tampines starting my daughter wife her coming week. As she is a beginner do you thing 160x4 lessons is ex? I found her online so not sure abt her juz a trial let’s see how it goes. Keeping my fingers crossed hmmmm… Any mummies knows a piano teacher by the name of Victoria in tampines???

[Dreamaurora]

sheena ratha:

Hi mummies and dadas have find a piano teacher @tampines starting my daughter wife her coming week. As she is a beginner do you thing 160x4 lessons is ex? I found her online so not sure abt her juz a trial let's see how it goes. Keeping my fingers crossed hmmmm... Any mummies knows a piano teacher by the name of Victoria in tampines???????

160 for 4 lessons or 160 for one lesson? If 160 for 4 lessons that is roughly the market rate for a private home-based piano teacher with basic experience and usually with slightly more advanced qualification than grade 8. Those more established ones with better qualifications and track records can charge up to 60-100 per beginner lesson.

[Dreamaurora]

Fabbymum:

Hi Dreamaurora,


Yes, you are right to say that there are teachers out there that tend to choose their students for the purpose of glamouring their schools with stellar achievers. You rightly said that teachers play an important part in grooming a talent (as in your case), otherwise this group of black sheep will only tarnish the image of piano teaching professionals. She forgotten how she first learnt piano.

I told her right in the trial lesson that exam is not a priority for us. It is the music appreciation and enjoyment of playing good pieces which matter more to us. If our ds is ready for his exam, so be it. She mentioned that was fine, and only told us that our ds need to improve on his curve fingers. The rest of the session went on well. Our ds has good musical background (Grade 3 drum since 7 years old & school brass band) so I do not think the problem lies with our ds not an achiever/cannot-make-it type. It is the teacher’s terrible teaching behavior that is questionable.

Do you know if there is anywhere complaints for piano teacher can be lodged here in Singapore ?

Thanks,
Fabbymum

Hi Fabbymum,

like what I said before earlier in this thread, teachers often model their teaching approach after their ex-teachers. So perhaps this teacher was tutored this way. Since it worked for her, so she probably use the same approach with her students now. There are some established local teachers who are also known for their tyrannical teaching approach. But everybody knows they teach that way, and students or parents who engage them do so with awareness of this.

If this teacher you engaged presented to you a false image in an attempt to secure her service to you, then perhaps that will be unethical. From my experience so far, only a select few parents or students prioritize results over enjoyment of learning. These people often do so because they need the result for an academic purpose (e.g. grade 7/8 piano to qualify for DSA MEP). The pool of these students are quite small and naturally they will choose teachers with significant track records or a talent grooming program such as NAFA Young Talent. This does not mean the children groomed this way will not come to love music, it's just that it's understood it is not expected of the teacher to be motivating and patient. The teacher's job in this case is to produce the result required by any means necessary and nothing else. The responsibility to maintain the passion and love for music rest solely on the parents and students.

Most parents would be content to let their children enjoy their initial stages of learning; though exams may be expected at certain points, but it is by no means the end goals. But there may be some gems among this group to be discovered, this is why even result-obsessed teachers may accept 'normal' students and hope they get lucky. Perhaps this may be why you are in this predicament now. If this is the case, I can understand why the teacher acted this way. I would say it is perhaps quite hard to be accepting of others' imperfections if one has been brought up to only expect perfections.

Personally, I feel a teacher should believe that a student is more capable than what the student believe himself/herself could do. Learning music is a journey of self-discovery, and caging students based on some arguably misguided preconceptions only serve to impede this journey.

[Dreamaurora]

Hi everyone,


I am organizing a private masterclass conducted by Miss Toh Chee Hung this Friday June 13th 630-845 PM at West Coast Plaza. The program consists of grade 8-Diploma pieces. The class is not open to walk-in public but if you would like to observe FOC do drop me a PM.

Also, Miss Toh is willing to teach more students up to 930 PM. As such I am opening up the remaining 45 minutes for external students. If you or your child is currently around grade 5-Diploma level and would like personal lesson time with Miss Toh from 845-930 PM, please PM me. Rate at $80 for 20 minutes slot. Especially recommended for students taking exams this coming July-September or participating in the upcoming SMTA Performance Festival.

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[eileen77]

Hello,

I am looking for a piano teacher for my boy. He is 6 years old without any instrument experience. We are living in BT BATOK East Ave 5.

Any recommendation, pls. PM me.

Thanks,
Eileen

[supermom]

Hi all,

i am desperately looking for a good and patient piano teacher who is willing to come to my place in Novena/Balestier area. i have two kids, aged 9 and 6, and we currently have a piano teacher coming to our place now. But alas, i think from my kids’ perspective, there may not be any chemistry between them.i get the same phone calls every week asking if piano lesson can be postponed blah blah. kids have feedbacked that teacher raises her voice too - i am not sure how true is that but my helper have heard her voice from the kitchen. i know that my kids are not so much into piano and not motivated to practice, but the teacher has feedbacked that my kids are doing OK and in fact my son is ready to take his grade 1 practical exam this year. i am at a loss now. it will be such a shame to give up based on a teacher whom my kids dislike but i also need to find a good one who is willing to come to my place. i am open to most weekday slots except Tues and Friday. Can you please pm me if you have any recommendations ?
Thanks a lot in advance.

[nerov]

I am also looking for a music teacher for higher grades and stay in Novena/Balestier area. Please PM if you have any to recommend. Thanks!

supermom:

Hi all,
i am desperately looking for a good and patient piano teacher who is willing to come to my place in Novena/Balestier area. i have two kids, aged 9 and 6, and we currently have a piano teacher coming to our place now. But alas, i think from my kids' perspective, there may not be any chemistry between them.i get the same phone calls every week asking if piano lesson can be postponed blah blah. kids have feedbacked that teacher raises her voice too - i am not sure how true is that but my helper have heard her voice from the kitchen. i know that my kids are not so much into piano and not motivated to practice, but the teacher has feedbacked that my kids are doing OK and in fact my son is ready to take his grade 1 practical exam this year. i am at a loss now. it will be such a shame to give up based on a teacher whom my kids dislike but i also need to find a good one who is willing to come to my place. i am open to most weekday slots except Tues and Friday. Can you please pm me if you have any recommendations ?
Thanks a lot in advance.