All About Choosing Piano Schools And Teachers

[Serendipity]

My DD was taking group piano for a while and switched to individual lessons for a year before she stopped due to lack of motivation. Now it's been nearing a year since she stopped lessons. She was almost going to start on Grade 1 when she stopped.


She's recently agreed to give piano lessons another shot. Any recommendations for a good teacher who can motivate students and piqué their interest? Can go to teacher's home or to music school, pref in the west. Really hope to have the right match this time round. :xedfingers:

[Dreamaurora]

explorer:

Dear teachers


I would like to seek your advice which song is easier to play for grade 8 exam purpose?

- Intermezzo in Eb: No. 1 from Three Intermezzos, Op. 117 Brahms
- Romance, Op. 2 L. Aubert
- Waltz in F, Op. 34 No. 3 Chopin

My child is not very experienced with pedal.

Thank you so much

This question is probably best answered by your child's teacher as he/she will be the best person who understands your child's musical preference and technical limitations.

I do personally play the the Intermezzo and am teaching the Chopin's Waltz to one of my grade 8 students. The Aubert I am not familiar with but I do have the score for it.

The Intermezzo is the most difficult technically out of the 3 I feel due to difficulty in voicing the main melody which is often nested in the middle of the chords and transferred to the thumb of the left hand. This piece also requires a very comfortable reach of at least an octave preferably ninth, if barely reaching nearly impossible to shape the hand to voice the melody. The pedalling is also quite complex here, need to change quite often to keep the clarity of the melody and requiring masterful use of half-pedalling for some passages.

The Aubert's difficulty is quite similar to the Intermezzo, though thankfully the melody stays on the top of the line throughout the piece. Requires frequent change of pedal also to keep the melody clean and not blurred. So I think technically it is easiest out of the three.

The Waltz is easier than it sounds, but it is still a workout playing it up to speed. A lot of the notes fall under the hands comfortably, but the student need to be confident to execute a few of the more tricky jumps here. Need a confident control of various touch to execute the frequent contrasts of more playful and lyrical passages here. Pedalling is most of the time straightforward one per bar or two beats per bar.

[thinkcool]

My boy too, after switching to individual lessons, lost interest!

He wants to continue learning but does not like to
practise for half an hour everyday.
He finds it a chore and me too finds it a chore to get him
to practise everyday.
So I don’t know whether to continue his lessons or not.
He is doing grade 2 now.
My objective is that the teacher can motivate his interest
to play and practise and then prepare him for the relevant exams
when the time comes.

[thinkcool]

Is it possible to produce good results without following conventional practice approach? Is there a teacher who can help students to

be motivated about learning the piano and passing exams well
without making them bored with the usual conventional practice routine and ultimately killing their interest?

[Dreamaurora]

thinkcool:

Is it possible to produce good results without following conventional practice approach? Is there a teacher who can help students to

be motivated about learning the piano and passing exams well
without making them bored with the usual conventional practice routine and ultimately killing their interest?

As the grade goes higher, the motivation to do well should ideally come from the student himself/herself. Yes, it is very much possible to hothouse and spoonfeed the student all the way to a grade 8 distinction, but I imagine not many kids want to learn this way.

Learning piano is a goal-oriented activity. As I have mentioned before, practice is hard work and seldom fun. It is the satisfaction of seeing the progress and the goal becoming closer and closer that keep us practicing. So if your son does not like practicing, perhaps the practice lacks focus and he does not know what to do in his practice sessions other than playing his songs again and again?

And good results is really a team work. In the whole big picture, students, parents and teachers all share equal amount of responsibilities to make it happen. In my teaching practice, students who do very well for exams have good self-discipline and pro-activeness with parents who provide assistance if needed. When one of the factors is missing, it is still possible to do well, but harder of course.

[cathylmg]

My dd who just started grade 1 is give just 1 music piece to practice every week and is expected to play it in a reasonably well manner by the next week before being given a new piece to practice for the subsequent week. Is this a normal practice for music lessons or is it a wasting time?

[goldtrix]

Dear Friends,


My daughter is 4.5 and wants to learn piano. Should I send her to those music intro classes like Cristofori "piano adventures" or should I start her on one-to-one lessons?

Is a music school better or would a teacher coming home more suitable? I will be purchasing a keyboard for home use.

Many Thanks!

[waiyean]

cathylmg:

My dd who just started grade 1 is give just 1 music piece to practice every week and is expected to play it in a reasonably well manner by the next week before being given a new piece to practice for the subsequent week. Is this a normal practice for music lessons or is it a wasting time?

Does the teacher actually teach your DD how to play it well? How much time is spent during lessons going through that piece?

Or is your DD expected to bring it back home and play it well by herself? In that case you probably don't need a teacher then.

[phankao]

waiyean:

cathylmg:

My dd who just started grade 1 is give just 1 music piece to practice every week and is expected to play it in a reasonably well manner by the next week before being given a new piece to practice for the subsequent week. Is this a normal practice for music lessons or is it a wasting time?

Does the teacher actually teach your DD how to play it well? How much time is spent during lessons going through that piece?

Or is your DD expected to bring it back home and play it well by herself? In that case you probably don't need a teacher then.

So your DD's teacher spends a lot of time on teaching how to play well?

[Miaor]

Dreamaurora:

thinkcool:

Is it possible to produce good results without following conventional practice approach? Is there a teacher who can help students to

be motivated about learning the piano and passing exams well
without making them bored with the usual conventional practice routine and ultimately killing their interest?

As the grade goes higher, the motivation to do well should ideally come from the student himself/herself. Yes, it is very much possible to hothouse and spoonfeed the student all the way to a grade 8 distinction, but I imagine not many kids want to learn this way.

Learning piano is a goal-oriented activity. As I have mentioned before, practice is hard work and seldom fun. It is the satisfaction of seeing the progress and the goal becoming closer and closer that keep us practicing. So if your son does not like practicing, perhaps the practice lacks focus and he does not know what to do in his practice sessions other than playing his songs again and again?

And good results is really a team work. In the whole big picture, students, parents and teachers all share equal amount of responsibilities to make it happen. In my teaching practice, students who do very well for exams have good self-discipline and pro-activeness with parents who provide assistance if needed. When one of the factors is missing, it is still possible to do well, but harder of course.

As a parent of a beginner piano student, I didn't realized how much time and energy I had to invest to keep my kid up in piano learning three years ago...a supporting parent really is no less important than a good teacher. I also realized that I made a big mistake by thinking my kid can selfsustain after two years of learning...from the research I did online, a parent of piano student can hardly expect full independance and self-motivation at least before the kid achieved grade 5...unless you are lucky enough to give birth to another Mozart. Sadly piano is not fun for parents only handing out the cheques.:siam: