All About Choosing Piano Schools And Teachers

[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:

[waiyean]

phankao:

waiyean:

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?

Yes, almost the entire lesson is spent by teacher teaching how to play the pieces well. Teacher does demonstrate and teach bar by bar how she wants it to be played, down to the precise movement of the fingers and tone. However, there is only time to cover just 1-2 pages of music per lesson, never the entire piece.

I would have thought that most parents will expect teachers to actually teach their child how to play the piece, right? Not assign a piece to be practiced at home, to be played the following week and then move on.

[phankao]

waiyean:

phankao:

[quote=\"waiyean\"]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?

Yes, almost the entire lesson is spent by teacher teaching how to play the pieces well. Teacher does demonstrate and teach bar by bar how she wants it to be played, down to the precise movement of the fingers and tone. However, there is only time to cover just 1-2 pages of music per lesson, never the entire piece.

I would have thought that most parents will expect teachers to actually teach their child how to play the piece, right? Not assign a piece to be practiced at home, to be played the following week and then move on.[/quote]That's nice. My son's piano teacher spends long time on polishing too. It's the other teacher for the other instrument who does expect more independent learning. And I thought yours would be similar in style. Barely much time spent on polishing. Only on etudes. And then you make the statement of \"might as well not have teacher\". Yikes!

[waiyean]

phankao:

That's nice. My son's piano teacher spends long time on polishing too. It's the other teacher for the other instrument who does expect more independent learning. And I thought yours would be similar in style. Barely much time spent on polishing. Only on etudes. And then you make the statement of \"might as well not have teacher\". Yikes!

Lol... I know what you mean. But then, like you say, it's another instrument.... different style perhaps. Lots of polishing.... need to take videos during lessons and zoom in close in order to follow at home.