All About Choosing Piano Schools And Teachers

[scotia]

waiyean:

scotia:

Anyone can advise what to get for beginner? My gal is coming 5yrs old this dec and she's interested to learn piano. Don't want to get a piano yet, cos not sure she can sustain her interest in this. Which keyboard brand or model is Gd for beginner? Thk u!

Hi scotia,
Using a keyboard to learn piano is not a good idea.
Why don't you consider renting a piano instead? They are usually available for rental from 6 months onwards.

I saw from one website $60 per month for a Yamaha Upright piano. Is the price reasonable? Any recommendations?

[waiyean]

scotia:

I saw from one website $60 per month for a Yamaha Upright piano. Is the price reasonable? Any recommendations?

Sent you a PM.

[scotia]

waiyean:

scotia:

I saw from one website $60 per month for a Yamaha Upright piano. Is the price reasonable? Any recommendations?

Sent you a PM.

Got yr mail, thks! Will call them up
:thankyou:

[Dreamaurora]

waiyean:

jedamum:

For us, i get my son to sight read as much as he can for new pieces and familiarize with the notes for portion that the teacher has not taught. Skip portions where he can't figure out the markings. Then when teacher fine tune during lesson, he can absorb more readily than still trying to work the keys.

Yeah, I guess that's the right approach. Going up the grades, I doubt there's any expectations of having the teacher just \"teaching the notes\". Spending valuable lesson time to \"learn the notes\" is a waste of time and money. Teacher will usually let us know what piece to prepare weeks ahead, then we will hunt down the scores, and practise it till it's memorized and can be played fluently. That way, when first presented to the teacher, time can be utilized for polishing.

This should be the right way and parental involvement are important in the early stages. And for those young ones who plan to take higher grades, the parents should ideally be involved all the way to grade 8.

The issues I encounter in my teaching is that some parents tend to assume that if the kids are motivated, they will practice automatically and magically play well. And if they don't see the kids practicing they assume loss of interest. These parents normally do not know how to play instruments and so are unaware of the level of complexity associated with learning piano. So, valuable lessons time is often used to 'learn the notes' because the kids often do not practice well at home. Young kids will not know how to segment their practice and often lack the more discerning ears that adults have. I always implore parents to sit down together with their kids at home to practice. Don't know how to play piano never mind, at least can direct their practice e.g. play this phrase a few times. If left to their own, most young kids will just keep playing their songs over and over again from beginning to end without consciously trying to fix mistakes along the way.

[Miaor]

Dreamaurora:

This should be the right way and parental involvement are important in the early stages. And for those young ones who plan to take higher grades, the parents should ideally be involved all the way to grade 8.

The issues I encounter in my teaching is that some parents tend to assume that if the kids are motivated, they will practice automatically and magically play well. And if they don't see the kids practicing they assume loss of interest. These parents normally do not know how to play instruments and so are unaware of the level of complexity associated with learning piano. So, valuable lessons time is often used to 'learn the notes' because the kids often do not practice well at home. Young kids will not know how to segment their practice and often lack the more discerning ears that adults have. I always implore parents to sit down together with their kids at home to practice. Don't know how to play piano never mind, at least can direct their practice e.g. play this phrase a few times. If left to their own, most young kids will just keep playing their songs over and over again from beginning to end without consciously trying to fix mistakes along the way.

I wish our teacher let me know this from day one. I used to be one of the parents assuming loss of interest if kids don't want to practice. The problem is not only lack of enough time to sit down with the practice, I also find it challenge to pick on mistakes. My kid could be very defencive and even collapses if being asked to repeat many times. Having interest in music can hardly motivate kids to practice properly and it does take some time for parents to realize this fact. :slapshead:

[waiyean]

Dreamaurora:

Young kids will not know how to segment their practice and often lack the more discerning ears that adults have. I always implore parents to sit down together with their kids at home to practice. Don't know how to play piano never mind, at least can direct their practice e.g. play this phrase a few times. If left to their own, most young kids will just keep playing their songs over and over again from beginning to end without consciously trying to fix mistakes along the way.

I don't blame the young kids. As an adult who has been trained in piano, I still have difficulties at times discerning if my DD is playing it correctly, despite me sitting in on all her lessons.

This is where I find having videos of the lessons help a lot. Constant references to the videos during practice at home enable DD to follow the teacher's demo more closely.

[phankao]

waiyean:

Dreamaurora:

Young kids will not know how to segment their practice and often lack the more discerning ears that adults have. I always implore parents to sit down together with their kids at home to practice. Don't know how to play piano never mind, at least can direct their practice e.g. play this phrase a few times. If left to their own, most young kids will just keep playing their songs over and over again from beginning to end without consciously trying to fix mistakes along the way.

I don't blame the young kids. As an adult who has been trained in piano, I still have difficulties at times discerning if my DD is playing it correctly, despite me sitting in on all her lessons.

This is where I find having videos of the lessons help a lot. Constant references to the videos during practice at home enable DD to follow the teacher's demo more closely.

Some techniques, you stare at the video for long time also find hard to replicate, right? Esp on violin? hahhaha!

[fifiyeo]

Don’t think our teacher will allow video taking. I asked if I need or should sit in with DS and she said no right from the start.

[cathylmg]

My dd’s teacher jumped certain pieces in the practical book. I was wondering whether will she miss out on certain things? Does your child’s piano teacher teaches everything on the same book?

[Dreamaurora]

cathylmg:

My dd's teacher jumped certain pieces in the practical book. I was wondering whether will she miss out on certain things? Does your child's piano teacher teaches everything on the same book?

This is perfectly normal and in fact it is much more beneficial to focus on selected pieces from a method book at the beginning stage. These selected pieces have to be practiced to a good standard with all the proper technique and expression.