All About Choosing Piano Schools And Teachers

[Imami]

Parents, when did your kid start learning sight reading? When he/she enrolls for exam?


Teachers, when do you start teaching sight reading?

Was chatting with a parent whose kids will be doing grade 1 exam in Sept 2016. Her kids were complaining about having to learn sight reading and how it was so difficult. It suddenly dawned on me that there are students who only learn/practice sight readin when they are going for exams. Omg, that would be so tough for those going for first exam.

[mummychua]

Dreamaurora:

mummychua:

Hi,


May i know what is the different between, 1to1 lesson in piano sch and 1to1 lesson with individual teacher.

what to look out for when looking for a piano teacher? how do a non-musically train parent evaluate a piano teacher?

I think the qualities that make a private music teacher or music school are largely the same. To evaluate a private or music school teacher, you should have a trial lesson and ask questions that the teacher must be able to answer satisfactorily. Generally, a teacher should be able demonstrate:
- Ability to demonstrate the repertoire of the levels she is able to teach to a high standard
- Ability to engage and communicate ideas to students without resorting to negative approach such as shouting or mean remarks
- Knowledge of exam syllabus and preparation if exam is desired

thanks for the insight. but i suppose any decent piano teacher will be able to play beginner level of song at a very high standard. Will certainly take note on the communication part.

thanks again.

[Applepiedelicious]

Imami:

Parents, when did your kid start learning sight reading? When he/she enrolls for exam?


Teachers, when do you start teaching sight reading?

Was chatting with a parent whose kids will be doing grade 1 exam in Sept 2016. Her kids were complaining about having to learn sight reading and how it was so difficult. It suddenly dawned on me that there are students who only learn/practice sight readin when they are going for exams. Omg, that would be so tough for those going for first exam.

My DD sight-reads since she started learning piano with the current teacher.
She is not allowed to write \"A B C D E F G\" on the book - I think now that you say that, I feel relieved she learns it the hard way. It took her quite some time to feel comfortable with this method.

If they only sight-read for exams, then how are they playing the pieces during normal lesson (without exam)? or even the pieces for exam?

[Maple Oak]

Applepiedelicious:

Imami:

Parents, when did your kid start learning sight reading? When he/she enrolls for exam?


Teachers, when do you start teaching sight reading?

Was chatting with a parent whose kids will be doing grade 1 exam in Sept 2016. Her kids were complaining about having to learn sight reading and how it was so difficult. It suddenly dawned on me that there are students who only learn/practice sight readin when they are going for exams. Omg, that would be so tough for those going for first exam.

My DD sight-reads since she started learning piano with the current teacher.
She is not allowed to write \"A B C D E F G\" on the book - I think now that you say that, I feel relieved she learns it the hard way. It took her quite some time to feel comfortable with this method.

If they only sight-read for exams, then how are they playing the pieces during normal lesson (without exam)? or even the pieces for exam?

My thoughts exactly... technically, sight reading is just a test of how fast a person can see a score and translate it... so there has been plenty of \"sight reading practice\" along the way... provided as applepie has said, the short cut of labelling A B C D E F G is not taken..

[waiyean]

Imami:

Parents, when did your kid start learning sight reading? When he/she enrolls for exam?


Teachers, when do you start teaching sight reading?

Was chatting with a parent whose kids will be doing grade 1 exam in Sept 2016. Her kids were complaining about having to learn sight reading and how it was so difficult. It suddenly dawned on me that there are students who only learn/practice sight readin when they are going for exams. Omg, that would be so tough for those going for first exam.

Isn't sight reading needed from the moment you learn how to read music? By \"learning\" sight reading, do you mean being familiar with the exam conditions, ie. given a short passage, 30 seconds to go through it, taking note of all directions, then plays it through without stopping? If that's what you meant, then yes, you can start doing it upon registering for the exams. However, I am assuming that the child has already got lots of practice reading scores / exam pieces / other repertoires, etc.

Being proficient in sight reading can only come from practice. That's bad, because it means everyone needs to put in effort to do it well. That's good, because it also means everyone can improve if they do it.

[Imami]

waiyean:

Imami:

Parents, when did your kid start learning sight reading? When he/she enrolls for exam?


Teachers, when do you start teaching sight reading?

Was chatting with a parent whose kids will be doing grade 1 exam in Sept 2016. Her kids were complaining about having to learn sight reading and how it was so difficult. It suddenly dawned on me that there are students who only learn/practice sight readin when they are going for exams. Omg, that would be so tough for those going for first exam.

Isn't sight reading needed from the moment you learn how to read music? By \"learning\" sight reading, do you mean being familiar with the exam conditions, ie. given a short passage, 30 seconds to go through it, taking note of all directions, then plays it through without stopping? If that's what you meant, then yes, you can start doing it upon registering for the exams. However, I am assuming that the child has already got lots of practice reading scores / exam pieces / other repertoires, etc.

Being proficient in sight reading can only come from practice. That's bad, because it means everyone needs to put in effort to do it well. That's good, because it also means everyone can improve if they do it.

Yeah yeah, that's what I mean. What's the proper term to describe that? Sight reading?

This kid I was talking about is still at the \"write notes\" stage. She needs to label some of the notes for each new piece she learns. Not all the notes but perhaps a few notes in each phrase. In this light, I don't think she is well prepared.

While my son doesn't take the exams, his teacher prepares him for sight reading ie get the sight reading book and have him play according to exam condition. I feel that this is so much kinder to the child than to plunge into it only months before the exam, having never really prepare the child for it.

[pirate]

Imami:

This kid I was talking about is still at the \"write notes\" stage. She needs to label some of the notes for each new piece she learns. Not all the notes but perhaps a few notes in each phrase. In this light, I don't think she is well prepared.

In my view, it is best to not even start to label any note in the score. The sooner the child internalizes reading the 'beansprouts' the better. The younger the child is when he/she starts, the faster he/she can internalize it. It is like learning languages - start them young.

[Imami]

pirate:

Imami:

This kid I was talking about is still at the \"write notes\" stage. She needs to label some of the notes for each new piece she learns. Not all the notes but perhaps a few notes in each phrase. In this light, I don't think she is well prepared.

In my view, it is best to not even start to label any note in the score. The sooner the child internalizes reading the 'beansprouts' the better. The younger the child is when he/she starts, the faster he/she can internalize it. It is like learning languages - start them young.

Heng ah, my son is passed that stage already so I need not worry about him reading or not reading. He also started off labeling notes but one day one of his teachers stopped him from doing that. We followed the teacher's instruction and did that for other teachers too. That's when he started playing and reading.

However, to do it under exam condition, it was slightly later - when he was doing grade 1 syllabus, although not taking exam.


:offtopic: Anyone with kids doing drum or other non-pitch percussion or even instruments using other clef eg viola? I can't see the connection but I suspect ghe practice of reading piano/violin notes help my son reading drum notes pretty well too.

[totorosy]

On the question, how does a parent who is not musically-trained, evaluate a teacher, here’s my two-cents:


1. Check whether the kids under the teacher look happy. Real learning only takes place when kids are happy and there’s mutual respect between the child and the teacher. The child knows what to work on, what to practice and how much to practice.

2. Observe if the kids under the teacher look confident in their annual recitals. Motivating teachers raise the self-esteem and confidence level of her student-performers. They will be keen to push themselves and play a piece a grade or two higher.

Nowadays, there’s just too many piano schools/piano teachers. I don’t think this industry is regulated. Even with just grade 8 or diploma can teach already. It is important that you also know the qualifications of the teacher and how far you think the child is willing to go in terms of learning the instrument. Proper technique is essential if you want to reach Diploma level. It is better to learn the correct technique early on rather than un-learning them when it becomes a habit. If learning piano is purely for recreational purposes, any school will do! For the serious learner though, of course, there’s NAFA SYT and a host of reputable schools whose teachers are also NAFA or ex-NAFA teachers.

[Dreamaurora]

totorosy:

1. Check whether the kids under the teacher look happy. Real learning only takes place when kids are happy and there's mutual respect between the child and the teacher. The child knows what to work on, what to practice and how much to practice.

Sometimes some students may be unhappy not because of teachers, but because of overly demanding parents. I have a student who looked very stressed every time she came to my lesson because she could not meet her parent's expectation, but when I advised her parent to take a hands off approach and let the student practice by herself, she became much happier and enthusiastic in lessons.

totorosy:

2. Observe if the kids under the teacher look confident in their annual recitals. Motivating teachers raise the self-esteem and confidence level of her student-performers. They will be keen to push themselves and play a piece a grade or two higher.

I think you will find that in a typical recital that the confidence level may vary from students to students. The job of the teacher is of course to prepare the students well by directing their practices and ensuring a certain standard is met before allowing them to perform. I think a more accurate way to assess is the consistency of standard displayed in the recitals. Obviously not all students will play at distinction levels, but I think not unreasonable to expect good merit standards overall.
[quote]
Nowadays, there's just too many piano schools/piano teachers. I don't think this industry is regulated. Even with just grade 8 or diploma can teach already. It is important that you also know the qualifications of the teacher and how far you think the child is willing to go in terms of learning the instrument. Proper technique is essential if you want to reach Diploma level. It is better to learn the correct technique early on rather than un-learning them when it becomes a habit. If learning piano is purely for recreational purposes, any school will do! For the serious learner though, of course, there's NAFA SYT and a host of reputable schools whose teachers are also NAFA or ex-NAFA teachers.
[/quote]Yes, there are really too many piano teachers nowadays. But there is still sorely a lack of properly trained piano teachers overall. By your definition if we just consider the amount of full time trained piano teachers with Bachelor and above, I think the ratio of supply to demand is still immensely disproportionate.

I think no such thing such as learning piano for recreational purposes because even to play some of the simpler famous pieces well require some considerable investments in time and effort. Like for example, to play Fur Elise properly need to be at least solid grade 5 level. If the aim is to just to fiddle around and play some simple tunes average or badly, watching Youtube tutorial videos is more than enough. So my opinion is always get a competent teacher no matter what the goal is.

A lot of the established names in Singapore are actually not ex-NAFA. Don't assume just because a teacher is NAFA or ex NAFA she will be good. Remember that the teaching in NAFA is collaborative i.e. the student goes to multiple classes taught by specialised teachers. Whereas outside NAFA a NAFA teacher has to cover everything by herself.