All About Choosing Piano Schools And Teachers

[gajidouma]

Hi pianojazzy


Could you give some advice on… my child has been following Yamaha school programmes… learning keyboard and piano… if I get her a 1-to-1 private piano tuitor, do I still let her continue with Yamaha lesson at the same time? Is engaging a private tuitor alone good enough?

In what age or what grade/level do you think would be more appropriate for a child to have private tution instead of group learning?

[ctct61t]

gajidouma:

Hi pianojazzy


Could you give some advice on... my child has been following Yamaha school programmes.. learning keyboard and piano... if I get her a 1-to-1 private piano tuitor, do I still let her continue with Yamaha lesson at the same time? Is engaging a private tuitor alone good enough?

In what age or what grade/level do you think would be more appropriate for a child to have private tution instead of group learning?

Base on my experience, the child is more suitable for taking 1-to-1 piano course over 5.5 years old, except the child got special interested in playing piano, otherwise parents will spend more effort on it.

If you take 1-to-1 private piano tuitor, the yamaha's keyboard learning is no need to be continued, but yamaha's music learning and playing is more fun compare to 1-to-1 piano learning.

[gajidouma]

Hi ctct61t,


thanks so much for the sharing. Actually I am concerned that if I let the child complete Yamaha JMC & JXC 4-year course, by the time she will be 8 years old. Will it then be too late for us to swicth to private tuitor?

or should we let her complete JMC then switch to private tuitor instead of moving up to JXC? or having private tuitor and JXC at the same time? :roll:

any advice or comment for us?

[ctct61t]

gajidouma:

Hi ctct61t,


thanks so much for the sharing. Actually I am concerned that if I let the child complete Yamaha JMC & JXC 4-year course, by the time she will be 8 years old. Will it then be too late for us to swicth to private tuitor?

or should we let her complete JMC then switch to private tuitor instead of moving up to JXC? or having private tuitor and JXC at the same time? :roll:

any advice or comment for us?

If you decide to let your child to learn piano, you had better let he/she switch to private tuitor when your child is around 6 years old. You can perform both lesson concurrent for a few period (maybe 1~2 month), to know the teaching level of your pravite piano teacher, and you can make a better decision then.

My daughter quite JMC when she was 5 years old, I feel now that it was a little bit too earlier for she quite the lesson then. She started to play piano when she was 5 years, but it's too hard for her at the beginning, as it was too young for her to sit down for a long time at that time, so I stopped her studying for a few month, after a half year later, when she re-new her piano course, I found a great improve on her attitude on studying. She continues her piano study for about 5 months, completing 2.5 books during these period, and she loves to piano gradually...

Now I feel it's right that Yamaha music school insist on accepting students above 6 years old to play piano, it's a suitable age both for kids and their parents to go for piano study.

[MMM]

Hi,


My kids spent 1 year in Ossia (affiliated to Christopher) and spent around 1 year there. But subsequently due to change of teachers and bad ones, I moved them to Kawai at the beginning of the year. They had tremendously improvement compared to the amount of time they had spent in Ossia. Fee is around $110 for weekends as compared to $60+ for Ossia. But I think the teacher quality makes the diff.

My girl has a full time filippino teacher who is very demanding. Meanwhile for my son, he has a NIE trained teacher who only teaches on weekends but she is fantastic with kids and he is very motivated and improved alot after learning from her. I regretted not starting them earlier in Kawai as my girl now has a bad habit that is difficult to correct… heavy hands and stiff fingers which is affecting her progress. Probably the earlier teacher didn’t guide her well so it’s become a habit.

[ctct61t]

MMM:

Hi,


My kids spent 1 year in Ossia (affiliated to Christopher) and spent around 1 year there. But subsequently due to change of teachers and bad ones, I moved them to Kawai at the beginning of the year. They had tremendously improvement compared to the amount of time they had spent in Ossia. Fee is around $110 for weekends as compared to $60+ for Ossia. But I think the teacher quality makes the diff.

My girl has a full time filippino teacher who is very demanding. Meanwhile for my son, he has a NIE trained teacher who only teaches on weekends but she is fantastic with kids and he is very motivated and improved alot after learning from her. I regretted not starting them earlier in Kawai as my girl now has a bad habit that is difficult to correct... heavy hands and stiff fingers which is affecting her progress. Probably the earlier teacher didn't guide her well so it's become a habit.

It's really true, a good teacher is very important for a piano beginner, a good habit will affect further progress tremendously.

MMM, could you kindly let me know which Kawai yor kids are going?

[caroline3sg]

MMM

Yes, pls let us know which Kawai you go and what is the teacher’s name.

[MMM]

Hi,


My kids attend Kawai at Parkway Parade. My son is with Katherine Ko and she is fantastic and great with young children. My son likes her.

Very nice and gentle lady.

I am not sure what is your music aspiration for your child. But my ex-boss used to get a very highly qualified teacher for his kids and he paid alot for it. Definitely much more than $110 per month.

[caroline3sg]

MMM

I quickly surf the net on robertpiano when I type kawai. I read that the exam board is Trinity Colleage of London.

There are 2 approved exam boards, the other more famous one is ABRSM.


ctct61t
china piano keys are generally hard. It is cheaper. But I doubt it is suitable for higher level exams.

Engaging a tutor is the way to go if one is serious in taking piano. Sch is not flexible if you cannot make it.

[mumwgals]

ctct61t:

Who knows the difference of NAFA's piano course from other schools?

Nafa only takes in student thru audition. Audition is on every May & Nov. Sucessful candidates are expected to complete one grade in 5.5mos from grade 1 to grade 5, and to complete grade 6-8 in 2 & 1/2 yr. Beside to pass the internal exam conducted by Nafa every end of the term, the child is also required to sit for the ABRSM Exam on request by NAFA.

The fees are for 20 lessons of theory (group lesson) & 20 lessons of practical (1-1 lesson), also 3 master classes & internal exam. ABRSM exam fees are excluded. One adult is compulsary to sit in every practical lesson.

The teachers there are demanding but they impart good techniques thus the student are able to complete grade 8 before 10/11 years old.