All About Choosing Piano Schools And Teachers

[Dreamaurora]

peanut_butter:

Many of my home-tuition parents are involved in their children’s practices.


I may not be a world class teacher. But I am not those inferior ones either. It also takes a lot of teaching 'intuition' to do the job besides the qualifications and experiences. I do lots of traveling (50%) because I am not established yet. I charge more than the schools around my studio. I do quarterly class-hour to weed out the bad students. I also turned down parents who ask for discounts.

The down side is that I ended up home-tutoring in the ‘rich’ areas. When they change their school schedule next year, we will run into some schedule problems. And yes, organising extra activities is a serious problem and doing a duet is a fantasy.

I share your view. Unfortunately many parents or students do not realize the importance of these extra activities. Without extra activities outside lesson, learning piano is a very dry process that is devoid of any social interaction. Take for example performance class. School of young talents have it once a week. I like most other teachers have it once a month. Ever since I started it, I have noticed an enormous improvement in students' motivation level. The impact of watching other students play well can inspire students. Stude concerts are a necessity too to provide avenues for students to perform beside music exams.

and I said this plenty of times already, students are a teacher's best advertisement. Visit a teacher's student concerts or group class to see the students in action.

And I am going to say this out even though I know I am going to offend so many teachers. Any teacher who does not provide students performance oppurtunities is a mediocre teacher.

[sleepy]

nissin:

How do we parents,with no music background know if the teacher is good.? I can only engage them thru sourcing on my own, recommendations or hearsay based on my budget and location preference. It's really not easy at all..

Me too, zero music background. Thus can only share my kids' learning journey Can't tell how good is teacher technically

Based on my prior experience with dd1, I took a different approach the second time round & decided to start dd2 with group lessons in Seimpi. Group lessons generally more fun & lesson plan seems structured. After dd2 shown keen interest in continuing learning, then switch to individual lessons to better prepare for graded exam.

She's still motivated after learning for 2+ years, compared to her elder sister who totally gave up after 1 year. I guess 好的开始是成功的一半？

[phankao]

peanut_butter:

I do quarterly class-hour to weed out the bad students. I also turned down parents who ask for discounts.

what is \"quarterly class hour\"?

[Dreamaurora]

phankao:

peanut_butter:

I do quarterly class-hour to weed out the bad students. I also turned down parents who ask for discounts.

what is \"quarterly class hour\"?

Performance class

[phankao]

Dreamaurora:

phankao:

what is \"quarterly class hour\"?

Performance class

Oh ok - will be attending one with my 3yo soon. Will see for 1st time what it is like! Hmmm... interesting.... Never had any with my older 3 kids before and they are like done with grade 8 for no.1 & no.2 and another doing grade 8 in all their respective instruments. *hehe*.

[sacredmusicals]

I got my grade 8 piano without any class hour or performance class. So I don’t think it’s a necessity to pass exam. HOWEVER, I do wish my teachers had bothered to organize class hours or concerts. Its like I am missing a lot of things that other students had.

[MummyThreeStreams]

I’m a firm believer in performance classes too. After all, the beauty of playing a musical instrument is the ability to share the music with those around you. DS1 is very comfortable performing, and I think it is a very important source of motivation for him to perfect a piece. He is far more confident performing than I ever was.

[Intermezzo]

Dreamaurora:

phankao:

[quote=\"peanut_butter\"] I do quarterly class-hour to weed out the bad students. I also turned down parents who ask for discounts.

what is \"quarterly class hour\"?

Performance class[/quote]i'm sorry i don't quite understand the terms used here.. hope someone can clarify for me..

how is quarterly class-hour = performance class,
and how does that \"weed out the bad students\"? thanks!

[phankao]

sacredmusicals:

I got my grade 8 piano without any class hour or performance class. So I don't think it's a necessity to pass exam. HOWEVER, I do wish my teachers had bothered to organize class hours or concerts. Its like I am missing a lot of things that other students had.

Yes, I do believe performance classes are a great boost to a child's ability. Sadly my older kids didn't have. My elder boy improved alot last year though when he started having some many performances (including exam recitals) as part of school. This year even more. So far already 6 times - solo, duets, trios, quartets, etc. We were even looking around for any performance opportunities as we could find for our no.3 over the years as performing at home is never quite the same to this boy, so we pushed for school, community events, etc. haha! So ks huh? *hehe*.

[metz]

An alternative is to DIY your own performance classes or events. My friend once gathered some kids - her own, mine, her neighbours' kids and we had an impromptu mini concert.


Now we have an idea brewing, still at the initial stage, ie to gather a group of kids together and seek opportunities for them to perform. Target groups can be at old folks' homes etc.