Teacher Dreamaurora - Piano Q&A

[waiyean]

Angelight:

My DD just started learning piano (Yamaha JMC) past 6 mths, so her sight-reading still not that good. I have to write down the do-re-mi for her. If not, she can still recognise the notes but take longer time to read the notes and play at the same time.

Personally, I feel that it's better to let your DD to work through the sight reading without writing the notes out. Otherwise the child may develop a reliance on that, and may not improve fast enough. Just my opinion though perhaps the teachers here can comment more.

Is it true that Yamaha focus more on listening, and less on sight reading for their junior programs?

[waiyean]

phtthp:

is it advisable to skip grade for piano ?

teacher recommend child to skip grade 1 and go straight to grade 2 or 3 next year.

I have heard of people who did grade 8 as their first exam.

Anyway, if the teacher recommend child to skip grade 1, the child probably is of that level already. How old is child and how long has the child learnt piano?

[Dreamaurora]

waiyean:

phtthp:

is it advisable to skip grade for piano ?

teacher recommend child to skip grade 1 and go straight to grade 2 or 3 next year.

I have heard of people who did grade 8 as their first exam.

Anyway, if the teacher recommend child to skip grade 1, the child probably is of that level already. How old is child and how long has the child learnt piano?

There are teachers and music schools that only require students to take specific formal exams only. One of my friends who studied in a music school in Medan told me the place where she learnt piano only offers grade 8 ABRSM, but there were internal exams to pass along the way. I myself only require my students to take grade 5 and 8 practical, though most choose to take at least 2 more exams to help them focus their learning easier. The point is the formal exam need not be taken all the time, but teachers and music schools should have a system in place to assess if the students have reached a particular level of proficiency.

Not true that if a teacher recommends a student to skip a grade that the student is already at that level. One my current student's ex teacher recommended him to skip grade 1 and took grade 2 immediately. The result was disastrous as much of the materials were skipped (no grade 1 level pieces were assigned to him prior to the grade 2 and sight reading exercises were non existent). There are black sheeps among us who promote students too hastily because well, higher grades means higher fees. So parents, be careful here. It is perfectly fine that some exams are skipped, but ensure that all the necessary components are not skipped to ensure a comfortable progression for your children.

[Dreamaurora]

Angelight:

My DD just started learning piano (Yamaha JMC) past 6 mths, so her sight-reading still not that good. I have to write down the do-re-mi for her. If not, she can still recognise the notes but take longer time to read the notes and play at the same time.


As for myself (yes! I've been learning piano for the past 3 mths, partly for interest and partly to help coach my girl), I've completed Grade 1 and doing Grade 2 now. I find sight-reading not easy and have difficulty playing the scales with BOTH hands together. Somehow, my right hand and left hand find it hard to play the major and minor scales at the same time. Anyone had this problem when first learning piano?

waiyean:

[quote=\"Angelight\"]How does one practise sight-reading exercises? From picking a piece of music and try playing without writing down the notes?

How can one improve on sight-reading?

Does your child learn new pieces by writing down notes?
I think sight reading can be improved by lots of practice.
My girl learns all new pieces by sight reading using both hands. This way, she gets lots of practice sight reading. Sight-reading is not just getting the right notes, but also play the right dynamics, articulation, phrasing, etc.

The sight reading pieces in the exams are much easier than the prepared pieces, hence it's ok to find difficulty in playing those new pieces.

[/quote]You should probably ask your DD to write down the alphabets herself first. Then help her correct if she is wrong. After she can more or less read accurately, then you should erase the alphabets after you check her alphabets before letting her practice the piece.

Take your time with learning piano. Scales hand together is only observed in grade 2 onwards, which according to ABRSM will take 2 and half years for most people to reach. You will get it eventually; just make sure you can play them comfortably from memory each hand separately first. From my experience of teaching adult beginners, they can usually progress very very fast to playing grade 3 pieces from beginner stage. But this is usually at the cost of building up enough repertoire and neglecting other components such as sight reading. Grade 4 onwards, the requirements gets quite challenging and complex and this is the point where a lot of adults (and children too) find progress increasingly slower (no more two or three weeks to learn finish one song) and unwilling to commit the ever increasing practice time.

[phankao]

Dreamaurora:

There are black sheeps among us who promote students too hastily because well, higher grades means higher fees. So parents, be careful here. It is perfectly fine that some exams are skipped, but ensure that all the necessary components are not skipped to ensure a comfortable progression for your children.

There are teachers who charge the same fee whichever grade though. That is, they only charge for their time. So it's up to the parents whether they want to engage lah.

[waiyean]

phankao:

There are teachers who charge the same fee whichever grade though. That is, they only charge for their time. So it's up to the parents whether they want to engage lah.

Hard to find such teachers. Charging higher fees for higher grades are the norm, especially in schools.

[phankao]

waiyean:

phankao:

There are teachers who charge the same fee whichever grade though. That is, they only charge for their time. So it's up to the parents whether they want to engage lah.

Hard to find such teachers. Charging higher fees for higher grades are the norm, especially in schools.

Actually most parents do not want to use these kinds of teachers for beginners.

[Dreamaurora]

phankao:

waiyean:

[quote=\"phankao\"]
There are teachers who charge the same fee whichever grade though. That is, they only charge for their time. So it's up to the parents whether they want to engage lah.

Hard to find such teachers. Charging higher fees for higher grades are the norm, especially in schools.

Actually most parents do not want to use these kinds of teachers for beginners.[/quote]Which one? The flat fees teacher or progressive fee teacher? :?

[phankao]

Dreamaurora:

phankao:

Actually most parents do not want to use these kinds of teachers for beginners.

Which one? The flat fees teacher or progressive fee teacher? :?

The flat fees - not the teacher. haha.

[peanut_butter]

yet those are usually the most experienced ones.