All About Choosing Piano Schools And Teachers

[jce]

Technicality takes drilling and drilling takes hours of practice. If you want to be technically proficient, you have to put in the time and spend on technical exercises. Not to say one can’t do it by playing pieces but exercises zoom in on certain areas and work those areas like nobody’s business. Pieces is where musicality shows and where we see technique put into practice.


Playing octaves - there are stretching exercises that can be done. But generally for young kids who can’t stretch the octaves at all, a split can be done, ie play the bottom note then quickly jump to the top, or, avoid pieces with octaves and big chords, which of course can only sustain up to grade 3 or so. After grade 3, big chords, octaves kick in.

[Dreamaurora]

sleepy:

I always wonder how others managed to cope with intensive instrument practice and school workload. Keep hearing from dd2's piano teacher that her other students completed grade 8 by p4. One or two even started diploma in upper primary!

Confirmed mission impossible for my dd2. She's still learning grade 5 at p2. Teacher is far from satisfied with her progress....

My only expectation of dd2 is she doesn't get kicked out by her piano teacher

It is my believe that teachers should respect and acknowledge the efforts that students had put in. Of course I have certain expectations of my students and I do push my students to achieve, but I have to acknowledge that well, their lives may not revolve around piano. Some students may be capable to put hours and hours practice to achieve that great result, whereas some students cannot do so because of their schedules or other commitments. So why chide students if they can't do so?

Anyway, sleepy, your dd2 doing g5 at p2 is already much faster than the majority of piano learning students. NAFA put completion of g5 at P2 and that is obviously exception to the norm. Yes, there are kids who finish g5 piano earlier than p2, but why set the benchmark to these exceptions? So I really do not know why your dd2's teacher is dissatisfied with the progress; I feel the teacher's mindset is probably a bit extreme. Personally, I will never say things like 'my students finish grade 8 by p4' to the students or parents. I said that it is ok to push students, but I will never turn piano learning into a rat race.

[Dreamaurora]

jce:

Technicality takes drilling and drilling takes hours of practice. If you want to be technically proficient, you have to put in the time and spend on technical exercises. Not to say one can't do it by playing pieces but exercises zoom in on certain areas and work those areas like nobody's business. Pieces is where musicality shows and where we see technique put into practice.


Playing octaves - there are stretching exercises that can be done. But generally for young kids who can't stretch the octaves at all, a split can be done, ie play the bottom note then quickly jump to the top, or, avoid pieces with octaves and big chords, which of course can only sustain up to grade 3 or so. After grade 3, big chords, octaves kick in.

Jce is absolutely spot on. Unfortunately though, technique development is neglected by many teachers and this is probably one of the main reasons why the number of students taking grade 8 piano is significantly lesser than grade 1. Neglecting technical exercises tend to have ripple effect when going up the grades resulting in frustration when students are not able to execute their pieces well because of technical limitations. There are far too many students at grade 8 level with very limited understanding of how our body movements affect the sound being produced on the piano.

To elaborate more, beside the usual exam and non-exam pieces students play, teachers should also go through in depth technical aspects of playing piano using a mix of exercises and etudes from composers such as Hanon, Czerny, Burgmuller, Heller, Pischna, Concone, Bartok, etc.

Jce, according to Vanessa Latarche, for lower grades examiners do accept single note playing (lower notes for LH and upper notes for RH) if young kids cannot stretch the octaves. For higher grades, rearrangement of notes is acceptable as long the harmonic outline is preserved e.g. instead of c1-c2 can play g1-c2 or e1-c2.

[Dreamaurora]

chamonix:

No doubt you have encountered parents who make unreasonable demands on their kids' progress. I don't deny their existence. However, not all parents fall into this group. When I talked about pushing my kids to limits, I do not mean to push or stretch my then preschoolers out of my own judgement. In fact, I meant following their teachers' suggestions to do so. For instance, I would never be able to achieve the level of involvement you expected of your students' parents (as mentioned in your previous posts about your k2 taking grade 5 exam). In the same manner, I believe those parents in the NAFA thread are pushing their kids not because they thought their kids to be more capable than they actually are. Rather, they are reacting to the NAFA teachers' professional expectations. As for leaving the pressuring to just the teachers and students, I could never to do that when my children were preschoolers. Neither can I do it now. I appreciate the teachers updating me on my kids' progress constantly. Music is only one part of their lives. As a parent, I would still need to ensure my kids are having a balanced life in all areas.

You have a point about those parents in NAFA. Personally though, I feel that making children follow such a rigid system of learning an instrument is unhealthy as it distorts the original purpose of learning music. Anyway, I would like to clarify that it does not mean parents totally have to leave everything to the teachers. I think parents should still exercise discretion and be aware of how their kids are doing emotionally and mentally. Some teachers have no regards whatsoever for the kids' mental health and are only focused on results; whereas some teachers may be totally lax and indisciplined themselves. If that happens parents should be willing to make decisions and feedback to the teachers or change teachers.

I think your attitude regarding this is a good one for other parents to follow. I wish more parents can think like you.

chamonix:

On the contrary, the music teachers we have encountered so far stress on hard work and more hard work. The piano teacher told me that my son should be practising at least 2 hours daily at the level he is now. Potential without hard work will amount to nothing. Do most music teachers indulge in excessive praises? If that's the case, I agree with you that they could be doing their students a great disservice.

Before advising on how much work a student should put in, there needs to be a clarification on what are the immediate goals. So one can't just say more hard work. If say, your son's teacher say need to practice at least 2 hours daily, he will need to be aware of the reasoning and the goals that require this amount of practice. The amount of practice needed to complete grade 5 within half a year definitely differs as compared to amount of practice needed to complete grade 5 within one year. Beside that have to consider the students' learning speed and other commitments as well. For example, to demand a student who is taking PSLE to practice 2 hours a day would be probably an extremely tall order.

Indulging in excessive praises is not healthy, and witholding praises is not healthy as well. I think jce said it succintly in an earlier post. Praise the progress, not the end result. And most important, has to be honest to the students.

[waiyean]

Dreamaurora:

According to Vanessa Latarche, for lower grades examiners do accept single note playing (lower notes for LH and upper notes for RH) if young kids cannot stretch the octaves. For higher grades, rearrangement of notes is acceptable as long the harmonic outline is preserved e.g. instead of c1-c2 can play g1-c2 or e1-c2.

Does single note playing apply only to octaves, or can it be done on 7th as well? Daughter has done lots of finger stretching technical exercises, but still have difficulties playing the 7th intervals comfortably. At grade 3 and above, will points be deducted for single note playing?

[Dreamaurora]

waiyean:

Dreamaurora:

According to Vanessa Latarche, for lower grades examiners do accept single note playing (lower notes for LH and upper notes for RH) if young kids cannot stretch the octaves. For higher grades, rearrangement of notes is acceptable as long the harmonic outline is preserved e.g. instead of c1-c2 can play g1-c2 or e1-c2.

Does single note playing apply only to octaves, or can it be done on 7th as well? Daughter has done lots of finger stretching technical exercises, but still have difficulties playing the 7th intervals comfortably. At grade 3 and above, will points be deducted for single note playing?

7th interval is unfortunately a bit tricky as omitting 7th note of a chord changes its quality. But you can still rearrange the notes e.g instead of c-b, can play e-b instead.

For higher grades, I think try to refrain from single note playing as basically it is kind of considered 'cheating' as the technical difficulties of some pieces are drastically reduced if you simplify the octaves and chords. So try to pick pieces that require minimum adjustments or allow for the octaves or chords to be spread.

[PhoBIA]

waiyean:

Dreamaurora:

According to Vanessa Latarche, for lower grades examiners do accept single note playing (lower notes for LH and upper notes for RH) if young kids cannot stretch the octaves. For higher grades, rearrangement of notes is acceptable as long the harmonic outline is preserved e.g. instead of c1-c2 can play g1-c2 or e1-c2.

Does single note playing apply only to octaves, or can it be done on 7th as well? Daughter has done lots of finger stretching technical exercises, but still have difficulties playing the 7th intervals comfortably. At grade 3 and above, will points be deducted for single note playing?

Can you choose pieces that don't require your girl to stretch beyond what she can? There are 6 pieces in each set, try to find something.
Another alternative is to spread it. However, the music context must be correct. Which note/notes to omit depends on the harmony in context. If after omitting, the harmonic language is lost, then the interpretion is deem flawed.

[metz]

Dreamaurora:

Before advising on how much work a student should put in, there needs to be a clarification on what are the immediate goals. So one can't just say more hard work. If say, your son's teacher say need to practice at least 2 hours daily, he will need to be aware of the reasoning and the goals that require this amount of practice. The amount of practice needed to complete grade 5 within half a year definitely differs as compared to amount of practice needed to complete grade 5 within one year. Beside that have to consider the students' learning speed and other commitments as well. For example, to demand a student who is taking PSLE to practice 2 hours a day would be probably an extremely tall order.

My bad for telling only part of the story. Well, it was during our discussion on my son's progress that the remark sprang up. However, things are not as what you thought. I appreciate your concern. My son is currently working on some grade 7 material as well other technics drills. If he could dedicate at least 2 hours of daily practice, he would have made much better progress. But, as what jce has brought up, the piano teacher also commented that the local school life is a great obstacle to such effort. Besides, she understands my son has violin commitments too. We were just commenting that a kid could progress much faster if he could dedicate at least 2 hours daily to the instrument at his level.

[metz]

sleepy:

I always wonder how others managed to cope with intensive instrument practice and school workload. Keep hearing from dd2's piano teacher that her other students completed grade 8 by p4. One or two even started diploma in upper primary!

Perhaps the parents have music background? The P3 daughter of my sister's piano teacher has completed her grade 8 early this year. I won't be surprised if she has started on her diploma.

[Dreamaurora]

chamonix:

Dreamaurora:

Before advising on how much work a student should put in, there needs to be a clarification on what are the immediate goals. So one can't just say more hard work. If say, your son's teacher say need to practice at least 2 hours daily, he will need to be aware of the reasoning and the goals that require this amount of practice. The amount of practice needed to complete grade 5 within half a year definitely differs as compared to amount of practice needed to complete grade 5 within one year. Beside that have to consider the students' learning speed and other commitments as well. For example, to demand a student who is taking PSLE to practice 2 hours a day would be probably an extremely tall order.

My bad for telling only part of the story. Well, it was during our discussion on my son's progress that the remark sprang up. However, things are not as what you thought. I appreciate your concern. My son is currently working on some grade 7 material as well other technics drills. If he could dedicate at least 2 hours of daily practice, he would have made much better progress. But, as what jce has brought up, the piano teacher also commented that the local school life is a great obstacle to such effort. Besides, she understands my son has violin commitments too. We were just commenting that a kid could progress much faster if he could dedicate at least 2 hours daily to the instrument at his level.

The point I was trying to make is that a lot of teachers just make the remark work harder or practice more to have better progress without actually spelling out what the better progress is. Though obviously there will be an increase in learning speed corresponding to increase of practice time, there needs to be a clear clarification of the kind of progress that more practice entails rather than vague 'more practice, more progress'. Now I do not know if your son's teacher has spelled out them, but for me generally I will try to spell out what is possible with more practice. Also important is how to put those extra practice time to good use. So for example I can say this to my student: if you practice 2 hours instead one hour now we could probably make it for an earlier exam slots in February. And beside exam pieces, you can learn 2 extra pieces of your choice alongside as well.