MUSIC TO MY EARS (Chosing Your First Piano Teacher)

Member Name: thingywhatsit

Product:	Chosing Your First Piano Teacher
Date:	13/03/06 (303 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Correct choices matter,

Disadvantages: Mistakes can cost you more than money

I began to play the piano at the age of 28 years old. I have passed my Grades 1 – 6, with the Associated Board of the Royal School of Music, which is one of the most prestigious examining Boards in the World, although my experience would have been greatly enhanced had I known how to chose a suitable piano teacher at that time. In an effort to explain, choosing the right piano teacher poses several questions and these need to be addressed in the search for the most suitable piano teacher, whether it be for yourself or for a member of your family.

What to consider.

One of the most important considerations is examining your reasons for wanting to learn to play the piano. Music is a huge subject and one that is approached by each individual in their own likes and dislikes, and by their preferences of interpretation and how music should be presented. It may not even occur to you what your questions are until you examine your own idealogical thinking as regards to music.

For example, there are people who like technical learning. They thrive on it. They enjoy being able to perform tasks perfectly, and here I could give no better example than Arthur Rubinstein in his interpretation of Chopin. The man is a master. Technically his work is perfect. His mastery of the instrument is unquestionably superb, and if the standards that you are aiming for as a master of the keyboard are to be technically brilliant, then perhaps the kind of teacher that you seek is one that has a good record of examination passes for their students, and can perform to such a high standard that they win your respect as a teacher.

However, musical taste is less objective. No-one can pinpoint a right or a wrong in what people enjoy and to me Rubinstein lacks humanity in his playing, and his music is too technically brilliant to make me feel the ambiance of the music, and personally I prefer the playing of Vladimir Ashkenazy, which is warm and sentimental, telling me that the player feels the music as well as just performing it.

The acid test for me is to hear a music teacher play and had I known this when I started to play the piano, my journey into the study of the keyboard would have been a more satisfying one. Little by little, I learned that what a music teacher imparts is their knowledge and perhaps as a product of this turns out students that follow the leader and learn a particular way of playing the instrument. It's a very limiting way of learning to my mind, and it took me a long time to realise that I did not ask the right questions when looking for a teacher that was suitable for me.

The questions I should have asked

1)Am I able to learn music outside of the examination board curriculum ?
2)Does the teacher teach the styles of music that I enjoy ?
3)Are they flexible in their approach or rigid ?

The first question is an important one when trying to find a teacher for a child. It is my experience that children can actually be put off music by having a teacher that does not let them experience playing simple tunes that are an indulgence if you like. By sticking strictly to the curriculum, the child is stifled and when I worked in Paris, I saw this happening to a child that ended up hating music, because the teacher did not listen to what the child wanted, and stuck rigidly to examination work. The child thought that music should be fun, and the element of fun was missing from his experience, as it was with my first piano teacher, who rigidly taught me scales and never stepped beyond the bounds of the examination work.

Knowing that the teacher enjoys and encourages the style of music you enjoy also adds to the experience. Normally you are paying for lessons. You are the client, and as such should have the choice of the work you perform, whilst also being aware that if you do want to pass exams, then the exam work should also form part of your studies. What I found with my second teacher was that they were skilled at playing all different kinds of music, that we could talk about what I wanted to learn, and his knowledge and style suited me well and the balance of work that I was given was such that I did not consider it a chore. He explained the importance of theory which forms part of taking exams, and in contrast to the first teacher, treated each pupil as an individual and let them have a little musical freedom of choice, in between serious work.

I loved the fact that I could ask this teacher to play a piece of music for me before learning it, and that he never minded me discussing how I would interpret it differently to him. He was not so rigid in his ways of teaching that he thought his own interpretation was perfect, and delighted in discussing not only how he though I could improve my playing, but shortcomings that he had within his own interpretation, simply by seeing pieces of music as individual taste, rather than a work that must be performed in “this way” or “that way”.

The help he gave me in my techniques was amazing, and I learned not only examination work. He also told me why I needed to learn the pieces the Board had chosen for each grade, what technique they helped me with, and how this helped me in the long run to play the music that would be my choice at the end of the day. The Board's music at differing levels has its validity, although the first teacher failed to impart what the lessons were establishing, and was more concerned with rigid rules.

A rigid approach works for some who need discipline, although for mature students, what I found that this produced was people that could pass exams, rather that people that had a passion for and enjoyed music. My niece was a Grade 8 player though if asked to step outside the framework of the examination work, she failed to produce music that was anything but technically right, and almost too mechanical for my liking. Pupils that learnt with my second teacher were confident because not only did they pass exams, but they learnt how to play the music they enjoyed, and that to me is of equal importance to a music student.

Looking at the differences between the two experiences that I had with music teachers, and taking into account the experiences of children that I am aware of, then the importance of choosing the right teacher is paramount, in that as a pupil, YOUR needs are what matters, and what you want to achieve as a musician. My first music teacher almost stopped me from playing the piano, an instrument I had wanted to master all of my life. Yes, I realise the importance of placing my hands correctly, and technical expertise is important in the formative years, though the extent to which I was pushed to succeed was almost sufficient to make me give up.

The second teacher was able to share the joy of music with me in a way that made me want to excel and the pleasure that they passed on to me has lasted, and twenty years down the line matters. I will never be a concert pianist. I never envisaged that I would be, learning as I was at such a late stage, though they made the journey to Grade 6 enjoyable rather than theoretical.

The importance of getting your choice right should depend upon what you see as your goal and whether the teacher in question can take you on the journey to that goal in such a way as to retain your interest.

Ask them to play several styles. Listen to their playing and never be afraid to ask questions about the kind of music you will learn. Be aware that practice forms a huge part of learning and that any teacher worth his salt will be strict on the amount of time you practice, though from talking to a teacher, and listening to the way in which they play, you can make a wiser decision than I did the first time around.

I hope that this is of help to someone trying to go forward and learn to play the piano because the joy I have at the keyboard justified the journey it took to get me here, and the discovery of the difference between two schools of thought on how a person should learn to play displayed by both of my piano teachers was a valuable one and one that I hope can help you make a wise decision.

Summary: Take time. Make good choices.