Piano Forum
Piano Board => Performance => Topic started by: lauraloves2run on September 30, 2015, 07:35:45 PM
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This question is for piano teachers...My son and I both take lessons from the same teacher. He's one of the best pianists I've ever heard and is really kind to both my son and I. He definitely has more adult students than he does children though. Recently, he told me he wanted to not finish level one of Faber and Faber Piano Adventures with my 7 year old and move him up to level 2. He's almost done with the lesson book but is farther behind in all of the other books. I'm concerned that skipping ahead will create holes in my son's learning and my first thoughts were to insist that the teacher finish level one of all the books with him. I know our teacher has a lot more piano experience than me, but I was an elementary school teacher and don't want my son to miss important concepts. Just hoping other teachers might give their opinion on this issue...I'm willing to change my opinion with further understanding. My son is bright, (he reads two levels above his grade level,) but he's not a child prodigy by any means. Thanks!
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Hi,
I am not writing as a piano teacher but as an amateur pianist who has skipped grades when I was young and also did fairly well in grade exams. In the Asia Pacific part of the world, most students go by grade exams, either by the Royal College of Music (UK) or Trinity college (UK). I had skipped a few exam levels and finished grade 8 when I was 11 or 12 (with distinction)
If you feel that the teacher isn't having his best interest at heart by encouraging skipping, then you are most welcomed to switch teachers. Granted, it's only 1 book that he's recommended skipping so maybe he feels the child is capable going through the next level.
By skipping levels, it doesn't mean you'll be losing out on important concepts.
One still has to learn the scales, the chords, the arpeggios, the sight reading etc no matter which level one is at. Of course if the student is more than capable, then maybe it's a good challenge to the student to attempt a higher level.
So my advice is it give it a try. If your son is struggling at the next level, then obviously he's not ready for it and maybe you can consider different teachers. But there's no personal harm in my opinion to skip levels if one is capable of it.
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If they get a merit or distinction I always consider them skipping or if they learn the work early on. Those who plod along, plod along.
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Lauraloves - talk to the teacher about your concerns (away from your child). Find out what he is thinking and has in mind, and his idea about your thought of "holes". There are a couple of possibilities. One is that he has a full picture of what kinds of skills he sees students should acquire, and that he has his way of giving those skills - the method book may only be part of it. As a teacher yourself, you know that textbooks are only a tool, and we can teach outside of textbooks. Sometimes when the textbook is poor, we have to do that. It may be the same with the method book. Of course I'm not there to know whether he is following the method book page by page and having it do the teaching, or if uses it differently.
The other possibility is that he is for advancing because it's cool for a student to reach higher grades faster, and maybe holes will result and won't matter to him - or that he loves to get to more interesting material faster. Or even thinks that you or your child want to skip things and go faster. In all cases it's good to talk to the teacher rather than trying to guess about it.
I am a trained teacher, but in music I am mostly a student and was the parent of a student (now adult). I studied another instrument as an adult, and my teacher advanced me very fast. He didn't skip grades but there were holes of a different kind. We skimmed through the material and what it had to teach wasn't touched much. This is another part of the equation. If he has gone thoroughly through the material and drawn out of it and your son's present capabilities everything that he has, then maybe he has good reason to go on to the next thing. Again, discuss it with your son's teacher.
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I see the logic in wanting to skip but don't see the point of omitting the material. If said student is that capable then I would assign the material to be skipped to be completed concurrently with the new more advanced lessons, this ensures nothing important is missed and if there are shortcomings, they are easier to address in the context of the lesson, a gifted enough student will breeze through the material if really needed to be skipped and won't really increase the demand all that much
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If they get a merit or distinction I always consider them skipping or if they learn the work early on. Those who plod along, plod along.
What is the reasoning? (Genuinely interested).