Selecting a new teacher

[stormx]

Hi 

I am in the process of changing to a new teacher (in another thread "Arguing with your teacher", if you are interested, i give details of some complaints i have about him).

Now, i want some tips in order to choose a good teacher (i am a beginner, only 9 months into piano).

What should i ask him? (besides obvious aspects, such as the cost of the lessons  )
Should i ask him to play something? Is this rude?

I am interested in classical repertoire. However, if you look at the adds from piano teachers, at least in my country, all of them say something like:
PIANO CLASSES: CLASSICAL, POPULAR, JAZZ, ALL STYLES.

How do you recognize whether he/she is REALLY into classical, or just mentions "CLASSICAL" in his advertisement, in order to get more students.
I expect from my teacher to be familiar with standard classical piano repertoire (Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Schumann, Schubert, Liszt, etc etc), and their difficulty. But i dont find it easy to detect this in a single interview (and of course i do not want him to beleive he is undergoing an exam).

On the other hand, are there any things that, if detected, should make you run away inmediately? Like not owning a piano, but just a cheap keyboard with less than 88 keys where he intends to give his lessons 

thanks in advance for your help,

[jeremyjchilds]

At your level, the most important thing is to have a teacher that will set you along with proper technique and hand positioning, tension controll, etc....

You do not want someone to teach you to play piano music, you want a mentor who will show you the methods of learning. If you can find someone who is 100% for this, then you are a step ahead in the long run...

As for loving classical music, Most teachers with degrees or diplomas in pedagogy or peformance, love classical music, because most degrees or diplomas are "classic" based.

My suggestion to you is to find registered teachers and force yourself to go to about 5 interviews, and then choose the best for you... THe biggest mistake that people make is that they will often try to find a teacher who is strong in the same areas as the student, I suggest finding one who'se strengths are your weaknesses....hard on the ego.....great for the playing!

Good luck, and try not to fight with your new teacher

[stormx]

At your level, the most important thing is to have a teacher that will set you along with proper technique and hand positioning, tension controll, etc....

You do not want someone to teach you to play piano music, you want a mentor who will show you the methods of learning. If you can find someone who is 100% for this, then you are a step ahead in the long run...

As for loving classical music, Most teachers with degrees or diplomas in pedagogy or peformance, love classical music, because most degrees or diplomas are "classic" based.

My suggestion to you is to find registered teachers and force yourself to go to about 5 interviews, and then choose the best for you... THe biggest mistake that people make is that they will often try to find a teacher who is strong in the same areas as the student, I suggest finding one who'se strengths are your weaknesses....hard on the ego.....great for the playing!

Good luck, and try not to fight with your new teacher

Jeremy:

I agree with you. But i am not so bad tempered !!!   

I do not have so much patience tough to go trough 5 interviews before choosing a new one...i am a little lazy 

In what respect to select among registered teachers, having some diploma or degree, it is a good starting point, but on the many adds i have seen there is no such information available.

Is it rude to ask the teacher where did he study, how many years he has been teaching, if he performs nowadays or has performed in the past, etc?

[pianistimo]

it's not rude at all.  if you were going to a doctor, you would expect to pay for relevant info. to you.  why not a piano teacher.  the music teachers national association has a list of teachers (you have to be degreed to be in that group, i believe) and you can find one in your area.  this way, you can also participate in scheduled larger groups (recitals) and have more opportunities for scholarships, etc.

www.mtna.org/flash.html    skip intro.  click where it says enter (under red MTNA), then look to the right (red box) at quick links and click on 'find a teacher'

[stormx]

....
www.mtna.org/flash.html    skip intro.  click where it says enter (under red MTNA), then look to the right (red box) at quick links and click on 'find a teacher'

Thanks !!
But there is a little problem  ....i am not from USA    

 

[bernhard]

A good teacher is the one who will get you to play beyond what you thought was possible. It is that simple. And that complicated.

Now let us debunk certain myths:

1.   The teacher must be a virtuoso pianist, preferably a well known performer with critical acclaim.

This is possibly the worst teacher you can get, unless you are yourself already at the virtuoso level at the start of your own critically acclaimed career.

For a start, the fact that s/he can play superbly, is no guarantee that s/he can bring your own playing to that level. Consider the case of sports coaches. Most of them are completely unknown as practitioners of the activity they coach. Most of them are unfit, overweight and middle aged. Yet, if they are any good, their charges will excel.

Sure, ask your prospective teacher to play for you. But whatever the result (good playing or bad playing) it will ultimately have little import on his/her teaching ability. Consider, for instance the case of Felix Blumenfeld. A formidable pianist in his early years, in his middle age he lost control of his hands (as a result of syphilis) and could not play anything. Yet, even though he could not play – even to demonstrate a passage – he went on to teach some very famous pianists (e.g. Horowitz).

If I were you, rather than ask your prospective teacher to play for you, I would ask to play for him, and then request a comment on how you might improve your playing. This would be a far better way to judge if the teacher is the one for you.

And, if the prospective teacher is a performing artist, do you really think he is going to use his/her time to prepare your lessons, or to practise for his/her performances?

2.   The Teacher must be fully certified by a famous institution, and a member of  prestigious teacher’s organisations.

Consider some famous teacher-pianists throughout history: Bach, Czerny, Beethoven, Chopin (who made far more money from piano teaching than from piano performance) and perhaps the most famous of all piano teachers: Theodor Leschetizki. Which certificates did they have? None whatsoever. What they did have was skill.

Beware of certificates. Certificates are ultimately a way for people without skills to get access to the market. Then they make the certificates obligatory, so that mediocrity becomes the norm. Education is now run on corporate business guidelines, and as is always the case when this happens, quality goes down the drain.

The fact that the teacher belongs to some registry, or is member of this or that organisation is not indicative of anything, except that the teacher in question is paying some annual fee to the organisation to have his name in its ranks. There is always some smart alec that comes up with this idea to make easy money: make up an association, and charge its members to validate them. Good, isn’t it? I should have thought of that.

How are you going to ascertain the skill of a teacher? The best way, is to have a few lessons. Of course this is costly and time consuming if you are not lucky enough to strike gold in the first or second attempt. So you must do the next best thing: word of mouth. Do you know any student of the prospective teacher? They may give you good information about their teacher. Then again, you always have to take student’s opinions with a pinch of salt.

3.   Good teachers are “good” in an absolute sense.

No, they are not. They may be good in certain aspects of piano teaching, and dreadful in others (e.g. they may inform and develop you musically, but not technically; they may give the best classes on a particular piece/composer/style, and be totally hopeless outside their specialty; they may be great teachers for kids, but terrible with adults).

You have to find the best teacher for you, in the sense that s/he will be able to give the resources for you to obtain your goals in piano playing. Your chances of success will be directly proportional to how clear are your goals. So, write them out. Reflect on them. Polish them. And then inform your prospective teacher what are your goals, and if s/he is able to help you achieve them.

Be prepared however for the possibility that your goals may be too high, in which case you may have to do preliminary work for which most teachers can help you. If your goal is to study English literature but you are an illiterate person, getting a literature Nobel prize winner as a teacher is not going to help you.

Also, have a look at these related threads:

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,2246.msg19041.html#msg19041
(Young teachers – why young/bad teachers are not a problem – When the student is ready the right teacher will appear)

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,2450.msg21250.html#msg21250
(the four levels of teaching: Toddler, beginner, intermediate and advanced)

https://pianoforum.net/smf/index.php/topic,3466.msg30666.html#msg30666
(Russian methods - what is a real teacher - definitions of communicator)

https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php/topic,8399.msg85048.html#msg85048
(questions to ask a prospective teacher – reasons why payment should be monthly)


Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[ako]

stormx,

If there are piano teacher associations in your country/city/area, you can ask them for a recommendation. Be very specific in what you're looking for and what you're not looking for and they can provide a few leads. You can then follow up the leads and if you can sit in one of the lessons to get a feel of his/her teaching style (if the teacher allows that). You might also ask to see if your teacher has student recitals coming up for his students and if you can listen to the performance. Finally, try a lesson or two to see if the teacher is a good match for you. Can you form a trust and bond with him/her. Do you feel that s/he is helping you achieve your goals. That will be the ultimate test. Good luck!

[pianistimo]

good responses.  i agree with bernhard, that not every great teacher has the same background.  yet, many of the harder teachers to obtain are well worth the effort.  you learn faster with them than many years with a status-quo teacher.  even if they spend time performing, they are always prepared for lessons (those that perform) and let you come to their performances, too, to see 'how it's done.'  often, the busiest teachers ARE the more organized.  they have to be to function.  it's funny, but the biggest hinderance in teaching, imo, in disorganization.  as with teachers that think knowing what level you are on is a waste of time.  you can go for years and not really know where you stand (with different levels of repertoire - and, like mismatched socks - play sort of haphazardly) vs. a teacher that may be more 'difficult' but very TO THE POINT.  if you want to be good at anything (sport, music, whatever) you have to take a lot of pain.  be prepared for things NOT TO BE EASY.   but, to persist.  if your teacher lets things go and lessons are too easy, you're not learning as fast as you could.  look for pain.  (does the teacher have a ruler handy?  just kidding.  what i mean is are they serious and make you think). 

[eins]

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