How old are you when you start teaching?

[RealPianist]

I just want to know how old are you when you start teaching?
Who did you teach, small children, teens, adult?
Begineer, Intermediate??
What do you teach for the first, practical or theory or history or improovisation, or etc etc???

[tac-tics]

Start teaching music at birth. I remember my minature 3 octave piano as a child.

For formal lessons, I don't know. I remember I started band in elementary school around 5th grade though.

[randmc]

Start teaching music at birth. I remember my minature 3 octave piano as a child.

For formal lessons, I don't know. I remember I started band in elementary school around 5th grade though.

No, how old are you when you start teaching. Not learning.

[tac-tics]

No, how old are you when you start teaching. Not learning.

Oh, heh. I misread it as "what age do you start teaching [your kids]".

In that case, it would be a matter of how well you can present yourself as a professional. In that case, it's probably the same age one would graduate college.

[mariocast]

I started teaching during my freshman year in college.  Yes, a degree is important, but it's not a license to teach.

I started with a 5-year old beginner.  I wasn't particular familiar with all the different methods that were out there at the time, so I started her on the Bastien method.  Not my favorite method now, but it was good enough to help a novice teacher like myself at the time.

Eventually, I took up older students, more advanced, and today I feel confident to teach almost any level of pianist.

Some teachers even let some of their high school students act as teaching assistants for their younger  students.  This is an excellent way to get pianists started on track if they show interests in being both a performer and a piano pedagogue.  Of course, they'll most benefit from supervised teaching.

I think the idea of presenting yourself as a "professional" is subjective.  Some student don't respond well to authority figures, and having someone closer to their age or being presented more like a companion on their musical journey might be more effective.

[quantum]

My band director knew I wanted to go into music, so in my two last years in high school he would let me conduct the band every once in a while.  It was an excellent leadership experience. 

I had my first private student while studing in university. 

[prettypianoplaying]

I was 14 when I started teaching

[spitz]

(I'm not a teahcer, just students browsing through forums) I have many friends who play piano, take lessons, and teach lesson most of which are between 13-17. And its not a matter of how old you are to teach piano but how much you know about it and how good are at teaching. So I think Mozart should have teaching piano when he was 6 lol.

[pianistimo]

some parents don't want to spend the high fees for a professional piano teacher and want cheaper lessons from a student teacher.  when i was in high school, i taught several 7-9 year olds.  i remember bicycling to their home and enjoying the process of teaching them what i knew.  i told the parents my limitations, and they were ok with it.  then, passed the students off to another teacher after a year or so.  many prof. teachers don't want to bother with the first few years anyway.  i've always thought that it's better to get them into good habits.  of course, the habits i thought were good back then were more in the mode of 'piano is work.'  now i see, piano is really about relaxation and fun (for kids especially).  if i were to create a method, it would be with jazzing it up back and forth between teacher and student.  the idea, to me, of first lessons should be to familiarize the student with how to spend the MOST time playing, and the least time being too 'particular.'  lots of gradual sightreading for some of the lesson, too.  maybe a sort of blend of all the methods.  i like the kodaly method of learning intervals (and being able to sing them - and playing songs that you know), the suzuki for ear training (and jazzing up little passages for them to repeat), the exercises (whether burgmuller or a dozen a day - my favorite) and scales, and orff's contemporary pieces and rhythm understanding.  it seems like beginners need patient teachers - and not to get over dramatic between good weeks and bad weeks.  if they don't practice one week - just make the lesson practice.  a good repoire with the teacher seems like the greatest advantage for a beginning student.

[zheer]

I was 19 she was an adult, i did as favour.