Need some advice...

[aureole]

Well first of all, been as though this is my first ever post here I may as well introduce myself.

The name's Joe, I'm 18 years old and I live in Sheffield, England. I started playing the Electronic Keyboard when I was about 5 and had lessons up until around 15. I then (for some extremely stupid reason) stopped playing. I started back up again about 2 years after and have started to get back into it but I've lost a lot of what I used to have. I got a Piano for my Birthday last month and have been doing Piano lessons for about 2 months.

Anyway - like I said - I've been having lessons for a few months now but I never thought they would be anything like this. I go to the lesson, the teacher puts some Music on the Piano, I look through it and try to play whatever it is. He'll tell me when I go wrong etc. until I get it right. Then he turns the page and I try the next song etc. etc.

Is this what lessons are meant to be like? It's not that I don't enjoy them it's just that I thought there was a lot more to it than that.

I have a few other questions but I'll leave those for now.

[jlh]

Are the lessons just sightreading and that's all?

Have you had a discussion with him about what you want out of the lessons?

Yes, there should be a lot more to lessons than sightreading, otherwise why do we all spend several hours a day practicing and memorizing?

[desordre]

 Dear Aureole:
 

(...)
Is this what lessons are meant to be like?
(...)

Very simple answer: no.
 First and foremost, music lessons are about pleasure. Then, they're about what you want to do with it, the piano.
 What music do you like and what music you don't know? Discuss this with your teacher, and he may plan your repertoire fitting your taste, and help you with styles and composers that you don't know. The later sometimes is not done, but it's very important: it's likely that your teacher knows much more than you, and it is his work to show you as much as you can listen to.
 The second part you probably don't have to concern about now, but it's a fundamental question: what are your goals? If you want to just play some tunes for fun, or be able to accompany popular singing (for instance), your path is way lighter and shorter than if you want to play Liszt's Sonata. The answer is ahead, but it's interesting to share this with your teacher. Otherwise, you let the decision to him, and this normally is painful.
 Hope it helps a bit.
 By the way, welcome!
 Best wishes!

[desordre]

 PS: the "what you want" part of the story is fundamental. For example, if you want to improvise and play some jazz music, probably the last thing you need is an extensive sight-reading course.