How long one should take lessons

[dorjuanhoop]

   I am an older student who began lessons a couple of years ago after working on my own.  My teacher has become too ill to teach any longer, so right now I'm working on my own again until I find another teacher.  I'm probably at a level 5 or 6 now.  My husband asked me yesterday how much longer I'd need to take lessons and when there would be a point when I could just sit down and play the piano and not practice anything.  I don't think he understands how difficult the piano is or what I'm trying to achieve, and I explained to him that even my piano teacher took lessons, or coaching, until she was too old to climb the steps to the studio.  Can someone give me a good response when someone expects you to take lessons for two years and "go off on your own" and just sit and play?  I was, frankly, dumbfounded when he asked me this, but I want to be ready for it the next time it comes around.  My answer is that I want to be the best pianist I can possibly be, and if that means lessons for the rest of my life, then that's fine with me.  I don't think I can achieve that teaching myself.

[shortyshort]

I think this is a personal opinion question.

I started playing again about 2 yrs. ago after 25 years off.

I have had 2 lessons since re-starting. When my step-daughter is too ill to attend, I just take her place.

I don't want regular lessons. I feel that it would not be worth the money, for what I want out of myself.

Although when I have had a lesson, I do get a lot of stuff sorted. But I don't feel that I would have enough problems to need a lesson each week.

Answer to your question: Keep taking lessons untill you don't want them. 

[pet]

You have to know what you want out of piano lessons.  For instance, is there a specific composer that you want to learn more about, any techniques you want to learn, etc.  When it comes to things like this, having a teacher that is more knowledgeable than you can help you considerably in becoming a better pianist.  They've gone through it and know the "tricks" of the trade that will help you succeed much faster than they did.  When you feel that you have learned everything you can from a teacher, and can really learn pieces on your own without much guidance, then you can give up your teacher, or meet with them only when you want some pointers on a piece that you are playing. 

I personally do not think there is a time you can come to a point in playing a piece (rather well) without practicing it. Well, maybe if the piece is below your level. You might come to a point that you are advanced enough to not spend forever learning a piece...that is very possible.  There are plenty of members on this board that learn difficult pieces in two weeks, and it's probably because they are advanced and have a lot of good training, and now they use it to their advantage in learning things quickly.  But, it takes time to get to that point.

[amelialw]

I don't think he understands how difficult the piano is or what I'm trying to achieve, and I explained to him that even my piano teacher took lessons, or coaching, until she was too old to climb the steps to the studio.
My advice is keep taking lessons, if you love the piano that much don't let anyone hinder your way, you can't expect everyone to understand you. Most of my relatives don't understand me either, they are puzzled as to why I've thrown pratically my whole life into music.

I personally do not think there is a time you can come to a point in playing a piece (rather well) without practicing it. Well, maybe if the piece is below your level.
Yes, what Pet said is very true, you can't come to a point where you can just simply play a piece without practising it, unless it is a few levels down from where you actually are.

 I have been taking lessons since I was 3 and even now, I still am. Although I did'nt have a good teacher for the 1st 14 and a half years, I have an excellent teacher now, and she has done so many things for me within 3 and a half years although she could have given up hope on me and just dropped me. After I complete my piano dip, I still will be although i'm going to music school. I still want my own teacher to teach me to  guide me and I never want to stop learning from her until it reaches a point where she won't be able to teach me anymore.

[shingo]

Leaving the metaphorical womb of the teacher is something I am not looking forward to. I mean I can play stuff and teach it to myself at the moment at most levels of difficulty but I find lessons a great way to organise my playing (in terms of progress also) and also 'quality check' the piece before it is at a satisfactory level. I can just see myself flittering between pieces and not neseccarily recognising problems or easier methods of playing some of them.

[m1469]

My husband asked me yesterday how much longer I'd need to take lessons and when there would be a point when I could just sit down and play the piano and not practice anything.

(...) Can someone give me a good response when someone expects you to take lessons for two years and "go off on your own" and just sit and play?

"When I have learned how." 

 

My answer is that I want to be the best pianist I can possibly be, and if that means lessons for the rest of my life, then that's fine with me.  I don't think I can achieve that teaching myself.

We are always undergoing some kind of lesson, or learning experience, no matter who/what the teacher is.  Where, exactly, having learned the lesson will put us is fairly impossible to know (even afterward).  I don't think we actually ever "arrive" anywhere in particular, other than having "landed" another foothold or handhold (or fingernail hold) somewhere different or deeper or higher or more to the side.  I don't think anybody whom we call "The Greats" had ever "arrived" at their full potential, and if they did, it would have only been after they realized that they themselves needed to take the reigns. 

Since each of us are entirely unique (in one way), at some point only our own individuality and relationship with life will be able to teach us who we are at the instrument and what, exactly, our own musicianship is.  I mean, who can step inside of you and teach you how to be you ? 

Honestly, that's scary business, and I think that holds a lot of people back from really developing as an artist and a person because it's seemingly a lonely path (at least when a person just looks at it from a darkened perspective).  Even the people that can seemingly sit down at the piano and play whatever they want without practice are not actually achieving this without practice.  They have put their time in, it's just the time they put in accumulated and developed into something seemingly different than how it began.

I find myself to be often in some kind of fight with myself -- on the one hand, I have a drive to get everything in its place and establish how I will do this and how I will do that and call that package ME.  On the other hand, the second I do that, I seem to run into trouble and a further need to grow.  There is something concrete about life and musicianship, but what that is elludes me. 

At the same time, I don't necessarily believe others have the "BIG picture" truly much more figured out than I do (at least not people here on earth) -- if they did, I wouldn't be able to see them and they wouldn't be able to see me (don't feel like explaining that comment at the moment).  Don't get me wrong, I learn a lot of helpful specifics from other people who know more about certain things than I do, and I appreciate this very much !  But, it still doesn't mean that they are going to know exactly what my individual path will be, and that I should look to them as though they do.

How long will I take lessons for ?  Well, as long as I still have something to learn.  What I am working to do, though, is expand my idea of "teacher" and my idea of learning -- and my receptivity to what that is.  It's not just one person or one thing, but potentially everybody and everything.   I suspect that the "Greats" in any field had figured this out and lived it, to at least some conscious extent.

The point is, whatever your desires are with your music, let that drive you to wherever that leads you, because that is the only way you will get there  .  This post is all a bit abstract, and I apologize if it's not helpful for you, but that's where I am at today and it's the best I can do. 

[amelialw]

good point mayla. That's very true that no one has had the big picture figured out otherwise none of us would be here. We want to be here because there are people like us here who are similar to us and many of us as musicians have pretty lonely lives incleding me

[dorfmouse]

Can someone give me a good response when someone expects you to take lessons for two years and "go off on your own" and just sit and play?  I was, frankly, dumbfounded when he asked me this, but I want to be ready for it the next time it comes around.

You could perhaps ask if he would make the same comment to an 8 or 9 year old who'd been having lessons for two years. Many non-musicans have completely unrealistic ideas of what an adult should achieve in comparison to a child and are actually completely clueless about the effect such comments have on one's confidence. You go for your lessons as soon as you can and for as long as you're benefiting! 
(Afterthought; what about all the high-level professional sports people, tennis players, athletes etc who continue to have their personal coaches, psychologists and so on. Maybe he can relate better to that comparison.)

[miguelcatalao]

You could perhaps ask if he would make the same comment to an 8 or 9 year old who'd been having lessons for two years. Many non-musicans have completely unrealistic ideas of what an adult should achieve in comparison to a child and are actually completely clueless about the effect such comments have on one's confidence. You go for your lessons as soon as you can and for as long as you're benefiting! 
(Afterthought; what about all the high-level professional sports people, tennis players, athletes etc who continue to have their personal coaches, psychologists and so on. Maybe he can relate better to that comparison.)

Well, forget it because IMHO id doesn't even relates to that! He want's his wife home, cooking and taking care of their children, and that's it!
The thing is, it doesn't work like sit and play! Never! There is so much to know that it never Ends! Period!

Compare it to a hobby your husband has! One that he spends a lot of time (i mean, really a lot), and better, even money,  because Piano surely uses a lot of your time plus classes are not free. And say you have the right to have a similar time expending hobby. Put an end in that discussion now!!!

I did it a long time with my wife (the other way, of course... I am the (student) piano player.

So the answer for his question is, "FOREVER, as long as i want, as long as i can (economically) afford it, and as long as i have the time, patience and stamina to it"!
Simply because it is your right to do it! And if he respects you, like me and my wife respect each other, then he will never touch that issue again.