Teaching Class Piano

[cherub_rocker1979]

Dear Piano Teachers,

I'm a graduate student who will be teaching Class Piano for the first time this semester.  I'm very excited about starting teaching but at the same time I know there will be problems I will have to face along with having to deal with my inexperience in teaching.  I would like to ask those of you with more experience what I can do to be better prepared to teach.

[hyrst]

Perhaps it would help if you detailed your circumstances a little more - e.g. type of school, number of students, number of hours, percentage of voluntary students, level/grade, etc. 

Essentially, the first year or two is really hard work and a steeper learning curve  than your prior education / learning time.  Prepare well with a good variety of flexible activities and outcomes.  Make sure you schedule time for yourself.  Access as many prepared activities as you can to save your own time.  Accept it will be hard work, but if you take an academic approach you can also look forward to learning a lot and things getting easier.

[cherub_rocker1979]

I'm a MM student and I'm doing it for my assistantship at my university's School of Music, which is an excellent music school.  I'm responsible for teaching 4 sections of class piano I and II with 15 or 16 students (mostly freshmen) in each class.  Each class will meet 2 times per week for an hour.  Some students will be non-piano majors and others will be non-music majors.

[dan101]

I would not be shy with respect to inquiring and reseaching the curriculum used in the past for these classes. If you have no material, then be prepared to gear your two classes to the student that you'd imagine would need the most help. It's better to start with easier curriculum rather than fly over non-music majors heads with the assumption that they know the rudiments of music theory. Good luck and congratulations. 

[amanfang]

Decide what and how much material you are going to cover every week, with some flexibility.  PLAN what activities you will do - write out how long you want to spend on each activity.  For example, perhaps you want to spend 5 minutes on technique (pentascales, "thumb-turn" scales, broken chords, or whatever), and then you want to spend 8 minutes on the new repertoire piece you are assigning. 

Find ways to involve them with each other, not just playing and listening to themselves in the headphones.  Assuming you are in a piano lab, you can use the equipment to pair them and have them listen to (or play with) each other.  Or maybe have them all play on loudspeaker so that everyone can hear everyone else out loud. 

Another thing I often do is have some sort of "drill" or technique or something at the beginning of each hour, so that they can play without looking right at the page.  Try some rote pieces as well.

[nyonyo]

Generally, teaching adults in a class format is kind of difficult.
Adults have their own goal, we cannot really direct them in the direction that is not in their mind. As you may know, Yamaha Music Foundation has never been successful with adult classes, yet they have great success with small kid classes.

Adults learn differently from 5 thru 12 years old children. Children do not have long span of concentration. We  cannot make children to stick in the same activity more than 7 min. They will get bored and start goofing around. Adult, on the other hand, will not stop trying until they get it. If you make adult doing so many activities in one hour, they will get frustrated and confused.

My advice is that do not go to fast with your teaching plan...Unless, your students are music major. Otherwise, those students will get upset...

[cherub_rocker1979]

Generally, teaching adults in a class format is kind of difficult.
Adults have their own goal, we cannot really direct them in the direction that is not in their mind. As you may know, Yamaha Music Foundation has never been successful with adult classes, yet they have great success with small kid classes.

Adults learn differently from 5 thru 12 years old children. Children do not have long span of concentration. We  cannot make children to stick in the same activity more than 7 min. They will get bored and start goofing around. Adult, on the other hand, will not stop trying until they get it. If you make adult doing so many activities in one hour, they will get frustrated and confused.

My advice is that do not go to fast with your teaching plan...Unless, your students are music major. Otherwise, those students will get upset...

Well, they're going to have to go in my direction because they will need to prepare to pass the piano proficiency exam.  I will certainly take my time with the material so that the class can keep up.

[nyonyo]

Well, they're going to have to go in my direction because they will need to prepare to pass the piano proficiency exam.  I will certainly take my time with the material so that the class can keep up.

Your case is totally different....Your pupils are serious in learning piano. Since they have to take exam, they have no choice. They have to follow you whether they like it or not.

The case I described above is for thos who learn piano for fun or for non major class.