When are you ready to teach

[chozartmaninoff]

Just wondering when is it your qualified to teach!!!!? What level? ive been grade 8 for a couple of years, know my theory to grade 8 although only got a grade 8 atm. Played Liszt etudes, Chopin etudes, Scraibin etudes etc.

Does this make me sufficiant enought to get into the world of teaching??

When do you think someone is ready?

Mike

[hyrst]

Hi Mike,
Well, you have enough repetoire to be 'qualified' to teach beginner and intermediate students.  You have possibly more repertoire than a lot of teachers around (here in Australia, anyway - standards are better in some countries) who set themselves up in a studio or are employed by a business.

Whether you are ready to teach depends on a lot more than what you can play - that is only a tiny part of it.  A certain amount of readiness depends very much on the individual situation - teacher and student.  Being a good teacher depends on your understanding of learning processes, inter-personal dynamics, problem solving specific to piano reading and technique, creativity, understanding of music curriculum and development and how to make use of pieces to support musical development progressively, etc.  To be a good teacher you also need to be a good model, coach, friend and servant - knowing how to adapt to the needs of the person you are trying to help.

People can be ready to teach before they reach their diploma level if they have high level understandings in these areas.  Yet, if  someone hasn't studied in these areas, they could be a concert pianist and a dreadful teacher. 

If you want to start teaching, I would recommend beginnning to read books on learning and development (e.g. books recommended for university courses in education). Read about heirarchical learning theories.  Work through beginner pieces and even method series and work out how they relate, their challenges to a learner, how you would overcome the challenges, what should be learnt from them, etc.  Try to identify areas of difficulty in learning how to read and play and how you might impart these ideas in creative ways.  What are the foundations, stepping stones and building blocks that take someone from being a non-musician to an accomplished pianist able to interpret music independently? Create your own ideas, even write out your own overall curriculum.

Although teaching is itself an ongoing learning experience, and you can expect to make mistakes and learn a lot with the first few students especially, you need to think about teaching itself and not just about what you can play.  Teaching is a different skill... but if you can play at that level competently, I think you have a good foundation on which to build.  Good luck

[syncope]

hi Mike,

I can relate to your question. I always felt I wasn´t ready to teach (even though my level of playing was certainly high enough, but I mean dealing with explaining piano playing/music making), but a half year a go I HAD to start teaching for my piano study. So I was thrown into it and I'm glad I was - because you only get ready by doing it and learning from it.

And my experience is, that you learn so many things just by giving one lesson. And the next lesson you learn more again ("I should have explained it like this in stead of this, or "" I should have shown her this exercise"). No problem, good to know for next time

But one thing that's for sure is that I'm glad that we had a half year preparation before that, where we talked in class about what to look at when teaching (it is so much different from what to look at during own practice sessions). Like: posture, hand position and basics like that.
And also we looked at very different piano methods, so we could form our own idea of how we would like to approach teaching ourselfs - and what method book we prefer using for our students. Keep in mind that you have different kind of students: young beginners, young intermediate, grown up beginners, etc etc and every kind needs different approach.

After having done that, I just started teaching two pupils and everything went fine - though you surely have to think on your feet while teaching a lot of the time But it's fun and creative.

So: like hyrst said. Read about piano teaching first. And page through different pianomethods, so that before you get your first student you have some "plan". And also make a general time planning for how to organize your half our lessons (or how long you teach). For example: 5 minute welcome talk, how was your week? 10 minute pieces reviewing, 10 minute learning new topic/technique/musical thing for new piece. 5 minutes writing down homework in book and making sure student knows what to do and feels good about it.

I'd say: Go for it!! Start reading into this/prepare, go to the library, find different method books/pieces, and start teaching.

[chozartmaninoff]

Thanks guys And yeah i think the only way i'll ever be ready it just to do it. And Syncope i will take your advice on the beginner books.

Thanks

Mike