Am I having bad luck finding a good teacher?

[etcetra]

Well I am sure some of you guys already know my situation.. but I started piano at the age of 15, my first teacher was great, I improved steadily until I started college.. when I started college, I had a horrible teacher that gave me tension and i started having tendinitis problems within 4 months of studying with this person. 

My second teacher was a jazz teacher(which was my major), at first the teacher seemed very knowledgeable but I soon found out that this person was very unorganized, it seemed like this person had a different lesson plan every week, and sometimes I would work on what the she told me to work on and she would criticize me for playing it that way because she forgot what she told me last time.  She also told me she can't help me with technique.. which was puzzling too, and she was only avaiable twice a month to teach.

I asked to switch my teacher at my school.. the third teacher was very knowledgebale too but he was a flake and he didn't show up for the first 7 weeks of lessons.. i had about 4 lessons that semester, so i switched back to my old teacher..

I tried to get classical lessons outside of school but it was hard to keep up because of school.. it was so frustrating since the school refused to give me classical lessons to make up for the fact that i am not getting the hours i was supposed to get for my lessons..

Anyways, I know i am complaining, but because of what happened, I have become very cynical about teachers.. Did I just happen to have bad luck with teachers or is it correct to say that there are a lot of bad teachers out there?

[m19834]

Honestly, I don't know.  I think that you can at least say that you have not found a particular response within yourself that you are apparently looking for when it comes to finding a teacher (otherwise, I suspect you wouldn't be asking the question).  For me, that is all that matters anymore.  We respond differently to different people and environments and structures.  Oddly, the same kinds of behavior displayed by two different individuals can have very different effects on you in each case, depending on the intentions behind the behaviors as well as whatever your own personal state of being is, too. 

There is still some element to it all that is pretty mysterious to me though.  I do think we need different things at different times, and on top of that, the way we find those things are not always in the linear fashion it seems they should be.  For example, maybe we found something when we were 2 that we need now, while now we find something that we think/thought we needed when we were 2.

I guess I am developing a bit of a mantra lately in that, finding the right and/or wrong teachers, these are opportunities to really discover more of who you are as a musician and as a person, and don't altogether give up on yourself and on other people just because you don't see all the evidence of what you feel you need being presented to you at the time. 

[etcetra]

Karli,

I think I can understand what you mean about what life gives you and how those things may be appropriate for your life, and how these experiences may have been necessary for my personal development.. I guess I was looking for a more practical answer, in the sense that when I was in school I met a lot of people who were struggling or complaining about their teachers.. One of the most common problem I see is that a lot of teachers fail to articulate and really clarify what the problem is so students feel like they are going around in circles trying to solve the problem and they just get frustrated.  Injury seemed to be very common among people who practiced more than 4 hrs a day..

I did meet a really good teacher my last semester of school, and what impressed me the most was how articulate he was and how he seem to know exactly what to do to tackle the problems you are having.  There was no doubt in the student's mind as to what to do.. his students improved at an amazing pace.

I just think that finding a good teacher at the right time can be very pivotal in one's development, and sometimes those things are left up to chance.

[m19834]

Well, as far as practicality goes, that is whatever it is for the individual at the time.  What is practical for a few years may not be so in a few more.  Lately, as far as the forum goes, I am having a hard time wanting to think through as many things in the same ways as I used to, and I find myself just wanting to boil everything down to the very basic concept.  I'm just so tired.  For some people it will be helpful (perhaps) and for others it won't be.  I think it's a good example of how we can effect each other at different phases of our experience.  I agree that detail is good, but sometimes "you're thinking too much" is actually the exact right kind fo detail, and sometimes it's not.  It very much depends on the situation.  Obviously though, if somebody is feeling nothing but frustration, there is something that is not quite working.  But, it becomes up to the frustrated individual to do something about it, and that's where I mean that the student needs to get to know themselves and start to recognize when they are running into a wall that they keep running into (sometimes the same one(s) for years on end).  "Doing something about it" may mean getting a new teacher who can give a new perspective or so.

Anyway, I agree that the right teacher at the right time can be pivotal.  I don't think we can predict who is just waiting around the next bend, I know my mind has been blown in that way for sure.  But, we have to be willing to get to and around the next bend, and that is part of why we have to keep discerning what it is that works for us and what does not.

It's nap time for me. 

[m19834]

Okay, I have arisen from my nappybye.  I guess what I am trying to say is that, yes, sure, maybe you are having "bad luck" (though I don't altogether believe in "luck" as such) finding the right teacher, but it doesn't necessarily mean you are finding bad teachers.  Are there bad teachers in the world ?  Yes, I really think there probably are.  They may not give a hoot about what they are doing, but then again, I believe that has more to do with the person and their way of life than anything else.  And there are probably teachers who are passing along some pretty bad information, despite caring very much for their students.  I think though that what happens more than anything else is that there are personal and musical mismatches between teachers and students, and that can make the right information at the wrong time (or the wrong information at the right time) out to be a negative experience, for example.

Now, it's either more sleep or more practice for me.  What do you suggest ? 

[etcetra]

Karil,

sorry for the late response.. I made a new post, but in my case it was definitely a bad advice.. and not good advice on wrong time.. i litearlly was encouraged to band on the piano.  I also think some teachers tend to apply the same method unilaterally without really paying attention to what the student really needs for their growth.  Or They may have an idea on what you need to work on but their approach might be wrong.

It could be an attitude of the teacher too, I feel like some teachers teacher with the attitude that playing the piano is this hard excruciating, experience, and have this no-pain no-gain attitude about it.. others teacher with this idea that they are there to make playing easier for the students.. that play the piano can become easy with the right approach.

I guess the only thing I learned from that exprience is what you should not do, which doesn't necessary show you how to do it right either.

As far as practice goes.. well i used to practice, but now I practice only if I have clear intent on what I want to work on and know that I can get something done... sometimes naps can help you be more efficient when you practice later.. as long you as you don't oversleep