Problems with Piano lessons

[doctor_ivory]

 I am curious; for those of you who have piano instructors, and for those of you who are piano instructors, how do your lessons operate. My instructor typically begins by asking me to play scales, arpeggios, chords, broken chords, etc. and then has me run through the pieces I am learning. She assigns about two pieces for me to learn at time, and they are usually very challenging and frequently each piece takes months to learn.  (Is this a normal amount of time to learn a piece?)

At various relevant points in the lesson she will stop me and correct my arm motion, finger attack, etc, which she writes down in my notebook so I remember to practice them for the next week, but that is basically as specific as she gets when assigning me things to work on.  She essentially leaves it up to me to decide what to practice and how much to practice of any specific thing.  She doesn’t say practice this line or these bars for next week.  The most specific she will get is by saying, for instance, “do the 3rd page for next week.”  Does this mean the entire 3rd page, just the first line, or the first and second line?  I have no idea. From lesson to lesson I never really know what her expectations are. What then ends up happening is I have a choice when practicing; either I can put all my efforts into one section and get it nice and polished or I can spend a bit of time on a number of different sections, thereby working on more of the score but not getting as each section as polished as if I had just worked on one section alone (I hope that made sense). Regardless though, whatever method I use she is always quick to point out areas of improvement (not in a mean way).  I never feel as though I get any recognition for any of the hard work I put in because it always seems like I have practiced wrong, or something.  It is sort of akin to that old clichéd saying of “how do you know where to aim if you have no target.”

When I first started taking piano lessons she would have me learn through an adult method book.  Each week she would tell me what pages to work on for the next lesson.  Then I would go home and work on them and if there was any problems she would correct me and I would either continue polishing what I was working on or else we would move forward.  It was simple, I knew what was expected of me, but more importantly I knew that she knew I had practised.  We both seemed quite satisfied at the time.

I have asked her to go back to this method, but she refuses and insists she has her reasons for refusing.  Although, to be honest, I don’t understand her reasons.  The best representation I can give is that she needs to “see what I can do.”

Sorry for rambling, but I can’t even remember the last time I left my piano lesson happy.  Can anyone help me understand what is going on?

[lostinidlewonder]

You have explained yourself perfectly here. You are the type of person who needs structured lessons, you need to have the short term goals defined for you so you can work on them and see the result. Teachers need to motivate their students, it is a shame that not all music teachers however know something about motivation, a good book or course could always help them. If a teacher wants most results out of their students they will always recognize areas of improvement, (that is if they know their students well) and mention it.

It is very important teaching tool to appraise your students progress for the week and offer feedback. If your teacher is missing this out she is missing out on a key point in teaching that most teachers do. Some teachers do not have the brain to understand where every single student they teach every week is at. Personally I find this pretty weak as a serious teacher thinks about their students even when not in a lesson and gets to know their hands/musical mind personally.

Each person is an individual when learning music, if she is just saying this needs to be better, this finger is wrong, louder, softer etc, and not relate this to your current achievement, this is ineffective teaching. She should always relate it to how you have been doing it and how you act to produce a better result. That is teach through what you already have, not say to you; this is how it should be done get it done and i will not consider how you do it now just tell you how you do it now is not right, I will not use what tools you already have, discard them and learn it my way, I will also not offer insight as to how to practice away your challenges or where your main challenges lie and how solving on may solve the other etc etc. It is a losing teachers method this way and I have experienced that first hand with teachers when I was a child.

[quantum]

The kind of teaching you are receiving tends to work better for more advanced students. Those who have already established their foundations, and are seeking more of a masterclass type lesson where the teacher is relating their musical opinion, leaving it is up to the student to do something with such ideas.  It is not out of the ordinary for students playing university level repertoire to take months to learn pieces.  However, for beginning level students it is far more common to take a much shorter time - usually measured in weeks.

It seems like your teachers is pointing you in the direction of areas which need attention.  However, it does not seem as if your teacher has fully explained practice techniques - what you do to fix a problem once it has come to your attention.  Ask her about teaching you such problem solving techniques. 

The points that Lost makes above on motivation are quite important.

[doctor_ivory]

I really appreciate both lostinidlewonder's and quantum's replies.  It is nice to know I am not way out of line in terms of my role as student.

As I said before I have approached this topic with her once before and I am worried that doing it again will just spur more animosity between us.  I don't want to lose her as an instructor.  Does anyone have any suggestions on how I should approach my next lesson with her?

[pianobo]

My personal opinion is if you continue to leave your lesson unhappy, it is time for a change.
There has to be a teacher that makes you feel good.

[keyofc]

It sounds like you're frustrated, but really appreciate your teacher too.
Why don't you just ask more questions?
You might be surprised at the response.
Hopefully - pleasantly surprised....