Interview teachers first before handing over a check!

[flyinfingers]

As a few of you might already know, I have had a difficult time finding a good match for me as a teacher.  Luckily, I took lessons as a child so I had somewhat of a foundation upon which to base my criteria.  I cannot stress enough after having gone through this painful, wasteful process, both timewise and financially, that you should meet with a teacher first before proceeding with lessons.  Don't be in a hurry.  I wish I would have done this from the onset.  Any teacher who is willing to take your money before meeting with you first is a sure- tell sign to move one and do more research.
I got some good recommendations from the piano tuner.  Then I expanded my search to the local university that has a music dept., which is two hours away.  I got one common name from each (tuner and university), but I contacted two others from the list.  After interviewing the two women that I've narrowed it down to, I'm going to go with the Polish woman, who has very accomplished students, one of whom, after six years, won an international competition and played at Carnegie Hall.  
The other lady is a highly educated pianist who studied at the conservatory in Moscow, but I like the more no-nonsense approach from the the Polish lady (who complimented me -- didn't hurt)!  I hope I hit the jackpot this time.  But I just wanted to post for anyone looking for a teacher.  I felt the least nervous with the person I went with and she had the most accomplished students.  Sets the bar high for me.  I'm very humbled by this experience so far.  
P.S.  Both teachers I interviewed had a ho-hum attitude on all of these exercise drills that I'm obsessed about, which, to me, speaks volumes.  They both said they have other ways, so I now have an open mind to my "drill-sargeant" techinques that I thought would serve me best, but I did learn those originally from a teacher at a Catholic school!  There it is, back to haunt me again!  Catholic school!  One never gets over it!!!!

[faa2010]

Way to go flyinfingers, the best way to find a good teacher is by giving the chance of teaching you.

I have been with the same piano teacher for more than 9 years.  She may not be a renown pianist or a concert pianist, but she has the patience of a saint and she can be honest when you ask her.  She taught me Hanon and she lets me play pieces which I want as long as we see a piece from the Thompsons series.

I met two years ago another teacher, she is a teacher from the Conservatoire and only gave me two or three classes. The meetings with her faded away because she has had more priority with Conservatoire students and her own recitals.  Maybe she was right about that I needed to learn from scratch or that I needed to redefine my practice, but I felt bad when she criticized my teacher.  That gave me the idea that she was a somehow elitist person, specially when I heard from an aquaintance about her behaviour during a recording.

Like you said, there has to be a kind of chemistry between the teaching and learning methods.  The only way to know which teaching methods suits you the best is by knowing more people and more methods.

[go12_3]

As a piano teacher myself, I make sure I meet the student before I even consider
beginning lessons.  There has to be a chemistry and an understanding while the
foundation is being set.  When I took lessons at college, I didn't interview my teacher, and
luckily he was very good and expected a lot from me.  I could have changed teachers by
next semester, but after a few lessons, I felt he was the match for me.  It's interesting how important to have a good teacher/student connection because without it, the learning progress
would become a challenge to learn new pieces.

[nickadams]

I got ripped off horribly by a piano teacher this summer.  

For the first 6 lessons or so, I paid her $25 after we finished each lesson and everything was going well. But one day, when we had just finished a lesson, she sat me down at a table and started literally crying to me that she could not pay her rent. She then begged me to pay her the next month's payments in advance to help her fend off her "tyrannical iranian landlord". Her house was very small and sparsely furnished so my parents and I took pity on her and paid her 200 dollars for the next 8 lessons. Based on the musical knowledge and pedagogical professionalism she had demonstrated in those first few lessons, my parents and I (foolishly) assumed that she would continue to come through for us. We figured this nice old lady giving lessons on an out of tune upright piano in a poor part of town could really use some help, and since I wanted piano lessons, why not kill two birds with one stone?

Well right after she took the check from my hand, things changed. Lessons started being canceled, she started talking on her phone while I attempted to play, and often cut instruction short because she really had to "go to the grocery store" (??). After about 4 weeks of this, I finally got fed up called her to demand money back. But when she answered the phone and I had said my piece, she began to cry once again. She explained that the reason she had been so flakey and unlike her usual self was because her daughter-- who she informed me has been battling cancer for the past 5 years-- required an expensive new treatment option and they could not even begin to afford it. She further confined in me that she used to live with her grown son in a nice house until he kicked her out about a year ago, and that rough transition coupled with her daughter's struggle with cancer had taken a huge toll on her.

Soo my family and I forgave the past month's unprofessional behavior, and coughed up another 200 dollars. As you would expect, the trend of cancellations and horribly unproductive lessons continued. She even started ignoring my calls. After having 4 straight lessons cancelled, I finally got a hold of her and she said I could come right then. So I drove to her hovel and when I got inside she sat me down with a grave look on her face. A plethora of new grievances and excuses filled the air and at the end of her monologue, she delivered the inevitable plea... "I need 200 more dollars."

I said no and asserted that she actually still owed me roughly 300 dollars worth of lessons from our previous payments. She feigned compliance and then gave me about 45 minutes of piano instruction before deciding (arbitrarily) that it was time to be done. That turned out to be the last lesson I ever got because she subsequently screened all my calls, texts, and even refused to answer the door when I drove across town to demand my money back.

So this summer I spent 600 dollars on about 11 hours of piano instruction. She even tried to sell me the practice book we were using for 75 dollars when I found it on amazon for 3 bucks.









inb4 cool story bro

[flyinfingers]

Wow, that sounds like a lot of work and a lot of drama for not so much money.  I wonder how many others she duped?!   That doesn't sound any fun, but sounds like you and your family are very caring! 
 

[pianowolfi]

 There it is, back to haunt me again!  Catholic school!  One never gets over it!!!!

You can get also over this one, I think. I think catholic education, at least if it's following really dogmatic catholic principles, nourishes fear systematically! If you find ways to overcome fear you will get over it!