Should I get a new teacher?

[nickadams]

I am taking lessons with a grad student at my college and I'm not sure if this teacher is good for my musical development.

THE PROS
-teacher is an extremely knowledgeable and talented musician
-lessons are free since taking 6 courses costs the same as taking 5 at my college
-great at explaining why to use particular articulations, phrasing, rubato, and great at explaining how to identify the different voices of a piece, the character of a piece etc.

THE CONS
-lessons consist of him assigning a piece and/or a study for the week, then the next week he listens to me play it and tells me where to improve. Then he assigns a new piece or has me work on the old one for another week.
-doesn't assign anything to work on theory, aural, or sight reading. I've asked him to but he said since I'm in "applied" piano lessons, he doesn't cover those topics.
-never remembers what he assigned me the previous week... makes it seem like he doesn't really have a "plan" for me but is just picking pieces from my book on the fly at the end of every lesson.


Is the format of "assign piece, listen to student play piece, give advice" just the way piano lessons work? I feel I cannot improve long-term with this strategy because without improving my knowledge of theory, scale fingerings, sight reading, aural skills etc., the process of learning a piece note-by-note will get slower and slower as things get more advanced.


What do you all think?

[chicoscalco]

I am taking lessons with a grad student at my college and I'm not sure if this teacher is good for my musical development.

THE PROS
-teacher is an extremely knowledgeable and talented musician
-lessons are free since taking 6 courses costs the same as taking 5 at my college
-great at explaining why to use particular articulations, phrasing, rubato, and great at explaining how to identify the different voices of a piece, the character of a piece etc.

THE CONS
-lessons consist of him assigning a piece and/or a study for the week, then the next week he listens to me play it and tells me where to improve. Then he assigns a new piece or has me work on the old one for another week.
-doesn't assign anything to work on theory, aural, or sight reading. I've asked him to but he said since I'm in "applied" piano lessons, he doesn't cover those topics.
-never remembers what he assigned me the previous week... makes it seem like he doesn't really have a "plan" for me but is just picking pieces from my book on the fly at the end of every lesson.


Is the format of "assign piece, listen to student play piece, give advice" just the way piano lessons work? I feel I cannot improve long-term with this strategy because without improving my knowledge of theory, scale fingerings, sight reading, aural skills etc., the process of learning a piece note-by-note will get slower and slower as things get more advanced.


What do you all think?

It's true you need more than that. But no teacher will teach you EVERYTHING. For theory, get another one, if you're really serious about it. Performance teacher won't teach you theory. About sight-reading and scale fingerings, my teacher helped me a lot. But I don't think these are all things only one teacher will teach you. And would aural reading be? Solfeggio? If that's the case, get a solfeggio teacher! It's really important.
Nadia Boulanger, IMO the greatest pedagogue in the 20th century, indicated several teachers for all her students, and the first thing she did was recommending a solfeggio teacher. Don't look for all of these things in only one person, you won't find it.

[nickadams]

It's true you need more than that. But no teacher will teach you EVERYTHING. For theory, get another one, if you're really serious about it. Performance teacher won't teach you theory. About sight-reading and scale fingerings, my teacher helped me a lot. But I don't think these are all things only one teacher will teach you. And would aural reading be? Solfeggio? If that's the case, get a solfeggio teacher! It's really important.
Nadia Boulanger, IMO the greatest pedagogue in the 20th century, indicated several teachers for all her students, and the first thing she did was recommending a solfeggio teacher. Don't look for all of these things in only one person, you won't find it.

I forgot to mention that I am an adult beginner so do you really think it's necessary for someone like me who is still largely learning the basics to have multiple teachers? In the introduction to piano group class I took last year the one teacher took us as complete newbies and taught us the basics of music by giving us helpful exercises in sight reading, rhythms to clap, scales to practice, I-IV-I-V7-I etc chords to practice... He taught us which chords harmonize well with the third, fourth etc of a scale, and he even let us write our own little pieces sometimes.

I never imagined that 1-on-1 lessons could be less helpful than a group class (especially since the person who teaches me 1-on-1 is the same guy that taught the group class!) but I think the difference is that the group class had a well-rounded curriculum to follow whereas it would be a big endeavor for my 1-on-1 teacher to come up with such a lesson plan made specifically for my level. My teacher has many performance engagements himself and also gives lessons to students who actually are music majors, and he also has classes to take himself! So I understand it would not be practical for him to come up with a complete lesson plan tailored to me, but I don't know if our current lesson format is good for my learning (he seems to be constantly pushing me to harder and harder pieces even when I can hardly get the notes and rhythms played correctly in most of the pieces, much less add any sort of character or articulation/phrasing.




Thoughts?

[steve_uk]

You're in the Catch 22 I was in several years ago of knowing instinctively something is not quite right and yet not having the ability or confidence to have it out with your teacher about what you need to know. In my case  I read the syllabus(I was exam oriented)and insist that he explain what terms meant and we tick off things as they come. There should also be a variety of activity included in the lesson so you get to warm up,learn new drills and scales as well as the piece of your choice which corresponds to the ability in the grade. Frankly don't hesitate to change teacher if necessary because he is there for you and not the other way round.

[pianoplunker]

I am taking lessons with a grad student at my college and I'm not sure if this teacher is good for my musical development.

THE PROS
-teacher is an extremely knowledgeable and talented musician
-lessons are free since taking 6 courses costs the same as taking 5 at my college
-great at explaining why to use particular articulations, phrasing, rubato, and great at explaining how to identify the different voices of a piece, the character of a piece etc.

THE CONS
-lessons consist of him assigning a piece and/or a study for the week, then the next week he listens to me play it and tells me where to improve. Then he assigns a new piece or has me work on the old one for another week.
-doesn't assign anything to work on theory, aural, or sight reading. I've asked him to but he said since I'm in "applied" piano lessons, he doesn't cover those topics.
-never remembers what he assigned me the previous week... makes it seem like he doesn't really have a "plan" for me but is just picking pieces from my book on the fly at the end of every lesson.


Is the format of "assign piece, listen to student play piece, give advice" just the way piano lessons work? I feel I cannot improve long-term with this strategy because without improving my knowledge of theory, scale fingerings, sight reading, aural skills etc., the process of learning a piece note-by-note will get slower and slower as things get more advanced.


What do you all think?

One good thing about "assign piece, listen to student play piece, give advice" is that you have a chance to perform every week for someone with some knowledge. And that wont be just to pat you on the back. Eventually you and your teacher will find a trend in how you play and hopefully guide you either with that trend or away from it depending what it is.