alone in the dark

[caro]

hey,mates. Could u give me ur impressions about when should be the best moment to stand by urself without the help of a professor.
Cheers.waiting 4 ur points of view
Caro

[rachlisztchopin]

When your good enough to replace the professor! 

[dongsang153]

i think there is no appropriate time.  i know a lot of you don't like lang lang, but he once said that without a teacher your sound goes wrong...or something to that effect.  why do you think great atheletes have coaches?  not necessarily becase the coaches are better.  it is because the coaches see that atheletes and knows where they can improve on.  i look at the piano teacher in the same way.  the teacher hears you in a different way you hear yourself.  i hope that makes sense.

 

[bernhard]

I totally agree with dongsang153. A piano teacher is very similar to an athletic coach – especially at the higher levels. As such s/he fulfils a diversity of roles throughout the musical education of the student:

1.   The teacher actually teaches stuff. Things that the student is ignorant about, like notation, or chord names. The student could acquire most of this knowledge without a teacher, but the teacher can save a lot of time. This is what we usually most value a teacher for, and yet it is the least important of his/her attributions.

2.   The teacher guides the physicality of the student’s playing: which movements are most efficient. In the beginning a teacher is very important in this area. However as the student starts to tackle the more difficult repertory, he must start moving away from the teacher and developing his own physicality, his own way of moving, which ultimately is very personal and cannot be taught. Yet, a teacher can still provide criteria and guidelines for the student to apply when trying to decide which fingering and which movement is the most appropriate. Paradoxically it may be in this most personal of areas that the teacher is the most important in preventing bad habits from forming.

3.   A teacher – again, especially in the beginning stages – can provide discipline, inspiration, motivation and interest (although these last two must ultimately come from within).

4.   The teacher acts as a knowledgeable critic, pointing out to the students the areas where improvement is necessary.

5.   Most of all, the teacher (should) teaches how to learn which is the true prerogative for independence.

So when are you ready to be without a teacher? Simple. When you have learned how to learn. At this point the whole universe will become your teacher. Every single event in your life will be a “teacher” teaching you something. And you will realise that this has been going on all along, you simply did not notice. (Some people go through life without ever noticing it). In this sense you will never be without a “teacher”, or without learning something new everyday.

And if you ever become a teacher, you will realise that you never learn so much as when you are teaching.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[caro]

It is quite interesting point of view, cause itīs not possible to dissociate life from music. I donīt think that there is a specific moment when life starts to give u answers and actually becomes your teacher but there is a moment that we start to notice this answers. We couldnīt learn before from there cause we were too busy in something else. I agree a piano professor it is a coach for ur musical training, it can become as well a spiritual guider and an experienced friend. I donīt think u should try to become better than him in order to leave him. Itīs not a competition here. Thatīs why it becomes a hard decision to leave him. But I think it is a very comfortable position to be a student,somehow. Cause actually you donīt need to loose time thinking about how to resolve musical problems. And at this point if you try to find the solution yourself maybe you will take a different road....maybe your OWN road.
Ooooh,I donīt know...  thanks a lot from your advices,guys. 

[Bob]

When to work on your own without the prof?

When you can make progress yourself and don't need their help.  When you don't want them in your way or forcing your down certain paths.  When you get tired of paying their lesson fees.

[m1469]

Paradoxically it may be in this most personal of areas that the teacher is the most important in preventing bad habits from forming.

I read this and in thinking about it I was slapped upside the head with a profound meaning that is personal for me.  But, then I reread it and I am not sure that I am understanding what you are saying, simply because I feel it can be taken in different directions.

Are you saying that a teacher at this point will help a student who is discovering their own personal motions to not form bad habits by "correcting" their discoveries along the way?  Or something else, perhaps something more subtle?

I took it as something different, and now I am curious. 

m1469

[Brian Healey]

hey,mates. Could u give me ur impressions about when should be the best moment to stand by urself without the help of a professor.

When the student becomes the teacher, grasshopper.

If for no other reason, it's valuable to have someone who's more experienced that you can look up to as a mentor. It may not be a student-teacher relationship exactly, but it's good just to be around a good piano player who's been "around the block" so to speak.

[caro]

When the student becomes the teacher, grasshopper.

If for no other reason, it's valuable to have someone who's more experienced that you can look up to as a mentor. It may not be a student-teacher relationship exactly, but it's good just to be around a good piano player who's been "around the block" so to speak.

yes,that might be it. It is always a good help to have some good musician around. But suddenly u also start learning much more from other good performers concerts. I have noticed myself that now I appreciate good players much more. And much more i am critical with what is not that good. Well, thatīs annoying, unfortunatelly.
But there is a dangerous risk around, Im much more scared now than before working in the pieces. Cause I wonder myself if i am not going through wrong paths.....