Question about my piano teacer

[immortalbeloved]

Hey all,

Before anything, let me say that this is NOT meant as an attack against my teacher but a question that I have simply.

This has happened twice (well, three times really, but the third example is so small I do not even care to mention it).

I am on level four right now in piano--or grade four. I only started piano lessons with this teacher 8 months ago. And as I move up in grade levels I notice the following thing: songs that I am working on will be forgotten about while I trade grade three piano books for grade four piano books. Now, this has only happned with TWO songs, where my mistakes were not too bad. For example, with one Clementi piece, the only problem was my dynamic contrast everything else is great--was great. But we never finished the song until I mastered the difference.

THis happened again today but this time I said  ''I still have one song left'' but she said I was so good on all the other pieces from the book and the one we did not ''finish'' was really good save some counting issues.

So to the question: is it normal for teachers to not really insist on finishing a piece like this? Should I insist on making her hear them? I did five songs from grade 3, I did wonderfully well on three, and the other two, well I discussed those above, one was dyanimc contrast problems and the other just note counting issues.

I feel quite ready for grade four and looking at the piece I have for this week (the last section of Clementi's op 36 no 2) I am so exicited but also quite confident I can master it easily (or so I hope!).

But, am I being unfair to myself, or is she being unfair to me?

I really don't know what to think.

As always, consider me in your debt.

[hardy_practice]

The logic is it doesn't matter as long as you're learning. If you want to spend more time on grade 3 do so.  If you want to skip some and move on do so.  You'll come across analogous difficulties anyway.

[outin]

So to the question: is it normal for teachers to not really insist on finishing a piece like this? Should I insist on making her hear them? I did five songs from grade 3, I did wonderfully well on three, and the other two, well I discussed those above, one was dyanimc contrast problems and the other just note counting issues.

Completely normal. Some pieces are worked on briefly to learn something, some are polished more. The teacher looks at what you can learn from a piece and if you have already learned it.

Also they sometimes see that you just won't be able to manage higher level of perfection yet  and think it's more useful to go to something new. You cannot really "finish" pieces, there are so many interpretational choices to make and levels of improvement that are possible. You get the pieces to a certain stage which is very much depended on you overall musical and technical development.

But if there's a piece you really like and want to perform, then just tell your teachger that you want to keep working on it aside the new pieces longer for that specific reason.

[immortalbeloved]

The logic is it doesn't matter as long as you're learning. If you want to spend more time on grade 3 do so.  If you want to skip some and move on do so.  You'll come across analogous difficulties anyway.

Its not that I want to spend more time on grade three, but I just want to make sure that I am building the essential tools for the more advanced and complex.

[iamazombie911]

If she wants you to start grade 4, then that means she thinks grade 3 is now too easy for you. She wanta to give you repertoire a little over your skill level for the fastest improvement. As for not finishing the piece completely... well I can list a lot of pieces I never got around to finishing, lol.

[dcstudio]

totally normal...  I do it all the time.    Those books spoon feed you with many pieces illustrating the same things.   It is not necessary to finish every single piece in order to move on.   Keeping a student in a grade level that they have clearly progressed beyond just to finish a piece or two is counterproductive IMO.

Believe it or not... most teachers want you to progress just as quickly as you can.  We have all taught enough grade 1-5 stuff to last us a lifetime.   We want you to get to the higher levels ASAP!!!!

she is a good teacher... you have said so yourself... if I remember correctly. 

[keypeg]

Believe it or not... most teachers want you to progress just as quickly as you can.  We have all taught enough grade 1-5 stuff to last us a lifetime.   We want you to get to the higher levels ASAP!!!!

That is indeed the problem.

Actually the concern is not about going too fast, but about having enough time to acquire the skills.  Adults can think abstractly and grasp concepts quickly which young children can't, so it is wonderful for teachers that they can go so much "faster" with us.  But the body and nervous system cannot be hurried up like that.  What is boring for you is essential for us - just as essential as for the little kids.  It takes an enormous amount of concentration to first acquire a simply skill like playing one hand softer than the other.  You cannot at the same time concentrate on a complex piece of music and skills.  It is much more rewarding to be given the time to get at those skills, and then be able to use them in those more difficult pieces.

I am sure that it is also boring for a primary school teacher to teach that 1 + 2 = 3 every year, but that teacher doesn't decide to give the kids algebra.

We need the time that we need regardless of how it might bore you guys.  It is much MORE boring to go into full blown remediation because a teacher rushed you through.  I'm going through that right now with the instrument on which I first had lessons.  It is harder and takes longer than learned properly the first time round.