Starting out teaching

[Marzia]

Hello everyone and happy holidays to all!

I found out about this forum just last week and I think it's fabulous--excellent questions, advice, etc.

I've got two questions of my own and hopefully, somebody can help me out (I'm sure somebody's asked already).

I'm located in Toronto, Ontario (Canada) and have formal Conservatory (RCM) training (completed grade 10 and theory requirements about 10 years back) and I've decided that I would like to teach (I was teaching my 6 1/2 year old niece and it was a lot of fun actually despite the fact that after 20 minutes her mind wondered).

I never stopped playing piano but unfortunately when you're working full-time, you don't have that much time to dedicate to practicing. I've also been involved with social and competitive ballroom dancing (with my husband) for over 10 years and we are now pursuing teaching (finding your first students is not easy). I really enjoy music and dancing and I found that having training in dancing was a huge help to my understanding of musicality, rhythm, "feeling" the music, phrasing, chord transitions, choreography, upbeat, downbeat, etc.

1) My first question is this: aside from actually finding students (I've got quite a bit of competition to deal with where I live), how/what method do you use to teach--do you start with sight reading, learning scales, note values, ear training, etc?? My teacher taught with heavy emphasis on sight reading and I came to realize (too late) that my ear is very poor with respect to improvising, hearing differences in chords, hearing what key a piece is in, etc. Now I would like to be able to teach with these 2 elements (sight and ear) ideally with a 50/50 balance. I don't have a problem teaching kids/adults (obviously there are different ways of teaching) but I'm not sure where to start and what is the best/most logical progression.

If anyone has suggestions, knows of any books, videos that I could look at that have a "train-the-trainer" focus (I've heard various good/bad opinions on the Suzuki, Yahama, conservatory methods).

2) My second stress/worry/question is this: being a first-time teacher starting out, how can you attract students (and hence gain teaching experience) if you have none???

Marzia

[bizgirl]

I a bit confused about why you are actually going to teach piano.  You said you are already working full-time and going to start teaching dancing and don't have much time to dedicate to your own practicing.  Assuming you have a plan for that problem already figured out, I will proceed.
     Your goals for teaching will determine what kind of students to attract and, hence, how you would go about getting them.  If you are teaching just because you find it fun then you may want to teach adults.  They typically have an idea of what they want to play and want to are learning  for the same reason you are teaching them - just to have fun.  However, if you want to teach future concert pianists there would be a much greater investment on your part.  You would have to prepare a rigorous curriculum for your students, find competitions and performance opportunities, join organizations so your students could enter the competitions, etc.  (Most adult students don't care about, or are actually against, performing in public.)  You may also need to start taking lessons again yourself.
  I'm not sure what you mean by "train-the-trainer."  Do you mean books/videos for teachers to learn to teach from, or do you mean a student lesson book that can guide the teacher in what to teach?  I will assume you are talking about the latter (correct me if I am wrong) because the examples that you gave (Suzuki, Yamaha, etc.) belong in that category.  Suzuki is definitely not a method that someone could teach from without prior study, but other method books are so self-explanatory that a student could use them to teach themselves.  (I have not looked at the Yamaha method so I'm not sure about it; I think I looked at an RCM book and it seemed to follow the same pincipals as Suzuki - I have not talked to any teachers though, so I cannot say for sure that the philosophies are the same.)  There are many things you cannot learn about teaching without jumping in with both feet and trying it, but you should never start out with the mind set that you will learn as you go.
That being said, here are my questions for you:
1. Why are you teaching?
2. What are your goals for teaching?
3.
I'll get to #3 after you respond to #1 and #2.   I realize I didn't really answer your questions, but I think I will be able to give you a better answer if I understand you goals and reasons for teaching first.

[Marzia]

Hi bizgirl,

In answer to your questions, I'd like to teach piano as something more recreational (no, I don't have any intention of teaching someone to become a concert pianist because I know that I have neither the capacity, time or dedication to do so). And you're probably quite accurate in suggesting teaching adults rather than kids because kids wouldn't take piano lessons for fun.

No, I have no intention of going into teaching thinking that I will learn as I go--that's not my style; hence, I've been asking questions and doing some research before I dive into the pool, so to speak. As for "train-the-trainer", yes, I was referring to books/materials that provide a guide on teaching.

Thank you so much for your helpful comments and insight--they helped clarify the somewhat "disjointed" ideas I had floating around.

And question #3 was....

[dveej]

This thread may be dead since the last post was six months ago, but I'll chime in anyway (try and STOP me!!!).

Marzia, I think you would enjoy reading some piano pedagogy textbooks.
James Bastien How To Teach Piano Successfully
Marienne Uszler The Well-Tempered Keyboard Teacher
Louise Guhls Odyssey Of A Small-Town Piano Teacher (not a textbook, but nice to read)
Max Camp Teaching Piano, Developing Piano Performance
Joan Last The Young Pianist
Celebration Series Piano Odyssey Handbook for Teachers

You could also learn a lot from the RCM Piano Syllabus. It is a good resource for teachers and I use it in every lesson I teach.

There are also trainings given in various methods, if you are willing to submit to their outlook. Suzuki gives trainings for teachers all over the world. And there are devotees of the Robert Pace piano method books who have teacher groups that meet once a month, for people who are into the Pace method.

[Jacey1973]

This thread may be dead since the last post was six months ago, but I'll chime in anyway (try and STOP me!!!).

Marzia, I think you would enjoy reading some piano pedagogy textbooks.
James Bastien How To Teach Piano Successfully
Marienne Uszler The Well-Tempered Keyboard Teacher
Louise Guhls Odyssey Of A Small-Town Piano Teacher (not a textbook, but nice to read)
Max Camp Teaching Piano, Developing Piano Performance
Joan Last The Young Pianist
Celebration Series Piano Odyssey Handbook for Teachers

You could also learn a lot from the RCM Piano Syllabus. It is a good resource for teachers and I use it in every lesson I teach.

There are also trainings given in various methods, if you are willing to submit to their outlook. Suzuki gives trainings for teachers all over the world. And there are devotees of the Robert Pace piano method books who have teacher groups that meet once a month, for people who are into the Pace method.

Thanks! I will check these out too 

[russda_man]

I a bit confused about why you are actually going to teach piano.  You said you are already working full-time and going to start teaching dancing and don't have much time to dedicate to your own practicing.  Assuming you have a plan for that problem already figured out, I will proceed.
     
She asked you a question about teaching, not to be 'confused'! And the rest of your comments were not helpful at all, in my opinion, you bellend