Advice on getting started with a teacher

[jimf12]

For the first time in over 40 years, I am starting back with lessons next week.    I have had periods in my adult life where I was actively playing and doing self study.   This past year, I've been able to devote some real time to the piano and it has taken root as a passion.   I think I have passed any level I achieved before.  I now have started to run into technical challenges that just seem to take me too long to solve on my own.   In addition, I'm wondering if I'm developing any bad habits that I am not even aware of.

My question is what advice would you give to get up and running effectively with a new teacher?   Should I give her guidance - i.e. on our first meeting break out some material I am working on and go right to the places I am having trouble, or should I just let her find things as she sees them.    My concern in telling her "I'm having trouble with X" and focusing on that is that I'm also having trouble with Y and Z and don't know it.   Should I show some things that I think are performance ready just in case I'm not hearing or catching something?

Any general advice or recommendations would

[brogers70]

First I'd tell her what your general goals are. Then I'd go with playing something you feel is performance ready. Odds are that even with something you think is in good shape, the stress of playing for a new teacher will expose some things that need working on, and even if you think you played it as well as possible, she'll still find things that can be improved.

[lelle]

My question is what advice would you give to get up and running effectively with a new teacher?   Should I give her guidance - i.e. on our first meeting break out some material I am working on and go right to the places I am having trouble, or should I just let her find things as she sees them.    My concern in telling her "I'm having trouble with X" and focusing on that is that I'm also having trouble with Y and Z and don't know it.   Should I show some things that I think are performance ready just in case I'm not hearing or catching something?

Any general advice or recommendations would

In the first lesson with a teacher it is common that they ask you to play something that you know/like to play to get to know you a bit. As long as the teacher is a good teacher, you telling her "I'm having trouble with X" is not going to distract her from noticing Y and Z. And V and W 

It's fine. Let her know some stuff you'd like to get help with as a start, and that you'd also like her to pay attention to anything else that you are not aware of. Teachers enjoy having enthusiastic students.

[jimf12]

First lesson was downright eye opening.    My teacher got her Ph.D. from a conservatory in Vilnius, Lithuania, and taught and performed there before coming to the states.   I don't know if this is the "Russian school" or not, but she is very much focused on technique and found several things that I need to work on and provided me exercises to do so.   I also learned today what people have said about blindly doing Hanon - she actually did assign me some Hanon but it's not like I've ever played it.   She doesn't care which exercises I do, as long as I follow her instructions for the technique she wants me to work on.   There were also several exercises to do with scales that made me feel downright stupid doing them.   I can play virtually all scales at 120bpm, but it turns out varying tempo, and dynamics I fall all over myself playing it at 60.   That both surprised and embarrassed me a little bit. 

As far as pieces to play, she asked me to pick something a little simpler than what I have been working on and play it.   I chose Mozart's K545 sonata,  because I play it well (imo) but knew there was a spot or two that could probably be improved.   Turns out almost the entire thing can be improved, that it's not as performance ready as I thought, and that is our first assignment. 

I think going forward I'm going to have to revisit the material that I have self taught myself and clean that up before we tackle brand new pieces.   
 

[ranjit]

Good to hear that you've got a nice teacher. I think that is often beneficial to just learn a new piece with the teacher rather than trying to fix something old.

[dogperson]

Good to hear that you've got a nice teacher. I think that is often beneficial to just learn a new piece with the teacher rather than trying to fix something old.

When I started with my last teacher, we did a combination: clean up pieces I wanted to Keep in my repertoire, while also starting some new.

[anacrusis]

First lesson was downright eye opening.    My teacher got her Ph.D. from a conservatory in Vilnius, Lithuania, and taught and performed there before coming to the states.   I don't know if this is the "Russian school" or not, but she is very much focused on technique and found several things that I need to work on and provided me exercises to do so.   I also learned today what people have said about blindly doing Hanon - she actually did assign me some Hanon but it's not like I've ever played it.   She doesn't care which exercises I do, as long as I follow her instructions for the technique she wants me to work on.   There were also several exercises to do with scales that made me feel downright stupid doing them.   I can play virtually all scales at 120bpm, but it turns out varying tempo, and dynamics I fall all over myself playing it at 60.   That both surprised and embarrassed me a little bit.   

My guess is she would be of the Russian school. To my knowledge that is what predominates in Lithuania.