Worst habits when self taught students finally gets a teacher

[skypert]

So, for the teachers out there, what are the worst things that teachers have to deal with when that self improver finally gets a teacher?

[anacrusis]

I don't have extensive teaching experience but have seen a lot of things all the same via other avenues. The worst thing to try to solve in a self learner is years of bad physical habits (movements or tension) that have become very ingrained. They are much harder to break than it is to learn the right technique from the start. It can take years of patient work.

[winsto7]

I happen to be one of the self-taught students rather than the teacher, but one of my worst habits and a pain for my teacher to fix was my fingering. That was a struggle for the first 6 months of lessons. I also found from experience that as a self taught pianist, no one teaches themselves scales, so that didn't help the fingering situation. I also found that I tended to progress faster than I should have which left me with a major gap (I can sightread almost anything, but don't have patience or technique to refine anything). Oftentimes I wanted to move on to the next thing without fully wrapping up the first and that caused a bit of a problem for a while.

[skypert]

Thanks for that.  Something to keep an eye on. Impressed with your sight reading skills winsto7 too