"I've had 6 already"

[geopianoincanada]

Teachers. So many teachers. How do you do that?

I am still meeting with and interviewing prospective teachers as I come across them. It's slim pickings out there.

I did meet one teacher today who is a professional and she is gainfully employed at another music school in my area. She also teaches home lessons in her spare time and by what she showed me, her proficiency is "off the scale".

We got to talking and she boasted she has had 6 teachers already in her life. Her approach seems extremely bold, be loud, play fast and if you make a mistake in a piece just let it slide because no one cares, no one is going to notice.

I notice. I care. I'd rather get things right if it means going slowly and carefully.

I find this activity, learning piano, is so close to the heart. There's a profound intimacy to it and an intimacy to opening up to share it with a teacher. A definite vulnerability to it.

For someone who is an introvert to begin with and is not at ease meeting new people, the thought of having so many teachers and being able to be so happy and proud of it about it, well I just can't wrap my mind around that.

How does one do that?

If this keeps up, I feel like just giving up and getting out. I can't handle how hard it is to find someone new, shopping around as if it's a meat market.

[brogers70]

I've had seven piano teachers, if I'm counting correctly. Some good, some not so good, one very good, at least for a few years. I've never had the kind of close, intimate relationship with a teacher that you describe. I love the music; I want them to teach me things that will help me play better, but learning to play is entirely on me. If they help, that's terrific, and they often do. I guess I have somewhat limited expectations from a teacher - I want them to remind me of things I keep forgetting until I don't forget anymore (e.g. "shape the phrase with your arm not your fingers"), I want them to give me ideas I had not thought of myself about how to practice difficult passages, and, more so in the past than now, I wanted them to point me towards repertoire that was at the right level of challenge.  I had one teacher who thought it her job to fix things she thought needed fixing about my outlook on the world or my personality, and after a while that kind of boundary crashing outweighed the good stuff she was teaching. If I wanted a therapist, I'd hire someone who was actually trained in that. And to be fair to her, she was excellent with students who had suffered some kind of musical trauma in their youth, but it was not what I needed - she had a hammer, but I wasn't a nail. A good thing about having had a bunch of teachers is that they have different skills and strengths and outlooks, so by having a bunch over many years you get a wide range of ideas.

If you are interested in reading about a bunch of piano teachers, the excellent (in my view anyway) concert pianist, Jeremy Denk, has written a beautiful memoir about all of his teachers called Every Good Boy Does Fine, which you might find interesting. You can also get an idea about what various teachers are like just by looking at youtube - Josh Wright, Graham Fitch, Nahre Sol, Danae Dorken, and John Mortensen, are all very good teachers with different styles; watching some of their videos might help you think about what you need in a teacher.

Good Luck.

[geopianoincanada]

I’ve heard of Graham Fitch and I’ve seen some of his videos. He is way beyond anything I can do.

Thank you for the thoughtful reply.

In case anyone might be wondering, my question wasn’t meant to insult anyone at all who has had more than one teacher.

I was simply reflecting a personal feeling.

Now that I’ve been on the mountain top it’s only downward from here.

[lostinidlewonder]

If you are studying at a music institutions or even multiple music schools over the years or change locations where you live it is quite natural that you are going to have multiple teachers. If you study piano as a child and continue through to adulthood it is natural that you will also have had a few teachers too. Between the age of 5-10 I had 2 teachers as I changed schools and location, and then from around 13-20 I had another two teachers one during highschool and another after it. If I were to continue having teachers through my adulthood then easily I could have gone through another few teachers. So it is not that unusual.

Now that I’ve been on the mountain top it’s only downward from here.

This is a riddle sentence which I don't know what you are meaning. If you think the previous teacher you had was the best you possibly could have had then I would say you are mistaken. There are always better choices out there, the difficulty is finding them. To say your future is simply downhill is a pessimistic perspective which will be self fulfilling if you focus on it.

[geopianoincanada]

I suppose it is the fault of my restarting piano so late in life. I wish starting young would have been an option but it simply wasn’t possible.

Change is difficult now. It is easier and perhaps even exciting to encounter changes when you are younger and still energetic.

I grew highly accustomed to my first teacher. She could read me like a book and she knew what my emotions and playing needs were, it was uncanny.

Do I realistically foresee any new teacher being able to come in and pick up where my first teacher left off? No. Not really. Everyone is so different these days and I’m much more old school. It will be an uphill struggle.

For example. I have a number of old “The Etude” music magazines dating back to the 1910s which have piano sheet music within them. It was a goal to be able to work my way up towards being skilled enough to attempt those pieces.

My first teacher also shared the passion for the old music culture and magazines. I gave a number of those magazines to her for her own enjoyment. It was a mutual goal she was helping me work towards.

My first teacher also embraced old school though being young she was able to be flexible and manage “new school” for her younger students.

The relationship between my first teacher and I grew so specialized and attuned to the soul and personality, she was no mere cog in a machine to just be replaced out of convenience.

[ranjit]

Usually, everyone will have 5 to 6 teachers. There's one early teacher, who later on usually needs to be changed once students get to an advanced level in middle school or high school. Since at that point you need a teacher who is very competent and can play almost anything to develop you past a point. After that -- undergrad, again you have 1-2 different professors. You may go to a summer camp, where you'll probably meet another professor who will be teaching you. My teacher still says he studied with one of the best concert pianists alive today, though it was just for two months. But those two months had quite a profound effect on him. Then, you'll at the very least have another teacher for your Master's. We're already up to 6 teachers. You also need multiple influences because each teacher teaches different things, and you usually need multiple perspectives to see the full picture.

[anacrusis]

For someone who is an introvert to begin with and is not at ease meeting new people, the thought of having so many teachers and being able to be so happy and proud of it about it, well I just can't wrap my mind around that.

How does one do that?

If this keeps up, I feel like just giving up and getting out. I can't handle how hard it is to find someone new, shopping around as if it's a meat market.

Think of it not so much as a meat market, as being proactive about finding a teacher who is a good fit for you. And reasonably it goes both ways - certain teachers are more comfortable teaching one type of student compared to another. It's like talking to a number of people to see who might fit as your friend. I get that it might feel uncomfortable, but there is nothing wrong with it

[geopianoincanada]

Thank you.

I had a slightest vague glimpse of this meaning just today.

In the absence of my beloved first teacher since May 28, I contacted a music school on Kijiji and hired one of their teachers to fill in for 4 weeks.

I’ve been meeting with other teachers in the mean time, a very desperate feeling activity akin to searching for mistresses while being married.

One such teacher who I met is presently employed as a music professor at a local music school but she also teaches on the side.

After about an hour with her and being utterly blindsided by her immense talent, it slowly dawned on me that approaching my piano studies in stages or in steps might be behind this whole multiple teacher thing.

When I started piano lessons 4 years ago this subject was never mentioned. I wish it had been. It would have saved me several weeks of grief.

In the midst of this piano drought today I thought it safe to not dismiss this latest teacher interviewee out of hand, given my present plight.

I contacted her and informed her that right now in no way do I qualify to be her student. My low skill level and slow sight reading (uncorrectable vision issues) make me a complete waste of her time. But let us consider contacting each other in 2 years and see if there is any hope of me qualifying to study under her. She agreed.

My first teacher was and still is the world to me, the platinum standard. I saw absolutely everything in her delivery, her skill, her amazing knowledge and in the bond we had well established.

In the end my first teacher suggested that I could learn more from other teachers. It still seems impossible to believe that in my eyes. She is the world of piano to me and more. It felt like if my wife were to say “honey go find yourself a girlfriend”, that deep sense of something so wrong!

As bitterly as it feels to connect with more than one teacher, maybe this has some little germ of sense to it.

I forever feel this violates such a sacred trust and bond held only between my first teacher and I. Musical adultery if you will.

Does any of this make sense?