All About Choosing Piano Schools And Teachers

[cse1217]

Hi all who are interested in learning piano or finding a FUN, Experienced, Patient, Flexible female piano teacher for yourself or your child, please PM me at 91468438.


Contact details and information
If you are interested to learn piano from her, please PM with the following details:
1) Your name
2) Contact number
3) Age of student
4) Venue of lesson (with postal code)
5) Preferred days and time for lessons
6) Learning piano for leisure and/or graded exam
a. If for leisure, specify any specific type of music
b. If for graded exam, specify what is the highest grade obtained

[VirtuosoPianist]

PIANO LESSONS BY COMPETITION WINNER


Lessons will be conducted at my home in Whampoa (nearest MRT Novena/Boon Keng).

Feel free to drop me a message at 9178 5243 if you're interested!

Lee Jie Qi
LRSM (with distinction)
DipABRSM (with distinction)
2nd prize winner of Cristofori Piano Competition 2009
Finalist at 2011 National Piano & Violin Competition
Ex-music director of Raffles Junior College Piano Ensemble

STUDENT'S ACHIEVEMENTS:
Samuel[list]

[musicglen]

For anyone who needs help in music / note reading / exams / accompanists etc..


https://musicglent.weebly.com

Or email me: musicglent@gmail.com

[Bearierie]

Hi. Looking for piano teacher willing to travel to Clementi. Kindly PM

[li.031032tingrui.031032hotmail.031032com]

Hi there, I am looking for a piano teacher who can come over to my place to teach a girl( sec 3).


Location: The scala, 138 Serangoon Ave 3, Singapore 554479
Rate: SGD $40~50/ 50mins, once a week is fine.
Piano teachers can be art college students etc with necessary qualifications in piano teaching.
Prefer female teachers who can speak Mandarin.

can email me at cygdzsg@hotmail.com

[yernying]

Hi,my name is Agnes.I have been teaching piano for 21 years.Recently ,I am looking for new students in North area especiallly in Woodlands.My qualification is I am ABRSM diploma holder in performance and teaching.I am experienced to teach from beginner to Gd 8.If interested,please contact me @90252089.

[Dreamaurora]

Hi parents, here's an article I wrote recently for my teaching practice to help parents support their children's practice. You can also get a downloadable PDF from the following link: http://charleswupianostudio.com/The%20Supportive%20Parent.pdf


Supporting Your Child’s Practice Effectively

By Charles Wu, BA(Hons) Performance, LRSM(Performance), LRSM(Teaching)

Introduction

Does this scenario sound familiar to you? You bought a nice shiny instrument for your child and started them on lessons with a qualified teacher. Everything seemed to be going swimmingly for a while, then suddenly you were fighting a losing battle to get your child to practice. You then wondered why was it so hard to get them to practice? And if they did practice, why did it sound bad most of the time? As a parent myself I fully empathize with this, and as a piano teacher with more than a decade under my belt I have encountered my fair share of non-practicing students as well. Conversely, I have had students who were practicing badly at first but later had turnarounds and went on to become quite decent players. So let me share a few useful pointers and practical tips you could start applying in your child’s practice.

Practice Is Hard Work

But is not practicing supposed to be enjoyable and fun? Perhaps you might have gotten this romantic notion from a movie or television show you had watched. But ask any decent player and they would have told you that to even produce a decent amateur performance of a popular masterwork would require a significant amount of often not fun practice.

Truth is practicing often involves tedious repetitions and careful troubleshooting. There might be brief moments where practice could be really rewarding like when you managed to solve a problem or finally was able to play through a piece. But most of the time it is really hard work and rarely fun. And really, rarely you would get to hear your child only playing through their pieces beautifully during their practice sessions. I often share an anecdote where an admirer tried to camp outside the great composer pianist Sergei Rachmaninov’s home in hope of hearing his magnificent playing. What he got was Rachmaninov repeatedly playing a few bars again and again very slowly for hours. I always joke that despite being a pianist myself, I would not really want another serious musician as my neighbour.

Once you understand and accept this fact, you would be more sympathetic to your child’s apprehension to practice and ready to be more supportive.

Be Involved

In a documentary, Evgeny Kissin recounted how as a young child prodigy he would excitedly dash to the piano the moment he came home from school and practiced for hours by himself. I think we all hope our children could be like that, but the reality is that most young learners do not have that innate motivation and need their parents to be a constant part of their learning journeys.

I know parents who practically tutor their children during their practice sessions. I am not asking you to do the same, but there are some small steps you could start taking to be more involved. You were already taking the first step when you started reading this article but let me offer you a few more suggestions.

Starting to be more involved with your child’s practice certainly does not mean constantly reminding them to practice; this only vexes your child and might demotivate them. Rather than doing that, you could start by asking your child to prepare and perform what they are supposed to practice. For example, you could say this to your child “I like that cool piece you’ve just started learning. Can you practice and play it for me later?” This will send a signal to your child that you like music and are personally invested in what they are learning.

You could take this a step further and weave your child’s music making into the fabric of your family life. You can ask your child for example to perform for family dinners or parties. Celebrate completion of a piece by recording a performance of it and sharing it to social media. Learn an instrument yourself and practice duets with your child.
I encourage you to try them out and hope you would be able to see positive improvements soon. These suggestions do not remove the tedium of practicing, but when your child see that their parents are constant part of their learning journey, they would be more motivated to bear the slog.

Do Not Micromanage

On the other side of the fence, I have witnessed parents who had gotten a tad too involved with their children’s practices, especially if their children show great potential in the instrument. I do think there is nothing wrong with guiding your child more proactively if you wish to, but you will need to be careful that you do not become over-bearing.

A big part of learning an instrument is learning to practice and troubleshoot issues independently. Trying to admonish and correct every issue cropping up during your child’s practice would only increase the tedium and misery of practicing, not to mention that your child might become overly dependent on you. It is okay to point out the issues and give suggestions on how to solve them, but it is also perfectly fine to let your child make mistakes and discover for themselves what would work and what would not work. This way, they are far more likely to mature faster to become independent musicians.

Be Accepting and Encouraging

Just as we would not expect someone who is learning to cook or bake to always produce delicious food; the same goes with learning an instrument. It is nice to think your child might be the next prodigy in town, but the sobering reality is really that most young learners would have to contend with chugging steadily with plenty ups and downs on their ways to become decent amateur players. And really, there is nothing wrong with this; I always say to everyone that I am equally as proud of both my precocious and average students.

I have heard parents who complained that practice sessions were ordeals; their children often could not accomplish the tasks set for them even after many exhortations and repetitions. And their playing often sound grating to their parents’ more discerning ear. I understand the frustration but showing your displeasure visibly to your child would only be detrimental to their motivation level in the long run. What is more important is lauding your child for putting in consistent effort and showing constant improvement. Even when a practice session did not go well as planned, still congratulate your child for trying their best and encourage them to try again next time.

The road to an instrument proficiency is a long and difficult one. As a parent we should be prepared to experience the highs and lows together with your child. Remember: Reward the effort, not the result.

Help Your Child Plan and Organize

Left on their own, a young child would just probably replay continuously the pieces they had learned in lessons because they wanted to just play their instrument. While this might be fine and more fun at the beginning when the pieces are marginally difficult, this way of “practicing” would lead to glacial progress when the pieces were more challenging.

Practice sessions should ideally be equally as well structured as good lessons; they need to have clear short-term objectives that work towards larger goals. Whenever possible, discuss with the teacher to work out a practice plan that your child could follow in their daily practice sessions. Just like we need to follow specific instructions when consuming prescribed medicine, the same goes for practice sessions. It is not sufficient to just have broad goals like “practice piece A”, it needs to be more precise such as “Improve the fluency of left-hand part of piece A from bars 1-8”. Expanding on the earlier suggestion of asking your child to perform a piece for you after practicing, you could also ask your child to perform with these specific goals.

It is helpful to keep a practice planner that outlines what your child needs to specifically work on their practice sessions; the planner can be used to record your child’s practice progress and any unresolved issues that the teacher will need to address in the coming lessons.

Provide an Ideal Practice Environment

It is common-sense that we learn best when we are well-rested in a comfortable environment that is free from any distractions. Yet students often shared that they were unable to have this ideal condition when practicing. If your child experiences this long term, it would send a mixed signal to them that you lack concern for their learning. This might have an adverse effect on their motivation level.

The practice room should be well-lit and free from nearby distractions such as television; that latest episode of your favourite TV show or sports match can wait just a little while more. If your child is already tired from earlier activities, a rest, or a short nap before starting their practice would do wonder. Make sure your child’s instrument is well maintained and ready to play. Be ready to render assistance if needed like for example tuning your child’s violin or adjust the height of a piano bench.

[Wei Jun]

Hi Everyone,


I’m an aspiring Edtech entrepreneur and looking to undertake some piano students during off-peak hours! Would be great if I can get some advice on acquiring students. Music has been my passion ever since I was a child and I was fortunate enough to be guided by the best teachers in Singapore. Hopefully, will be able to transfer some of those learning techniques I’ve picked up through the years!

These are my credentials:
-Trinity Guildhall ATCL Diploma (Distinction), former student of Benjamin Loh
-ABRSM Cello Grade 8 (Distinction)
-Two piano recitals in Esplanade
-Ex-NUS Symphonic Orchestra under the conductorship of Maestro Lim Soon Lee for 4 years.

Any help and advice is much appreciated!

[Dreamaurora]

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Wow! Thanks for starting this thread! BTW, what is the most suitable age for a boy to start learning to play guitar? My boy is 8 y.o. and he became obsessed with guitars at one moment. I have no idea where he picked it up, though. But probably, I have an idea, since his father loves to play guitar. Besides, I’ve recently ordered many https://www.chordmelodyguitarmusic.com/classical-guitar-tab-tablature-books-DVDs.htm for my husband, and my boy loves to look at the pictures there. So, I’m thinking of signing him up for guitar lessons. I think it is a great hobby.

I don't play classical guitar and this is actually a thread for learning piano, but I think similar to violin it's easy to start young for guitar as you can buy half-size guitar.

[Dreamaurora]

I have just written another article, this time about nurturing average learners. It is targeted towards teachers but parents should find it useful too. You can download the article in the pdf format here.

http://charleswupianostudio.com/Nurturing%20the%20Average%20Student.pdf

Nurturing the Average Student

By Charles Wu, BA(Hons) Performance, LRSM(Performance), LRSM(Teaching)

Introduction – Nothing Wrong with Being Average

I am sure many of us have had videos of young prodigies or prize-winners shoved to our social media. It is natural to always want to show the absolute best fruits of our teaching and there is nothing wrong with that. But like it or not, majority of students learning an instrument are not natural superstars and for most of us these students probably make up the bulk of our student population. You know who they are; they chug along in lessons getting by with the minimum required practice. And when they took an exam, they would most likely get a Pass or if they were lucky a Merit.

But with increasingly higher learning expectations no thanks to the advent of social media, being just average is somehow getting more unattractive. Many of the teachers I know seem to resign themselves to the possibilities of most of their students not going all the way to Grade 8 or early advanced level. At best they might last two- or three-years. Besides these low expectations, the teachers also often complain that teaching these students feel arduous. They are often ill-motivated and hardly practice.

I am going to hazard a guess that most of you reading this article used to be these students yourself who persevered anyway despite of having no grand achievements to speak of. You might be able empathise more readily with the average students but evolving learning dynamics pose challenges that you might not face last time. If you are lucky enough to be one of the precocious ones, then as a teacher there is a good chance that you are perennially frustrated by your students’ “averageness”.

I want to challenge you to celebrate teaching these average students, because really there is nothing wrong with being average. They all deserve the same enriching musical journey that will culminate in a life-long enjoyment of music making. Let me share with you my teaching philosophy and teaching tips that have worked for me and my students over the years in this article.

Believe They are Capable!

I will be lying to you if I claim that teaching my average students are all sunshine. I know it is tempting to just go through the motions as teaching these students often feel draining and exasperating, but we need to be better than that. As a teacher we need to believe in these students that they are capable and could achieve far more than they themselves or their parents believe they could. The positive outlook needs to start with us teachers; we need to accord them equal dedication that we give to our better students. Only then they could start to believe in themselves and be motivated to improve.

I once had a student who failed his Grade 5 ABRSM before starting lessons with me. In those few years he studied with me he managed to complete DipLCM, a first level performance diploma from LCM exam board. The journey was not easy at first, but I believed in him and in turn he believed in himself as he began to see what he was truly capable of.

Be willing to set increasingly more ambitious long-term goals for your average students. I am not saying that you should push them to get Distinctions or win prizes immediately. Start small first by aiming for goals that might take slightly more effort but still doable like for example retaking an exam that did not go well. Then in the future you might challenge them to get better exam result or participate in a public performance.

I know it might not be easy but do try to be as encouraging and positive as much as possible in lessons. Displaying indifference or exasperation openly is only going to send the wrong signal to your student. As long they are willing to learn we should celebrate every little improvement and achievement. If they do not respond well to instructions or able to correct mistakes immediately, try to hide your frustration or displeasure. Be ready to be more spontaneous and to think outside the box when your tried and tested teaching methodologies do not work. It is also perfectly fine to occasionally close one’s eyes and revisit an issue later.

Address all Deficiencies!

Just like in a school where a student is not allowed to skip a core subject such as Mathematics or English, we should not compromise or neglect an aspect of learning when a student is weak in that aspect or ill motivated to improve on it. Like for example sight-reading. I am sure we all have fair share of students who are bad sight-readers. It is tempting I know to just ignore improving sight-reading for these students and to focus on their strong points instead. And hope that the additional marks from other sections are more than enough to offset the loss of marks when they take exams.

This exam strategy might work temporarily for the better and more motivated students; I know someone who managed to get Distinction for Grade 8 yet failed her sight-reading component! But even then, a good teacher would still have to address those deficiencies sooner or later as they would eventually impede even the better students. For the average students, the effect of uneven curriculum would rear its ugly head much earlier and the learning process would become frustrating.

Your curriculum should ideally be iron-clad and well-rounded, even more so for your typical average students. Ideally all the aspects of learning need to be at equal level and progress simultaneously. It is perfectly fine hold back a student to fix their weak points first if necessary. For example, if the student has bad posture and technical issues, you might hold on giving more difficult repertoire or preparing for the next graded exam until the issues are fixed. It is also good idea to start from a level a student is comfortable with and gradually work their way up. For example, if a student had passed Grade 5 ABRSM but could only comfortably read sight-reading extracts set for Grade 2, then they should start improving their sight-reading using Grade 3 materials first.
All these need to be communicated clearly to the student and their parents as they might not be able to see the overall big picture and wonder why suddenly their progress seem to be slowing down unnecessarily. Explain to them that if the learning is not well-rounded, they would soon hit the learning ceiling and progress would be glacial.
 
Set Clear, Realistic, and Flexible Learning Goals

I know of teachers who conduct purely recreational lessons for their average students. The students attend every one of their lessons without any clear short- and long-term goals; in each lesson they are free to learn and prepare whatever they fancy. The reasoning is that setting goals such as performing for a concert or taking an exam is only going to stress these students and cause them to be less motivated. Keeping their stress level low should in theory keep them learning longer.

On the other side of the fence, there are teachers who force their average students to follow a standardised curriculum rigidly. Like for example, taking an ABRSM exam once a year. And when these students could not keep up or get demotivated, their teachers just chalk it up that their students are simply not talented enough.
I think both instances described above are equally misguided and dangerous. Without any goals, they are likely to be stuck in a learning limbo. At best, their progress would be glacial. A lack of sense of achievement is far more damaging to morale and the students might actually throw in the towel sooner than expected. Overly demanding and rigid goals basically have the same effect too.

Before setting the learning goals for an average student, it is important to analyse their immediate learning needs and motivation level. You do not have to necessarily create another set of learning goals exclusive to the student, but you might need to set a longer timeline to complete the goals. It is perfectly fine as long that you spell out your expectation clearly to your students and their parents. Then depending on how the student progress and improve you might adjust these goals or set different ones.

Make Them Discover the Joy of Music

I was deeply enamoured with piano and classical music way before I started formal music training despite being born into a completely non-musical family. None of my parents played instruments or listened to classical music, but ever since I first listened to classical music in a CD shop, I was instantly hooked. When I started learning piano, really, getting myself motivated was a non-issue. Most serious teachers I know of probably share the same connection to music as I do. So, it might be mind-boggling when our students did not warm up immediately to music as we did.
The average student most likely has little or no prior exposure to music; their family might be completely non-musical like mine too. Some of them might not even show the slightest interest; they are simply there because their parents ask them to attend lessons.

Nothing is more contagious than your own love for music. With these students, I take more time to explore the music they are learning. You can afford to spend more time to get them to connect with their pieces than just simply teaching them how to play their pieces. Like for example, if you were teaching a student say a Bach’s Minuet, you could show them how a Minuet might be danced and other similar Minuets by other composers. You might even want to dedicate a section of your lesson just for your student to explore new music.