All About Choosing Piano Schools And Teachers
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"So, does most students with private teachers have good teachers?
Your message seems to imply that students with private teachers are superior than music school students. You may or may not be right, but I’m not sure you can generalize that from your observation of students who tries out Hailun pianos at PianoMaster."
Like I said above, its not only from observation of students who tries Hailun pianos at pianomaster but also from my own experience going to multiple music schools myself and having students transferred after attending music schools.
Foundation is the one of the most important things in piano playing because it sticks all the way to the end and what we learn in the basics is very hard to change especially if it is a bad habit or wrong posture etc. Most of my students who were taught in music schools that has shaky foundation due to the lack of focus on individual development. -
Rossae:
Well, I'm sure there's still excellent teachers in music schools but coming from a music school myself when I was younger for a couple of years this is my experience of music school teacher.
Depends on the remuneration too, right? Maybe some of these teachers are the owners and joint owners so they have responsiblity to upkeep their business?
with a school, they have more chances to put a group together for performances, and all this is for the students more rounded development. -
A good teacher may not necessarily produce star students all the time, it also depends on how much effort students themselves put in, how much they can understand, absorb and interpret. It’s a two-way partnership
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peanut_butter:
Hahaha! No Worries!
Thanks for the candy crush tips.123qwesz:
Do visit my site at http://www.gabrielyeong.com
I'll be focusing on making more piano videos in the future.
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Yep. There’s always plus and minuses. My former teacher was a full time teacher able to organize concerts.
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Let me just chip in on this discussion about music school teachers vs private.
I started my learning journey in a music school, worked as a permanent teacher in one when I graduated from NAFA, and now I am doing a consulting for a music school now while teaching fully private now.
I can safely say yes, there are very lousy music school teachers and very lousy private teachers.
There are music schools that are heavily commercialised and are very lax in maintaining the standard of their teachers. There are also private teachers that are irresponsible and do not care at all for their students, their only objective to earn extra money.
The benefit of music school and private teachers have been discussed to death here, so I won’t go into that. But I would like to say running music school and maintaining high standard of teaching throughout is an almost impossibility. A music school owner said to me although she hires only qualified teachers and interview them as thorough as possible, there is no sure way to know how effective the teacher is until he/she starts actual teaching. Some of the teachers she fired had very good credentials but lousy attitude as teachers. -
Rossae:
Foundation is the one of the most important things in piano playing because it sticks all the way to the end and what we learn in the basics is very hard to change especially if it is a bad habit or wrong posture etc. Most of my students who were taught in music schools that has shaky foundation due to the lack of focus on individual development.
I do not disagree with above statements. Don't get me wrong, I believe there are many good private teachers as well as lots of good school teachers. The latter ones may be starting out their careers, but it doesn't mean they are no good.
Your experiences with transfer students from music schools may have led you to have the impression that music school students are inferior, but that may not be the complete picture. These students may not have done too well in the schools, or may not have met the right teachers, and that's why they came to you. The students who have done well in music schools, would have likely stayed on with the schools. I mean, if they already have great teachers in the music school, why would they want to switch?
Hence naturally, the transfer students you get from music schools are unlikely to have good fundamentals and techniques. However they may not be a good sampling of music school students. -
Rossae:
My best piano tutor was from Yamaha?? And the tutor who painstakingly corrected all my wrong postures is a Malaysian. . . :scratchhead:Hello. I'm a piano teacher who have been a sales person at PianoMaster which sells Hailun pianos exclusively. I live around Yio Chu Kang/Seng Kang/ Serangoon area. Have taught students aged 6-46 years old.
I have came across many students coming to the piano shop to try the pianos and there is usually a distinct difference between music school students and private teacher students. Many music schools that I know of employ teachers that are not even 18, and are not local, meaning they are from Malaysia, Indonesia etc.
Music School students whether it is a 1 to 1 or group session the students lack actual sight reading skills and the curvature of the fingers are more often than not wrong. They are flat and musical expression is not fully explored to their full potential. On the other hand, students who have experience with good private teachers have the correct hand posture and musical expression is often much better.
I went for 2 years of music school at yamaha when i was 5,6 years old before converting to private teachers and deeply regretted not changing earlier or even starting with private teachers. There were many wrong things taught and there not much focus on individual performance and development.
Contact me through pm if you would like a walk through for pianos and private piano teacher Vs Music school.
Although I'm a pte piano tutor, but I must commend on Yamaha is that they are one of the only few music schools who get their potential teachers to go for auditions. Sure enough, there are those who manage to slip through the system, but I would say I'm pretty confident of the teachers quality and standard in Yamaha generally. -
My first piano teacher, and the teacher I stayed with and only teacher I had for 15 years before I went to Vienna to study is a Yamaha teacher- I was her student in Yamaha before going private with her, but she still remains a Yamaha teacher now. Would she be considered bad? After so many years she obviously has the option of going full time privately and making more money but she has chosen to continue in yamaha because she enjoys teaching the group lessons and singing with the children. She is highly sought after privately but usually rejects most parents due to her time constraints.
And if I’m an example of a product of a teacher from a music school then it cannot be that bad- I made it into a school where competition is intense, a school where intake is only 4-10 students out of the 400-500 hopefuls yearly, and I graduated a year earlier than my peers and the norm.I managed to beat the odds and gain a placement in the school even when I was unable to speak german beforehand.
I realised that everyone, every teacher,student and pianist has a different view on technique- as you switch teachers no matter how good you are there will always be new technique to learn,even if you came from a renowned concert pianist teacher and switched to yet another- they will still start you again from scratch to work on technique.There is no one perfect technique- there is only technique that can work for different purposes and sounds. Curved fingers are not always necessarily the best- yes they are the basic position that every child must learn, but as we progress and learn even more difficult pieces, flat fingers may be more appropriate for some pieces- sometimes to achieve finger legato, rubato… flat fingers are the way to go. even horowitz played with flat fingers.
Personally I think it is best to keep an open mind- as music is really just printed notes on a piece of paper. As teachers we have our own set of tried-and-tested methods and techniques that we go by, but each piece can sound different in each pianist’s hands and we may find listening to others that we can learn new tricks each time…we may not agree with the intepretation or style of playing, but it isn’t necessarily bad and it definitely isnt because the teacher is from a music school…or not. -
Hi, first, apologies to Thread Starter as this thread now seems to be like a classified ads.
I’m scouting for a teacher who’s willing to come to my home (near Bedok South Ave 3). Have son (age 9) and daughter (age 12). Objective is to explore and develop piano interest. Will lean towards contemporary songs. They’ve had some time at Academy of Rock, but logistically a home lesson is more appealing. Please PM if you know someone who may fit the bill. Thank you.
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