There is a popular notion that piano teachers are exactly like what they were 50 years ago. The perception is that piano teachers are rigid, demanding and most definitely boring, so if you had piano lessons as a child, you’ll know exactly what you are in for if you decide to go back and take more piano lessons.
First of all, who are the ones perpetuating this myth? Sometimes, it is marketers of online piano courses that have a financial incentive to be creative with the truth because their direct competition is a private piano teacher. Sometimes, it is people that had piano lessons as a child that loved playing the piano but hated their teacher (and often it was for good reasons). I understand that some methods that were used back then were truly horrid, such as the hitting of the back of a person’s hand every time they made a mistake with a ruler (fortunately this regular assault is now illegal).
I think that some people wanted to learn the piano when they were young but the experience of piano lessons was too awful so they quit. However, I believe this group of people have still always wanted to play the piano. Time moves on and life gets busy with work and family responsibilities, so there is no time to return to piano lessons. When retirement comes, rather than fulfill their dreams of returning to piano lessons, its easier to make excuses, such as piano teachers are still the same as when they were a child, as their reason why they don’t take up the piano again. Often there is an underlying fear that if they try to learn the piano again, they might not be good enough.
Piano teachers have to be different to what they were 50 years ago. It was common back then for a piano teacher to use a ruler to hit a child’s hands when they played a wrong note. This is child abuse. Hitting the back of a child’s hands was also likely to give the child anxiety and maybe even bruising.
These days, the attitude of piano teachers is more realistic. If you are learning the piano, you will be making mistakes. Mistakes are part of the learning process, so it is important for a student to get used to the fact that they will be making mistakes and that is perfectly fine. I really like the expression that goes ‘If you are not making any mistakes, then you are not really trying’.
These days, piano teachers are understanding, not just of adults but kids too. An experienced teacher can tell the difference between an excuse for not practicing and a genuine reason for not practicing. We get that even though you are retired, there are times when life is too busy for practicing, such as when family come to stay, or a family member is unwell so everyone rallies around and helps out or, when there is a death in the family. Piano teachers are people too and we understand when life gets crazy. By the way, when the craziness of life inevitability happens, don’t skip your piano lesson, your teacher can still make the lesson very useful.
One of the major changes that has happened with piano teachers is that you get much more of a choice in what you learn to play. Here in Australia, you can do classical piano exams (which haven’t changed much over the decades) but you can also choose to do contemporary piano exams. There is even a trial of piano exams for students that want to be part of an ensemble, rather than the solo exams. Learning jazz piano is a genre that some teachers will teach. I personally won’t teach it because I am not comfortable that I know enough (and I’m sure that there would be quite a number of other piano teachers that don’t teach jazz piano for the same reasons). You also have the choice whether you do exams or not. There really is a variety of what you can learn.
I remember when I was a young piano student, anything that wasn’t given to you by your teacher, was never ever mentioned to your teacher. You were always expected to practise your pieces given to you by your teacher first. I have very distinct memories of when I was a teenager and I would buy sheet music from my favourite music store, then learning to play these pieces of music without my teacher ever knowing. It was the same for my friends that took piano lessons too.
When I was young, my teacher told me what I was learning to play (sometimes there would be a choice between 2 pieces of music) and that was the way things were done. These days, anything that you want to learn, you can learn with the help of your piano teacher, unless it is something that is way too advanced for you. Obviously any decent piano teacher will guide you through various choices, so that you can gradually improve your skill level.
So I hope you can realize that through choice of music genres, teaching attitudes and teaching styles (thankfully), piano teachers are very different to the piano teachers of 50 years ago.