As I have stated in other blog posts, I am a very experienced teacher and that if I haven’t seen it all yet, I’ve seen most of what can happen as a piano teacher. One thing that every so often happens is that a piano student will fail to talk to me. I get that especially with young kids, it is the parents that need to be responsible for communicating information to me. Teenagers and especially adults need to be able to communicate directly with me.
Let me clarify what I mean – piano students should be able to feel comfortable with their piano teacher to tell them what it is they want to learn and what sort of music they would like to play. I get that when now retired people were young and having piano lessons, the piano teacher said (or maybe commanded) what needed to happen, what music was to be learned and how much practice was to be done. There was no negotiation at all, the piano teacher was to be obeyed without question and possibly even feared. I am so glad those days are long gone.
Its not just me, it would be all piano teachers are willing to listen to what you want and where your ultimate goal is. If we don’t have this information, then how can we possibly teach you what you want to know. Students and teachers should be able to discuss things because sometimes what a student wants is not possible in the short term, but the teacher can help build the necessary skills so that in the medium or long term, a student can fulfill their wishes.
A piano student should feel comfortable with their piano teacher. Obviously it doesn’t happen instantly, but over a few months, a piano student and their teacher should feel comfortable enough with the other so that information, knowledge and ideas can be easily transferred between them.
While a piano student should feel comfortable with their piano teacher and feel at ease in telling their teacher about what they would like to learn, a piano teacher (or at the very least, I certainly do), likes to know what issues or difficulties a student is having with their music. Usually it is obvious, but sometimes it is really helpful if a student can say that even though what they played well in the lesson, was actually a real struggle. It is also useful to know if the student had any sickness or injury that impacted their practice in the previous week. Even things like having people come stay with you for a holiday, or a pet getting sick, can have an impact on the amount of practice and the quality of the practice.
I’ll be blunt here. I have had students (and sometimes parents of students) that are so busy telling me what they want and trying to control every aspect of the lesson, without allowing me to use my knowledge and experience to guide them, end up quitting. They quit because they are not making progress because their dictating not communicating. I’ve seen it enough times now, to actually see it coming a few months before the quitting happens.
My point here is that a piano student and a piano teacher should be able to converse and exchange information. Essentially they need to work as a team together without one side or the other completely dominating. Success is dependant on it.