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Hi guys,

I have played all my life which is aprox. 30 years. Although well versed in the rudiments and theories of music, I have not had a teacher except for the past year and a half. We have mastered quite a few classical pieces by various composers including Chopin, Bach, Mozart, and Handel.

One of my reasons for taking lessons was to improve my reading skills and to eliminate the fear of learning difficult pieces. At this point, my teacher is moreso a coach and is really not teaching me anything new, except pointing out minor flaws which I can pretty much spot after spending enough time with the piece.

I have spent a lot of money and want to take it on my own from here. Mastering a piece for me now depends merely on putting in the necessary practice time. What do you think?

Hi ClassicalMan,
So far you've told us two goals you've had: improve reading and eliminate fear of learning difficult pieces. Sounds like you've reached your goals.

It is nice to be in lessons and have a coach. But it's a question of whether it is worth your money. It's not about practice time because you'll be practicing anyway. Without new goals to reach, it sounds like you're finished with lessons.

You may want to discuss this with your teacher and see what goals your teacher would suggest. Or perhaps see what options are available for occasionally checking in with your teacher...having a lesson at your teacher's convenience when you feel it would be helpful.

I can sympathize. It's not easy to decide when you're going to consider yourself to be finished with lessons.

I think you most likely have a poor technique and your teacher is not picking up on the fact.

I'm curious how you reached that conclusion. Could you elaborate?

Steven

Sounds to me like you need a break from lessons for awhile. Why not explain this to your teacher/coach--he or she will probably understand and relate (I know I would!). Framing this situation as a "break" instead of "quitting" keeps the door open to working with this teacher again sometime in the future, or at least being able to make pleasant conversation if you happen to run into them at a music store or concert someday!

Just my 2¢ worth...

SV, not to be argumentative, but the odds are 1000 to 1 that a student with only 1.5 years of formal training, but self-teaching for 30 years, has technique problems of major magnitude. Even teachers, returning to lessons after years of teaching, discover that they've picked up bad habits which need correction. Which is why teachers are encouraged to continue lessons periodically.

Thanks John, must be the way I tell 'em.

I never realized that such a foregone conclusion can be made without hesitation based on circumstance rather than evidence. Personally, I wouldn't be at all pleased to be judged as having "poor technique" by someone who hasn't heard or seen me play; there are certainly less harsh ways of conveying such an assumption even if it's true.

John, I appreciate your explanation even though I think that your thousand-to-one odds are hypothetical and hyperbolic. kbk, IMO your smugness doesn't help the OP at all.

I wonder why the OP's teacher is "not picking up on" technique problems of a major magnitude, never mind apparently not working to rectify them either. Do you reckon it's apathy? Ignorance? Incompetence? If it's truly a case of blind leading the blind, I wonder how prevalent a situation that is music education.

Steven

Thank you Ann, sounds like a wise perspective. I'm thinking of maybe dropping in when I need him to play a piece. He charges $75 an hour. However, the boss empathized and they charge me $50/hr once per week. He can play most advanced pieces at first sight without having seen or playing them before! The guy plays Chopin's fantasia (sp) from memory (He's only 24 yrs old). So Ithink it's worth keeping him as somewhat of a consultant. Maybe I'll offer him $25 (for half hour) once a month if needed. I use to pick up a piece and "cry" just from looking at. Now I realize if I sit down, analyze the piece and practice bit by bit daily, hands seperate, pay attention to timing, etc., what appears as a mountain within weeks isn't much of a challenge.

I wanted to play the Chopin Concert Rondo op. 14 more
than anything else. I asked around, and the response
I got was contemptuous: an inept amateur like myself
doesn't even think about playing impossibly difficult
stuff like that. So eventually I simply started to
play it, note by note, one bar a day, initially,
and after many yrs. of brutal repetitive toil I
can play it at about 3/4 speed, and getting it perfected
now looks tantalizingly with the realm of possibility.

Thank you sotto, this is not the first time you came to my rescue. Like the real world, there are some really negative folk around!

This too sounds like a viable option!

We cannot learn everything we need to know from one person. It sounds as though it might be a good time to take a little break with this teacher, but keep your eyes out for another one. Just because this teacher may not have things that they can point out to you, doesn't mean that there aren't things to be learned. One discovery I've made in my musical pursuits is that the more you know, the more you realize you don't know, which means there's always something new right around the corner!

Finding a teacher that can take you to that next level (assuming you want to go there) is key.

Pay me $75 an hour and I'm sure I could be just as positive!

That's an exceedingly sad statement of ethical principles on multiple levels.

Steven

ClassicalMan ... of course you should take it on your own. A good teacher's job should be to get you to learn on your own. Unless of course, they want to drain you of your money.

What do you expect for nothing?

The OP didn't come here for an assessment of his technique, but you went out of your way to offer a negative one. Apparently, then, negativity is the default and can be provided gratis, while being positive is for profit.

That's sad—and if by "positive" you meant passive flattery of the sort you and John seem to believe the OP's present teacher is supplying rather than constructive or corrective steps, it's sadder still.

Steven

How about I cry all the way to the bank?

Are you off your meds today?