Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Teachers Forum Okay...Am I totally nuts ?

Even people who have no idea what they are talking about are bound to be right occasionally. A broken clock is right twice a day, but it's still a broken clock. A cuckoo clock is always cuckoo.

Steven

Does Gyro know "very many serious high level jazz teachers"? Does he know any teachers at all, classical or otherwise? From where does he get his information? He has advised folks to not start their kids with teachers in past posts. He has told them this would be "throwing them (the kids) to the wolves". Is this how he feels about piano teachers?

Betty, Obviously nothing is stopping me. The real reason I was asking was to find out how common it is to juggle two different teachers in this fashion. Maybe that should have been the emphasis of my question. I've never considered doing it before and wanted to get an idea of how difficult it may or may not be. I enjoy my classical teacher and want to continue working with her but she doesn't do jazz. The jazz teacher I have in mind is a good one and I've been told he is pretty accomodating to schedules. Unfortunately they don't reside in the same body. I thought the best group to bounce it off of would be other teachers just to see how it would play. I already go every other week with my classical teacher. My hope is that I can alternate weeks between each instructor.

Gyro's remarks notwithstanding, I have no intention of keeping it a secret from either teacher. They have every reason to expect me to be honest about this and I wouldn't feel comfortable keeping them in the dark.

Opinions on the poster aside, his post in this case had a valid perspective, it is one that I have seen first hand and in more than one occasion. Again, he may be overstating the extent, but the basic premise is reasonable.

To the OP, over the summer our daughter started taking some Jazz lessons in addition to her "normal" lessons. In our case the content of the two classes differed radically enough that we didn't see any issues at all, technically or ideologically. Currently she isn't far enough along on the Jazz side to have worked on any specific technique that may not "play well" (forgive the pun) with her "classical" technique (our biggest concern other than time). We think this dual course is generally beneficial and plan on continuing as practice time allows (iffy now that school has started).

Another thing to look into that's a bit different than many following the "standard" classical path is chamber music (and yes, there are "classical" teachers out there who aren't too hot on this as well). We have both kids doing chamber and it has been an awesome experience. It gets them out of the "piano playing as an individual endeavour" mode and teaches them other music playing skills (e.g. handling situations when you and the other players get out of sync). There are other plus' and minus' but overall we've been very pleased.

It's possible to agree with a premise without going out of one's way to say that one agrees with a poster who posts 99.9% nonsense, much of which is potentially harmful. Might as well say, Congratulations, right on! and keep 'em coming.

Whatever the merits of what was written on this occasion, there's no reason to think it's any less made up than all the bizarre factoids in the other 3,000+ posts.

Steven

I want to know if a student of mine is studying with another teacher.

I have NO problems with a student studying other teachers when other teachers are respecting what I'm teaching. And that almost is the case.

If a student keeps his teachers in the dark, the only advantage would be when the teachers are unwilling to cooperate with each other. In that case the problem might be rather big and delicate egos.

THis is a little OP ... maybe we should start a thread about that poster. Why dont we try to empathise with him ... what if he had a set of bad teachers?

Threads have been started about that poster. They have been summarily deleted by moderators, and I agree with their decision to do so. I don't think any member needs to be the topic of a thread unless it's his or her birthday.

I would suggest that empathy doesn't require validation. I don't question whether or not he had bad teachers; I don't think it's exculpatory any more than having had bad doctors is an excuse for posting that Lyme disease and AIDS are not serious conditions and don't require medical treatment—something that poster has also written in these forums.

Steven