Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Teachers Forum are lessons worth the money?

Kind of blunt but...I was looking into getting a teacher for the new year. I've only had one lesson ever before and thought to myself what she just taught me out of that book, I could just buy the book and teach myself. I think I just expect everything to be instant knowing it doesn't work like that. But I also have a tendency to not commit or stick to anything, so I don't know what I should do?

I think you've already answered your own question.

What a book can say once, a teacher can say many times in many different ways.

And yes, that with more than just words.

It's only worth as much as what you do with what you're taught and how you practice it.

I guess each person has to find their best ways to learn. And to do that, you'll have to try those different ways. So why not give both a go, with and without teacher.

Of course, she didn't teach you "out of that book", she taught you to play piano, using the material in that book.

Shall we just forget about your final statement? If you want to do it - do it. What do you want? Sympathy for your lack of application and a special easy, dumbed-down method that will give instant gratification? You'll find plenty of people eager to sell you those, and you'll learn some tricks. But you won't learn music, or how to play the piano.

I think a person can become a decent pianist without a teacher: but you'll never reach your full potential.

I went to my teacher with Aflred's adult course in hand, a book I bought before meeting her. After talking to her about my goals she hesitantly agreed to help me work through it.

Five weeks later we're finishing it up and she has corrected many mistakes I didn't even notice including my timing, shown me more effective ways of pedaling and helped me understand that the fingering in the book is not set in stone for those of us with larger or smaller hands. Also, when she noticed I made a mistake it was great she was able to assign me an additional piece just to work on that skill for next week.

I'm a much better pianist now than I would be if I never took a lesson.

Most importantly over the past few weeks she has helped me develop a path to improve my playing. No more Alfred after this book is over. My goal is play classical music with a few pop songs. We've decided to move over to conservatory materials, which she will supplement with one or two pop songs every month. If I didn't have a teacher I'd likely just start with the next book and work through it not knowing the hundreds of other possibilities.

Yes, I could work through conservatory books on my own as well, but where would I start? Having a teacher allowed us to look at the various grades and try pieces from them to determine which book would be best to begin.

I know you asked what other teachers thought (sorry again to all of you for invading your form). I've never met someone who thought their trade or profession wasn't worth the money but in this case listen to all the music teachers and students tell you how important a good teacher is.

Remember your time not the weekly lesson fee is the most expensive thing you'll spend learning piano you'll never get it back and if you waste it you're not going to improve.

A great teacher is always worth the money.

Let's face it, human nature is such that being held accountable by another, usually makes one do a better job.

Getting a good and experienced teacher to work with you and inspire you and help you thoroughly understand points in the books that you might skim through otherwise...not to mention help you to recognize your strengths and weaknesses (and give you solutions)and define your goals is definitely worth it !

Just make sure that you find the teacher that is right for you...as far as style & personality (I think that experience is a very important factor as well when choosing a teacher)


good luck

A major problem as I see it is a lack of competent professional piano teachers. As a piano technician I get asked regularly for teacher referrals. The problem is, the teachers who I know are excellent are usually full and only taking students on a waiting list.

I do know quite a few teachers who "teach from the book" and their students are not really progressing. The best teachers' students progress much more rapidly and that goes a long way in keeping up motivation and interest.

I think learning to play piano from a book is like learning to become a piano technician through books. It is possible, with a lot of perseverance and discipline. However, most likely many mistakes and bad habits will become ingrained that will be difficult to overcome later, causing limitations and stumbling blocks that impede progress.

OTOH a lousy, incompetent or abusive teacher who overcharges probably isn't.

"Probably"? :-)

I know. That's why I didn't just say "A teacher...". I though that putting a positive adjective (great) in there would make my meaning clear.

Lessons will only be worth what both people bring to the table. A good teacher with a committed, hard-working student is the best of all possible worlds.

If the student isn't able to commit to the process, then lessons will not be of any value and will be a waste of time and energy for all involved.

I'm willing to commit. I just feel my biggest problem will be finding the right teacher that will be able to help me reach my goals. Also, I think I need to learn to have the patience and realize that in one lesson or a couple, I'm not going to become a virtuoso pianist.

Well, d'oh! We do seem to spend a lot of time on this forum repeating truisms :-) Like we were all brought up to think we SHOULD be entitled to instant gratification, and it's alway's someone else's fault if we don't get it!

Go easy on your teacher. You get to provide commitment and work hard. You get a say in defining goals, but you don't get to define HOW they're achieved or what the time-scale is. And, unless you're under school age, don't keep expecting the teacher to give you lollipops!

No gold stars on the board?

Just sayin' . . .

You're going to have to be a bit more mature if you want any results.

This I know...I do it in all aspects of my life, not only my piano studies. That is why I don't make it very far. It's hard to help, it's the way I was raised. I'm used to teaching myself everything.

I caught heck on these forums for this before, a few years ago, but the truth is that taking Piano lessons often brings up a variety of issues that seem unrelated to Piano lessons, but are very related.

A big one is self-discipline.