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I was wondering if there's any difference between opposite sex teacher-student relationships and same sex teacher-student relationships.


also if generally there's a difference between a male and a female in regards to teaching.


for what I can see the piano population is approx. 50/50 by gender so that's quite interesting.


crescendo

That's interesting, I'd say that in my, admittedly rather limited, experience, that both teachers and students (at least those up to about high school age) tend to skew heavily female.

I'm not sure there are as many teaching differences between males and females, more of variance person to person from how they were raised with piano--did someone have a demanding teacher or a fun teacher that they thought effective?

However, one difference is that at least some parents prefer female instructors to males( when initially searching for a teacher)--more so in my experience than the opposite. This could be due to any number of things, though I've usually considered it a result of a worldview that men are more prone to harassing students. As a result I am much less comfortable being alone in the studio without the parent at least present in the waiting room and am much more like to describe things without the use of touch.

Interesting - just counted my students. Split exactly evenly, 50/50, this year. Last year, I had one more boy than girl.

As a parent, I prefer male teachers for my sons because most teachers in schools are female - and I think it's good for boys to have men around as role models.

I've only ever had female teachers, but in something like piano I don't expect there to be any significant difference among the sex of teachers and their playing/instructing, than the differences that are already present among teachers, anyway.

That is, teachers differ greatly from one another - sex isn't the determiner of that in any way I have observed. While I haven't had any male piano teachers, I have had plenty of male choir and band directors and they didn't differ significantly from their female counterparts.

That said, there is NOTHING wrong with preferring one sex over another for teaching you or your children. Even if I had the option of studying with a male teacher I would likely decline unless he was a far superior instructor than the others available, because (as a married woman) I am more comfortable getting instruction from a female than being alone in the company of a male in something as personal as a teacher/student relationship. That's a personal preference, not any commendation for or against a teacher or even either sex. It's fair to choose a teacher you are comfortable with, for any reason you like!

For some reason my piano teachers and even my singing teachers ended being men, I have nothing against women teachers - just a strange coincidence. When I was a young teenager, full of hormones, sometimes I'd get crushes on my male teachers. Sometimes it was awkward, other times it gave me a lot of motivation to work hard and practice!

I don't mind either and I don't think sex makes much of a difference with piano teaching. The only difference I think it makes as a female is that my teacher naturally has larger hands than me as he is a man, I have to roll some chords while he can play the full chord, it doesn't really matter though because he teaches me how to roll chords... As a singer, there are always more females than males, ironically 3/4 teachers I've had lessons from were male! My current piano teacher gets all his parents to chaperon their kids if they are under 12 or 13.

Physical contact probably will be another difference between the sexes. Then again, I haven't hugged any of my students ... and then again ... I've hugged my former (male) gay singing teacher.

IN the end, it's about the teaching, and I don't think there's a difference between the sexes.

Hi,

In my very subjective experiences the opposite-sex relationships in learning work better and create a stronger and more caring relationship between teacher and student. Also the understanding of each other and real enthusiasm by the teacher is bigger.

I have felt the same thing both as a pupil and teacher despite the fact that I treat my students from both sex absolutely equally.

Both teachers from whom I think I learned the most are women. During my studies, I have also had three same sex teachers.

GL
Jaak


P.S. I am only speaking from my own subjective point of view and experience.

I have had 3 female teachers and 2 male teachers. Gender didn't seem to make any difference in their teaching styles or in my progress.

I have had teachers of both sexes. All were different in many more ways than just that. One male teacher had (one might say) a very testosterone-driven personality - but then my most feminine teacher was also a man.

What counts is that the student learns what they need to learn. Staying with the same teacher for many many years would be an exception - I think most students will learn better in the end if they change teachers after several years.