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lately I've been wondering if I should fire my teacher...

Every week (after my lessons) I come home thinking that she is not necessary and I could well go on my own.

I'll try to 'breakdown' my lessons:

- First thing she tells me to play the current (last week assigned) piece

- I play it (no dynamics, a few tempo mistakes, note mistakes due to cold hands).

- After I'm done she congratulates me: Yay! Great job! That's My student!! (I feel like a child LOL because I'm not satisfied with my own playing and I know I could improve A LOT!!)

- Then she points my mistakes (that I already know) and we go like half of the lesson practising over and over until I get it right. Which I could easily do by myself at home. (She assigns a new piece every week, so I can't polish any of them lol)

- It's very important to say that she doesn't help me AT ALL with dynamics!!

- The only help she provides me with tempo is to turn on the metronome... She never helps me to count..

- As the end of lesson (one hour) approaches she gets a new piece for me. She puts it in front of me. And that is it... She doesn't play it for me, doesn't comment on the time signature...

- She tells me to play slowly HS... My tempo is totally off and I know but she doesn't say nothing...

- After I play a few bars the time is done and the whole cycle restarts...

If one thinks of piano teaching as a relationship, it's safe to say this relationship is not made in heaven....

"Fire" sounds a bit harsh lol, but it does sound like you should give appropriate notice that you wish to cease lessons and start looking around for someone who is a better fit for you.

It sounds like it is not just her teaching that doesn't suit you, but also that it is a bit of a personality clash (she makes you feel patronised by the sound of it).

You could try talking to her about what you are wanting out of lessons - that you would like more criticism and to work on reading rhythms and dynamics and go more in depth with your pieces, but it sounds like you don't trust her or respect her as a teacher, and in that case I would look for someone you do trust who you have a good rapport with.

I don't think this is a problem at all. I do that to my students, too.

Sounds like she is teaching you to *read* (which is why she doesn't play the pieces for you). You could shift the balance by asking to be assigned some more challenging pieces, and ask to work on them for several weeks/ months and bring them to performance standard, i.e. dynamics, etc.

Automatic praise is what a lot of people WANT! If you look through this forum you'll find many posts where people are over-sensitive to the slightest criticism.

Have you brought up the subject with your teacher? Made it clear you can "take it"?

The teacher obviously believes in getting through lots of material. This is a legitimate approach. She feels you should be able to complete these pieces in one week. Are you putting in sufficient practice to achieve this? Is your attitude "this is the goal I must achieve" or "this is all the time I can spend on practice"?

Why are your hands cold at the beginning of the lesson? Do something about it.

Cold hands don't cause wrong notes.

Why do you play without dynamics, and with poor timing? Practice more! When a piece is properly prepared, it's almost IMPOSSIBLE to make mistakes!

See what I'm doing? You blamed everything on the teacher. I'm blaming everything on you. Is the truth somewhere in the middle? HAVE YOU DISCUSSED YOUR WORRIES WITH THE TEACHER?

Have you ever been to one of the recitals of this teacher's students? Do they play well? If not, you know what to do. If some play very well, then there is the possibility that the teacher made a misjudgment and uses the wrong approach for you. You can discuss this with the teacher if you genuinely feel that you'd want to continue with her if she could change her ways of teaching. But it sounds like you might be ready to leave anyways. I've had a somewhat similar situation with my first teacher and I went to a different teacher pretty soon and was very happy that I did. It might be particularly tricky for adult students to find the right fit with a teacher because they come in with all kinds of background.

The biggest problem I see is not the way your teacher is teaching you, but how you are approaching lessons. Have you ever discussed your concerns with your teacher? If not, then she's probably under the impression that you're perfectly happy with how she's doing things. It's possible she's not changing anything because she thinks you are pleased with your progress. Of course it is also possible that she's not capable of doing more, but only by talking with her and seeing if she actually makes the changes that you want will you know for sure.

I also agree with Exalted Wombat about some of your complaints. You are making excuses for your poor playing, and then saying that your teacher then corrects you on things that you already know are wrong. Why are you going to lessons with wrong notes and no dynamics? Cold hands happen when one is not warmed up for their lesson, but they don't cause you to make the kinds of mistakes that you are talking about. Why aren't you asking her when she points out you're not doing a crescendo in measure 15 how you can accomplish that if it's something you're struggling with executing properly? I would always go to lessons with a list of questions or concerns about the pieces I was working on if I got stuck. And of course, you can easily say, "I want to work on this another week and see if I can do better next time."

This has come up every now and again and it may seem like an unimportant point, but the concept that you can fire your teacher may bely a negative attitude toward your teacher who may very well be a highly educated and competent small business owner. Unless you give your teacher a W-2 form each year and pay payroll taxes for her, you technically aren't her "employer" and can't "fire" her.

Sorry for the double-post, but after re-reading your post I thought of something else. Did you every think about how she's having you play parts of the piece over and over again? She's teaching you how you should be practicing at home. So if you go home and you fail to do these things, then whose at fault?

You didn't mention your playing level. Beginner students will encounter a lot of music in a short amount of time because the pieces are simpler. Rarely will a student work on a particular piece for more than one week in that stage. As you progress, however, your pieces get more complicated and will take more time to perfect.

Are you only working on one piece per week? Your post suggests that, and I think that you should always have several pieces (anywhere from 3-6) going at one point, depending on your level of playing and available practice time.

fe2008, you have itemized the reasons that you feel you are getting nothing out of lessons. If you are looking for permission to quit, you have my permission.

Dear fe2008:

This is your third post on two forums on this basic topic.

You have been given many suggestions, both from other students and from teachers, but have not responded to any of them; Instead you keep posting the same basic question.

What exactly do you want?

If its advice and help, you have received a lot of it.

Some feedback from you would be helpful at this point.

Well, that's not how "I" get treated ....

This does sound like a very imperfect match. Have you ever sat down with her to discuss what you want? Maybe she can supply it. Maybe she cannot.

Sorry to be totally blunt and unsympathetic but YES YES YES. This kind of teaching pisses me off no end. A teacher should be teaching you about touch, technique, interpretation, possibly a little harmony. Practice techniques. This teacher is clearly an ignoramus. Read a book like Neuhaus' Art of Piano Playing and teach yourself a little and you'll see how much your missing out on. I also reccomend Josh Wright's piano lessons on Youtube. You'll get much more out of this than your current teacher. I made the mistake of staying with a bad teacher out of a sense of loyalty and it set me back. You have to put your progress first.

Thanks... But I think a brief analisys of the piece would be good.

Complete a piece in one week???

Well... Here are a few pieces I should had 'completed' in one week:
Small Prelude in C (BACH)
The Happy Farmer (SCHUMMAN)

I'm sorry if I can't play them perfect after one week.



Maybe because she never taught me how to properly execute and interpret a piece? Neither she taught how to 'properly prepare' a piece?

I agree with Morodiene. After re-reading your post, she is teaching you how to practice. Why should she play the piece for you? If you know you need to observe the dynamics in a piece, why aren't you? She is there to help you fix problem areas and polish up a piece and then for you to go home and work to fix the issues you worked on at your lesson.

IMHO, you need to find a new teacher. You are obviously not happy with this teacher, but I don't think your expectations match your teacher. Not all the fault lies with the teacher. Again, IMHO.

fe2008,

What exactly do you want out of the contributors here? When people try to assist you, you often respond with announcements, pronouncements, and sarcasm. You should not be surprised if people here stop paying much attention to what you say.

Thanks for the advice. I will talk to her next lesson and express how I feel and what I expect from her



So it seems that the iniciative to play better should be taken from me? Well, I'm a beginner and I really think that she is the one who should help me and coach me how to play better. How can I do better next time if she assigns a new piece and consider the last as done?



Sorry english is not my first language. Maybe I picked the wrong word.

This is the best advice that I have seen, and it was also repeated by two teachers in another thread. You may want to sacrifice an entire lesson and just talk about your goals, your teacher's goals for you, her expectations and how she thinks you can carry them out, your expectations which may lead to what she thinks your role is. You may also run into what she thinks you already know and can do, which you might not - or things that you don't know that she can point out that you do.

It does not sound as if you have ever approached your teacher about your concerns. That should be your first step.

I'm trying to answer those who think that it's my fault. Forgive me if I gave the impression of being sarcastic. I cannot express myself 100% right in english.

I'm getting what I want: Which is great advice on what do to... The bests were in the line of "Talk to her and express your concerns"