Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Have you had to fire your piano teacher? Why?

One other tidbit about the new health care plan and I'm going on hiatus on this thread as it is not a fun subject.

The entire bill was crafted, voted on, and passed by only one of our political parties. Given that the political preferences of Americans roughly fall as 1/3 Democrats, 1/3 Republicans, and 1/3 Independents, imagine that this bill which affects ALL 320 million of us was designed by a party that only represents 1/3 of us.

Health insurance for me being self-employed used to be about 3 times that for my husband and I. This is for a catastrophic plan with a $5k deductible. This is no longer allowed by Obamacare, and the insurance that we have to pay for through Obamacare is far more than that. Thanks, Obama, but your definition of "affordable" doesn't match mine. /rant

One other tidbit about the new health care plan and I'm going on hiatus on this thread as it is not a fun subject.

The entire bill was crafted, voted on, and passed by only one of our political parties. Given that the political preferences of Americans roughly fall as 1/3 Democrats, 1/3 Republicans, and 1/3 Independents, imagine that this bill which affects ALL 320 million of us was designed by a party that only represents 1/3 of us.

All true, except this was the plan advocated by the Heritage Foundation and the Republican Party, even implemented in one state by a Republican governor. They only opposed it once a Democratic president accepted it.

The cost of healthcare is not associated with any political party. It is independent of politics. It costs what it costs.

The new health plan, designed to give affordable heath to "everyone" has, at least IMHO hurt as many people as it is helped.

Well, some think that "affordable" means cheaper. It does not. It means within their means to pay for it.

Just because someone's healthcare insurance premiums have risen does not mean that was a failure on the part of the "affordable" care act. It still may be affordable, just not "cheaper".

In order to give "affordable" healthcare to EVERYONE there probably is a need to charge some more than they had been paying in order to make it affordable to those earning poverty wages. The "help your neighbor" concept ?

1) Last time I checked this was not a socialist republic. If I choose to help out someone in need, I do so on an individual basis. I should not be forced to foot the bill for those that make less money simply because I make more.

2) I should also be allowed to determine what kind of financial hardship/burden I can afford to bear. I shouldn't be told I HAVE to have coverage, or have coverage at a certain level, when I know I have enough liquid assets saved up to cover a certain amount of major medical expenses.

Note to moderator: Can we get this thread back on target? If we want to have a raging discussion with our overseas members about the quality of our health care systems there are plenty of places to go.

She doesn't push me for the graded exams, but gives me plenty of pieces which gradually teach me different techniques. Most importantly, she throws in a mixture of "famous" pieces to keep me excited.

I think that if I started learning piano fairly late (as in over 40 yrs old), I probably wouldn't bother to do exams - by then I'd know my own mind and know what I want to achieve, and what I'm interested in. And I'd be looking for a teacher who would teach me exactly what I want to learn (and that means no pop, easy-listening or jazz ).

But for a child learner, there's a lot to be said for doing exams, after reading so many posts in ABF and elsewhere in PW about the slapdash approach of some teachers, who leave gaping holes in their students' piano and musical education. The big advantage of exams is that the entire syllabus for each grade has to be covered - which means that sight-reading skills along with ear training and scales & arpeggios have to be mastered alongside the pieces for that level.

It's all too easy, for instance, for a beginner who is good at memorizing to learn pieces by rote and never manage to sight-read properly (there are some recent posts by adult learners on this) - fine, if the adult learner can't be bothered to master this essential skill, because he only wants to play certain pieces he likes, or just wants to play by ear. A child isn't likely to know what he'll be wanting to learn in five years' time, nor how far he will progress. Without good sight-reading and/or aural skills (recognizing intervals etc), it's almost impossible to progress beyond intermediate standard.

I think that if I started learning piano fairly late (as in over 40 yrs old), I probably wouldn't bother to do exams - by then I'd know my own mind and know what I want to achieve, and what I'm interested in. And I'd be looking for a teacher who would teach me exactly what I want to learn (and that means no pop, easy-listening or jazz ).

But for a child learner, there's a lot to be said for doing exams, after reading so many posts in ABF and elsewhere in PW about the slapdash approach of some teachers, who leave gaping holes in their students' piano and musical education. The big advantage of exams is that the entire syllabus for each grade has to be covered - which means that sight-reading skills along with ear training and scales & arpeggios have to be mastered alongside the pieces for that level.

It's all too easy, for instance, for a beginner who is good at memorizing to learn pieces by rote and never manage to sight-read properly (there are some recent posts by adult learners on this) - fine, if the adult learner can't be bothered to master this essential skill, because he only wants to play certain pieces he likes, or just wants to play by ear. A child isn't likely to know what he'll be wanting to learn in five years' time, nor how far he will progress. Without good sight-reading and/or aural skills (recognizing intervals etc), it's almost impossible to progress beyond intermediate standard.

I had to "fire" my first piano teacher. He just seemed to want me to learn by rote and didn't really have answers to any of my questions. On top of that he actually fell asleep in the middle of one of my lessons, so I suppose that was the final straw for me.