Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Some teachers'... interesting views

I had a teacher once (not too long ago), who once told me, after a small, unimportant national competition: "I do realize you wanted the Waldstein to be flawless; but you know, maybe for that competition, you wouldn't had to have practiced it so much". Well, I did want it to be perfect; at least technically. And the more difficult parts in the 3rd movement I could indeed play flawlessly; the musical content was lacking though. I still got 1st prize. Well, OK. It was a competition with a laughably small programme.

I always thought that he was extremely demanding. A very relaxed guy, a genius pianist and very good teacher; never yelled at me, but still, our lessons were intensive.

When I played the Waldstein to my new teacher in college; he called it "frightening, abominable." Just today, I played him the 1st Mefisto Waltz again. He bashed me for it, as usual, saying I don't understand the music at all. My Couperin's "Tic-toc-choc" apparently lacks any charm. What gives?

What gives, is that apparently, my new professor judges me and compares me to the high level of international talent; to the thousands of kids who go out to win international competitions, etc. Not to the level of local piano students, as apparently did my old teacher.

And i've had the same experience with another teacher a bit longer ago. Why do some teachers have this mindset? Why the heck should my end goal be to play better than my classmate at my small music high school in a small town (in a small country)? It's not like I don't know how high the international level is. Has anyone else ever encountered something like this?

But then again - maybe he was right. Maybe he knew that since I was a lazy son of a bitch as a child and rarely practiced, it is pointless to dream of ever achieving something big, because it's too late to get serious now. In that case, I thank him, because he tried to stop me from forming illusions... I still don't know for sure. A couple more years will tell whether I should continue with this at all, or just become a mechanic or a dishwasher.

I swear to god, the next time he says that I don't play something in the Mephisto waltz "ferociously enough", or that "you sound like you suddenly developed polio in your fingers", or that "your noodle fingers aren't making the piano roar", even though I'm already sweating - I will smash down on the keys with such force that I will break at least one string or one of my fingers, or make the damn piano go out of tune. See if that's ferocious enough for him.

Some teachers act like that one as a means of motivating students.
It is not the best way to motivate, but it is the best many can do.

Svenno, you could take your reaction as a sign that it is time you parted company with those teachers and their misguided philosophies. Please also be kinder to yourself in your signature: Youth is a time for sweet indolence. It is furthermore true that the life of the amateur--even the dilettante--is a rich and rewarding one. Welcome.

It sure does motivate me! It motivates me to grab a couple beers and try to forget about the lesson, instead of going and practicing.

Youth is a time for relentless studying, as long as the brain still has maximum plasticity.

And i'm not exactly an amateur, but neither am I an accomplished pianist. I'm in some sad place in-between.

Sounds like teaching in the style of Beloved Tyranna. Maybe, also, Tonya Harding's mother.

Mine were very polite, but knew how to turn up the heat slowly on the frog in the water (so that the frog [student] cooks instead of jumping out of the water). 😀

I suppose the teacher is just right, but he might be exaggerating things a little to get the message through

>the musical content was lacking though

That's the most important part!

>Has anyone else ever encountered something like this?

Oh yes

In my limited, cynical experience, some new teachers find fault so that they can then take credit for "fixing" what was wrong, even though nothing really changed.

Sam

Why don't you tell him to go to heck and find a new teacher?

It's a bit more complicated than that, i'm afraid.

Many teachers are insecure in their teaching or technical ability, which causes them to be assholes. I had a similar experience with Awadagin Pratt. A decade later and I can play circles around him. Keep your head up.

Yeesh! That's what your teacher is like?! My gosh, how do you stand it?! I've been soo incredibly fortunate to have had teachers who were nothing more than encouraging and helpful. The only person who regularly compared myself to, and put pressure on me to improve to a level so as to be competitive with high level pianists is myself. I was the one always pressuring myself to learn incredibly difficult music and to make massive improvements. At worst, I had people push me to perform which I was never really driven to do until I started seeing it as a personal challenge to see what I could do in that particular avenue.

I also didn't realize it, but I've long had signatures turned off. Wow! Dude!...

Your two years younger than me and I'd argue a very well accomplished pianist which has nothing to do with any of the other variables your mentioning. Why do you think you won't get far? Because you haven't won some competition, or don't have a huge repertoire, or whatever else? Why compare yourself? Your you. You are where you are as a musician/pianist, and it's entirely your call where you go from there. To counter your point though, do you realize how many variables are involved in having a career? At their heart, competitions are devices for exposing young talent. No more. No less. Even if you win one, where you go from there is entirely based on what you decide and how you handle your career.


Look at someone like Zimerman for example who toured around after wining the Warsaw Chopin Competition for a year and then...left. Just like that he quit touring around for a couple years and lived his life. Now he selectively does about 50-60 concerts a year because...that's how Zimerman works.

Hamelin seems to have had the opposite problem. The man now does something like a hundred concerts a year, but it took him decades to finally get the right agent and the right exposure to finally get himself out there and that was despite winning the 1985 Carnegie Hall Competition and recording a couple CDs back then.

Of all the examples I could give you though, for me the most impactful is Jorge Bolet. Studied at Curtis under Godowsky's son in law David Saperton and was bumping elbows with the likes of Jozef Hoffman and the like. He was a top of the line young pianist. He said that Saperton delighted in assigning him pieces none of his other students could learn. Couldn't have had a finer pedigree, was a true musician in the vein of the great pianist of the early 20th century. How old was he when he finally broke through and had a career? He was in his 60s! What did he say when asked about it? He said he wouldn't just wouldn't give up.

So what's the point of my long spiel? You are where you are now, that's a given. But, regardless of where you are now, if you truly have something to say and your determined to share your music, and if you have just a little bit of luck, it's entirely possible to have a career regardless of what stage of life your in. The most recent competition winner is little more than the flavor of the month. Within 3-5 years, the competition management's over with and unless they handle their situation with care they'll have nothing but a lot of performance experience, a line in their bio, maybe some left over cash, and the possible curse of being overexposed. If you want to perform, keep learning, keep improving, keep expanding your repertoire and be prepared to fight your way into that world. If you'd rather not...well, there are a lot of amateurs on this form and I don't know of any who are mechanics or dishwashers. So, unless you enjoy fixing cars/appliances, or have a proclivity towards dish pan hands, my guess is that you a young, intelligent, good looking young man and you have as many options open to you as your able to dream up.

Best!

Edit: Sorry for such a long post, but I have a damn hard time watching people beat themselves up. My own flaw I guess...

I love your post. After your new professor told you how bad it was, did they get into specifically why and offer / teach you how to improve it? If they just said it was terrible and then moved on to something else to feed their ego I would be very unhappy with them. If they gave you very useful insight into areas of improvement and you could see the improvement I would be happy with them and let all their ranting go out the other ear.

All the best to you / Steve

No matter how major the criticism, I think there is always a way to phrase it so that it doesn't demean the student or crush his ego. I don't see any advantage of not using that approach.

This is the saddest thing I have read in 2018. Half empty.

Except on the days when he or she is half full.

I agree.

Compare the style of my third (and final) teacher. When I told him that I loved Chopin's Ballade No. 1 and wanted to learn it, he said, "That piece has some problems." Translation: "You're an OK student, but that's way beyond you." Instead, he had me learn the Ballade No. 3.

Did he speak in euphemistic terms? Yes, but he got the point across, without deflating my spirit.

Made me think of the time I teacher if I could learn the Goldberg Variations having no idea of how hard it was. He said "Oh, that's something you can learn by yourself if you want."

computerpro3 -

You may want to edit out that name in your post unless the individual in question is deceased ... could be considered disparagement. If the person named is also the OP's professor, that could cause issues for them at school.

As for my thoughts on the topic...

I've been fortunate not to work with these types of rude and over-demanding teachers, but my goal is not to be a piano performance major or touring concert pianist. I don't have to be "broken down" in order to be pushed HARD to a higher level. Also, it is possible to critique someone's performance tactfully and stick to the issues at hand. Any "teacher" who doesn't realize this (or willfully chooses to be a bully) shouldn't be teaching IMHO.