Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Teachers Forum This place is really dead

Yes I understand where you’re coming from pianist_lady.

Incidentally the bug which was causing newer members to be put in a “one post per 5 minutes” holding cell has now been fixed, so perhaps that will help with the one post wonder scenario.

Yes BUT:

I'm answering you. Potentially quotes get within quotes, but that is yet another system problem. Normally only the latest quote remains, but with an arrow to what is being quoted, with an arrow going up again. There is a chain, so you can see who is replying to what.

Not possible here...

But I can still live with most of the problems. The thing I can't accept, and which infuriates me, is the inability to edit something I've written when I see a mistake a few minutes later. That was a totally stupid and unnecessary change that has nothing to do with the system. It was added in the last year, and it is awful.

Yes, views of students about how to teach are going to be less informative, and in many cases absolutely wrong. So if any student attempts to tell me how to teach, or what to change about teaching, I'm going to ignore it, BUT:

The flip side is that students know what more about BEING students than teachers do, so there input about what goes wrong in lessons is invaluable.

Remember also that some people who are teaching 25-30 students a week are not listening to their students, who are often shy or intimidated by the teachers knowledge.

For me it was a game changer when I went back to school, at age 40, to polish up what I was doing with a second language. It altered everything for me in my own teaching. I saw problems I had not thought of from the angle of a student. I saw a whole class of mostly lost people, I saw the teacher not seeing the problems. I saw a college text, that was supposedly more advanced for "older, more sophisticated students", absolutely failing because it went too fast, covering way too many concepts far too quickly.

The real eye-opener: I was 40 with almost two decades of teaching experience. And I was the only person in the class who was not partially lost, understanding everything, on top of every lesson. But the teacher was totally uninterested in my insights even though I was fully fluent in a class where everyone else was stumbling to say and read a few things.

That arrogance is typical of what I often see here from teachers who are sure everything they do is perfect and that anyone questioning them about what they do is just student arrogance, or ignorance, or rank stupidity.

As a teacher I'm always open to feedback about what is working or not working, and as a results I make sweeping changes in what I teach every year. I just don't see that flexibility here, on the whole.

Once again, apologies GaryD for the confusion. When you use Quick Editor, which I tend to do, you can’t see who your reply will be directed at. Of course, if you use the Full Editor you can see the post you’re replying to at the bottom if you scroll down.

As a newbie I also hadn’t figured out until recently that the person you actually replied to displays in the header of your reply and I didn’t realise people then used this to conclude people were talking directly to them. I’ve never been one for quoting people’s posts back at them in web forums, but I can see why that might be necessary here.

All very reminiscent of Twitter etiquette with the order of mentions etc. Apologies once again!

Hit quote, then type below. Everything will automatically be fine.

Once again, these are system problems. For just this reason you will see people responding to thing written last week or last year, or way back to something very early in a long thread. There is so much miscommunication because we often don't know where things are coming from!

The part I highlighted caught my attention and I want to comment here. This happens with adult students starting a new instrument for the first time, and especially if that student plays another instrument or comes in self-taught, apparently somewhat fluid at some level. I have been hammering the idea of foundations for years, and fought the idea of the "adult books" if and when these books want to help students "go fast", play music that is familiar and beloved, and dovetail in the adult facility of abstract thinking. An abstract mind does not help tune the eyes, the hands, coordination, or the senses. In fact, it can get in the way. It did in my first experience.



Welcome words.

Personally, I have been posting here every now and then, clarifying my non-teacher status. I have just asked few things about the piano education for my daughter (7y) and for me (adult) and once I got even blasted by AZN, so I think this qualifies me as honorary member of the club

I do not contribute regularly, as I am not a piano teacher, but as a teacher in other domain, this remains one of my favourite subject and I love to read about the discussion on the way to teach piano.

This place is not dead to me, it is just that I do not have much to say, but I learned a lot by the regular post of the teacher here...

I guess this is to thank you all !

I forgot where it was that someone mentioned competition between private music teachers and am not going to look back and quote it...

Anyway, when I saw that, I thought, it doesn't have to be that way! Why can we not work together to build a music community, to get students and families interested in music, so that more will take lessons, and there will be plenty of students for plenty of teachers? I would love to collaborate with local teachers, exchange ideas, gain insight in different ways to solve a problem, do joint ensemble classes and performances - idealist, I know. But I personally don't find it necessary to "compete" with another teacher; I don't actually want your students anyway (transfers), and if my student needs a different approach, I don't have a problem with them finding a better fit with your style.

Not really a distinction - we've ALL been there!

Should I add a smiley? Nah, it's understood. Oh wait....................

I was the one who talked about that being a problem. Personally, I share whatever I know if it helps (and even if it does't ), but in general, such pettiness does come up. I don't teach for the money - if I wanted money I'd go into something non-arts-related. But it's amazing how protective some teachers are of their "secrets". That's fine, it's there prerogative, but it does make forums not work so well.

I enjoy blasting people whey they are clearly wrong.

NOT winking

Please keep doing it, personally I do not get hurt: I am a total newbie
Besides You are great fun! I am entering the thread also for your blast, but I must confess, I generally I found the other contributors more informative and instructive.

I could be more informative;however, there are trade secrets. Whenever I write something helpful, I don't go all out.

What you read from me here, in this forum, is merely the tip of the iceberg. Most people have no idea what I'm capable of.

I actually traced the thread you're talking about earlier today. Some people were more wordy, but I found AZNpiano's advice quite good and spot on. No precise advice can be given anyway since the new place, new teacher, are all unknown. That bit of general middle-of-the-road advice I think was an excellent guidepost. Just my opinion.

There's an easy explanation for this, I think. The last two years have seen the rise of MASSIVE Facebook groups devoted to piano teaching. The most popular of which is "The Art of Piano Pedagogy" -- currently at 20,000 members and growing every day. Post a topic and it will get 10 comments (or reacation), within a minute. It's so huge that if you join, you can almost be sure to find a good percentage of your piano teacher friends and colleagues in real life are already on it. The platform makes it easier to post images and videos as well. Don't shoot the messenger.

Edit; Re-reading your post I see you mean just very recently. But I do remember how active this forum was in the early 2000's when I joined compared to now.

Actually, yes! this specific post was very helpful in that transition period.

My imagination is running wild.

I tend to lurk and avoid posting, it seems to cause more aggravation than provide actual help. But thank, Opus, I just joined that Facebook group and will be spending my online time there, where people can't hide behind avatars and have to hold themselves accountable for what they type. This site is clunky, nigh impossible to use on mobile, and threads turn into nightmarish proportions in no time.

Please feel free to post on my thread asking for guidance in narrowing down materials to start teaching my son! I have ideas of my own but I’m very interested in thoughts from experienced teachers.

I often think very hard before posting here and self censor a lot to avoid grief and I’m still not always successful. For this reason I generally finding reading more interesting than posting. Unfortunately, I can’t join the FB group. Wish there was a good one that linked teachers and parents.