Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Teachers Forum How much does the teacher's piano matter?

Not to continue too much on this tangent about families, but I read somewhere that parents can’t be judged on their parenting skills by whether they have children but whether their children have children. It skips a level. The test is whether parents have instilled enough confidence in their children to enable the children to decide to have children. Of course, there can be many other factors involved, so it’s not the only criteria.

This is totally off topic now. Consider how many young women, barely teens, try to find the father figure they never had, the early pregnancies and children trying to raise children; lost boys and girls seeking solace in each other. Whoever wrote that cannot have gone very deeply into things and was maybe just speculating.

I’ll try to find the paper but I think the logic makes a lot of sense. You’re raising anomalies and I’m talking about the general case.

On a personal note, after what I went through as a child, there was no way I was having children. Enough said.

I think the quote above completely captures my learning experience. I was fortunate that the two teachers I had during my learning years did have the all the skills above, and that my first teacher recognized that a certain point it was better for me (or both of us) if I moved on to the 2nd teacher.

As far as the instrument goes, my first teacher had only an upright and was able to teach me every technique I needed. My 2nd teacher had a grand piano, but since I had only an upgright myself, I don't think I gained any specific benefit from taking lessons on a grand vs an upgright. It was all about the teacher for me, which is saying alot because I didn't really WANT to be taking lessons or playing the piano, and they still got me to an advanced level.

A good rule:

. . . As long as the guitar is better than you are, you can keep learning on it.

I suspect the same holds for pianos (and DP's).

A tennis teacher of mine said:

. . . "Until you can hit the ball consistently, and control where it goes, it doesn't matter what racket you use."

I do find playing my teachers upright depressing. It has small dynamic range, and is pretty much just loud.

I can't seem to control it at all. To not have the support usually the bass overwhelm the melody I've taken to just belting out the melody because I can't make the bass quiet. The instruction from my teacher is then to use the und-corda pedal to quieten down the playing. I find it a long way from satisfactory.

The piano is not all bad, it has a lovely rich sound and playing trills on it is easier than on my digital. But overall the experience is very frustrating.

I suppose if it was my piano that I practised on, in a few years I could learn to access its limited dynamic range. But to some extent I think it would always be frustrating because the dynamic range is limited.

I often have a strong idea of how I want the pieces I learn to sound, I can get far closer to that on my digital and on the grand pianos I have played.

Kevin, you've been struggling with your teacher's Petrof for 3 months now. Is your teacher so good that it compensates for this piano? If not, are you considering again changing teachers?

I think I'm getting enough value from my teacher. We can both see passed my difficulties with the Petrof now. I've had some good pointers about things to improve from my teacher and I can hear the difference those suggestions make.

I think it would be a lot worse if it was the piano I had at home and I demonstrated the same inability to get it under control. To never hear the pieces I'm trying to learn sound anything like close to how I want to hear them would make me seriously consider giving up.

I do think that the quality of the piano must be good enough to promote growth among students. Of course, a concert-quality piano would be wasted on beginners, but even some intermediate students can differentiate a good piano from a bad one.

The quality of piano at home certainly has an impact on the way students play, I've observed. Students with a digital piano tend to have indelicate control of the dynamics. They struggle to develop the ability to voice notes. They also tend to have limited dynamic range. Students with poor quality piano with out-of-regulation pianos also struggle to develop the skills to balance voices. They also struggle to adjust the playing to the sound being projected from the piano.

Recently, a family bought a brand new Shigeru Kawai grand piano, and it had a profound impact on the children. Their dynamic range grew, and their playing became more finely nuanced. They listen more, as their practice piano gives them more immediate, and clearer feedback.

When they take lessons with us, on a very fine, responsive piano, their mistakes are greatly amplified. It is a piano that is almost unforgivingly revealing, that any carelessness would be glaringly obvious. Yet, if they play purposefully, focusing on the sound they are generating, it rewards gloriously. Quite often, they hear their mistakes even before we need to point them out. In a way, a good piano becomes a second teacher, at home and at lessons. We do our best as teachers, and try to provide the best environment possible for them.

That's really interesting! I think I've noticed the same trends regarding home pianos, but I hadn't quite put it all together as clearly as you have. Thanks, Ken Iisaka! I love what you said about a fine, responsive piano being unforgivingly revealing but, on the flip side, potentially gloriously rewarding.

"...If we are looking for accuracy, I do not agree that all good pianos are alike because the way they respond, the way peddling needs to be applied, and the firmness of the action are all different...."

And the room acoustic--- it can be the trickiest, maybe even the craziest, of all. And it is, at one and the same time, part and not part of the piano.

Not that what you said needed me to tack that on. It is a big issue with my piano/ room, though. If it's set up just right, piano heaven; if not, piano of the Other Place. And, good pianos (and other instruments--- speaking of violins) differ, maybe not with their fitness for play or the goodness or inherent musicality that is in them, but that they are individually endowed with personality. Born that way, and then they grow in their own way. Maybe they take on part of their player's musical persona; maybe they stamp their persona on the player. I think you could argue that one either way.

Some of those awful, worn-out, never-were-much-good teachers' pianos... I get the shudders, thinking of what traits they may have been stamping on my innocent young fingers. Maybe after all, the question may be better unaddressed.

I took most of my lessons on a well maintained Kawai K-15. Not a impressive hih status piano perhaps, but it was an OK instrument to learn on. And when my teacher played it, it sounded heavenly.

My teacher had TWO Steinways - one for him, one for me. Youngest kid's teacher has two grands as well. They were/are both really good and really expensive teachers! The sound of two quality grands in a big room with high ceilings is amazing.

I don't think it's realistic or necessary that every teacher have a Steinway, or a grand. I do think they should have an acoustic piano unless perhaps they don't teach classical - non-classical players are more likely to rely on keyboards more than acoustics.