Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Unpopular Opinion : Piano teachers (my honest experience)

Hi, TL/DR at the end.

Now before you all trow me tomatoes, I'll try to be as respectful as I can. I'll also preface this post by saying english is not my main language.

I've been self teaching myself piano for about 2 years now. Recently, with the pandemic giving me more opportunities to organise my work hours, I thought I would seek out a "real" piano teacher in order to point out issues in my technique. Or to show me shortcut to achieve my goals. To say my experience has been disheartening would be a very mild way to phrase my experience.

I've takend 12 * 1h session of 1-1 private teaching. I even tried two very different teachers from a reputable school I enrolled in. The cost was exorbitant. Around 50$ CAD for every sessions if I put in the initial cost of registering with the school (a 5 min process) 500$+.

I've made my goals very clear to the teachers from the get go. Letting them know what I liked in the piano and why I was enrolling with a private teacher.

Now hear me out. I do think both teachers were very skilled on the piano. And I assume the school chose them based on their credentials. One of them was at conservatory level as an organist. The other was an old timer that had done it all. Was also a guitar and drum teacher at the same school. However, as teachers, they did an very average job at best in my opinion.

The old guy would take a large amount of time discussing is life as a piano players. Having played with this important guy and this other one. He would also diss my goals as a pianist saying they were too hard to achieve and that "standard" pianist never tried things so hard (solo cover for exemple). He argued that pianists should not try to cover melodies. That it was the work of the singers to do melodies. Also he often told me that piano was not the instrument to convey emotions/expressions. That things like the violin was the way to go for expression. This is one of my most cherished goal. To put a lot of expression and emotion in my playing.
The younger one I could feel was stressed and way too excited. I lost most of his explainations. He at least didn't have a problem with my goals. I just felt it was going way to fast in his head all the time !

Those 12 sessions led me to a very hard conclusion. I humbly believe this way of teaching the piano is just obsolete. Both teachers did use the limited amount of time to discuss some theory and provide some music sheets to practice at home. Pieces of music I assume designed around some conceptual learning patterns. It didn't help that those musical pieces sounded really bad and I had no passion or interest playing them. I chuged away just to try and make my investments be worth something.

But the hard truth is that nothing compare to practice. The 12h of 1-1 teaching I took that cost me an arm I felt didn't accelerate anything. The teachers didn't detect anything wrong about my technique. They didn't, I feel, provide any exercices designed to precisely achieve my goals. They stuck to their own method that they probably use for all their students. I feel like I lost my money and even my time.

I think nowadays, there is very limited use for a 1-1 in person teaching at a school of music. I would even suggest you question yourself really hard before taking that step. Perhaps I didn't get the best teachers, but I really doubt I'd find better ones in that format. I would now be much more inclined to reach out for a different format of teaching whenever I feel I might need that tutoring. Perhaps online teaching at a fraction of the price with a teacher that actually cares about my goals and is first and formost a great teacher would be a far better idea.

I also do think that in 2020, we have come to a point where technology and online ressources are replacing the aging schools of music. I know it is an unpopular opinion. But with everything that is readily available for the self teaching student, it is amazing to see what can be achieved nowadays. I guess my message to this forum is, don't feel bad if you are self teaching yourself the piano, it might just be alright As long as you enjoy the journey and practice a lot.



TL/DR : I had a very negative experience with two different private teachers in a reputable school of music. Will stick to self teaching in the future. I will never ever feel bad again for not reaching out to a private teacher to achieve my goals. Self teaching in 2020 is actually possible and even recommended IMHO. Have confidence in your skills and practice is key.

You had two bad experiences but that doesn't change the fact that the only way to get personal feedback is private instruction. Without that you cannot know what you're doing wrong. You do not know what you do not know. There are thousands of people who post videos on YouTube that are quite terrible, but I'm sure most of them don't realize that.

I suggest signing up with a teacher where you can quit after 2-4 lessons if necessary and that you interview potential teachers carefully to find out if your goals are compatible with their teaching.

I think it depends on your goals.

As you say, you don't know what you don't know. But the question that comes after that is, does it matter?

I've been playing for about six years now. Started from zero. Never touched a piano, ever, before I got a bee in my bonnet those six years ago and decided it might be interesting to try that.

I just fool around with it, though. I play something until I get tired of it and then play something else. Sometimes I'll play the same piece for three days in a row, then play six different things every day after that for the next week. It's just what I happen to be interested in at the time, and if my bird particularly likes something then I'll play that one more often to entertain him too. If I come across something that I don't understand and that a Google search doesn't find for me, I'll ask a question here.

Am I playing the piano right? I really don't know. Am I good at it? Again, I simply have no way to know. But it doesn't matter. I just play to amuse myself and my bird; don't intend to play in a band or Carnegie Hall.

So once again, I don't know what I don't know. Fair enough. But that's ok too. I like doing what I'm doing and my bird likes it so that's all that matters to me.

He covered all this.

Unfortunately, at a minimum, it sounds like the two teachers you worked with were not right for you. Based on your description, you gave them the benefit of the doubt for a reasonable amount of time.
If you are better able to achieve your goals through an online approach, that is terrific. I would suggest that you don't close the door to personal instruction, but just understand that sometimes one has to go through a few private teachers to find the right one.

If you get stuck in the future, or feel like you need to shake things up a bit from the online learning, you might give an in person teacher another go. With your experience, you will better be able to choose the right one.

If you are making all the progress you want without personal instruction, that is perfectly fine as well!

mareg , Did you have only two unsuitable teachers? You're lucky , there are many thousands of them in the world; and this does not mean anything! I agree that very often Eurocentric musical education brings talent; and there are eminent classical pianists who were self-taught in the beginning; and without any modern equipment of our era. However, the main condition for your development as a musician is the process when you become a living part of the musical community; it can be an educational institution, a summer music camp, a garage band, etc. No technology or online resources can replace this; and having a private teacher just doesn't get to that level

I realise that I had anecdoctale experiences. But, for me, it has soured the whole concept. I'll stick to what really worked in the first place. We have such tremendously talented people designing applications around current technology and we also have great method books again with online support. The options are readily available and they do work.

I'm not saying I'll never again seek tutoring with a private teacher. But I'll certainly do it in a fashion that has nothing to do with traditionnal high cost local music schools. Those, to me, are the product of a bygone era.

Wow, yup those two teachers sound like they were not worth it. I'm guessing that school doesn't really know what to look for in a teacher. There's a HUGE difference between being able to play and being able to teach. Some have both, but apparently these were not those.

While I understand your reasons and agree these were not good teachers, I do hope that you will keep an eye out for someone who suits your needs (I'd avoid that school). But to call that way of teaching "obsolete" is an insult to those of us teachers who try to meet students there they're at and lead them to where they want to go, and also to those students who enjoy working with their teachers and love seeing the progress they make.

It's probably not a good thing to make blanket statements about a whole group of people based on a limited personal experience.

I wouldn't give up too soon on teachers after only 1 year experience with them. I was self taught on the piano for many years until I had my first group piano lesson in my twenties. In my experience finding the right teacher (s) was one of the best investments I made in my piano education but you have to truly be open to the idea. There is the saying, "when the student is ready, the teacher will appear".

Oh thanks a lot for the reply ! I guess you are absolutly right.
I certainly didn't want to sound condescending to all piano teachers. I'm sure there is a teacher for me somewhere out there. Someone that would care about my goals and that has some talent as a teacher, not just a musician. I'll probably stick to self learning for the foreseable future. I need to let all that bad taste in my mouth wash out.

Chears, your reply really put me to peace with the whole situation.

I couldn't agree more.

There are good piano teachers and bad piano teachers. But there are also good piano students and bad piano students. I have had extremely negative experiences with adult piano students, but I'm not stupid enough to say that ALL adult piano students are bad. I also know the pitfalls and dangers of self-learning, but I'm not going to tell the OP to go get a real piano teacher.

To each his own.

I'm sorry. I see I failed at being respectful.

I just wanted to point out that there is a very strong difference betwen the teacher role and the student role. The teacher is getting paid and the student is paying. I understand that there is probably bad student out there. I assure you I've been more then good and I've made the absolute best effort to get the most out of what I've been given. Because, guess what, I was paying top dollars.

The fact is that your profession was very badly represented in the school that I took classes in. That is bad. I feel like I've been robed. And that is a bad feeling indeed.

And also, I feel like there is probably a large amount of adult student like me that are more discerning of their teachers. The child that has been enrolled by his parent is less likely to find the teaching lacking. He doesn't pay and doesn't know any better. The adult that is paying a considerable amount to get private lesson has a great understanding of what is quality teaching. So yeah, a bet you get more "bad" adult student than "bad" child student.

Of course one forms opinions based on one's personal experiences. I can appreciate that the OP's experiences have been - to put it mildly - unfortunate. Yes, they have soured the opinion of working with a teacher on a one-to-one basis, but please bear in mind what others have said, namely: that nothing encourages enthusiasm and fosters progress better than working with a "good" teacher, and only a good teacher can help you over the hurdle of not knowing what you don't know.

I have had the very good fortune of working with excellent teachers, some over extended periods of time, others rather briefly in summer programs. All I can say is that there has been nothing more satisfying to me than the musical, respectful and personal relationships that I have developed with my teachers. They have been encouraging, yet demanding, and have given me a deep respect for their skills and their teaching abilities.

Yes, I have been lucky. Perhaps that should be a sign to you that there are good teachers out there and that they are worth searching for. By the way, currently, my teacher charges $75.00 per hour which, these days, provides good value for the money. Your $50.00 is very reasonable, although it does not justify the poor teaching that you believe you have experienced.

Please, keep looking.

Regards,

I was brought up in the baby boom generation. My parents and many family members in my generation believe we need a teacher or a trained professional to make sure we learn a skill properly.

I'm more practical that I do have a teacher, but also do a lot of learning on my own. I got enrolled in group piano class instead of 1-on-1 because I had bad experiences with music teachers and a standardize curriculum in the past. During the weekly piano lessons we do scale exercises, practice a Czerny etude and a few pieces arranged for easy piano. The few minutes before and after class we'd socialize. The conservatory where we had classes is closed for the time being so we're connecting with each other online.

I started with violin lessons many years ago using a standardized approach. There were conservatory repertoire books and exercises to practice. Most people would spend 1h/wk with a teacher at most. We're spending a lot more time practicing at home anyway. Once you learn to be proficient in reading music, you can learn just about any piece of music at a certain level without a teacher. I download sheet music regularly and learn on my own.

At a young age I didn't know enough about an instrument and without the Internet had to rely on music teachers. The teacher I have now is teaching piano as a general interest course. She is open to suggestions the repertoire we like to play and allow us to work at our own pace. She acts more like a mentor (music coach) than a teacher from the past. I met Suzuki teachers who teach strictly by the Suzuki Books that came out of Japan over 60 years ago.

I just reread his post and don't see where he covered any of what I said.

Ouch! I feel for you... I certainly don't disagree that some teachers are bad. The bad experience is going to put you off for a while.

That high initial registration cost just does not sound right. But you really wanted to learn piano seriously, you do care if you sound good not just to yourself, and that's why you bit the bullet and paid. I think that's why this is most unfortunate.

You are drawing a conclusion about in-person teaching vs. online teaching. Shouldn't it be a conclusion about bad music school vs. good music school? I have a good, traditional in-person teacher, and I'm happily making progress. So I certainly don't think that form of teaching is obsolete.

I'm not going to be 'umble (I'm not the Uriah Heep sort ), not in the least. Not least because I've never been.

So, I'll say it straight off: you're not interested in classical, you've already self-taught for two years and are obviously quite set in your ways.

Forget about getting a teacher.

Continue doing what you've were doing before, and don't stress yourself looking for a teacher that will cater to your every whim. There isn't one.

I'm not up to date on my piano private lesson prices but is $50 CAD (per hour?) really considered an "exorbitant" amount of money? Man, I feel bad for teachers then. I made more money than that as a college student tutoring math.


Maybe not failing at being respectful, but definitely succeeding at sounding entitled. Then again, I find that to be the general culture of people in the US, and I would assume Canada as well.

I'm not going to particularly defend the teachers. I think piano teachers are essentially piano coaches. Some are good, some are bad, most are mediocre.

I like seeing parallels in the world. For piano lessons, I think fitness can be a very similar albeit simpler example. Every newbie goes into a gym thinking they want to look like a fitness model that they see on youtube or instagram. Few have the discipline to make it there and fewer still have the actual genetics (talent). Everyone is looking for quick results when that's just not possible. Every self taught gym bro thinks they know everything they need to and think they are exercising correctly when the truth is the majority of people have awful deficiencies in their diet, exercise, form, and routines.

On the teaching/coaching side, Fitness coaches can be useful for some people, but for the average joe that really just wants to get in shape, it's only marginally beneficial after some initial pointers. Coaching is more there for fluff and some sense of motivation. The average fitness coach is also not particularly well qualified either due to lack of education or lack of an ability to actually teach. More qualified 1-1 coaching are actually "exorbitantly" expensive ($hundreds-thousands) but offer much more effective results and can be much more engaging learning experience for the client.

As much as I hate being compared to fitness coaches, the analogy is quite apt.

I started without a teacher and now i have one. He is very detail oriented, and often when a start the lesson i feel confident that i can play the homework but after the lesson i feel that everyrhing has been crushed to pieces. Then i go home and practice more. It is actually funny how many times i have heard loud "NO NOT LIKE THAT" after playing only the first note of the homework:D I dont think anything can replace that experience. Second thing is that a good teacher teaches how to study effectively. However i try to be very clear what pieces i want to practice and bring my own sheet music. His job is then to teach how to play and how to study. However i guess it can be a bit different thing if you dont play classical and dont need to learn sophisticated technique.