Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Considering firing my teacher.

Sorry but I know differently. The second instructor I had is an absolute God at sight reading. He can open up concertos and sight read them perfectly. He also performed all of Beethovens sonatas a year ago. I asked him how he found time to practice .. he said studied them all a long time ago but he just read from the scores.

When I said 15 minutes I mean every lesson. Not just one time.

The equivalence of saying 'to just do it' to learn how to sight read is like saying 'just do it' when you are learning technique. There is a proper way to develop the skills and also an improper way that causes terribly bad habits and tension , inefficiency. One of these days I may make a thread about how to sight read properly with some videos , but I'm way too busy with other things right now.

I have never brought sight reading to my lessons. I would rather get something more out of it, like music. We had a class in first year that entailed sight reading, but mostly it was just an hour a week to get together and read two piano stuff. The prof didn't say much, except give us music to read. Which you can do on your own time. I don't understand what your example has to do with anything?

Your professor was wasting your time apparently... because as you said you can just 'do it yourself'. Sorry to be so brash. Learning how to sight read is directly connected to musical studies. If learning how to perfectly read through a piece for the first time isn't 'music related' I don't know what that means then.

My god, stores and Angelina disagree about something? How cosmically embarrassing.

Joking aside, I do wish that those who find nothing wrong with "firing" wouldn't accuse the rest of us of being too "sensitive". We're not being whiny and precious. We're sensitive to the shadings of a particular language issue, and sensitivity and nuance in the arts is a good thing.

Saying "you pay them so you can hire/fire them, and anyone feeling otherwise is being oversensitive" is in the same general category as "your fingers press down on keys, that's it, and anyone talking about 'colors' or 'artistry' is being oversensitive and artsy." I mean, the second one is way worse, but it's the same type of statement: I don't get the nuance, so there isn't one.

-Jason

I agree 100% -- in fact, I feel like I agree even more than that -- although with a little footnote.

I wonder if it's just what we're saying -- i.e. a thing that many of us are aware of but some just aren't -- or, differences of geography and/or generation that genuinely make the words lack those connotations and attitudes in some places and among some groups. It's hard for me to imagine, because I think it does imply a certain model of thinking about the role of the teacher -- and, in this case, I thought much about the original post besides those words seemed to underline that this does apply here -- but I can imagine that the words don't have the same implications in some places and some groups.

But to me, I cringed.

You're right, sensitivity and nuance in the arts is good, I agree. Except, we are talking about a business transaction. So in this case it's actually not the same type of statement. Business is more comparable to mathematics or science than art in my opinion. In these fields objectivity rules.

If we are talking about this as a language issue then I think interpretation can be subjective but what people who are in defense of the hiring/firing statement are saying is to try and take everything in context of what is being said. In this case, it is a far stretch to say that the comments are made in a derogatory fashion.

I think a better musical analogy is that of a specific sound taken in context. For example, let us take a random chord, say perhaps C major, and examine it. On it's own it's ambiguous, much like the words hiring/firing. However, placed in the context of a specific piece of music it will have a harmonious relationship with the other chords and this relationship may be consonant or dissonant depending on said context. What we have here is a case where some listeners think the chord belongs and other listeners think the chord doesn't. And that, is largely subjective.

Oh, it was. We could have done the class by ourselves. But he got us to at least have regular meetings. Some people don't sight read at all.

And you don't sight read at a concert, right? That's why there are better things to cover in a lesson............. I know someone who learned how to sight read like a god because of an accompanying job - every Saturday he had to read string music (and tough too - Beethoven sonatas, Faure, reductions, you name it) in a 3 hour masterclass setting. He said it was all he needed to become good at it.

I find it interesting how the majority of this thread has become more about the use of a word rather than the intended discussion...what a digression!!!

We disagree about PLENTY of things... some very major things indeed =P

And it's not the same at all. How can you even use that comparison? One has to do with the essence of making music. The other one has to do with how you use a word - and in the end it means the same thing.

I have heard impressive stories about amazing sight readers also.

For some reason i have an odd infatuation with sight reading. Maybe i should strive to be an accompanist!

Yeah it's a good asset to have!

I'm a pretty crap pianist so if i did become an accompanist at least the other performer would be able to make up for my mistakes.....

Actually I have sight read at concerts before ... If you call reading through a 200 page musical score a 'concert' , then yes I have done it.

I have also sight read hundreds of hymns , vocal accompaniment pieces and other musical scores for the first time during lessons and tech rehearsals.

The skill is a necessity for any accompanist. You don't have to spend as much time studying the pieces either if you can just play them by sight. It saves time and it is provides extra income.

Yep, we do!!! Of course, we only disagree when I'm right and she's wrong...=p

Were you playing those 200 pages?

Change your key already!!!

No, they don't really mean the exact same thing. There's
a difference betweeen them in connotation. Just as there's a difference between one person describing someone as "zaftig" and another person describing that same person "fat." Apparently some people are more sensitive to word coloration and tone and pitch and nuance and rhythm than others. All these are qualitites which apply as much to verbal expression as to musical expression. Words are to speech what notes are to music. Writers are also composers and poetry is literally a sort of verbal music. For those of us with the sensitivity to differentiate, the use of "firing" and "hiring"in the OP's first post simply struck sour notes.

Yes and it was absolutely exhilarating !!! I had a conductor and other instrumentalists that at least covered up a bit of my many mistakes

LoL at my key! I will get around to it eventually...

No, it's about the attitude and view implied by the word.
Actually 2 words -- "hired" as much as "fired."

Umm, you do KNOW which key it is, yes?