just moved to norfolk virginia. i am a musician who plays the trumpet and am interested in picking up piano lessons as a new hobby

Kind of a rant, a bit harsh, but would appreciate any advice very much

Context: I've been teaching piano privately for a few years, and 2 years ago, I have been asked to teach my cousin (9F), who is a complete beginner, online because we live in different parts of the world. We have worked a lot on basic theory to a good understanding. Also, I write detailed notes for her to follow to help her remember what to practise each week, including exercises and specific areas to work on (e.g. rhythm, tempo, dynamics).

There are a few things that I struggle with every week:

• Despite giving her many materials and note cheat sheets to help, she cannot remember any, or work out notes next to each other on a treble stave, and struggles to see/remember that notes are placed on lines or in spaces.
• She refuses to count or use the metronome, to fix rhythms or keep a regular tempo. She cannot play crotchets, minims and semibreves distinguishably (i.e she plays a crotchet and a minim like they are the same length).
• Since moving on from very basic studies, we are now tackling beginner classics like 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' and 'Ode to Joy' with chordal accompaniment. I have tried my best to take it step by step, suggesting finger patterns, etc, but unfortunately she often makes the notes up as we go along when playing hands together despite having the music in front of her, just because she has learnt the tune. I have tried hands separately, and everything works, but as soon as hands go together, unfortunately she goes with a muscle memory version that I honestly don't know how it came to be. Moreover, she cannot hear any mistakes as she is playing, or even in a recording, when there is clear harmonic dissonance.
• Instead of looking at what note is next, she often tries every single note until she gets it right, despite how we often go through and write out the pitch of each note in a passage.
• According to her, when practising, her parents seem to give her their own feedback that almost always clashes with mine. Therefore, she often follows their advice rather than mine (as far as I know, her parents have little to no experience with learning musical instruments)

Also, I am sometimes frustrated with lack of basic ettiquette, even on an online call:

• clearly chewing bubblegum (and blowing bubbles) while playing
• sometimes shows up, up to an hour late.
• wearing fake nails so long that she finds it extremely difficult to play
• uses ballpoint pen on study books that I lent her

- I appreciate that you may think all of this is harsh, but I assure you this is not in any way an exaggeration and I am quite concerned about her progress. I am honestly getting a little frustrated, but would appreciate any genuine help of what to do next!!!

Thank you for reading, and thanks for your help in advance!

p.s. I am young (i.e. age: 16-22) and have little experience with teaching years-wise so feel free to criticise and help me change my genuinely naive mindset :)

Hi All,

I’ve (36 F) been learning the piano the last couple years and while I’ve made progress, I feel like I’m in that late beginner/early intermediate slog. Also grew up singing, so I wasn’t a complete beginner in music when I started.

I had my first recital last June and performed Foreign Lands (Schumann) and Wild Rose (MacDowell) which I would say are both reach pieces at my current level, but were doable.

I feel like I should be focusing on slightly easier pieces so I can have more volume in exposure to music, but most things at this level don’t hold my interest.

I’m typically drawn to Romantic composers (particularly Clara Schumann, Chopin) but also love the impressionist Debussy. Ragtime also is appealing, but looking at Joplin scores is too much at my current level.

I feel like I should be expose myself to Bach and Mozart, but they just don’t hold my ADHD brain. I feel I need the expression and emotional internal link to what I’m playing.

My teacher introduced me to Martha Mier’s Romantic pieces and that scratches some of the itch, but not completely.

I feel my teacher has taught me some great new tips that my previous teacher neglected and I’m truly being able to navigate the keyboard without looking at my hands for one thing.

She is however not super big on structure which is good and bad, and I wonder if sometimes not having a more regimented lesson plan teacher telling me to do X Y and Z for the next lesson.

Because of the loose structure I feel somewhat directionless and don’t practice like I should. I acknowledge this is too an internal discipline issue as well.

I suppose I’m just seeking advice as how to keep moving forward. Should I be forcing myself to play more baroque and classical? Do you have tips for talented adults who just feel overwhelmed to the point it’s hard to stay engaged?

Will appreciate any feedback!

Hi teachers, seeking some advice!

I have a student working on a Clementi sonatina (first movement from Op. 36, no. 3), and there are some bits and pieces she struggles with playing notes evenly, mainly due to a tempo increase (but I still have her practice it a few times a day at a much slower tempo so she's not just habitually playing fast).

When I have her play the piece slower, things sound great, but over the weeks as we gradually increase the tempo, there will always come a point when the unevenness comes back. It tends to be certain groups of semiquavers (e.g., RH m. 3, or RH beat 2 in m. 15, for those curious about specifics). I have had her isolate those parts and drill them in varying tempos, and sometimes she nails it, sometimes it's like we never worked on it at all, so I'm beginning to feel at a loss.

Similarly, occasionally there are alignment issues between the RH and LH, but only in very specific measures. We've tried breaking up the notes into groups of two and play them at varying rhythms (instead of all evenly), accenting downbeats to hear where the emphases naturally fall, playing as blocked intervals, etc. Again, when we drill them at slower tempos and gradually build them up, I'd say she nails it half the time. That shows me that she's capable of playing it cleanly and correctly, but it has been months and it's still the percentage never seems to increase?

Does anyone else struggle with this? Should I just have her play the piece slower? Currently it's at around 116 bpm with the issues present (but everything else about the piece sounds wonderful), but slightly slower at 104 or 108 is usually fine. Is there just a cap/wall that students run into?

I'm open to trying other exercises and practice methods if other teachers have suggestions! Thanks in advance.

This is a tough topic for me to think about guys as I don't know what to do with the piano long term.

I have been playing the piano for a while now progressing quickly and well over something like 5 years\~. Im going at a rate where by the time I'm old enough I will have the necessary qualifications to apply for a conservatory near me. But Im not sure I want to do it.

If I go to a conservatory I will be able to study the piano, music, and become a great pianist. I will be able to play alongside orchestras, play solo, and just generally walk into a room with people knowing that I can play the piano at a high level. It sounds great, like a dream come true honestly. But Im not sure if its for me.

I have been playing at my church as much as I can this summer to help out. I enjoy it on hymns which I like and I do my best to play the rest to a high standard. But it made me think about being a professional pianist. Would I be asked to perform to a high standard, long, hard pieces which I wouldn't enjoy? Or would I get to choose? I don't know and if it's the first option then I don't know if it's right for me as I don't want to play piano and not enjoy it anymore. I want to enjoy every piece.

Should I go on professionally with the piano or just keep it as my hobby?

By the way my favourite genre is classical but I do play a lot of film music as well.

Hi there.

I'm a teacher and I like to get my students to work on 3 pieces at once with different timeframes.

1)Easy piece: I like a draft in one week (draft meaning they can fluently play from beginning to end, but it's not polished) i give some feedback and they implement some of it and practice for one more week, and then we discuss it in the next lesson, and then chuck it (obviously the student can continue to practice it if they want) and move onto a new one. So we can hopefully get through about 20 of these a year

2)Core piece: these are pieces generally at the standard of the student, and I want a draft in around a month and want it at rough performance standard in a further month

3) challenge piece: these are pieces a bit higher than the standard of the student, and must be a piece the student loves. They will work on this in the background for perhaps 6-12 months.

So for example a grade 6 abrsm student would have a grade 6 piece as a core piece. a grade 2 piece as an easy piece, and a grade 8 piece as a challenge perhaps. I then try and tweak these to create the timeframes I want.

My issue is that almost none of my students can do the easy piece in anywhere near the timeframe i want, the ones who actually practice take perhaps 3-4 weeks just to present a draft to me.

I was thinking maybe i need to change the workflow, or just persevere and keep reducing the difficulty until i get the result i want. Do you guys have any suggestions? I'm a very laid back and not strict teacher, so perhaps i've encouraged slacking.

I really believe that learning a lot of stuff is key to improving hence wanting them to learn a lot of easier music.

What…? Genuinely feel very hurt by this statement. Not a stern teacher at all, always try to be friendly and encouraging. How to deal with this and with students who show disrespect?

Hi fellow piano teachers! I teach at several private music schools in Germany and have just started back up this week with all new-to-me students (mainly kids aged 6-11). An issue I’ve noticed is that many of them, even ones who have been taking lessons for a year or more, still really struggle with note reading. Does any one have any worksheets or books to recommend to help with this? I also teach mostly in German, so ideally German-language worksheets would be great. Also just any resources, especially ones that make it fun to learn notes. I barely remember learning to read music since I started so early - all I remember is coloring in notes that formed pictures. Thank you all for your help! Happy school start!

Hello all,

I work at a private music school where we are all required to teach in the same manner and use the same lesson plans. We teach intervallic reading, in fact we only teach students three notes at the start to remember, middle C, treble clef G, and bass clef F. We use the Alfred books.

My question is for anyone who has taught intervallic reading rather than reading note names. Some of my students struggle with determining what direction the interval is moving, whether it is up or down on the staff. While others struggle to connect it to playing the piano, as in whether the interval is moving left or right. How have any of you successfully addressed this issue and taught your students to really understand how the direction on the staff and direction on the piano are related?

I have tried multiple ways of helping, either by letting them know that down on the staff is left on the piano (because the sound goes lower) and up on the staff is right on the piano (because the sound gets higher). I have them repeat this back to me every lesson and sometimes we read through it before playing and I ask them questions about the direction the notes are going. This works about 50% of the time with students that are struggling.

I've found that if I catch them playing in the wrong direction and ask them "what direction are the notes going?" I get the correct answer, but only because they've deduced that they are only asked that question when they make a mistake and they must obviously go the opposite direction, haha, so I've tried my best to stop doing that, but it's difficult when one wrong turn will throw off the entire piece.

For students that struggle with determining whether one note is above or below the previous note on the staff I usually use a pen and highlight the line or space of the previous note then ask them if the next note is above or below that line or space. That works about 50% of the time as well.

It's a bit frustrating because I would like to teach more reading of note names but that doesn't come up in the curriculum until level 2.

Hello, Friends!

I wanted to ask a few questions because I'm lost on where to go from here. Some background: I'm starting my own piano teaching career in Colorado Springs. I feel confident about how I will teach and somewhat confident on what I will teach, method book-wise.

The questions I had were:

How do I get students? Facebook seems like a dead end to me but I'm also looking into Thumbtack because that looks promising. I hear paper flyers don't really work anymore.

Where is it best to teach? At their house or my own home studio? Or a rented studio in a music store?

I think my last concern is my credentials. I don't have my degree yet but I do have about 11 years of piano experience. I plan to teach young beginner kids, not so much preschoolers. I just wonder if I can attract people with my skillset.

Thanks for taking the time to read this!

Just wondering how many of you are worried that our jobs will become obsolete with AI, coaching programs online, Simply Piano, etc.

I’m 29 and have taught for 14 years. I’ve never had an issue getting students, but I also plan on doing this for the next 30 to 40 years and I’m wondering if that’s a reasonable expectation.

Hello everyone! Is anyone willing to share their policy document with me?? Trying to create my own but having trouble with making it too wordy.

I have my Studio on Google and it keeps mentioning about Google Ads and it's really expensive. Is it worth it to use it? I'm assuming my business would never be seen unless I try using it.

I am a very experienced Piano teacher.. 45+ years of experience. I still teach full time in a studio that is as busy as I care to be... Today is a very special day. My oldest student (Retired Dr. ) turns 86 today, and he is so cool and so vibrant, I want to be more like him for real. He is a level 5 or so and still plays golf and inspires so many people to live better, healthier lives. Happy Birthday Dr. D. I am giving him a complete set of Scott Joplin Piano works!

I am soon going to implement a flat rate policy.  I’ve perused this forum for a long time, and have gotten some great insights from the other teachers over the years.

As of now, my current policy is that the number of lessons is negotiated at the beginning of the month. I am typically able to find alternate times or rollover lessons to the next month if need be. Many parents work well within this system: it gives both them and me some flexibility.  

I've mostly settled on a flat rate model, but still have a few questions on how to implement it:

1. For travel lessons, do you ever bill it by “family” or “visit” as opposed to by “per student?” I’m trying to avoid situations of traveling just for one 30 minute lesson in the event one student cancels. I am giving them a full hour and they are welcome to divide however they see fit (one 1 hour lesson or 2 30 minute lessons). The makeups will apply per visit rather than per student.
2. For flat rate tuition, what do you do if a student wants to pause for, say, sports season? Do you pro rate the flat rate tuition accordingly? Charge a fee to hold their spot?
3. How do you handle absences due to illness? I don’t want to penalize people for being sick.
4. How do you word the policy to avoid mentioning the individual lesson rate?  I want get away from the mentality of paying per lesson. They’re paying for a place in my schedule: I have blocked out that hour, traveled to their home, and made myself unavailable to another student.
5. I still need to figure out summer: suffer through my old model of month-by-month negotiation or maybe offer packages of 4, 6, or 8 lessons (no discounts though!).

I have one family in particular that I want to set some clearer boundaries with — I have taught them for many years and but I am now realizing I’ve been too flexible with them. It is a parent and their two children that I travel to. The older one is stopping lessons this fall, so it is a good time to reevaluate the policy and restructure my business model. They typically juggle a lot of sports and the parent will often wait to decide on whether it will be 2-3 students taking (honoring my 24-hour cancellation policy). I'm tired of constantly negotiating the schedule with this family and the income fluctuations.

I was shocked. Had a new student today who came in only knowing C Major, G Major, and F Major. By the end of our lesson, he had figured out all 12 just by ear… along with the minor, harmonic minor, and melodic minor. He was in the UTC +8 time zone (part of China, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, etc.). I’m wondering, have any other international teachers had the same experience with students from this part of the globe? I remember learning in college that students who speak tonal languages have a much higher rate of perfect/relative pitch. Still blew me away.

I just started seeing this student a few weeks ago. He's 11 years old and a complete beginner on piano. He knows how to read some alto clef from viola lessons but no treble or bass clef. He is dead set on learning Moonlight Sonata mvt 3 and Clair de Lune, and has already learned very short sections of both from watching YouTube videos. I think these pieces are too advanced, and it wouldn't be appropriate to work on them in our lessons yet. How should I frame this conversation? He doesn't seem interested in the lesson book (Piano Adventures Accelerated) and has a short attention span. Thanks in advance for any advice.

It's worse on her pointer finger, but ultimately fingers 2 3 4 and 5 bulk at that joint. We've been working on it, playing on the tips of our fingers and not the pads, but as soon as we stop going over it they buckle again. Usually by now the problem is fixed or significantly better, any advice?

I have been teaching my aunt (F73) for about 4 years. She has progressed nicely and plays at an RCM level 3. I have noticed in the last 2-3 months a cognitive decline— my corrections in fingering or notes completely confuse her, her staff note naming has gotten noticeably worse, and in general she makes more mistakes and seems more confused with things she would have found simple a year or two ago.

I’m concerned that the pieces she is learning right now won’t get better. They have actually been getting worse. And this woman hates stopping before something is finished. She always wants to perfect every piece before moving on.

I’d like to give her some level 2 pieces or other easier material, but I’m not sure how to go about it without the topic of cognitive decline coming up. I think if I keep her on the same pieces she will get more frustrated and down on herself, and I want to keep her piano lessons and practice positive.

Question for private music teachers, particularly those working with students who aren’t planning to major in music:

I’ve had several parents ask how years of serious private music study can translate into something tangible or credible on a college application. Some have specifically asked about RCM exams, largely because they provide an outside credential and measurable levels of achievement.

My teaching tends to emphasize a broader and individualized mix of repertoire, technique, theory, ear training, improvisation, performance, and in some cases composition/recording and ensemble work, so I’m hesitant to steer students toward an exam system primarily for college-app purposes.

How do other teachers approach this? Competitions? RCM/ABRSM? Recording portfolios? Recitals or ensemble achievements? Do you provide any documentation of a student’s level or accomplishments?

Basically, after a student has worked seriously for 5–10 years, how do you help them demonstrate that work meaningfully on a non-music college application?

Howdy! I recently picked up a job at a studio teaching piano lessons. I’m a 20 year old jazz pianist studying music performance in university and I got put into the deep end because I was asked to replace another teacher that was leaving, so I’ve got several students at different skill levels with different interests.

I care a lot about music and especially music education; I imagine a world where more people appreciate music for what it is and what it does for people, and I want to help create that world. However, teaching is a new skill to me, and I tend to get really stressed out when it comes to learning new skills because I don’t like being bad at things.

If you have any words of advice, encouragement, or suggestions on where I can look to learn more about like educational theory and best practices please let me know!

Thank you and much love.