Goals

The following are my goals to help you overcome the challenges involved in learning to play the piano:

Teaching

Teaching a piano lesson should never be a simple routine in which the teacher assigns a new piece, and the student learns to play the lesson piece. When starting a new piece, it is the teacher’s job to go through it in segments. Together, the teacher and the student examine the fingerings, analyze the music, and basically bring the student up to speed during the lesson. After the technical problems are solved, the job shifts into playing it musically by examining the musical content, bringing out the expression, the attributes and style of the composer (Mozart is different from Chopin), the color, etc. A good teacher can save the student a tremendous amount of time by demonstrating all the necessary elements of technique. It should not be left to the student to try to figure these out by trial and error. Because of these requirements, lessons beyond beginner level can become quite intense and time consuming.

Practicing

The consistency of weekly lessons is vital. Practicing 15-20 minutes a day or 30 minutes every 2 or 3 days is the absolute minimum necessary to make any progress. Half an hour every day is recommended for significant progress for youngsters. As they get older, they will need progressively more time. These are minimum practice times; more time will be needed for faster progress. If the practice methods are efficient and the students are making good progress, the question of how much practice time is enough becomes meaningless – there is so much music and enjoyment that there is never enough time.

The Recital

In addition to the weekly lessons, I am going to encourage each student to play several “performance-ready” pieces in a recital at least one time during the school year. The best way to motivate students to practice, and the best way to teach the art of making music, is to hold recitals. When students must perform, all the teacher’s instructions plus the necessary required practice time take on an entirely new meaning and urgency. The students will become self-motivated. As the teacher, I will be able to design an appropriate performance or recital for each student at every level. There are numerous possibilities for such programs throughout the year.

PITFALLS

Pitfalls

Although recitals and competitions are important, it is even more important to avoid their pitfalls. The main pitfall is that recitals can be self-defeating because the stress, nervousness, extra effort and time, and sense of failure after even small mistakes, can do more harm than good in molding the performance capability and psychology of the student at any age.

Solutions

Solution

My solution to dealing with the pitfalls is an informal recital in which the student decides who is in the audience. Some examples include:

Only the immediate family
Only the immediate family and a few close friends
An audience made up of a pre-approved group of people

In short, I believe there should be a clearly defined approach to teaching not only the art of performing but also the art of playing. Most importantly, the program must be designed to produce a rewarding atmosphere of accomplishment and not a competitive one in which anything short of miraculous perfection or playing the most difficult pieces the student can manage, is a failure. A relaxed and less nervous student will perform better and develop a better attitude towards performing. Students must understand that it is the process that is the final objective of a recital. The most important ingredient is to cultivate the ability to enjoy the experience instead of becoming nervous. Performance as the final goal should be the final reward for all the hard work.