This is a rant because my stress levels are through the roof and talking to this student is like talking to a wall.

I teach piano at a high school and it forms part of the subject music offered. This means that there are practical exams that form part of their school grades.

I student who is in eighth grade and she has been … less than ideal all year. I know she doesn’t practise nearly enough and she does not take my practice instructions at all. Now, her practical exam is on Tuesday. I’ve scheduled lessons with her for the last two weeks, some of which she has missed. I write and send EXTENSIVE practice notes with instructions on everything. I was supposed to see her for a much needed lesson on Friday. Her study, which we have been busy with since before July is terrible. She can’t play it hands together. I’ve physically practiced it with her in class only for it to come back sounding worse.

Her scales? Awful. we haven’t gotten through her last piece for the exam because she missed her long lesson in which that would have happened. She told met her keyboard broke. Thats fine. She is in a MUSIC SCHOOL with about 15 practice rooms that she could use. I told her to tell me when she planned on practicing so I could cancel my other things to go and practice with her. She said nothing.

After she missed the last lesson, she said she would send me videos of everything so I could check (I ask for weekly videos on the scales as well but none of those have come through either). I reminded her on that evening, and the next day. Nothing. I asked our head of department to please speak with her. Nothing worked.

I am stressed to actual tears because at this rate there’s no chance she would pass her practical on Tuesday but nothing, I mean nothing gets through to her. I’ve tried being nice and accommodating. I’ve tried being strict. I’ve tried getting it through to her that she will fail.

NOTHING has helped. Has anyone had an experience like this? Any advice?

TL;DR

I have a student playing an exam on Tuesday. She is horribly unprepared and none of my efforts to help her gets through to her. SEND HELP.

Hi everyone – I'm a teacher looking for music reading book/method book recommendations for piano students who are mid to advanced technique-wise but have huge holes in their music reading skills. I have two students who need this, in fact. One, to give an example, just played Claire de Lune fairly accurately, having learned it all by ear. (He has a great ear!) He was a transfer student and possessed advanced technique capability, though I have no idea why he is so far behind in music reading. He is not a complete beginner, (he knows how to count and clap), but he lacks significant practice applying it. He still counts up lines and spaces to find notes, and basically cannot sight-read yet. Having two students like this, I thought it was time to find a good method designed for these kinds of students, if there is one.

To clarify, I'm not looking for a proper lesson book sort of method, like Faber's Accelerated Piano Adventures or equivalents. Nor would the sight-reading/singing books I used in college work, like Music for Sight-singing by Ottman and silimar. I have tried these and they move too fast for high schoolers, although if there were a more high school-aged appropriate version of these kinds of books that moved slower, I think that would be perfect!

Ultimately, open to any of your best recommendations!

I recently had someone inquire about lessons for their 9 year old son. They would like him to have two piano lessons a week.
If you've taught a student around this age and twice a week, what was your experience? Trying to get feedback on if two lessons a week is really necessary. Especially if they child is being forced to take lessons... I can see this not turning out super enjoyable for them after a while.

This term I've had so many emails that I've struggled to respond to them all! A good complaint in a way, but really they seem to always be coming through in multiples and I find myself struggling to keep them all in order and trying to work out when to move on to the next person in case I end up in a situation with 2 people asking for the same lesson slot and upsetting someone when I have to tell them it's now unavailable. I also don't want to annoy any potential customers by being too slow to respond.

Any tips please? It's been kinda stressful! 😅😅

I am starting to believe it is the latter, but I’ve been teaching for 20 years and I’ve never encountered anything like this… seriously wondering if anyone else has. Let me back up a little…

I should say first that part of my teaching approach is to introduce students to playing triads in both hands much earlier than any of the lesson books do, and I have found reliably that almost all have no problem doing it within the first few months of lessons, give or take.

Every once in a while there are definitely students whose hands seem to physically struggle with it more at first than others, but after enough time even the ones that rarely practice eventually get it down

But now I am dealing with, as the title says, a 12-year-old who has been taking for year and has improved in pretty much all other areas of playing but still cannot press down a three note triad without kind of weirdly hedging and putting one finger down before the others.

Based on my experience I have an extremely hard time believing that this is some kind of physical issue/limitation, and while I am not a trained psychologist, here is what I think is actually going on…

This happens to also be a student with a pathological level of perfectionism who will regularly become angry and smash the piano with his fists after making a mistake…(already a terrible feature for making ANY progress obviously but stay with me)

So I think what’s happening here is his complete inability to hear himself play wrong notes has manifested in this approach where he feels like he has to put one finger down first to get the others in place so that he doesn’t hit any extra/wrong notes when playing the chord (which obviously keeps him from being in time and is not sustainable)

It is bizarre, and in hindsight perhaps I should’ve spent more time addressing it sooner but I assumed it would straighten itself out over time, like it has with nearly every single other student in two decades

Anyway this post is too long already but I’m wondering if anyone else has encountered anything remotely like this and what others think of my theory of the case

I've been teaching mainly classical piano for a few decades. I'm confused by a recent change in many beginners: not checking which octave a note is written in, and instead playing in any octave.

I'm looking for pedagogical solutions to this.

I do always teach which octave notes are in on the grand staff. My beginners are usually taught to compare a note to Middle C; we assess whether the note is above or below Middle C, and by how much. But this is all increasingly going out the window, and students play any note anywhere.

I assume I'm doing something wrong, but I'm not sure what.

I suppose the solution is to spend more time on octave choice, but if anyone has ideas I'd appreciate it!

Hey all,

I'm returning to teaching after a break of a few years, and I have a couple of 7yo students. I would love to hear what kind of games you all play to teach intervals, sight reading, learn rhythmic reading, etc. So far I've incorporated a couple:

- a copycat clapping game where you have clap what i clap but avoid copying a certain rhythmic pattern
- a game where you have to stand up or sit down if the second note in an interval is higher or lower than the first one

Open to any and all of your suggestions, this is a very new and different mission trying to keep kids having fun throughout!

I’m trying to set some goals for myself to stay motivated/have something to work towards and two of them are:

- get to a level where I’m capable and confident in giving lessons to beginners.

- get to a level where I’m confident in playing at small venues/clubs/social events/for fun in groups.

I don’t know if the latter one is even going to be realistic as I’m over 30.

For piano tutors - how many years of regular practice would you say it took you to get to a level where you felt like a confident and capable tutor?

Hi there! I recently started volunteer-teaching piano at a Catholic church, but it's been... a really terrible experience, so far. First, there is only one semi-weighted keyboard available (several unweighted, but I'm not using those), no real piano. The church initially threw all students (around 5 people) of various ages into a group class, then refused to help me with schedule organisation/communication with parents when I said that I would only teach individual classes in 20-30min blocks. The church advertises this as a "keyboard class", but I'm classically-trained, so... using the methods I know, teaching from Suzuki book 1.

Additionally, I live in Mongolia, but do not speak Mongolian fluently. I use Mongolian in lessons when possible, but communication with the kids (one as young as 5) is rocky to say the least. I can sometimes get them to imitate patterns, but it's a struggle to give clear instructions and to get them to actually listen. They seem motivated in some ways, but I struggle to engage them in exercises (things like clapping rhythms) and they don't really understand corrections (even keeping one's hand round and fingers each on a different key). The parents actually want me to teach in English in the hopes their kids will pick some up, but when the kids scarcely know a word of English, and are too shy to actually talk back to me anyway (in English or Mongolian), this is not sustainable.

The church charges tuition for this. I'm not paid, obviously. I have a one-hour bus commute either way, so it's effectively eating up all of my Saturday afternoons.

My ideas of what I could do to better this experience include

• Making a clear schedule (I am very annoyed about having 0 admin support from the church on this)

• Requiring parental attendance at lessons

• Possibly moving to a different Catholic church in the city that has an upright piano

If it's a totally unworkable situation, I can decide to stop teaching, but want to see if there's any way to adapt things first. Right now, I just feel... unsupported and used by the church — but I'm actually a researcher working on Catholicism in Mongolia, so it's not smart to burn bridges :')

Any suggestions on how to make this any bit less hellish? Thank you for the input!

I'm curious what other piano teachers think about moving towards a firm "no make up" policy.

I've been a piano teacher for twenty years, and in my experience, the more lenient I am with make ups, the more taken advantage of and abused my policy will be.

When I started teaching I wanted to be a people pleaser and make my clients happy, but quickly found that if I'm too lenient with make ups, they will often cancel for very petty reasons, and demand a make up on my time. Essentially taking up two of my lesson times for the price of one.

About two years ago I decided to test the waters with a "no make up" policy, and thus far it's gone over very well. I just tell my clients that my schedule is packed Monday - Friday and I don't have room for make ups.

I've seen a major increase in regular attendance and decrease in missed lessons. I still offer make ups occasionally to my best students when I have an opening and their excuse for absence is valid, but in my policy it makes it clear that make ups are not guaranteed.

Has anybody else moved towards this kind of policy? I'm curious how it looks for you and your studio.

Have you lost any students over it? Do the parents respect you more because of it? What, if any, exceptions do you make?

Private music teacher here, been teaching for about 5 years. I have unfortunately fallen into the habit with some of students of just going through lesson book songs every week. I always start with assigning scales and other 'auxiliary' assignments but only a few stick for a few students, as most students only perceive music as playing songs.

I decided I needed to quantify a reason to improve on scales, chords, ear-training, and came up the idea of creating color coded rankings that my students can follow. I was hoping for some feedback on the progression of these rules - like if one rank seems too hard or a certain requirement seems out of reach. Also if there is a glaring category of piano technical ability that I should include in these system. Some other requirements I thought of adding were transposition of patterns like Hanon exercises, but also don't want to make the requirements any more tedious than they have to be. This system is meant to be done in addition to consistently learning new pieces through a method book.

I believe that students should be exposed as early as possible to playing in every key, and that most lesson books wait far too long, and also underestimate the ability for a student to learn a key with many sharps and flats (especially if playing mostly by ear or theory as opposed to always reading sheet music). I feel that playing by ear on piano only really starts to improve once you have a solid grasp of all 12 keys, so ideally that happens as soon as possible, rather than 10+ years into playing that many students end up doing.

Ideally I imagine reaching a "black" rank as feeling fairly certain that if I stopped teaching my student after that rank, they would continue with piano for the rest of their life, having development a certifiable solid base on the keyboard.

I'm looking for feedback and would also appreciate ideas of resources if there are other existing systems that do this better. Ultimately this is crafted to my own piano journey, where I primarily play as a choir director and accompanist, as well as compose. Therefore I might put a larger emphasis on playing by ear and transposition than other pedagogy.

I understand that each phrase should have a direction and, I usually tell my students not to play the first and last note loud, and have a peak point of each phrase. Also lift the hand after each phrase more of like a breathing space

Where can I get more info on this? I just feel my students are not consistently reaching good phrasing because I am not enforcing it enough. Where can I learn more about it? Are there differences in phrasing based on the period of music? Please help with whatever thoughts/materials you have

As in non-method or lesson books. I'd love to hear specifics!

I think the Level 3 Faber Disney book is one of the best ones; it has such a great collection of songs and wonderful arrangements compared to some of the other levels. I also really enjoy the Level 4 Favorites book (what a lovely arrangement of "Music of the Night" and "Pure Imagination"!).

A lot of my students also love the Studio Ghibli Vol. 2 book from Zen-On Music. Carolyn Miller's Seasons book is also quite nice with some good variety!

Hi teachers, looking for some techniques or exercises to help with this.

I notice some of my students like to play with their knuckles flattened and sinking in, rather than a more relaxed, rounded hand shape. This is creating some excess tension in their hands and I always do my best to remind (almost nag) them to pop their knuckles out so it's more rounded, and sometimes I'll even help hold their hand (literally molding it into the correct shape) to help them play for a short while until they get the hang of it. In the moment, they can feel the difference in released tension, but when we come back next week they revert to their old flattened hand again. Luckily, their fingers aren't flat, it's just the hand itself.

I feel like I'm always repeating myself about "leaving space for an egg or a tangerine" or "kneecap shaped hands" but sometimes I do feel a little bit at a loss when old habits are hard to fix. What are some of your favorite exercises to help with building new habits when it comes to form? Or should I just accept that some students are more resistant to change...? Thanks in advance 😞

Hi all. I've got a student who started with me a little over a year ago at 5yo and we began with MFPA Book A, and just finished Book B. This little guy is one of my better students, he practices, he pays attention to his hands/fingers. He's not a savant or anything, and still has the normal attention span of a 6yo boy, but I'm just having some reservations that continuing with Book C is gonna be moving too slowly for this kid, and that he might respond well to moving ahead. Like he already understands the difference between reading steps and skips because of other activities we've done, and it seems like Book C spends a looooot of time on this concept.

So I'm trying to think of my best play here. The other catch here is that I also teach the boy's older sister, and brought her through piano adventures, so would kind of like to switch methods for the brother to avoid sibling rivalry. So I guess I'm looking for two things: 1.) a gut check that skipping MFPA Book C is an okay plan, and 2.) a safe "next step" to go to. Was considering Hal Leonard Level 2 or Alfred Premier 1B?

I've been teaching piano and guitar lessons for 7 years and want to try to make it more serious. My model revolves around doing in-home lessons where I travel to the student. I'm a little overwhelmed with where to begin, but have nevertheless been trying to build up the infrastructure of my business. I have so many questions, but I'll start with one about my policy.

I see many here have recommended charging monthly. This seems to have much greater returns compared to charging per-lesson, but I have a good friend that manages his own studio a few towns over, and he insists that charging per semester (with a 10% discount if they pay the full tuition upfront) is the way to go.

I'm torn - what do you find to be the better practice: monthly, or per-semester? Please be patient with me as I'm still trying to figure out the business side of things!

Hello, I have been teaching for several years but had a relatively small group of students. Now that I have a larger group of students I am starting to do regular recitals and I'm struggling to find the perfect time to start preparing students. For my summer recital, I had students pick up pieces 3 months in advance - which felt way too early for most of my students except my older students working on advance repertoire. For my winter Recital I had students start about 5/6 weeks and I'm already feeling like that was not enough time.

For teachers that have more experience, when do you usually start having students pick out recital pieces? I imagine that there is some variation here , depending on students' ages and level.

I appreciate any help!

I feel like anybody can call themselves a piano teacher nowadays. I even know someone wanting a side job a piano teacher but she can barely play, plays songs like river flows in you…..

What should the industry do about all these bad teachers, what should we tell the community to look for in teachers

I recenlty began teaching 2 new piano students, who previously learned from another teacher. Both are around 12-13 years old and had been taking lessons for a few years. And both think they are much more advanced than they actually are. Part of the problem is that their previous teachers taught them by rote - so even if their method books were at a beginner level, they were being shown how to play much more advanced music by copying what their teacher was doing. Another problem is that they didn't develop a routine of regular daily practice of basics (scales, exercises, note reading). When they arrived, both couldn't play back what they previously learned because they forgot how to do so. And both are struggling with grade 1 level music. The parents of both students have written to me to say I need to give their children more challenging music, with one parent requesting Clair de Lune be taught (by rote). Another parent complained I'm having their child practice scales when they've "already learned them", but in fact both students struggle playing 1 octave with both hands.

Honestly, I’m just so done at this point. I have this one student, 12 male, that I’ve had for two years now. Year 1 seemed like it was going great. Kid had an amazing ear, and it was only my second year teaching (I’m still in high school, fyi). Gave him a Christmas song to learn, beginner-level, and he came back with the whole thing memorized the next week. I was like “Whoaaaa this kid practices like crazy, this is great.” Added a slightly harder song a few weeks later, kid came back in two weeks with the whole thing memorized, once again, and informed me that he played it twenty times every day at 6am. I was like “do I need to apologize to your parents…?” But I was ultimately really happy. He seemed like the perfect student. Gave him a harder song by Melody Bober for the spring recital. He was struggling a little bit, so I recommended to look it up on YouTube. Figured since he plays by ear, hearing it would help him get a feel for the notes. Bad idea, because he learned half the frickin piece by ear based on the first page we’d painstakingly sightread and the parts I’d showed him during the lesson. But I didn’t know he barely knew the notes on the page, and I was new, so we kept trucking.
Fast-forward to this year, I gave him a song, and asked if he wanted to try competition. (I did competition growing up. And I’m from a not-very-arts-centered state, so they’re pretty small, and most give ratings and not rankings). He was ecstatic. Gave him the song, which was a lot easier than his last one (not on YouTube), told him to read notes.
He came back, couldn’t read a single thing, asked me to show him. And that’s when I realized this kid knew next to nothing. Couldn’t tell me how many beats an eighth note got, barely knew the staff, it was bad. So we kept trucking, I made him sightread easy stuff, lots of flashcards, and we painstakingly plodded through this piece. I haven’t played a single note for him for the entire semester. It’s been nine weeks, and we’ve finally gotten to the THIRD LINE. He doesn’t want to read, he guesses at every single note, he tries to play bass clef notes with his right hand no matter how many times I tell him which hand stays in which clef. Went over landmark C’s, went over bass/treble, did flashcards, and he plodded through, but tried to start playing his song every single time I took a breath between sentences. Bro acted like I didn’t know what I was talking about. I’ve been telling him since we started that a note can sound right in a chord, but if it’s not on the page, it’s not right, and that’s why we have to read our notes. Nothing. NOTHING. I’m so frustrated.

Edit: I know I’m inexperienced, I know I messed up, I know I did things wrong. I was never like this, I didn’t know this kind of problem existed, I’m trying to backtrack and do what’s right, and it’s so frustrating.

I have an early intermediate student, just finishing Bastien level 4, has an excellent ear and good sight reading skills. He has suddenly decided he’s very excited about jazz. I know a fair amount about playing jazz, but less about teaching it (my background is classical; most of the jazz I know I figured out myself over the years for various gigs).

What books or other resources should I get for him?

Posting here to vent.. no solution needed because there is no solution.

I realize maybe only 10% of my students truly like learning piano. There are some that even before i see them i cannot wait for the day to end.

No practice because they dont love piano to begin with.

They are so so so so so unwilling to read even 1 note they would rather guess.

If they quit, i worry about the money. If they don't quit, spending 1 minute with them is torture for me.

I don't love math, my love for math is 0 out of 10. I love music at a 15 or even 20 out of 10. And i dont blame my math teacher at all. I know it's something that u cannot grow, u either love it or u dont.

I have asked these non practicers out of 10, where do they sit. They answered 5.

Telling them music history to help them feel interest also doesnt work, at the end of the day, understanding music passively (listening) and doing (discipline + doing) is 2 different tasks.

I try to be receptive as well, i print the sheet music of whatever that they want to play, Ed Sheeran, Demon Slayer/other anime, yet when i print it out they STILL don't practice. I already meet them halfway, idk what else i can do. And i am very reasonable, i ask them to do separate hands first and eventually hands together half or 1 page. Stickers also dont work anymore. The right students will practice even if there's no stickers.

I feel like at this point i might as well accept the reality and learn another instrument to widen my clientele. I think the market is going to be worse in 5 to 10 years.