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New member here. This is an amazing site. I am so glad that I found it out!

I am going to graduate highschool soon, and I am planning to open up a small studio in my home. I own a grand piano, and my family will be moving into town and I will be closer to my future students homes.
I just want to start out with some young beginners maybe between 4 and 10.

Can anyone give me some good advice as to what books it will be necessary to purchase before starting out? How should I advertise myself? How long should I make me lessons? How much should I charge?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks.

Hi Marianne!

Welcome! I am not a teacher myself, but this topic has come up in this forum from time to time. I looked around and found a few links to threads that discuss this topic. You can probably find others by doing a search. These are what I found:

http://www.pianoworld.com/ubb/ubb/ultimatebb.php?/topic/27/1083.html
http://www.pianoworld.com/ubb/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?/topic/27/892.html
http://www.pianoworld.com/ubb/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?/topic/27/894.html

Hope this helps.

Ken

Wow! Thank you!

Marianne, the art of teaching is not the same as the art of musicianship. To help yourself become a better teacher, the study of pedagogy (the art of teaching) is a must. There are lots of excellent helps out there for you to draw on.

"A Piano Teacher's Legacy" by Richard Chronister
"Practical Pedagogy" by Martha Baker-Jordon
Marianne Uzler's "The Well-Tempered Keyboard Teacher")
Frances Clark's "Questions & Answers"

to name a few.

Best of luck and keep posting questions.

Welcome! Hope you stick around and post your opinions on the topics here. Even getting ready to start teaching means I'm sure you have a lot of ideas on how you want to teach and how kids should be taught already. You might have some neat ideas for teaching you can share the rest of us haven't thought of as everyone has different ideas. Check the link I provided on "The Teaching Studio" in one of the threads Ken Knapp listed. It's an article on setting up a studio and getting started teaching.

Again welcome!

Yes, I know it's a quibble - and I'm sorry - but surely pedagogy is the science of teaching not the art of teaching. Just as technique is the science of instrumental playing or singing.


John

That quibble would make for an interesting and inspriring thread, John

I've featured this topic, so everyone feel free to post all the links and helpful advice you can think of for aspiring teachers. Besides being a resource for current teachers, this forum has huge potential for nurturing and mentoring future teachers.

Ken

Wikepedia defines pedagogy as "the art or science of being a teacher."

Talk about sitting on the fence!

Could we start a campaign to ban (and I never would have thought myself a lexico-fascist) "Wikepedia defines" from these forums. People refer to it as an authority, which it certainly is not - it's just folks like you and me who may or may not get it right.


John

OK, I'm sorry . I know it is not a great source. I just saw it when looking up the spelling for my other thread and threw it out there as food for thought. - Nothing seriously intended by it.

Well, it is both and art, and a science. The science comes in with the teacher's understanding of the craft of teaching, and the art comes in the quest creative repsonses a teacher must make with each individual student.

Back OT, as far as method books go, I have started using Faber & Faber's My First Piano Adventures with the young ones, and I really enjoy it. I also like their Adventures methods, and Hal Leonard's as well. They both avoid the 5 finger patterns until later, so students aren't stuck putitng their hands in Middle C position (which inhibits reading, imo). It's good when you have several beginners to use different method books so you don't get sick of the songs.

I second the list of books that John VD Brook listed, but I would add to that, "The Perfect Wrong Note" by William Westney.

Best of luck to you!

PS: I would also look into joining your local MTNA chapter.

hi i am a piano student but i have a serious issue with my right thumb,let me explain:as soon as i hit a note with it my index blocks and my wrist starts to hurt,that problem slow down a great deal my advancement in my studies would anybody be kind enough to give me some advice .i'm so depressed that i even think about giving up my studies.

Moz,
Sounds like carpal tunnel. I have had it for years and at its worst it can make playing piano impossible. Go see a physician and he/she will give you simple treatments (exercises/stretches) that should solve your problem. It is, however, important to pay attention to what your body is telling you before you do serious damage.

This is a good thread, the book recommendations are particularly good.

Is there anything specific to the UK, in terms of guide books for teachers just starting out? I'm asking because it's possible those books mentioned above might refer me to other american books for students to use, which would be hard for me to get hold of.

Thanks,
jon

Moz, You probably may want to read one or both of these very good books on RSI. Your problem can become extremely severe if left untreated.

It\'s Not Carpal Tunnel Syndrome! RSI Theory & Therapy for Computer Professionals

Dr. Pascarelli\'s Complete Guide to...ow About RSI and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Marianne,

Any book or video about teaching, by Frances Clark, will help and inspire you. There's a video by Jane Bastien that shows an extremely organized studio and many tried and true teaching techniques.

I love Alfred books for teaching. I usually start a young beginner with 5 Level A books - Lesson, Theory, Notespeller, Activity, and Technic.

Best wishes teaching piano!

I have a feeling about young children and their suitability to be taught the piano. I'm not a teacher but a parent/grand P/great-grand parent.

I suppose it is a good idea to be able to diagnose the success/probability factor of teaching piano playing to children. Do you teachers have a 'suitability level' that you feel about the teaching of children. If so, what happens next when you observe this developing ? Just curious.

I was taught by my mother because I had the use of the family piano and was always tinkling on it from an early age, say 5. My mother showed me how to find the correct notes for a simple tune.

There were 3 children and I was the only one that showed the interest in playing; 'by ear', same as my mother did. I have never learned to read music and so I'm a jazz player.

I only make this point, because I rather have the feeling that the art of music is something deep inside the mind and senses that you either have or have not got.

My wife and I had a family of five and although music would ring through our house 24/7 and apart from teenage pop stuff, these five never showed any desire to take piano playing at all.

I wonder sometimes if the children got too much music in the house. But whatever the reason, none showed the inclination to seriously learn the piano.

So many times I have seen children being taught the piano only to drop it eventually.

Perhaps this is a calculated factor and is taken as inevitable. But isn't that possibly rather destructive, by the very act of teaching children before they have shown spontaneous initial interest instead.

Finally, I think the ones, like me, who play by ear purely, rarely loose interest and keep at it. I know lots of adults of all ages that have been taught the piano formally and even reached good grades yet drop the whole thing, sooner of later.

You rarely find a ear player doing that.

Alan

i think that to be a good piano player first of all you have to be mystified by the intrument,i mean,myself when i see a piano ,i do not perceive a a box that makes sounds.i rather see a perfect peice of machinery that deserve a lot of respect,and needless to say that if you wanna learn it.you have to keep in mind that the instrument deserve respect like it was a living thing.to answer to your question the true musicians feel in some way the attracktion to music.the instrument you choose depend largely on your personnality as a person.