Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum What would help you most at your lesson?

Definitely a warm up. I come directly from work through heavy traffic and I need a little time to become human again. Fortunately, my teacher often gives me 10 or 15 minutes to do just that.

Underling mine.

Is that 10-15 min taken *from* your lesson time or *in addition to* your lesson time?

If the latter, the teacher truly is giving you of his own time and money.


In a situation such as yours, where you're arriving in an understandably harried state, a few minutes to decompress is a great thing to have.

Add me to someone who needs more warm-up time. My teacher's studio is in his home, and the room he uses is pretty much inside the front door. So it's: let me in, take off coat, exchange pleasantries, and then he plops in his chair and I plop myself on the bench and after a little more chit-chat (which is usually initiated by me, because I'm still too nervous and unsettled to begin playing anything), we begin. If I said, "Could I have a few minutes to warm up?" I'm sure he'd be happy to oblige, but I doubt he would take that as a request for him to leave the room. That's the only way I can imagine warming up properly. I can't warm up with him sitting right there watching me. Silly, I know, but I feel too self-conscious to just do whatever while he's right there. I assume he is silently critiquing everything, even if I were just to warm up in whatever fashion I wished.

The only thing I found, by happenstance, that dispelled my nerves somewhat was the time he and I worked on a duet right off the bat. Having the focus taken off of only me was actually quite helpful.

For those of you who have teachers who teach at home, do you get warm-up time without the teacher in the room? Did you have to ask for time alone or did the teacher just assume that's what you wanted? I'm curious.

The warmup time is in addition to my lesson. He never watches the clock. My lessons are approximately an hour long but they sometimes last 90 minutes or until his next student arrives. He's a wonderfully principled, gracious and generous man and a top notch teacher.

I am looking for a teacher and the most recent one I visited for a trial she excused herself to the restroom while I sat at her piano warming up. It was nice to do that I am not sure if that was her intent to do that or she just needed to visit the restroom but I thought to myself that was a good tactic to allow for a student to warm up but at the same time not impressing upon the student that she was going to do that and leave the room

Drool.

In yesterdays lesson I used the whole 30 minutes just to play anything I wanted. I can't say I warmed to my teachers piano by the end, I will just have to live with it.

That might have been a jest, but it is an excellent consideration.

Get a sugary cookie a couple minutes before you play. It really helps light up the mind and make nimble fingers. Don't use it as an excuse to eat a lot--just one.

Some of the simplest foods are the greatest drugs.

Come to think of it, I wish I could practice 20 hours a week, which would really help, but since I could only manage 5 to 6, nothing seems to help. The only way to overcome all kinds of issues is just being extremely well prepared.

I related to the "harried" comment. Often I go straight from work too and it can be hard to leave the day's issues behind. I think I need to get there ahead of time and learn some deep breathing relaxation techniques to clear the head!

some great ideas here, thanks !!

I'd love to have lessons at home. My piano is so lovely, it's hard to change over to another. Teacher has a jangly old thing he give lessons on. It has its charm. I've gotten used to it so it no longer shocks me when I start! Warm ups would be nice but there is something about 'playing cold' and doing your worst! You certainly find your weak spots and perhaps that's what lessons are all about. I guess I learn about touch and control having to play it beside studying the piece I'm working on. Tea most definitely would be welcome, as a couple of you Brits out there suggest!

Because I do have lessons at home on my own lovely piano, I give the teacher tea and cookies when he comes for a lesson. I think it helps.

For me as a student, I've always gotten the most out of lessons when I come prepared with questions. Like I need help in this passage, I can't seem to get it without lots of tension, etc. I don't usually waste my time playing through the whole piece, because I know what needs work, unless I feel it's an overall musicality question in which hearing the whole thing is necessary. I also don't have lessons that often so I want to get as much as I can out of them.

This is the most important thing for me also. I am always working on several pieces, and there is not time to play through every one of them at a lesson. So, before the lesson, I list what I want to work on. We work on the sticky parts and then I usually play at least one piece start to finish for critique. An hour goes by so fast, that I try to be as organised as possible!