Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Teachers Forum Shall we move on to a new teacher?

You have to qualify that recommendation because of the circumstance. There are plenty of well-qualified teachers who, for one reason or another, cannot teach out of their home studio, or don't even have a home studio. There are also plenty of well-qualified teachers who travel to students' homes to teach, for one reason or another.

Proceed with caution.

I don't have a habit of guessing other people's motivation. For example, I have no interest to know why you would think this way. There are often multiple factors behind a person's decision/behavior.

At this moment, if we decided to stay with her, she will make an arrangement. We have the options, that’s why I asked for your opinions here.

I am surprised that the opinions are so singled sided, based on an assumption that a dedicated performer is not a good fit for recreational students.

Now I know what questions to ask during the interview and perhaps trail lessons.

Many thanks!

Why are the opinions one-sided? Your original post stated 'he doesn't like to treat lazy students'... which most of us have translated into 'students who don't practice'. Since you have described your sons as non-practicing, this does not seem a teacher/student match

There are many types of recreational students, some of whom would be a good match for this teacher #2. But the common student denominator would be consistent practicing. If you are planning on interviewing him anyway, I hope you are very direct in your description of your sons and their interest, practice habits.

Appreciated your comment.

Of course, they did many things wrong. They played the wrong notes, with wrong rhythms, and wrong dynamics during the lessons among other things!
But if a teacher decided he/she can no longer work with the boys, it would be most likely because of me, not them.

I have never thought so deeply about why the current teacher is trying to dump us, until now, thanks to the wonderful world of the internet forum!

I said they almost never practiced scales, and dislike most of the technical exercises. They do practice/play music, 7 days a week.

But to be fair, the current teacher rarely asked them to practice scales.

If you have a cursory read through Pianist Corner, you'll get some idea of what serious classical pianists (and I'm not even talking about professionals) spend their time on, and it's not pop song arrangements. In fact, most of us don't even know any of that stuff, much less play it.

From what you've told us about the prospective new teacher, it sounds like he's no less 'hard-core' than the regulars at Pianist Corner, and is not going to be pandering to what your sons like, or enjoy playing. He's almost certainly going to be teaching them what he feels they need to improve, technically & musically - and that will mean technical stuff, including scales & arpeggios, as well as classical pieces that will challenge them. Not the diet of pop arrangements and easy classical pieces that their current teacher is giving them.

Based on what your sons have been doing for the past four years, do you think that they will thrive on such a rigorous regimen (in comparison to what they have now) in their lessons?

BTW, my last teacher was a concert pianist, and he only taught advanced students. He wouldn't have any time for students who aren't completely immersed in classical music, and fully committed to mastering its challenges.

Why are you so surprised???

The four students who transferred "down" to me last year all came from distinguished teachers who took only "serious" (read: talented, driven, classical-only) students. Judging from their assignment log, I can tell it became a battle of the wills: The teachers insist on the same, demanding repertoire week after week, and the students fight back by being unprepared week after week.

Nobody wins.

Hi, The Monkeys,

I am not a teacher, I am a mom. Let's not guessing what the current teacher is thinking. From songs your sons play, I think the high profile teacher is not a good fit. If you let kids go interview with him, if he did not take your sons in, that will hurt kids' motivation.

I saw one of my friend's son, when he just turned 6, he played JS Bach's Minuet, but failed his interview. He is a very intelligent boy, when the teacher did not give his mom the time slot to pick, he figured out by himself the outcome. His eyes were welled with tears. He was a tough boy. He turned to facing the wall to wipe his tears quickly. My son's interview was finished before his. If my son's interview were after this boy, I would definitely withdraw my son from any interview that he might fail. I could not image my son got hurt that much.

My son had learn almost 4 years altogether. He just turned 8. He is with one of the "High Profile teacher". he is playing the songs that your older son is playing. He practice 1 hour, 7 days a week, year round (no summer break), The teacher has about 30+ students. Each age group, he keeps 3-4 students. He wants every student working hard, and he says every student of his has the potential to win competition awards. When my son turned 7 year old last year, the teacher expressed that my son should begin to practice 2 hours a day. I do not have the heart to put my son to that long practice, So I replied that the best I can do is still 1 hour per day. The teacher told me that my son would not able to make into national competition. What he predicted is true. Those kids who made into national, all practice 2.5+ hours. The most successful girl practices 4 hours a day.
The teacher still keeps my son, because he is still the best in his age group in the teacher's students. But I can tell by my amateur ears that the distance of my son lag behind from kids in older age group, is growing bigger every month.

Talk to your sons, see if they are ready to working hard, reach as high as their talents limits, and then accept any outcome. At the time they are ready to accept failure, then encourage them to chase the success.

I understand your point. I'm just going off my personal experience with one child who plays piano. We had a negative studio experience (she was good but left quickly after my son started), interviewed another studio teacher that I didn't like but love the home based teacher we have now. The most important thing is that the teacher and the student "fit" well together and that could be at a person's home, studio or a traveling teacher.

As I said to you before, you need to interview the second teacher. It's that simple. You will not get your answer here, only suggestions.

If I interviewed your sons, I wouldn't even talk about scales. Scales can always be worked in later. I wouldn't talk about practicing even. First I would try to find the spark that motivates them to play piano. I would teach them pop for a while but as with all students, eventually get them back to classical. That's because there are very few advanced pop pieces anyhow.

What's your definition of "advanced"? I've seen plenty of pop music that's difficult to play.

Most pop music provides a rhythm challenge, often involving syncopation. The right hand contains chords and the left hand is often just one bass note. Counting in 2/2 time is very important, and challenging.

But once you've taught Fireflies, Mission Impossible, Viva la Vida, Bohemian Rhapsody, Take Five, some Elton John pieces, and other such pop pieces, it's difficult to find advanced music.

I like teaching pop, but it has limitations in musical scope. Anyhow, what I do is get them back onto classical music.

Update: we are staying with the current teacher.

The potential new teacher is a very nice, open-minded person, and I also trust he is a competent teacher.
Just the boys are more attached to and more comfortable with the current teacher.

This is entirely the boys’ choice. I actually preferred the potential teacher, who wanted to “start them over”, perhaps would make them better pianists down the road.
But, they are unlikely to have a career in music anyways, so as long as they have fun.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread.

Is there a reason to start over? Your kids seem to have progressed rather far to start over.

Yes this seems a bit peculiar after 4 years...

His exact words was, the boys "don't understand all the difficulties of the pieces they play, and would benefit from some easier pieces". He asked them to play some pieces from the book "Library of easy piano classics", the older one was able to play recognizably on the spot with both hands at a slower tempo, then he suggest us to buy that book, for both the boys to play.

He asked them how they practice scales, and was a bit surprised to learn they don't.

Obviously he is after a higher level of polishing than the boys are used to. His observation is fair, the boys do play a lot of pieces, but few of them particularly well. It is probably a time to slow down, and focus on quality rather than quantity and difficulty.

Perhaps I should have a discussion the current teacher.

This is the reason why it's a good idea to send kids to competitions or festivals or exams. At the very least, they'll get an objective "second opinion" on how they are doing.

It sure doesn't sound like this other teacher wants the kids to start over. Maybe go back a few levels and work on some things. Nothing major. I bet I say that to all of my transfer students, wrecks or otherwise.

And these competitions/exams usually ensure that the student prepare things like scales, sight reading, and theory the match the level of playing they are doing.

I agree that it doesn't sound like "starting over", but rather filling in missing holes which may entail stepping back a few levels for a while.

Thanks AZ and Morodiene for the teacher's insides.

Yes, it is alway good to have some forms of reality checks every now and then, I shall discuss that with our teacher too.