Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Teachers Forum Looking for hiring a piano teacher for a project.

Hello.

Coming from a programming background, there's a website called freeCodeCamp where it features an entire curriculum for people wanting to learn computer programming.

I want to build something similar for piano self learners.

So I am looking for a classical piano teacher to work with me as a consultant and to produce material/videos.

While the entire website will be free, I understand that a piano teacher time is very valuable.

We can combine a fixed price for each produced material, or we can chat and combine what's best for both parts.

If you want a more private discussion, please send me an email at: fellipedepaula@gmail.com

So we can connect and I will explain my ideas better.

Thanks

Hi Felipe, good luck on your challenge!

I come from a 30 year+ programming background, and I have been taking piano lessons for a bit over three years now.

The issue you may have with your project, is how to consolidate the "silence between the notes" aspect of learning to play this instrument. Although my teacher typically works with me on about 10% of a piece, that portion really makes or breaks the piece. Without my teacher's input pretty all of the shaping, dynamics and other types of musicality that really "makes" a piece would be missing I fear.

And being an IT-type at heart, I'm thinking my performances would be very robot-like.

Best of luck with your project!

Hi Felipe,

I don't recommend this approach. Learning a musical instrument, or learning to sing, is not like learning a purely abstract skill with no physical analogue such as computer programming.

You can pretty easily teach people how to read notes and count time with few mistakes and little direct or personal correction from a teacher. But the physical/technical aspects of playing cannot be generalized to all students, and require direct modelling and correction from a teacher or other proficient. Technique development requires direct feedback from a teacher every time a new technical skill is taught to determine if it is being done properly, if the effect is the one desired, and how to change the student's attack if it is not. It is far too easy, and very common, for students to misunderstand the skill being taught and do it incorrectly without direct feedback and intervention. That's why they need regular lessons.

Apps and pre-recorded virtual instruction may work for the first year of literature, for the average student. But students run into all kinds of problems after that that can't be solved from a learning menu. And if the student is precociously talented or has special limitations, then they can make all kinds of trouble for themselves without expert supervision that they have to be trained out of later.

I have seen many programs like this come and go over the years, and not one of them has been successful in producing good players or creating an all-around effective learning experience for the student. Playing the piano while reading from a score is arguably the most complex and difficult neuro-physical task the human body can perform. All instruments and the voice require that same intense level of highly refined neuromotor efficiency in order to do even the simplest skills. It can't really be taught virtually except at the most basic levels.

I took piano lessons for many years with a piano teacher, and my kids are going through piano training with a piano teacher. So I agree with the need to work with a piano teacher. There are many skills that cannot be taught through just a computer interface.

However, aren't there any mundane skills training that piano teachers would rather not spend time doing? Anything that is just boring to teach, and you'd rather have the student do this on their own during the week? Like note recognition? pattern recognition? Understanding parts of the grand staff? or solfege? Italian terms? Understanding rhythm and being presented with musical examples of various rhythms?

That way, teachers can focus on the really difficult skills like proper finger techniques, arm weight, articulation, styles and expressions, history, etc.?

I can see computer technology being used to supplement live piano lessons. Wouldn't that be worth it?

Yes! Some teachers already do that.

I agree with this and I take lessons.

On the other hand:

There is a large segment of people who will self teach regardless.

There is a large segment of piano teachers who do not provide that proper level of instruction anyway.

Given those two, this may be a marketable idea.

It may be, but that does not necessarily mean that a teacher is going to support something like this that may ultimately take potential students away from them.

Sure. You can learn lots about notation and theory, and that's already readily available for free all over youtube and various web sites -- done with various levels of quality.

For the physical part of it, there's no practical substitute for a live in-person teacher who can see in three dimensions what you're doing, and even touch you to test for excessive tension.