Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Teachers Forum My student has another teacher??

So, it looks like a student of mine has another piano teacher, and I'm not quite sure what to do.
A little background:
The student started with me in the fall, after having 1 year of lessons in their home country. Things were slow in the beginning and we did a lot of review because she hadn't played all summer and was also learning english. She has been moving faster during the past 1-2 months, and at first I attributed this to her improved language skills/establishing a good practice routine. But at the same time I noticed certain things about her playing that did not seem consistent with what we had covered in the lesson. Then, after I emailed the parent to ask if she wanted to enter our local music festival, he replied that she has already entered with her other teacher (who is from their country) and was it possible to enter with me as well.
I can understand that the parents may want her to be taught in their native language, but then why continue studying with me? The child is a beginner in Piano Adventures 1, so it's not like she actually needs more than one teacher.
The child is very nice to work with, but I don't know that I want to teach a student who is also studying with another teacher.

Have any of you encountered this kind of situation before?

Very strange. First thing that jumps out is that these parents must be either very wealthy or very committed to their daughter's piano career, or both.

I'd suggest making a lunch date with the other teacher. Approach it as if you were both recently hired faculty members at the same school. Discuss pedagogy and the student's goals, get a feel for whether you can work as colleagues, or whether it would be better for one of you to depart on good terms with all involved.

This is an odd situation, but it does happen once in a while. People from certain countries prefer to study with people form those same countries, even if all is going well. I lost two students who were doing very well and loved their lessons to a Chinese teacher. The children spoke fluent English, so that wasn't a problem, and communication with the mother was fine, although English was her 2nd language.

They left respectfully, however, with a very nice note, but I still was a bit bitter about them leaving when things were going so well.

If you are not comfortable with sharing the student - and there's really no need for a beginner to have 2 piano teachers, I would let the parent know. Explain that having two teachers can be conflicting for a student, and even when they are both two great teachers, they will have two different approaches and things they feel are important. This can be confusing and make the student have to remember which teacher likes which way of playing.

You may lose the student, however.

One of my students had two piano teachers. I found out from her, but Mom had never said anything. I was too afraid of ruffling any feathers so I didn't ask Mom about it, especially since I had only found out from her 6 year old daughter, and what if Mom didn't want me to know? According to the little girl, the other piano teacher taught her chopsticks, and also rain rain go away, but I don't know what else. I had a feeling maybe they were testing the waters, and I did eventually lose the student, though the parent did not say why.

I'm on the other side now, where I'm the "second" piano teacher with another student, who is also concurrently in Yamaha school. However the situation is different because lesson at the Yamaha school is a group lesson. Her parents have wanted to get her into private lessons for awhile, but they aren't completely stopping yet with Yamaha, they feel they need a transition period. It's fine with me because I want to work on note-reading with the girl, and it seems like she is training her ear a lot in Yamaha, which I am not comfortable teaching.

I would bow out. If they ask why, you can explain you only teach students who are devoted to your program of study and not studying with another teacher. They may be surprised, and they may possibly let the other teacher go, but this is not a good situation. You could offer them twice weekly lessons if they let the other teacher go.

You need to save your self-respect and your reputation in the community.

It's sad to lose the income, but "you're better off without them," as my piano teacher used to say.

It's sort of an amusing story, if you can get over your sense of territoriality. I suppose one bottom line is how much you need this student's tuition, and what are the chances or gaining referrals from this family in the future.

If you drop her, you look the the person with the problem. If you insist the family drop the other teacher, you equally look like the person with the problem.

My advice is simply to carry on for the year, and see how this all unfolds. Or maybe a better expression is "plays out."

My thinking:
If a student is taking regular lessons with a teacher, that student should be doing all the assigned work, and in the manner taught, in order to advance at a pace that teacher reasonably expects. If the student neglects some of the assigned work because she is also studying with another teacher, then this interferes with the first teacher. If what the 2nd teacher is teaching undermines what the first main teacher is teaching, you again have interference. If the student ends up playing worse because of being divided between two teachers, that is a problem.

But what if none of these things are happening? What if the student is still progressing as expected, with nothing being undermined, changed, or made worse? Then why would it be a problem? I'm reading that she has been "advancing" faster in the last two months. Does that mean, doing more material, or does it mean that her playing or related skills are improving faster? If they are improving faster because of two teachers, how can that be a bad thing? Or why would you not want that improvement, if there is such an improvement?

Yes, and it's not that uncommon around here in Southern California.

There are teachers here who actively promote "practice coaches" for their private students. I was that "coach" for a few kids, until some of the parents realize that I was way better than their teacher, so they switched to me full time.

I once had an advanced student who needed a different perspective, so I got one of my colleagues to teach him. We made sure the repertoire stayed separate, and I remained his primary teacher for testing and competition purposes.

What about when a teacher says "you play like this" for technique and the other says something completely opposite? What if one prefers a note-reading approach (reading every note) and the other an interval approach? What if one says "you count out loud saying "1-2-3-4" and the other says "1-1-1-1" or "1-2-1-1"?

None of these examples are wrong, but when a student has to do both, and then remember which teacher asked for which thing, that will only end in confusion. Piano is hard enough.

If we were talking about an advanced student, I can see how each teacher could be fulfilling different roles: one could be more of a technician and the other more of a musicality coach. But this is a beginner. No pedagogy book suggests that students should be exposed to all kinds of approaches for the same skill; rather they usually recommend that you find one that fits best what you feel is important and go with that.

It could simply mean that she wasn't really practicing before, and now since she has 2 lessons/week, she's getting 2 days of "practice" instead of one.

Taking this chance I would like to know how the teachers in this board feel about that a student has a teacher at the attending school that also offers pianist program and has master classes every two days taught by the teachers in the school? Do you think this kind of "master classes" would confuse the students because they actually in essence have another teacher that instruct them the techniques and expression about the same pieces? Or would those master classes benefit the students?

I can only speak from the standpoint of an adult intermediate student: I attend summer music camps, occasionally take lessons from another instructor, and take routine lessons in Dalcroze..... all with the understanding and blessing of my current teacher. In fact, she recommended the Dalcroze.

Yes, sometimes my head swims with conflicting instruction/information----- but I come back to my lesson and we discuss the differences. Therefore, in the long run, I am expanding my knowledge of different approaches to music.

I'm not sure of the skill level nor age of the student you are referencing in your post.. My instinct is that this would not be manageable by a young student. In fact, it is difficult for me to manage as an adult, but I recognize the value and have had enough life experiences to realize there is often more than one approach.

Minna, I'm not sure I fully understand. Do you mean by "the attending school" just a normal public grade school or high school?

Anyway, it remains an interesting question, and quite related to the opening query.

Hi Peter,

It's a high school but offers dual arts and academic programs. They have pianist and other musical and different forms of arts conservatories.

Thanks for sharing! I think these are very good points!
My kid is in high school so I hope she is mature enough to reconcile different instructions.

I would like to hear more from the teachers' point of views.

Personally, I find that most master classes do more to confuse students than help. It takes a very special "master" to be able to conduct these respectfully. Usually the best master classes are ones done by people who are truly masters and can teach and have something very specific they address in their class, like technique, or musicality.

If it is set up so that it's just students playing for one another and offering critiques, then it's not really a "master class" but more a group class. Those can be very helpful. Every two days? Seems excessive to me, unless these classes are so large that there would be a few weeks in between one student playing the same piece...even then, that seems too large to be helpful, IMO.

If your child is studying with a private instructor in addition to going to one of these schools, leave it up to the private teacher to decide what things are good to listen to and what should be ignored. He/She may be able to advise on how to negotiate this diplomatically.

We don't know what is happening. My point and question is --- If nothing bad is happening, and I've enumerated possible bad things:
- unable to properly practice what has been assigned, because of another teacher's assignments
- playing worse than before, or playing in a manner the regular teacher doesn't like because of the other teacher's interference
- other deterioration or unwanted changes
If nothing bad is happening, then why should this be a problem? Your aim is to give your student skills and knowledge - not to own the student in a relationship - so it's when that aim is compromised that there is a problem. If there is actually an improvement, then I can't see a justification for telling the parents "You must stop this cause of the improvement, because all improvement must come from me alone." which is what it would be. If there is interference, that is another matter. If this makes sense.

(I had written more than that one quoted paragraph, to make sure to bring across my complete thoughts )

keystring: I think this needs further clarification from the OP:



I took this to mean that negative things were going on. If they are positive, then fine, looks like the student wins having 2 teachers (for now, anyways) and should continue unless/until problems arise. But if this means she's being taught conflicting info, it's best that the student pick one teacher to study with.

I still question the need for 2 teachers for an elementary level student.

I missed that part. The "not consistent" part is worrisome, and could create confusion.

Hi there,

Thanks for all of your replies.
I just want to clarify that it doesn't appear that the other teacher is leading the student astray (so far). The whole thing was just very shocking because I'd never heard of it before. I'm really happy that the student is improving. It would be strange for her not to improve with double the instruction time. And while I care about all of my students, I don't own them. It's okay if a student decides to seek another teacher, but I never thought a student would do this while studying with me. So, I will admit to feeling slightly insulted and deceived... perhaps it is small of me to feel that way, but there it is. And now I wonder if some of my other students are doing the same thing.
I guess my biggest concern is that with two different teachers the setting agenda for the student's progress, the student may become confused. The situation doesn't seem to be a problem yet, but it smells like it could become one.

And I do agree that an advanced student could benefit from more than one teaching style/point of view-- something I wish I had taken advantage of more when I was a student!