Choosing the Right Piano Teacher
MISSION 1. Choose a piano teacher
You’ve just made the (brilliant) decision to try out some piano lessons.
Maybe you’ve played piano in the past, maybe you’re already quite good, or maybe you’re a complete beginner looking for your very first teacher.
How do you go about finding a piano teacher? And what exactly should you be looking for?
Choosing the right teacher can be an interesting thing. The first thing you should remember is that piano teachers are not all created equal. Just like any other profession, individual piano teachers will have their own qualifications, personality, speciality, skills, weaknesses, and way of teaching. In the local circle here, I know offhand piano teachers who have no formal qualifications, an AmusA, LMusA, BMus, MMus, and PhD (if you don’t understand all these qualifications, don’t worry, we’ll get to it!).
So amongst all this choice, how do you find the right teacher for you?
Keep reading and I’ll talk you through what you can look for and the right questions you should be thinking about before you start.
BUDGET
Find your ideal price range
I hate to start with the money factor, but like anything, knowing your budget will be a huge factor in your search. Know a range that you can afford and then look at what’s available.
You can find piano lessons these days that will cost you anything from $10-$300 per lesson, according to the teacher’s qualifications, skill, experience or fame. For a casual beginner-intermediate learner, I would recommend you cut that figure down to lessons that are a maximum cost of $110/hour. At the time and location of writing, hourly lessons tend to average around $70-90, depending of course on the studio and location of the teacher (or if they travel to their students!).
If you’re looking for cheap lessons, you can absolutely find options a lot less than this, and I’d recommend you stay open to online lessons. There are tutoring websites where you can choose your own teacher from a selection of profiles, and having used several of these both as a student and teacher I can say that if you’re lucky enough to find someone you like, they can be a good option!
Once you have an approximate figure in mind, lets move on to the next option.
DELIVERY
Online or in person?
Due to the pandemic, the number of music teachers offering online lessons skyrocketed. Now, it’s no longer a limited selection of teachers offering online lessons, in fact many teachers have now adapted their studios to online-teaching only!
What does this mean for you?
Well, if you’re open to online lessons, you now have a smorgasbord of options, including teachers from all over the world.
The question you need to consider in this scenario is: are you open to online lessons or would you prefer to have your teacher next to you?
There are definite advantages and disadvantages to both options, so I wouldn’t say that there’s a direct winner in the fight of what’s “better”. I will always advocate trying things out before ruling them out, so do keep an open mind to the options available to you. I’ll come back to explain the advantages and disadvantages of each style of teaching another day!
STYLE
Genres, artists, composers
Okay, you’ve gone through the most practical things, now it’s time to have a think about the musical elements! If you don’t get this far or get stuck, not to worry! Whoever you choose to start with can help you ascertain what you like to play and what kind of musical direction you want to go in.
I have new students come to me all the time and all they know is that they want to learn. My instant response is always, “Awesome! Let’s figure the rest out together.”
The reason I have included Style on this list, is that it quite often happens that you will know exactly what you like and what you dislike, and to find a teacher that shares your passions will have an incredible effect on your learning. Not to mention that when a teacher has a passion or speciality, that effects their knowledge of repertoire, technique and
If you were to come to me with a request to learn extensive jazz and improvisation skills, I would recommend you to other teachers. Why? Because although piano is one instrument, different styles of music are similar to different dialects. It’s absolutely possible to speak all dialects to a native-speaker level, but for arguably the majority of pianists, we have different levels of fluency in each one.
You may want to learn pop songs, everything Chopin, your top 5 jazz standards, how to improvise, how to play keyboard synth to a higher level or simply how to play chords…use the time looking for teachers to think if there’s anything that stands out to you.
If there is a particular style, genre, technique or composer you wish to learn from your piano teacher, mention it to them before you start lessons. If they don’t feel comfortable teaching this particular thing to your requested level, then thank them for their honesty and ask if they have any recommendations. It may take a little longer to find the teacher you’re looking for, but having a teacher who is comfortable teaching what you want to learn is well worth the wait!
QUALIFICATIONS
Be careful with this one
Qualifications is this far down the list for one very important reason: great qualifications does not mean great teacher.
I wish it did, truly.
Unfortunately, there are many other things required in teaching that are not valued when it comes to academia - we’ll come back to that another day.
On top of that, playing an instrument is a skill, which doesn’t require any form or certificate or degree to be highly successful in. Some phenomenal musicians never went into higher education and they could be incredible teachers.
All of that said though, the existence of qualifications does tell you some very important things about a person.
It tells you their approximate level of and experience playing the piano. For someone to achieve any certification in music requires a lot of preparation and a certain level of skill. The higher the level of certification, the more difficult the content.
It tells you their level of experience in high pressure situations.
It tells you they have a certain level of knowledge and are equipped with a varied understanding of music-related topics.
It tells you that they have experience in the education system – something which may be useful if you’re looking for somebody who knows about what it takes to succeed within the school or university setting.
When looking for a piano teacher I’d suggest that you look at qualifications as informative, but not necessarily the most important thing. These are the qualifications that your prospective teachers are likely to carry (if any):
· A grade (insert number) exam certificate. As you might expect, the higher the number, the more difficult the exam. As an approximate guide of how difficult these are, when students finish high school and audition for conservatories or university courses, most of these students will be around Grade 7 exam level or higher.
· a Certificate of Performance. Among the highest level instrumental certificates, achieving this requires performance of multiple difficult pieces for an examination body (not university-related), alongside the ability to answer questions of general knowledge and/or historical/stylistic context.
· an AmusA (Associate in Music, Australia). Among the highest level instrumental certificates, achieving this requires performance of multiple difficult pieces for an examination body (not university-related), alongside the ability to answer questions of general knowledge and/or historical/stylistic context.
· an LmusA (Licentiate in Music, Australia). Among the highest level instrumental certificates, achieving this requires performance of multiple difficult pieces for an examination body (not university-related), alongside the ability to answer questions of general knowledge and/or historical/stylistic context.
· an FMusA (Fellowship in Music Australia). The highest and most prestigious instrumental certificate, achieving this requires performance of a full recital program (80 minutes) for an examination body (not university-related).
· a DipMus (Diploma of Music). This college and/or TAFE-level course is usually about one year of full-time study.
· a BMus (Bachelor of Music). This undergraduate degree is attained at university-level, after three to four years of full-time study.
· a GradCertMus (Graduate Certificate of Music). This is the first graduate qualification in Music, attained at university following an undergraduate degree.
· a MMus (Masters of Music). A Masters in Music is one of the highest level degrees available in music at university. It will usually take between 1-3 years (full-time) to complete, and is more specialised than the earlier degrees. A thesis or ultimate project/performance is usually required in the final term for graduation.
· a PhD (Doctorate). This is the most specialised of all music degrees, and can take years to complete. Those who choose to pursue this degree focus their study and research on exploring a very specific element or topic in the field of music.
EXPERIENCE
Arguably just as important as qualifications
In my opinion, real-world experience is just as important in the world of music as any academic qualifications… in fact, sometimes it’s more important.
Real-world experience in the music or music-related industries is vastly different to the experience involved when completing many diplomas and degrees, and it gives you a level of learning that you cannot get anywhere else.
The other benefit of real-world experience is that by learning on your feet and developing skills as they are required, those with real-world experience tend to have a far greater sum of knowledge in current trends and requirements, including understanding which skills are vital for a potential future career in the music industry and which are less so. As a professional musician myself, real-world experience has honed my skills in some areas that were untouched in academia.
PERSONALITY
Who you both are matters.
When it all comes down to it, given the amount of time you will spend with your piano teacher, it’s so important that you both get along and appreciate each other. At the end of the day, you’re just two humans learning from and with each other.
Make it important that you like and respect whoever you choose, and if you don’t feel respected or heard in lessons, maybe it’s time to try someone new. In my view, respect both ways is an absolute non-negotiable. Respect doesn’t mean that the inevitable hierarchy of teacher vs. student is in any way threatened, it simply affirms that the student - both as a person and a learner - is an important part of the process.
WHEN IT ALL COMES DOWN TO IT
Find someone you are happy to work with.
These are simply my top six things to consider when finding a new teacher, and I hope they help you in your search. Sometimes we seem to luck onto the perfect teacher for life, and at other times you may find yourself renewing the search every couple of years, either by choice or necessity. If you are doing the search again, remember that every teacher will be different, and those differences can be invaluable for your learning.
At the very end of the day, those teachers who have a passion for teaching and a love for helping their students succeed will always win for me. At various stages of life and development a teacher will take on different roles - a tutor, mentor, cheerleader, support, inspiration - all to help their students succeed. A skilled teacher who can multitask like this is a gem to hold on to!