I've been teaching private piano lessons for many years. In the past I also taught at a private music school and a community college. I am a very committed teacher, as you must have deduced from reading this blog. I have a degree from one of the best conservatories in the country, Manhattan School of Music. After my degree I had further studies with a masterful teacher, Joseph Prostakoff. I have a website which lists my experience, has testimonials from students, recordings of my playing from concerts I have given, and, of course, I have been writing this blog for 12 years.
When I meet people and they learn that I teach piano, I very often hear "Oh, I took piano lessons when I was a kid." Some of them say they really enjoyed it, and others say they hated it. Almost everyone took private piano lessons from a local teacher.
However, I see a lot of problems with private piano lessons, and also with some schools. Many people who teach privately are simply not qualified to teach. You wouldn't send your child to learn math or science or most subjects to just some person in your neighborhood. In a public or private school, the teachers must be certified and have proven competency in their fields. In addition, they may be required to have continuing education to keep up to date. A private teacher may not have a degree in music, or any kind of certification, and has no proof of their level of expertise that they can show you. Some just teach a few lessons "on the side" to pick up a little extra money. Furthermore, their own education in music may have taken place many years prior, and they may not be up to date on modern theories and practices. You might think, "what could really change in learning to play the piano?" I can assure you that much has changed in our understanding. (Read my post "Are you using 300-year-old ideas?")
Many private piano teachers learned to play when they were kids; maybe they even played reasonably well. But teaching is an art. Just because you played for a few years when you were a kid does not make you automatically qualified to teach others. And most teachers will teach the same way they were taught. If they had a bad teacher, they are probably going to also be a bad teacher. Unfortunately, they may not have even realized they had a bad teacher, so they have no impetus or reason to change how they teach.
Virtually all my adult students who come to me having had lessons previously have some level of bad habits they will need to change if they want to play well, make progress, and really enjoy the journey. I hate to use the word "bad," but there is no point in sugar-coating it. They have learned technique either based wholly on a wrong foundation, or they have not really learned technique at all. Often their abilities in sight-reading are sorely lacking. They really have not learned how to practice effectively. And they sometimes have no idea how to play expressively. Theoretically, it's possible they had a good teacher and just didn't follow the teachers' instructions. But when I question them about their previous lessons, I can tell with a high degree of certainty that the teacher didn't know how to teach, and/or was teaching the wrong things.
You may think I sound quite arrogant, saying that others are wrong in how they teach and I am right. I'm sure most teachers think they are skilled and doing a good job with their students. If the student doesn't do well, they just say the student didn't have enough talent or didn't work hard enough. This seems to be quite a conundrum. There is no absolute "test" that you can apply to ascertain the quality of the teacher. It is not until you've studied with them for a period of time that you may have an inkling. But by then you will regret that you spent all that time, energy, and money on a teacher who didn't help you. I suppose there is simply no substitute for using your own good judgement and honestly assessing your own progress at the piano. (See my post "Who can you believe?")
Finding a small neighborhood music school is also not a solution. I am aware of several chains of music schools who teach a variety of instruments, including piano. However, these places usually hire young teachers, just starting out, and they pay them very poorly. The school takes the rest of your tuition money for overhead, and profit, of course. There is no guarantee that the school has chosen teachers with actual teaching skills. This may a be a good way for a brand new teacher to get some experience under their belt, and I sympathize with them, because everyone has to start somewhere. But you may not want your child, or yourself, to be the guinea pig for a brand new teacher. And don't assume that a teacher who teaches at a piano store is a good choice; the store is simply renting out the space, and make no guarantees as to the quality of the teacher.
When parents decide to send their child for piano lessons, they also may not want to spend too much, thinking that if the child doesn't like it and wants to stop, that they will not have lost too much money. But sadly, if the lessons are "cheap" and the teacher is not good, the child probably won't do well, and will want to stop. On the other hand, people have limited budgets and may not be able to afford a top teacher. A high-priced teacher isn't necessarily a good one either. I have known of many high-priced teachers who are still promoting 300-year-old ideas. It's a real dilemma. I sympathize with parents who are trying to do the best they can.
Unfortunately I don't have a magic answer. If you are exploring the idea of private piano lessons for yourself or your child, ask the teacher a LOT of questions. Ask about their approach to all the many subjects I have discussed in previous posts. Also, you MUST ask them to play something for you and assess how you think it sounded. If they say they can't play because they are "too busy to practice" or some other such excuse, that should be a red flag. See my post "Finding a Teacher."
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