The Most Important Skill a Piano Teacher Must Provide

[sammcbride]

When I first started playing (age 17) I took lessons from a nice elderly lady in the neighborhood and made progress at a reasonable pace. But when I took lessons from a teacher at a music school a few years later he showed me all kinds of different practice techniques I had never heard of and I made much faster progress and was able to tackle pieces that I would have thought were beyond me. I just read an article on this topic yesterday in an old Etude Magazine from 1949 written by Byron Janis (then 21 years old, now 90) who had recently had his Carnegie Hall debut.

[oooodaxteroooo]

Some of the most important skills I learned recently are:

- taking a score by melody lines, not bar by bar. in other words, seeing the piece as a whole, not technically broken down into pieces
- listening to yourself play, i.e. paying attention to the overall sound and progression of sound through a 8new) piece
- in practice: always slow down to a speed where you have the elements under full control that you want to learn or improve and then increase the tempo as you develop security
- focussing on bar/line transitions. usually a single melody or technique isnt the issue, the issue is switching seemingly without interruption - slowing down helps here, too

Enjoy your piano practice everyone and develop that pianist in you! ;)

[lpgrunt]

You left me hanging. What is the secret to composition that Mr Grey taught you?

[thepianoplayer]

Nice video. Made some good points.
The problem with practicing at home is that a teacher is not around to make sure everything is done correctly. Unless you upload a demo video, a teacher can't correct your mistakes until the next lesson.
When it comes to sight-reading, no teacher can really teach it. A teacher can teach the notes of the staffs but to get good at sight-reading (reading off a sheet the first time with few mistakes) would take years of practice on your own.

[kentong]

You are definitely right. I do the same thing, how to practice. The most important skill

[fionabegonia]

There are entire academic degrees built around PIANO PEDAGOGY ! Hopefully, the professionally trained pedagogist will know how to explain the new concept, connect it to already known skils of the student and show him/her how to incorporate it into their at-home practice routine. "Pretend" practice sessions are demonstrated at the piano lesson as a reference for the student to use at home.

[russmaleartist]

When I went to college, the fine art of how to study came after trial and error in learning how to memorize, etc. for a test and still get in my studio work and prepare for my senior exhibition, which was quite demanding and extensive. The other skills came in handy after graduation, no doubt, but at the time, they sometimes certainly seemed to get in the way. If someone had been there to help guide my studies better, I think it would not have been so difficult to get the hang of it after working after high school and going into the military before college. It was like learning how to study all over again.

[AbbbezOlsson]

But how do you teach how to practice??!!

[TheSIGHTREADINGProject]

Hi Robert! This really resonated! I'm learning piano (5 years) and at the moment my 9 year old son is between teachers so I'm teaching him. Your thoughts on how to break it down would be really helpful. Things like, do we need to be doing technical work every day? This causes me to procrastinate 'beginning' my practice session more than anything else. Strangely with viola I could play scales etc all day and not be fed up with it. Anyway, I know it's different for everyone, but what would a basic practice routine look like for beginner vs intermediate / advanced student? Thanks for the great videos

[artisuryavanshi]

Really a honest reply by Robert.I have a piano class once every week. My piano teacher just tells me to do this.this.pieces and that's it.He doesn't give me extra knowledge about western classical music and if i say anything that I know like when he was training me for Trinity Grade 1 He played a piece and told me to sing the tonic and on one piece he asked me to name the chord that he is playing and I said it's a Gm7 and then he asked me to identify another chord and I named the chord wrong(B flat half diminished, it was b flat diminished).So he told me you must learn slowly and you should not at all learn anything extra because it is a slow journey.For completing ABRSM piano course he says you will complete it in 10 years.What is this?Your opinion

[wendykhin]

Could you demostrate maybe just an example how to practice a piece, a new piece in this case?
And in my opinion, there's a difference between learn a piece & practice it. How could you explain it? This's another question i want to ask.
I've been playing piano for over a year. I m a beginner pianist as you may say.
Thanks! Your videos help a lot. Really appreciate it!

[avantpianist]

Robert could you introduce the setup in your laptop? Looks like you are doing some midi stuff :)

[atmbm]

So.. how do you practice then? :D (don't have a teacher unfortunately)

[AnotherSchmoe]

First!? Happy Valentine's day Robert!

[victorvalentino]

I cannot find any great piano teachers. Even the ones I think may be good don’t take adults or wont come to your home.