My never ending story of searching a piano teacher

Animisha · 2024-09-25T09:28:30+00:00

For years, I was a happy student at Piano Career Academy, but I reached a point where I wanted to choose my own pieces, prompting me to search for a new pian...

Animisha

twocats It's so great that you found someone you like! Are you sure that his lessons will force you to play pieces of his choosing? You can always ask!

Sgisela So I think what @Animisha meant was that the curriculum lessons are set. But she is allowed to submit anything outside the curriculum for review, and he is happy to give feedback.

Exactly! I will edit my post.

ShiroKuro

Animisha I never felt happy with her system.

I can see why, it doesn't sound student-friendly.

Player1

Animisha

You can contact her and let her know about your busy schedule and ask her to hold a slot for you. Otherwise you might find that this opportunity has been filled by another student.

Animisha

Player1

Thank you, but there is no need for that. There are so many more piano teachers than piano students...

Fetivi

Hello Animisha, thanks for pointing out the differences between Christie Peery and Zachary Deak. I like the concept of Artist Works with the video exchange. In my opinion that gives you more freedom than having on-line lessons through skype or whatever. I was not aware that you could sent recordings outside the curriculum to Zachary Deak and I think this is a big advantage above Christie Peery. Christie Peery also has a website for teaching her own method and she has educated piano teachers who use her method for their students. So I was a bit surprised that she also offers her lessons much cheaper at Artist Works. I think because she doesn't need Artist Works she is a bit more strict in her terms of sending in recordings. I did have a look at some of the lessons of Zachary Deak and was not too impressed about what he teached in his sample lessons, but it's good to hear that his feedback is good for you and that you are allowed to sent recording outside his curriculum. Did you sign up for a year and can you sent limitless recordings and get feedback? Because with the 50% off now that would sound like a good deal.

Sgisela

Fetivi Hello Animisha, thanks for pointing out the differences between Christie Peery and Zachary Deak. I like the concept of Artist Works with the video exchange. In my opinion that gives you more freedom than having on-line lessons through skype or whatever. I was not aware that you could sent recordings outside the curriculum to Zachary Deak

flagging @Animisha as this way she will be notified of your post.

Animisha

Hi Fetivi, welcome to Piano Tell! 😊

Fetivi I think because she doesn't need Artist Works she is a bit more strict in her terms of sending in recordings.
I think that it is her personality.

Fetivi I did have a look at some of the lessons of Zachary Deak and was not too impressed about what he teached in his sample lessons,
I agree with you on that, but I have had years of lessons at the Piano Career Academy, and after that, online teachers. So I didn't sign up because of his lessons, I signed up because of the feedback. I can practise the piano without a teacher, but I do need feedback!

Fetivi Did you sign up for a year and can you sent limitless recordings and get feedback? Because with the 50% off now that would sound like a good deal.

Exactly! Feedback is like:

"You need to be very careful with the pulse. You have a tendency to antcipate some of the downbeats. It is beter to be a litle late than too early. When you play too early, you lose the weight of the piece."
"Be more accurate with the pedal. You you should make clear and delayed pedal changings between measures."
"When the a tempo part starts, you start to play too fast."

All very valid points!

Animisha

PS Thank you Sgisela! ☺️

Animisha

After two lessons and sixteen days of diligent practising, I already play better in a way that I can hear it. The piece that I had prepared for the first lesson was Händel's prelude HWV442, a lovely piece with lots of scalar runs that need to be played allegro, but that I play much slower, and that is very suitable for the first lessons with a new teacher. One of the things we have worked on is the way I end those scalar runs, and it makes such a difference! I knew that in two-note slurs, in pieces like this, the second note of the slur is played more softly ("simply touching the key as you float away") but I didn't realise that this principle also applies to scalar runs. And now that I have worked on how to end these runs, it sounds so, so much more beautiful!

pianoloverus

Sgisela Totally agree that it makes no sense to have lessons on things that are perfect! The point of lessons is to work through problems.

I think the teacher probably meant the student should have learned as much as they could by themselves on a piece before submitting it. There's no way they could have literally meant "perfect" because then there would be nothing to say.

judanne

Interesting thread, I remember you from PCA Animisha 🙂 I wasn't very successful there. I am unlikely to ever have another face to face teacher but did sign up with PianoTV in September and I'm enjoying the process

Greg_R

Agreed. Look at the hand position of some legendary pianists (Horowitz, Gould, Fleisher, etc.)... they diverge from the ideal significantly.

While a teacher's playing ability is important, I'm much more concerned about their ability as a pedagogue. Specifically, can they quickly determine what I'm doing wrong, and can they provide concise corrections or meaningful exercises to fix those problems.

« Previous Page