Nightowl what is the ultimate goal of this advanced piano course? Are you just doing it for the personal satisfaction of passing with your (usual) high grades or is there a change of career on the horizon?
Oh no, no career change! These are just piano lessons, but at a university music school instead of in a private studio.
I have been taking lessons almost continuously since I first starting playing piano. There have been stretches of time when I didn't take lessons, like after we first moved back to the US, and after we moved to this town 2.5 years ago. But I've mostly almost always worked with a teacher and taken private lessons. Also, with the exception of about a year on online lessons during the height of the pandemic, I've had in-person lessons. Generally either from someone who teaches privately, or else in a community music school type place.
Well at my new uni (I'm a prof, I changed institutions in 2023), there are things that go together to change that: 1) faculty get a tuition benefit that allows us to take one course every semester for free. 2) This university has a very well-regarded music school with a few different doctoral programs, including piano performance and piano pedagogy, and a very good piano program for non-majors (i.e., students who want to take piano lessons but aren't music majors or minors), they call it the secondary piano program.
So this semester, I thought I would try the secondary piano program and see how I like it. I got registered as a non-degree seeking student and signed up for the piano class. It's basically the same as taking private lessons, except I don't have to pay out of pocket for it. And it's graded and have various rules that private lessons don't have, like the final exam part.
My teacher this semester is a doctoral student, but she's easily one of the best teachers I've ever had (which is saying a lot because I've had a lot of teachers over the years!) The doctoral students get a tuition waiver and receive a stipend for teaching in the secondary piano program (so, for the record, although I don't pay for these lessons, she gets paid for teaching me!) I will have her as my teacher again next semester, but then I think she'll graduate. Hopefully I'll be able to continue with someone else after that, someone who is a good fit for me.
TL;RD version: So yes, this is just for personal satisfaction, or rather, just for the same reason why I always take lessons. 😃