I've been teaching a beginner student for 6 months. He is 9 and before starting lessons, he did not know how to read music. However, he has learned to play a lot by ear and advanced through the primer level of Piano Adventures pretty quickly in ~5 months. He sightreads the level 1 music well enough that I wonder if he needs to move on to something more challenging.

I have two struggles with this student:

1. I'm still struggling with basic technique with him and in every lesson, still having to remind him to play on his fingertips. He corrects it temporarily but shortly after I remind him, goes back to playing with flat fingers.

2. I think he can handle more challenging music than the level 1 Piano Adventures we are working through but I'm not sure where to go from here. Should I add a supplemental book? Skip some Piano Adventures songs to get to level 2 faster? I'm a little concerned that assigning him harder music will make it even harder to correct his technique.

I want to buy my sister a keyboard piano for her birthday. She played all through high school and into her early 20’s, so she’s an intermediate player.

What brands to you use/swear by? My budget is under $300 if possible but don’t be shy to recommend whatever you use!

THANK YOU!

Sort of a weird question but I'm not sure how best to word it.

Basically, my thought is, if a child (or even an adult, I suppose, but my point is kids would learn faster because they aren't thinking about bills and stress when learning) is shown intervals, patterns without thinking what key is A or B etc.

For example, let's say today you begin sight-reading 101.

Instead of creating an order in their mind of 'musical symbol --> A --> key on piano' it could just be 'musical symbol --> key on piano'

I realize scales are still necessary, key recognition, etc. But SIGHT-READING by itself I feel handicaps anyone's ability to actually sight-read, simply because of that second step making the brain map an unnecessary step.

Am I making any sense??

For context, I teach wih my own private studio as well as a larger school. while I do have my own policies about quitting (you pay the month's worth on the first week and if you quit that's on you, etc) but at the larger school the payments are done practically every other week. it's a bit more individual since teachers don't control the payments. which is nice since if there's a billing issue it's not my problem, i just deal with scheduling.

i just find it fascinating when a student signs up for lessons, then after one or two lessons their parent messages me "hi we're wanting to try a different teacher". Especially a transfer whom I have to spend the first lesson seeing how they learn or what they know, note any technique they're lacking, etc.

I was mostly thinking about this since i just had one do exactly this. I thought the lesson went well despite the kids seeming a little tired but they still picked up the things I gave them. i think they dropped because the parents wanted "harder" music but it's of course only lesson one, I was going to have them start new pieces this week to learn things like not being stuck in a fixed position and understanding chords sicne they wanted to do church music...also they needed to learn those things before trying anythung harder anyways.

i don't know, most of my students have thankfully not dropped (or at least had been with me a little while and dropped at the start of the new year) so I'm just curious about other experiences with these teacher-hopping students. i mean I get dropping if you don't work well with the teacher or just started and can't commit but...just my thoughts really.

I’m a solo developer in Switzerland trying to understand how teachers handle the score during online lessons. In person you can just point out a bar or a pencil in a fingering. Online, I’m curious what you actually do. Do you share your screen to hold up a book to the camera or you send annotated PDF afterwards and can the student Mark things back on the same page?

I’d love to hear what works for you and what is still clunky at this stage. I’m just trying to learn how people really do it.

I’m very new to teaching piano (I started last month)! I don’t have any trouble with my students except one I have a hard time connecting with. He’s 14, and is a beginner. He learned a quite difficult piece through memory and started lessons with me to learn how to actually play piano and read music.

He was extremely nervous during the first lesson and seemed even scared of me. This has continued for five weeks now and he doesn’t seem any more comfortable. When I show him or tell him to do something, he doesn’t really hear me. I have to repeat myself three times for him to register what I said and he apologises excessively when he does something "wrong".

I’m very down to earth and I’m not a strict teacher. I try to be relatable to him and kind. I tell him everything is okay and he doesn’t need to apologise so much. But I haven’t seen any improvement and I can see a genuine fear in his eyes during our lessons.

I’ve tried so hard to make him feel comfortable and safe and I always compliment him (since he has a genuine natural feel for the piano). Has anyone had a similar student? How can I make him feel more comfortable?

I'm a piano teacher and just assigned my student the first two etudes from Burgmüller's Op. 100. To prepare, I played through them myself to find the trouble spots he might hit. I then put on a full-playlist recording of the set on Spotify (Donatello Renando) and noticed a bunch of very obvious discrepancies right away.

I'm following the 25 Etudes, Op. 100 edition from IMSLP. Here's what I've caught so far, through Etude 4:

No. 1

Left hand plays quarter notes where the score has whole notes.

In m. 15, 18, and 20, he plays staccato eighth notes in the left hand instead of half notes.

No. 2

Pedal goes down in m. 7.

Plays an F in the right hand instead of a G in m. 9.

Plays a D♯ in m. 19, but it belongs in m. 18.

Slur is missing in m. 25.

M. 27 is played in both the first and second endings, but it should only be played in the first.

The final fermata is barely held.

No. 3 (more subtle)

In mm. 12 and 14, he seems to add a brief A in the left hand between the G and B on the dotted half notes.

In m. 27 (third to last measure), he seems to add a C in the left hand on the first chord, creating a small clash/cluster.

No. 4

Mm. 5-6 are rushed, with the quarter rests squeezed when they should be open and marcato.

In m. 16, the move to the quarter-note B and D goes up a step to C and E. That throws off beats 3-4 of that measure and beats 1-2 of the next.

Two measures later, the same right-hand figure appears and he plays the correct B and D.

I couldn't find anything blatant in Nos. 5 and 6, and that's as far as I've listened.

I can't tell whether these are sloppy takes that slipped through, deliberate "spot the error" quirks, or something else. The blatant left-hand rhythm changes and the repeated m. 27 across both endings seem too obvious to be simple slips.

A few questions:

Has anyone else listened to this recording and noticed the same things?

Is there a different Op. 100 edition where these differences would actually be in the score?

Any recommendations for a clean, reliable recording I can point my students toward?

I’m new to teaching, only been doing it for about 5 months now, and I just don’t get how other teachers make their classes exciting for young students.

I’m not a very bubbly person, I care very deeply but I’m not very energetic and I tend to show my enthusiasm in short bursts rather than constantly keeping an energetic facade. I was sick last week and a different teacher at the studio I work at subbed in for me, and my kids said that she played games with them and asked if we could play games and I said no because I don’t know any games and honestly that doesn’t sound enjoyable to me at all.

Am I just not cut out to teach kids? I love these kids so much but I’m worried that I’m doing them a disservice by not being more energetic, and I just don’t know how to present myself that way.

Hi everyone ! So I've been building something of a piano and music theory visualization tool for the past year and I had a bit of an epiphany recently and decided to lean hard on features that could help teachers.

So things that can:
- Reduce fiddling in sessions
- Make it easier to communicate with students
- Make communicating theory easier

And I also recently added something and I'd like your opinions on it:

I made it so you can generate a quick link for a student to click, it then sends them to their browser and if they have their keyboard connected you'll see what they're playing on your end highlighted in another color.

I didn't want to make some bs where the student is forced to get the app so I thought sending them to the browser in a click might be easier on teachers.

I'd really like to make this tool useful to teachers since I know how clunky the process can feel (I remember when I was a jazz piano student in covid haha).

Let me know if you have any ideas or things you would like to see in a tool like this :)

Hi! Would you offer a make up lesson for a wasp sting?

For reference I offer one make up lesson per month as long as 24 hours notice is given. But does this fall into the emergency category even though it’s a small one?

Thanks!

I’ve been teaching a few later beginner students and they didn’t really have a lesson book when I started teaching them, so I’ve kind of just been trying to find pieces online that aren’t too hard for them that they enjoy playing. My teacher used the Faber Piano Adventures series when I was young and I’d like to start these kids on that series because I think they need some more structure to their learning.

The problem is, they’ve got kind of these gaps in their knowledge, so I can expect that they know their scales but I don’t know if they’d be able to name chord. I know they can move their hands around the piano to different positions, but I don’t know if they can play two-handed arpeggios, stuff like that. So I don’t know where to put them in terms of the level they should start at. Any advice on this is greatly appreciated!

I quit Learn Now Music, and they confirmed in writing that my last day was June 28. Today, October 13, they emailed me asking me to cover classes, then texted me the same request.

Part of why I was frustrated with the job was the curriculum and teaching setup. I didn’t feel like it supported meaningful music instruction. An Indeed reviewer described teaching different instruments to different age groups at the same time as “confusing and concerning,” which gets at the problem I’m talking about. That’s their account, but my own experience also left me unhappy with the program.

The quitting process was rigid too. Their email required 30 days’ notice with no schedule changes, substitute requests, or cancellations during that period. They also required materials back within 7 days of my last class, with return mailing costs on me.

After all those strict requirements, it’s frustrating that they still haven’t removed me from their coverage list months after acknowledging my resignation.

Would you send a final request to stop contacting you, ignore it, or block them? Has anyone else worked for LNM and had similar experiences with the curriculum or leaving?

I've been looking to get into teaching online lessons for a bit and I'm what wondering people with more experience handle showing stuff to students and seeing what they're doing.

Do you just ask them to put the cam on their keys ??

Hey all,

I’ve been teaching piano for about 2 years, and clients have been between 8-13 years old.
Got contacted by a mother of a 6 year old boy asking for lessons.
Wondering how big of an adjustment this would be?
I usually start with Fabre Primer book. Would this work?
Happy to hear tips!
Thanks

New to this community but not to teaching, but I find myself needing suggestions! I have a student who recently completed the Piano Adventures series and is capable of playing fairly complex music, but she loses interest super fast, so learning most complex music has been difficult because she gives up after just a week or two. She stumbled across River Flows in You, and it's a good fit at only 3 pages. I need ideas for other songs of similar length but still challenging. A book of songs would be even better. Ideas?

I just started teaching/tutoring kids in piano.

But how do you guys handle students around 8 years old who want to play more advanced pieces, like the Turkish March or even La Campanella? They could definitely play the simpler versions, but I think playing a piece not too easy and not too hard (ex. fur elise, canon in D, etc.) would help them more in their learning journey. What do you guys usually do?

I just started teaching/tutoring kids in piano.

But how do you guys handle students around 8 years old who want to play more advanced pieces, like the Turkish March or even La Campanella? They could definitely play the simpler versions, but I think playing a piece not too easy and not too hard (ex. fur elise, canon in D, etc.) would help them more in their learning journey. What do you guys usually do?

As the title suggest, I am new piano teacher that struggle to teach kid around time concept in music (note duration, time signature, and so on). Especially regarding when the note duration concept is introduced to the time signature.

This is a altrap song that includes this piano track and I’m dying to figure out how to play but am not familiar enough to do it by ear. Please help