One of the intimidating things as a beginner was to feel deficient to other pianists, not knowing that almost everyone has the same struggles. We see others from a great distance and in limited glimpses, we see ourselves in detail.
I have my father's piano practice book from nearly 100 years ago. His teacher wrote a full page of instructions: what exactly to work on, and exactly how to do it. He was a great pianist.
This video is so honest , i can recognise most of these traits in my previous piano teachers of course in different analogies. But as a conclusion I believe that there is plenty of insecurity, need to manipulate and bad attitude that concerns many teachers in this field and that's really frustrating. As a musician I never wanted to be part of this cast of mind.
I am so glad you brought up teachers who yell and called it out as verbal abuse. I had a college music theory and sight singing teacher yell things like "I don't care if you break your leg, you are going to practice!!!" And then he would say "the flagging with continue until morale increases." No one deserved this emotional torment and musical abuse.
I agree with you sir, wholeheartedly. I started off with a teacher who was interested in the money and not my progress. She messed up my love for music and her method of teaching was horrible. The fundamentals were ignored and am still struggling to sight read or play accurately most of the time. Thank you sir, I hope someone is listening out there.
Great vid! I would include a paramount mistake is how teachers handle students who didn't practice much during the week- one of my long-time fortes lol! Insanely important issue! I actually had this awful teacher told me I should give up.. this isn't for you! This was when I was an adult and boy I wrote her a letter later telling her how horrible she reacted, what a lot of balls she had to discourage someone especially not to mention a talented someone! Teachers beware, you have no idea how harsh words and conversely, positive words, can affect a students Heart and soul!
Thank you for this shocking and depressing list. Geez. I feel so fortunate to have a wonderful, talented, creative, compassionate, original and dedicated teacher.
I started taking private piano lessons at the age of 9, and I studied with the same teacher until I was 21. She was a great teacher for me at first, but as I got more advanced in my later teens, I don't think I learned well enough the finer points of piano playing. As soon as I learned the correct notes of a piece, I would just move on to another piece and never return to previous pieces that I practiced. It wasn't until I got to college that I learned more about how to shape a piece with articulation, phrasing and dynamics. In hindsight, I should probably have gone to a more advanced piano teacher once I got into high school. My piano technique could only have improved with a different teacher.
A former teacher was sometimes moody. Occasionally she would use a swear word in class (group session). Nobody seemed to have a problem with her. The students are mostly retired and come from all walks of life. Before & after class we always had interesting things to talk about. The current teacher does allow students to try pieces and make suggestions along the way. Brought in a piece arranged for easy piano she said is a lovely piece rated as RCM Gr. 8. The simplified version has a spot with a big jump but still manageable. The teacher said if you get a big gap just use the pedal to fill it in. During a lesson, she'd demonstrate how pieces are supposed to be played. When a piece gets technical she'd do the RH, then the LH and put both together and always starting at half tempo. Half the people are still on Zoom and a recording is made during each session. The rest of the week we can replay the lesson over a few times until the next lesson. Some teacher would upload video instructions on UA-cam. The current teacher didn't intend to go online until a year ago when the conservatory was in lockdown for a few months and then reopened. After some hesitation, she agreed to host Zoom sessions so that everybody wouldn't be at home without music practice. She didn't record her lessons before Zoom. 😊
I was lucky to have my first piano teacher whose real name was Miss Secord. I'm still playing after another 60 years. Just about everything you identified in the video, is similar to coaching tennis, which I do, primarily an individual sport.
Your 10th point is interesting. I recently started lessons with a teacher. She set me as a goal for the next lesson playing through Debussy’s “Reverie” right to the last bar. “No mistakes, no hesitations, and slow practice.” Next lesson: Played it through to the end, but with many mistakes! So glad she ignored those mistakes - let me play it through, then gave me “a big tick” for effort!
I’m lucky to have a great young teacher. My biggest problem is that I can play the pieces ok at home, but I get all nervous at my lesson and my fingers stop working.
Yes I have that same problem, so my teacher recommended recording myself and we listen together at the next lesson. This has really helped me. He also says he would rather hear a bunch of wrong notes than for me to stop or slow down and lose the tempo. This takes the pressure off having to be perfect.
Had the same problem when I started; lack of confidence is what causes it. It is completely normal! However I recommend you try to perform in public as much as you can, but the best way is to really get the work done within the pianists head. Being able to control oneself is vital for a musician. Greetings!
You make me laugh. Good video! I got my first introduction/lesson and the funny thing is, when I asked what would be my homework my Russian piano teacher gave me 3 pages of a book and he told me to practice and memorize it. I was a little bit overwhelmed and now with each day passing I start to panic more. How the hell I’m gonna to memorize all this short pieces of the Russian anthem and Russian, German, White Russian and Austria nursery rhymes.
Thanks for doing this video. As an adult piano student I never understand some teachers want to ‘erase’ what you have learned and start all over again, by assigning very “Mary had a little lamb” kind of pieces when you have played Rachmaninov Prelude in C# minor. I always insist on learning the pieces that I like. And I want scales and theory - as it applies to the music I’m working on. Thank you very much for doing this video.
Perhaps you misinterpret why they're doing it. Have you ever asked them? Reviewing the basics is never a bad thing, in fact it can help break bad habits and sloppy playing, no matter how advanced you might think you are.
I absolutely agree, especially at the beginning and intermediate levels. Should the conservatory level be any different?? I'm not a great pianist (heck, I'm not even a slightly bad pianist), but I've heard many stories from those that study at that level of how much of a difficult taskmaster their instructors are. Where should an instructor fall on the teaching scale to produce a really good pianist??
I think a video on finding a proper teach would be good. My first piano teacher did not correct any of my form. Being a student, I just did not know. It was not until I happened to walk in a music store where the owner of the store saw me trying a piano and showed me what I was doing wrong. My next piano teacher I made that person play for me first so I could observe their technique. I turned down teachers since their technique was terrible.
Took me 5 different teachers to find the right one. With some it got really toxic at times. Glad I persisted and now I really feel I’m progressing enormously ^_^ if you’re passionate, never give up. The issue isn’t you necessarily.
I still have some of the books from when I took lessons as a child and like the person below who commented about their father's book it has notes telling me what to work on and how to do it. It also has stickers on each page that I earned when I finally played that lesson correctly.
As for assigning music beyond the student' ability. I begged my teacher to play Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody #2 around the age of 13 [I had about 8 years of lessons by that time] she said ok we will give it a go. I worked very hard for several months and did many sections quite well. However as we all know there will always be sections of these concert works that seem unplayable. After several months we both decided to, as my teacher would say, lets put it away and bring it back in the future. By working on a piece above my level I did gain an incredible amount of skills on my technique. I did work on music at my level and was not allowed to perform a piece unless it met her standards. She taught me not to accept mediocrity and I expect that from my students as well. I started teaching beginners at age 13 and I am now 66.
My first piano teacher kept pushing my fingers into the keys and she never let me make the connection between the notes on the piano and the notes on the page. We both eventually got past all that but it was rough in the beginning.
Maaaaaaan! This applies to so many things. I cannot tell you how many times (as a professional actor in rilm/TV - SAG since 1977)...I wanted to tell a director to SHUT UP! I have too many war stories in that regard...but you have nailed it.........
i had a teacher back few yrs ago (well........a long, long few yrs ago, so i was in 3rd grade) i had a teacher giving me lessons at our church and she expected me to already know each note on a piano key and how to read sheet music when i didn't know anything about playing piano.
My piano teacher kept a wooden ruler. She would rap the back of my hand if she thought my hand shape was wrong. Also if I showed any emotion in sympathy with the music, as she regarded it as 'showing off'. She hated anything but the classics and wouldn't let me learn rag time and never taught memorization techniques. Just before I went in for my grade 1 exam, she said "Don't fail me, no pupil of mine has ever failed an exam before". I passed with distinction but have never felt so pressured in my life! Fortunately I didn't give up and now, 50 years later I wouldn't be without a piano.
Like you my first teacher had a wooden ruler to rap my knuckles if I looked at the keys and the second one told me he had never had a student fail an exam. Unlike you it put me off and it took many years - years that could have been the most musically productive years of my life - to come back to playing music.
My mother always watches pedaling. She studied quarter, half, full, flutter pedaling.......all types of pedal work. I believe Schnabel taught it, and his son (?) put out a book on it later which is not very good. Use of the pedal is most important and 90% ignored.
Over-use of the metronome!!! I had a teacher in my childhood years who would not let her students play without those tic-toc sounds of that pyramid accompaniment in the backround! I developed a very mechanical style, as well as all of her other students, which was very evident at recital time. Larry sounded like Mary, Mary had the same expression as Barry...on and on! The teacher was a sweet lady, but very rigid in her teaching principles! Needless to say, I went on to more "progressive" pastures! As to mistakes, I play for Masonic Lodge Ceremonies...there you cannot just stop and "rewind", but improv your way over the slipup...none for the worse!
I take your points but I sometimes think that corporal punishment would be the only way to get some things into my thick head. But my piano teacher won’t do it! 😀
I think most teachers fail to check a student's reflexes and ability for speed. It's inherited and doesn't improve with more lessons.....a terrible hurt for. a student. Second, teachers should check the hands for 'double joints' or telling someone the hand is too small and surgery is needed to clip the skin between fingers. Tobias Matthey was my very old teacher's teacher. My joints buckled....he fixed that. Girls hands often are assumed to be too small and weak. He took me to piano concerts by the greats, always took me back to compare hands with the concert artist. With my 'double joints' and ability to stretch I had a hand exactly like Arthur Rubenstein (12 notes). So piano teachers should be experts on the anatomy of the hand. Tobias Matthay's. books, tho ancient, are still available
One of the intimidating things as a beginner was to feel deficient to other pianists, not knowing that almost everyone has the same struggles. We see others from a great distance and in limited glimpses, we see ourselves in detail.
I have my father's piano practice book from nearly 100 years ago. His teacher wrote a full page of instructions: what exactly to work on, and exactly how to do it. He was a great pianist.
I’d be curious to hear what it says
Please share more...
This video is so honest , i can recognise most of these traits in my previous piano teachers of course in different analogies. But as a conclusion I believe that there is plenty of insecurity, need to manipulate and bad attitude that concerns many teachers in this field and that's really frustrating. As a musician I never wanted to be part of this cast of mind.
I am so glad you brought up teachers who yell and called it out as verbal abuse. I had a college music theory and sight singing teacher yell things like "I don't care if you break your leg, you are going to practice!!!" And then he would say "the flagging with continue until morale increases."
No one deserved this emotional torment and musical abuse.
I agree with you sir, wholeheartedly. I started off with a teacher who was interested in the money and not my progress. She messed up my love for music and her method of teaching was horrible. The fundamentals were ignored and am still struggling to sight read or play accurately most of the time. Thank you sir, I hope someone is listening out there.
Great vid! I would include a paramount mistake is how teachers handle students who didn't practice much during the week- one of my long-time fortes lol! Insanely important issue! I actually had this awful teacher told me I should give up.. this isn't for you! This was when I was an adult and boy I wrote her a letter later telling her how horrible she reacted, what a lot of balls she had to discourage someone especially not to mention a talented someone! Teachers beware, you have no idea how harsh words and conversely, positive words, can affect a students Heart and soul!
Thank you for this shocking and depressing list. Geez. I feel so fortunate to have a wonderful, talented, creative, compassionate, original and dedicated teacher.
Mr Estrin, as a new piano teacher myself this helps me a lot :)
I feel blessed to have had wonderful teachers.
I started taking private piano lessons at the age of 9, and I studied with the same teacher until I was 21. She was a great teacher for me at first, but as I got more advanced in my later teens, I don't think I learned well enough the finer points of piano playing. As soon as I learned the correct notes of a piece, I would just move on to another piece and never return to previous pieces that I practiced. It wasn't until I got to college that I learned more about how to shape a piece with articulation, phrasing and dynamics. In hindsight, I should probably have gone to a more advanced piano teacher once I got into high school. My piano technique could only have improved with a different teacher.
You do none of the above because you are a totally awesome teacher!
A former teacher was sometimes moody. Occasionally she would use a swear word in class (group session). Nobody seemed to have a problem with her. The students are mostly retired and come from all walks of life. Before & after class we always had interesting things to talk about.
The current teacher does allow students to try pieces and make suggestions along the way. Brought in a piece arranged for easy piano she said is a lovely piece rated as RCM Gr. 8. The simplified version has a spot with a big jump but still manageable. The teacher said if you get a big gap just use the pedal to fill it in.
During a lesson, she'd demonstrate how pieces are supposed to be played. When a piece gets technical she'd do the RH, then the LH and put both together and always starting at half tempo. Half the people are still on Zoom and a recording is made during each session. The rest of the week we can replay the lesson over a few times until the next lesson. Some teacher would upload video instructions on UA-cam. The current teacher didn't intend to go online until a year ago when the conservatory was in lockdown for a few months and then reopened. After some hesitation, she agreed to host Zoom sessions so that everybody wouldn't be at home without music practice. She didn't record her lessons before Zoom. 😊
I was lucky to have my first piano teacher whose real name was Miss Secord. I'm still playing after another 60 years. Just about everything you identified in the video, is similar to coaching tennis, which I do, primarily an individual sport.
You seem to be the perfect and the kindest teacher!
Your 10th point is interesting. I recently started lessons with a teacher. She set me as a goal for the next lesson playing through Debussy’s “Reverie” right to the last bar. “No mistakes, no hesitations, and slow practice.” Next lesson: Played it through to the end, but with many mistakes! So glad she ignored those mistakes - let me play it through, then gave me “a big tick” for effort!
You're wonderful, Maestro. Always on point. 🌹🌹🌹
What a great video. I remember 50 years ago.
😢
I’m lucky to have a great young teacher. My biggest problem is that I can play the pieces ok at home, but I get all nervous at my lesson and my fingers stop working.
Yes I have that same problem, so my teacher recommended recording myself and we listen together at the next lesson. This has really helped me.
He also says he would rather hear a bunch of wrong notes than for me to stop or slow down and lose the tempo. This takes the pressure off having to be perfect.
@@davidtyler357, thanks, that's funny because my teacher told me the same thing!
Had the same problem when I started; lack of confidence is what causes it. It is completely normal! However I recommend you try to perform in public as much as you can, but the best way is to really get the work done within the pianists head. Being able to control oneself is vital for a musician. Greetings!
@@imgaryrb I know, I just need to get out of my own way..
Oh yes. If it help. You are not alone. I do that to.
Master Estrin You are simply the best
I understand now why my rendition of “Für Elise” is so mediocre
You make me laugh. Good video!
I got my first introduction/lesson and the funny thing is, when I asked what would be my homework my Russian piano teacher gave me 3 pages of a book and he told me to practice and memorize it. I was a little bit overwhelmed and now with each day passing I start to panic more. How the hell I’m gonna to memorize all this short pieces of the Russian anthem and Russian, German, White Russian and Austria nursery rhymes.
Okay, WHAT is that THING you are playing on! I LOVE it!
Thanks for doing this video. As an adult piano student I never understand some teachers want to ‘erase’ what you have learned and start all over again, by assigning very “Mary had a little lamb” kind of pieces when you have played Rachmaninov Prelude in C# minor. I always insist on learning the pieces that I like. And I want scales and theory - as it applies to the music I’m working on. Thank you very much for doing this video.
Because obviously you didn’t learn the fundamentals and your rach prelude was punching far beyond your reach
Perhaps you misinterpret why they're doing it. Have you ever asked them? Reviewing the basics is never a bad thing, in fact it can help break bad habits and sloppy playing, no matter how advanced you might think you are.
I absolutely agree, especially at the beginning and intermediate levels. Should the conservatory level be any different?? I'm not a great pianist (heck, I'm not even a slightly bad pianist), but I've heard many stories from those that study at that level of how much of a difficult taskmaster their instructors are. Where should an instructor fall on the teaching scale to produce a really good pianist??
I think a video on finding a proper teach would be good. My first piano teacher did not correct any of my form. Being a student, I just did not know. It was not until I happened to walk in a music store where the owner of the store saw me trying a piano and showed me what I was doing wrong. My next piano teacher I made that person play for me first so I could observe their technique. I turned down teachers since their technique was terrible.
Took me 5 different teachers to find the right one. With some it got really toxic at times. Glad I persisted and now I really feel I’m progressing enormously ^_^ if you’re passionate, never give up. The issue isn’t you necessarily.
I still have some of the books from when I took lessons as a child and like the person below who commented about their father's book it has notes telling me what to work on and how to do it. It also has stickers on each page that I earned when I finally played that lesson correctly.
Amazing video! Love the last point, actually have to stop doing it to my students 😆
Yes, I also make that mistake very often! 🙈
As for assigning music beyond the student' ability. I begged my teacher to play Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody #2 around the age of 13 [I had about 8 years of lessons by that time] she said ok we will give it a go. I worked very hard for several months and did many sections quite well. However as we all know there will always be sections of these concert works that seem unplayable. After several months we both decided to, as my teacher would say, lets put it away and bring it back in the future. By working on a piece above my level I did gain an incredible amount of skills on my technique. I did work on music at my level and was not allowed to perform a piece unless it met her standards. She taught me not to accept mediocrity and I expect that from my students as well. I started teaching beginners at age 13 and I am now 66.
My first piano teacher kept pushing my fingers into the keys and she never let me make the connection between the notes on the piano and the notes on the page. We both eventually got past all that but it was rough in the beginning.
Okay, obvious question: What are you playing? Does it somehow make sound electronically or are you 'miming' prerecorder music?
Maaaaaaan! This applies to so many things. I cannot tell you how many times (as a professional actor in rilm/TV - SAG since 1977)...I wanted to tell a director to SHUT UP! I have too many war stories in that regard...but you have nailed it.........
i had a teacher back few yrs ago (well........a long, long few yrs ago, so i was in 3rd grade) i had a teacher giving me lessons at our church and she expected me to already know each note on a piano key and how to read sheet music when i didn't know anything about playing piano.
My piano teacher kept a wooden ruler. She would rap the back of my hand if she thought my hand shape was wrong. Also if I showed any emotion in sympathy with the music, as she regarded it as 'showing off'. She hated anything but the classics and wouldn't let me learn rag time and never taught memorization techniques. Just before I went in for my grade 1 exam, she said "Don't fail me, no pupil of mine has ever failed an exam before". I passed with distinction but have never felt so pressured in my life! Fortunately I didn't give up and now, 50 years later I wouldn't be without a piano.
Like you my first teacher had a wooden ruler to rap my knuckles if I looked at the keys and the second one told me he had never had a student fail an exam. Unlike you it put me off and it took many years - years that could have been the most musically productive years of my life - to come back to playing music.
Awesome thank you! (On another note you moved your space. Also do you have a video on your unique piano setup?)
My mother always watches pedaling. She studied quarter, half, full, flutter pedaling.......all types of pedal work. I believe Schnabel taught it, and his son
(?) put out a book on it later which is not very good. Use of the pedal is most important and 90% ignored.
Over-use of the metronome!!! I had a teacher in my childhood years who would not let her students play without those tic-toc sounds of that pyramid accompaniment in the backround! I developed a very mechanical style, as well as all of her other students, which was very evident at recital time. Larry sounded like Mary, Mary had the same expression as Barry...on and on! The teacher was a sweet lady, but very rigid in her teaching principles! Needless to say, I went on to more "progressive" pastures! As to mistakes, I play for Masonic Lodge Ceremonies...there you cannot just stop and "rewind", but improv your way over the slipup...none for the worse!
I take your points but I sometimes think that corporal punishment would be the only way to get some things into my thick head. But my piano teacher won’t do it! 😀
I think most teachers fail to check a student's reflexes and ability for speed. It's inherited and doesn't improve with more lessons.....a terrible hurt for. a student. Second, teachers should check the hands for 'double joints' or telling someone the hand is too small and surgery is needed to clip the skin between fingers. Tobias Matthey was my very old teacher's teacher. My joints buckled....he fixed that. Girls hands often are assumed to be too small and weak. He took me to piano concerts by the greats, always took me back to compare hands with the concert artist. With my 'double joints' and ability to stretch I had a hand exactly like Arthur Rubenstein (12 notes). So piano teachers should be experts on the anatomy of the hand. Tobias Matthay's. books, tho ancient, are still available
1:54.like my former teacher, Claudius Tanski … memorize op.10 n1 in 3 weeks …aha
Had a teacher for one year ! The only word I heard from her was •NO” I stopped and went on You Tube
If my teacher isn’t wearing a Hawaiian shirt, I kick him out and call the police.
?Ř????ϻ
I've only had one teacher. My complaint was that she never told me I ever did anything RIGHT, only what I did WRONG.
Bobby Keyes I had the same kind of teacher. So I stopped after a year