Piano Teacher Recommendation

[Anonymous]

We just moved to NoVA and are looking for an experienced piano teacher in the Oakton, Oak Hill, Vienna, McLean, Fairfax area. Does anyone have any recommendations. Our children have been playing for about 4 years and are in elementary school. Thank you.

[Anonymous]

I used to be a piano teacher, for 30+ years. I have an undergraduate degree in piano performance and graduate degrees in piano and music ed. Now I'm playing piano for my own enjoyment, not teaching. I'm just giving some advices,

1. If you are serious about learning piano, have one-on-one piano lessons, not group lessons. Group lessons is only good for about 1- 3 months, just to see if your child is interested. Afterward, the child will need undivided attention from the teacher.

2. If circumstances allowed, go to your teacher's. The most important element in education is to let the teacher control the classroom, not the other way around. If your teacher comes to your house, your young child will not have a sense of attending classes. Because toys, games, TV, etc, are all nearby, so it is hard to focus.

3. Find a well trained and experienced private teacher (expect to pay at least $1/min). I've seen plenty in my 30+ years of teaching, I would not send my kids to a commercial music school. Here is why, piano is best taught one-on-one. So in order for a music school to make a profit, the lessons fees will be a LOT higher than what a private teacher would normally charge. For example, of the $80/hour the school charges you, probably only $25-30 goes to the teacher. When you really think about this, you know a private teacher will give your children whole lot more in the same lesson time. Plus, a private teacher will be much more dedicated, because your children are his/her students, not the school's students.

4. Attending weekly lessons is very, very important, unless your child is sick, do not skip lesson because of some scheduling inconvenience. Lesson is beneficial even if the student "forgot" to do the homework (didn't practice). Discipline is #1 in studying piano. If you don't let your children skip school, don't let them skip piano lessons. In my experience, students who frequently cancel or re-schedule lessons will soon quit piano.

5. For young children, 8 and younger, have two 30-min lessons a week to start out. Once they can remain focused longer, add another 10 minutes gradually at teacher's discretion. Chances are, the children don't even feel the extra minutes. For most children older than 8, an hour long lesson a week is good enough.

6. Unless your teacher specifically request it, stay away from your child's lesson. Your children should be free to express themselves and form a bond with the teacher. If you don't trust the teacher, then find another teacher you can trust your children to be alone with. A piano lesson should be just the teacher and the student. No one else should be around to distract the student (or the teacher).

Good Luck.