Question About Piano Lessons - Oradell,NJ

Normal. Counting the beats and learning to play legato are important parts to making music. Just playing the right notes any old way is not.

Form should come first. If you have terrible form the piece will not sound right even if the correct notes are being played.

As a pianist that took 12 years of piano, and having taught it myself, I can tell you that this is pretty standard. Piano is not all about banging out the notes, but learning the theory and most importantly, the counting, beat divisions,etc. It's all about learning how to read music, as well. This was pretty much how I learned from day one (and I had to take home a theory notebook and do theory exercises to turn in the next week!) Playing the notes is just one small skill in the overall practice. It would be like learning to paint by only sticking your brush in the paint.
Hope this helps.

As someone who plays and whose kids are learning, I think it is important to start working on good form from the very beginning. Better to learn it well from the beginning than to have to go back and try to fix bad habits later. After all, your child can noodle around on the keyboard at home any time she likes. Remember, lesson time is when she learns the skills she needs to play her instrument well, rather than to just play.

It's important to learn good skills along the way if one wants to be a good piano player. If she were to let her just play notes without paying attention to form and technique then she would be learning habits which she would have to break later. That is if the lessons are to be serious.

If you want her to just learn to play for fun then she's with the wrong teacher and business. A music school is for serious learners. You might be able to find a private teacher who would focus more on fun, if you aren't wanting her to be a player with correct form and technique.

I suggest that you can also allow her to play just for fun with other music after she practices the assigned music correctly.

Definitely talk with the teacher about this. I, too, suggest that this may be a matter of teaching style and there may be another teacher at the school who would teach differently.

It's much easier to teach them correct form from the get-go than to let them get in the habit of using poor form, then have to go back and correct that.

Both my kids, who are 6 and 10, take piano.
They can read notes and play.
They also learn, how to play. ie: the technique and form and what the notations mean, on the music they play.
So it is well rounded.

All music teachers, teach differently.

And yes, a person has to know how to count beats.

Why don't you just ask, your daughter's Teacher, about her teaching method or what the point of it is?

Learning music, is not just about knowing the notes and playing it.

That's normal. Think of it this way, when you learn how to drive do you first learn how to operate the car or do you learn what streets to drive on?

First your daughter needs to learn how to operate the piano and at what tempo to play. Later she can concentrate on the notes.

Also, know that the lessons are there to focus on the parts that your daughter is weak at. If that is her weakness, then the teacher is there to strengthen it.

I learned on a keyboard with the sound off. My teacher was adament I know the keys by sight and touch and be confident in it without the sound! Boy, does that drill in the basics or what!

My daughter is in her 4th year of piano lessons. She takes lessons from the music teacher at her school. She definitely learned how to read music, and learned to play the notes well before she started focusing on form and technique. You have to get the basics down before you can fine tune, right?

I've taken lessons for 12 years and taught for as many. I can't tell you if your daugter's teacher is over-the-top without observing first hand. If the teacher is harping about technique and form when she site reads a piece, she's probably over the top. But if she doesn't start with this level of critique until your daughter's had the week to practice, then she's probably right on base.

The way I taught, and was taught, was new pieces would be site read one time at the end of a lesson. A few critiques would be given and then I'd be given the week to make it as perfect as possible. Anything and everything was up for critique the next week. About 1/2 of my next lesson would be me perfoming my homework and getting feedback/making improvements, and learning. 1/4 of the time would be spent on theory (and checking my theory homework) and the final 1/4 of time site reading my pieces for next week. As I got older and more advanced some of my site reading time would be spent listening to either a recording of the piece or the teacher playing the piece so we could discuss nuances of the song.

As long as your daughter isn't stressed out and and is having fun, I wouldn't be too concerned.

I had lessons but I'm no expert. However, this sounds normal. Like other posters said, technique comes first because you need to develop good habits from the beginning. I also know that the popular Suzuki teaching style emphasizes playing by ear (and presumably form) before learning to read music.

I hope I'm not repeating...I play and my 7 year ld daughter is in her 3rd year. Her teacher also made sure to focus on technique to form right habits from the get-go. Notes are easy but the rest is very difficult, so it's easy to form wrong habits if you just focus on notes. You do not want her running around plunking out songs with awful timing and no technique-you'll be begging her to quit lessons :) You'll thank your lucky stars when she masters legato rather than bang! bang! bang! for every note over time.

Also, piano lessons aren't really "fun". My daughter loves the accomplishment, and she loves to play songs once they're mastered...but there is lots of struggle and tedium involved as well. The discipline is part of the value so we take it in stride. We've had lots of tears and "If you don't want to play, we'll take you out of lessons" talks and "If you dont' practice I'm wasting money." and "play or ELSE your'e not going outside" type scenarios....but in the end she wants to keep playing and she loves giving recitals and now she's helping her brother learn. I hated lessons at times too. It's not one of those activities that is always fun.

If you want her to have a more causal approach and you're not concerned with her becoming all that good, you're the paying customer, so you could ask the teacher if she could be less stringent and see what she says. But the better the child gets, the more they enjoy it in the long run. If they never get very good, they usually just quit because who wants to do something they're bad at compared to other kids who do it?

What you have detailed here doesn't worry me nearly as much as your saying that your daughter USED to be happy about the lessons. If this teacher is so strict and "not fun" and stops her all the time with criticism, she will not want to take lessons anymore.

I would sit down with the teacher and have a talk. I would NOT talk about your lack of knowledge of music. You have knowledge aplenty of your daughter. Tell the lady that you would like her to adjust her strategy with your daughter so that she does not lose interest and feel that she cannot make the teacher happy.

She can teach good form and technique and still let your child play through a piece uninterrupted. I promise you. And she needs to do it. Otherwise, your daughter will end up begging you to let her stop taking lessons.

It is important that they learn to do it the right way the first time, because if they learn it the wrong way it is that much more difficult to fix bad habits.

"Been there, done that." I went through a variety of piano/organ teachers. The best advice I have learned, and should have taken myself, is that there is no "one size fits all" when it comes to music teachers. If you get a music teacher, that your child isn't happy with, then it's time to quit and find another music teacher ASAP. Some music teachers may be hard on a student, but not on their "pets." Yes, a lot of music teachers have "pets." Just because a music teacher knows music "inside and out," has a degree from a prestigious school, or one of their students plays like a child prodigy; doesn't mean they are a good fit for your daughter. Just tell her you feel your daughter isn't ready yet, so you need to stop the lessons. Then find someone else. Yes, technique and counting beats is normal; however, some teachers make learning techniques and counting beats fun and easy. Your daughter can't even read notes yet, so that means the music probably only has 2 or 3 notes in the melody....There can't be much to count there. I know, I've seen the beginner books. So why do I know....Here's my story:

I had a very sweet teacher to start off with at a music store and wanted to learn to play the organ. I was 16. She only lasted 2 weeks and they had to give me a teacher that is used for more advanced students. Why? I taught myself how to play the piano when I was 4. Yeah, I was one of those kids that could read and used my sister's piano books when she wasn't looking. The second teacher I had, I absolutely loved! She was great! The best ever. She was also a cocktail organist. I was the music store's best student, wowing parents at their recitals. Then it happened...My teacher retired and I had to find another. Instead of staying with the music store, which was a 45 min. drive, I decided to find a teacher closer to home. I asked one of my classmates, because he was a great pianist. I started taking lessons with his teacher, which was a big mistake. Also, he didn't give me the full story until I left her...He only started off with her, and his current teacher was a totally different person. I came out of every lesson in tears. I went from playing like a pro to not being able to play a note. Why? She would never tell me what I was doing wrong other than, "that's not right." I can still hear that little old lady pounding the piano with a yard stick and almost breaking it. She was a nightmare. I've never been able to get back up on the bench since. Even my college profs. could never understand what happened to me that I couldn't play anymore like I used to. What a waste of money and time. So the answer is not "is this the normal way to teach?," but should be "should I stay with this teacher?"

Since they have the reputation they do and are successful in their business I'd say they know what they are doing.