How to Teach Piano: A Quick Story

How to Teach Piano: An Example

I hope we can all agree with Charles Laughton, the actor,who says, “All my long years of working at my trade only make me love it more. The longer I work at it, and the harder I work, the stronger I get. I’m younger now than I ever was.”

Here is a sad and true story. I visited a class taught by a very gracious teacher I thought she was rather overdoing the “dearie” and “darling” approach, but I disregarded it. After the last pupil had gone, she turned to me and exclaimed, “The little brats!” I shall never forget my surprise. Her surface attitude had been a sham.

We must have honesty within us when we praise children for their good work because they usually detect insincerity more quickly than adults.

Another teacher was the opposite type. She played very little, but she loved children and had a natural talent for teaching.

How to Teach Piano: The Point of It All

She herself continued to take lessons although her progress was slow. At the end of the season I attended a recital given by her thirty pupils. Many of them played better than their teacher! What she lacked in performance, however, she made up in love for her work.

This, of course, is an exceptional case, although I have known of several accomplished pianists who were unsuccessful in teaching children. One of them gave a Bach invention at the first lesson!

In the book Unseen Harvests, Thomas Wolfe is quoted as follows: “I put the relation of a fine teacher to a student just below the relation of a mother to her son and I don’t think I could say more than this.”

How to Teach Piano: Generating It From The Heart

The teacher must have three “loves”—children, music, and teaching.

I once came across this very helpful statement: “The fundamental rules of architecture have not changed through the centuries.

How to Teach Piano – Style

The style may vary in keeping with human habits and customs, but the need for a solid foundation, sound building materials, and good workmanship is as important today as it was in the past, if one would build a durable structure.”

The fundamental principles of teaching have already been established for us by successful piano teachers. A great love for music must be coupled with an understanding of the best ways to produce it. Art and science cannot be divorced.

How to Teach Piano: Real Secret

Leopold Godowsky once told me that he considered the real secret of good teaching to be the maintaining of the interest of pupils. The teacher chooses the music that will awaken interest in the pupil and can be mastered with a reasonable amount of effort. It is also the teacher’s duty to point out the beauty of the music in order to stimulate the desire to study and learn.

It takes patience and dedication to know how to teach piano.