How To Make Sure You Get A Good Piano Tutor
April 28th, 2011
Learning the piano is difficult, so to help you learn as quickly and easily as possible then you need to make sure you have a good tutor. Like with any profession then there are different levels of skill between tutors, as well as distinctly different personalities, and you need to consider both of these things when you are choosing the tutor you wish to learn with.
Don’t be embarrassed to book one introductory lesson with a few different tutors and then choose the one you want to continue with based on that. If you only go with one tutor based on a recommendation from someone or an advert etc then you can’t compare them to anyone else and you don’t know if another teaching style would help you learn better, so make sure you shop around a bit.
Below are 3 things you should look for in a piano tutor:
Patience: Some people would be prepared to put up with an impatient tutor if they thought he or she was really good and could teach them a lot, but I think patience is a really important trait when trying to teach someone. You will find that an impatient tutor is quite tough to work with, they will always be pushing you to make progress (which can be a good thing) and they will get frustrated when you cannot proceed at their pace or you make mistakes. This means you will probably start to be afraid of making mistakes as you don’t want your tutor scolding you, so you will dread your weekly lessons and stop going, unless someone like a parent is forcing you to go, in which case you will hate going and won’t absorb the lessons anywhere near as well.
Connection: This is again something that people dismiss as being a ‘nice to have’ but not crucial, yet we work harder for people we like and we listen more to people we like and have a connection with. So if you can find a tutor who you enjoy spending time with then you will push yourself a lot harder and you will learn things willingly, rather than out of fear like you would with an impatient tutor. It also means your lessons will be enjoyable so you will look forward to going to them and will stick with them for a lot longer.
Experience: This is the thing which people look for first, particularly parents looking for a tutor for their child, but I don’t think you should ignore the 2 things above just because they have a lot of experience. A tutor with a lot of experience will know what to do when you encounter problems and will have a wide range of different skills, styles and songs that they can teach you to help you become a better piano player.
If you would prefer to learn from a course rather than getting lessons then check out this Rocket Piano review.
Categories: Music and Gadget
