Mentoring New Piano Teachers

As a student of the piano, it's critical to your success to pick the right teacher. Your teacher should be good of course but they also must be the right person for you. That's more a matter of personality and temperament in addition to having the skills you want to have.

 Today the piano is in somewhat of a paradox. It is entering the stage of dying art while at the same time being the most popular musical instrument on Earth.  I've been playing the piano for almost 50 years and during that time I have had the good fortune to study with good and exceptional teachers. I've now been teaching piano for almost 20 years, and I see this paradox very clearly. I think I can help by mentoring students who have an interest in teaching piano.  

 The Paradox 

 Here's why the pianois so popular. The piano is the "king" of musical instruments mostlybecause the entire range of the piano encompasses all the other instruments init. Also, the piano is visually laid out in front of you, it is very easy tosee chords and create music arrangements. Most composers write at the piano.Almost all other orchestral instruments are not like this. It is not easy tosee where your fingers are going. Finally, on the piano it is easy to playmany notes or parts so that one pianist can create a full arrangement. If youconsider a trumpet player, they typically play one note at a time. 

 Because the piano isso versatile it is the most popular instrument of all musical instruments. Atmusic teacher conventions I can see this popularity. There are a greater numberof piano teachers compared to orchestral instrument teachers. Often we will beseparated by instrument and then it becomes obvious. I estimate three to fivetimes as many piano teachers as all of the other instruments combined.  

 How then could it be adying art? Certainly there are many students of the piano but a largepercentage are not being exposed to the physical motions necessary to createartistry at the piano. A look at the history of piano teaching over the lastcentury will illustrate how this lack of exposure has developed. 

 In the 1920's asimplified piano method book was written and became a bestseller. This book isstill a bestseller today. The method was a response to the Broadway hits/sheetmusic craze that started around 1900. There was an increasing demand forteachers who could show students how to learn these Broadway hits. At the time,there was no quick way to learn to play the piano and this method succeeded inslimming down what was then the traditional method of instruction. It did so ata great cost to the artistry of playing piano. 

 Much of thetraditional method was left out, primarily how to play with artistry and allthe good beginning repertoire of music written by the great composers. In itsplace were very simple pieces that are a kind of "paint by thenumbers" approach. There were also photographs of a person's hand toexplain how to move your wrist. This book was so successful that it was copiedby other authors who attempted to strip down piano instruction even further. Bythe 1950's the artistic qualities of shaping the sound and producing a singingtone among other skills were completely gone.

 Since then, generations of piano teachers have been trained using these kinds of method books.Many were never exposed, in their formative years, to the control of artisticexpression at the piano. While they may have been exposed later in life, eitherat college or in teacher trainings, it's near impossible to learn these skillsas an adult. These teachers, being at or near retirement, have spent theirentire career training beginning pianists while having little to no exposure tothe artistic skills needed for demonstrating to their students. Piano playingis a whole-body art form. The wrists are a significant element. Teachers needto be able to demonstrate these skills.

 More recently, therehas been another contributing factor to the loss of artistry in piano. That isthe nature of local music academies. In the music school/studio business thereis a certain financial pressure to grow as big as possible. The owner mustgenerate many students to help pay for school expenses. There's rent, teachersalaries, advertising and more. The easiest place to cut costs is on labor, orwhat the owner will pay a teacher.

 Studio owners aim typay their teachers 40% of what the client is paying for their lessons. Somestudio owners are more generous than others. I worked for one who paid me over50%. I've also worked for someone else who only paid me 30%. Regardless, thisis a low rate of pay given the amount of training required to play the pianowell. As a result, you will generally find inexperienced teachers in thesemusic schools who are teaching beginning pianists.  

It can actually beworse than inexperienced teachers. There are many non-pianists teachingbeginning piano students. This happens because of the nature of music study atthe college level. Many college graduates with music degrees have majored(principal Instrument) in trumpet or some other orchestral instrument or evenmusic technology. All music majors, no matter what their principal instrumentare required to study music theory and most turn to the piano because of itsvisual nature. Knowledge of chords, ear training, etc., are much more easilyachieved sitting at a piano. 

 Most musicians, likeour trumpet player, must supplement their performance income by teaching. Thereare fewer trumpet students than there are piano students. Invariably thetrumpet player will start teaching piano students. Compared to parents andstudents who know very little about music, our trumpet player appears skilledenough at the piano to teach their child. The trumpet player, however, wasnever taught any performance gestures or any of the other technical issuesinvolved in playing a piano.

 As a rule, technicaltraining is always given on the college student's principal instrument, thetrumpet in this case. So, we have large numbers of students studying piano withteachers who never learned how to play the piano. The result is many pianostudents who take years of lessons and are never shown how to play artisticallyusing their breath, hands, and ears. Once a pianist develops a set of habits itis near impossible to change them and so it is important to give beginningstudents the artistic habits at the beginning.

 Another factorcontributing to the paradox is the use of electronic keyboards that are sold as"pianos". Electronic keyboards are very good at making "neverheard before" sounds. The vast majority of people who use electronickeyboards use them to mimic traditional instruments. Keyboards do a very badjob of that. When I play a keyboard and apply all my body motions, I get about25% back in the sound that I would expect from an acoustic (real) piano.Because so many people only play the piano with their fingers, electronickeyboards are considered quite acceptable these days. Many people even callthese keyboards, "pianos".   

 Piano artistry demands the wide variety of response that pianos offer. But if the piano playing public doesn't need that responsiveness (becasue they are largely unaware of it) then the demand for pianos will devolve to demand for keyboards. As that happens piano manufacturers will go out of business. The french piano company Pleyel,Chopin's favorite piano, recently went out of business in 2013. 

 I would suggest that the piano has become a very misunderstood instrument. I decided that I couldhave a greater impact on this paradox by mentoring potential piano teachersthrough piano lessons. As the number of my clients grows and I have to add awaiting list, I am hoping to be able to refer these waiting students to thepiano teachers I have mentored over the years. I don't want to hire piano teachersbecause they are unlikely to have the proper training. The only way to train them is through piano lessons and it's a rare breed of adult student who iswilling to relearn basic habits.

 The Future of Piano Instruction

Susana Porras is oneof these rare individuals. She came to me for piano lessons 8 years ago. ThoughI didn't know it at the time, she was the perfect student to mentor. She's ahard worker and pays attention to details. She has an artistic sensibility fromprevious courses of study and life. You can see this in her writing. Have a look at her blog postings at her travel blog.

In her piano study, Susana, quickly developed a fine ability to move her wrists to shape the toneof the sound coming out of the piano, perhaps it had to do with her previousdance experience. Since Susana had also been a public-school teacher, she had ateaching sensibility as well as a boat load of experience. 

 As I work with all mystudents, even young children, without saying anything, I try to imagine themas piano teachers. Some personalities are perfect as teachers. As my waitinglist grows, I plan to send these students to the teachers that I have mentoredover the years.