i’m an older student taking lessons w/ a teacher of 1year. its been friendly and up until a week ago when she got real upset w/ me. she almost banged on the piano. I didn’t say much after that I left quietly. I felt so deflated I could hardly play anything when I went home, I even cancelled my lesson today. im never late and cancelled 3times in14 months. do you feel this was appropriate? and should I seek another teacher?
Both my children 8 and 9 years old are in grade 2 (successfully passed their grade 1 with distinction).
We are struggling with sight reading, could you possibly advise as we would like to introduce it in our daily routine.
Thank you for your help.
Nat
Hi Nat, Many thanks for your message. It sounds as though your children have been very successful with their playing already – congratulations on the distinctions. I would always work at sight-reading with students at the beginning of a lesson, and then suggest they also do this at the start of every practice session too, as it takes a lot of focus. Make sure you have many practice books, and start at Grade 1 working up the grades slowly – there are loads of good books on the market now. Work through a few examples a day for maybe 10 minutes. Sight-reading needs sight preparation – i.e. break the extract down carefully before playing begins. I will publish a post on this subject in the next couple of weeks, with lots more detail and there’s a whole chapter dedicated to exams with much info about how to practice sight- reading in my book, So You Want To Play The Piano? https://melaniespanswick.com/2015/12/01/so-you-want-to-play-the-piano/
Hope this helps, Melanie
Hi Jonathan, Delighted that you like my blogs and vlogs. Will look forward to watching yours – send me links when they are up and running, Mel 🙂
i’m an older student taking lessons w/ a teacher of 1year. its been friendly and up until a week ago when she got real upset w/ me. she almost banged on the piano. I didn’t say much after that I left quietly. I felt so deflated I could hardly play anything when I went home, I even cancelled my lesson today. im never late and cancelled 3times in14 months. do you feel this was appropriate? and should I seek another teacher?
Hello Melanie,
Both my children 8 and 9 years old are in grade 2 (successfully passed their grade 1 with distinction).
We are struggling with sight reading, could you possibly advise as we would like to introduce it in our daily routine.
Thank you for your help.
Nat
Hi Nat, Many thanks for your message. It sounds as though your children have been very successful with their playing already – congratulations on the distinctions. I would always work at sight-reading with students at the beginning of a lesson, and then suggest they also do this at the start of every practice session too, as it takes a lot of focus. Make sure you have many practice books, and start at Grade 1 working up the grades slowly – there are loads of good books on the market now. Work through a few examples a day for maybe 10 minutes. Sight-reading needs sight preparation – i.e. break the extract down carefully before playing begins. I will publish a post on this subject in the next couple of weeks, with lots more detail and there’s a whole chapter dedicated to exams with much info about how to practice sight- reading in my book, So You Want To Play The Piano? https://melaniespanswick.com/2015/12/01/so-you-want-to-play-the-piano/
Hope this helps, Melanie