Posted by: clariniano on: June 23, 2009
Many people when choosing a private music teacher are often concerned with either price or location. But there are other, more important questions to ask. Here are some of them: 1) What method books do you use to teach beginners? There are many teachers using old, outdated method books, especially in piano instruction books. Be [...]
Posted by: clariniano on: May 5, 2009
One reason why it is desirable for most students to take longer lessons weekly is because of the teacher having a comprehensive curriculum. For example, some piano students study with at least 3 books per level, often at least 4. These books may consist of the lesson book, a theory book, a technique book, and [...]
Posted by: clariniano on: April 8, 2009
A beginning student can have a good-quality instrument, good-quality reeds, a good-quality mouthpiece, and a good teacher. However, there are problems with the ligature: even when very loose and the student is placing it in a correct position (or trying to place it in a correct position), there are still problems with the sound quality. [...]
Posted by: clariniano on: April 6, 2009
Besides the cost of lessons and the teacher’s location, one of the most frequent questions piano teachers are asked by prospective parents of students is if the student may start learning the piano on a keyboard. While there are some piano teachers who insist on using a piano from the very beginning, and do not [...]
Posted by: clariniano on: April 6, 2009
Poor-quality mouthpieces, usually mouthpieces that come with new instruments, create at least four difficulties for beginners: they are difficult to blow on, they have poor tone quality, they have problems with their tuning, and they contribute to unfocussed sound even when the student is playing with correct embouchure. Poor-quality mouthpieces are often difficult to blow on, [...]
Posted by: clariniano on: April 6, 2009
When I was a teenager and young adult, I was a self-taught pianist and clarinetist, I had no choice but to go this route (due to limited financial means and lack of support from family). However, I do not advocate the self-study for most people, especially beginners in their first two to three years of [...]
Posted by: clariniano on: April 5, 2009
There are some private teachers whose students generally sound good and perform well. Yet, the same teachers often have a few students who are performing well below the level of most of the teacher’s other students. Often the first person parents of low-achieving students blame is the teacher. It is not always the teachers fault—though [...]
Posted by: clariniano on: March 30, 2009
In many schools, class recorder instruction happens, for most students, sometime between Grade 1 and Grade 4. I am proposing that quality class keyboard instruction, as a few public, a few Catholic, and many private schools do, is a much better alternative to learning the recorder at these grades. The seven reasons I present have [...]
