I have had exactly eight teachers since I first set eyes on a piano at the age of four. I am not counting the "one off" lessons, or masterclass tutors that I have played for when I was a student. These eight teachers have hailed from five countries and have come from totally different "schools" of piano playing and teaching. One of these eight is one of the greatest living pianists in the world; another is one who has probably been on an airplane just once in her whole life. While being a great teacher is not something a celebrated concert pianist needs to worry about, it always astonishes me when I come across piano "teachers" or worse still, piano "professors" who have not got the faintest idea about teaching or performance! These are the few who have managed to cover up their below-par playing skills or lack of rudimentary piano teaching knowledge by getting academic music qualifications and adding these letters to their names. As a result, they manage to obtain positions of power in music schools or colleges, but end up lacking two basic things: 1) The ability to share their knowledge of piano playing to a student, irrespective of the student's musical background. 2) Problem solving skills and the ability to do the "donkey work" with a student at teach lesson.
I have received many, many emails over the years, especially when I owned and updated www.pianolessonsdublin.com - most of these were from parents and prospective students who described their experiences with teachers. The end response or comment usually was “but he was a student at so and so conservatory" or "she said she was experienced and qualified". Some people wrote about the fact that their teacher was reluctant to explain a simple musical concept or demonstrate it slowly, at the lesson. Others spoke about the fact that their teachers hardly ever played pieces for them, allowing them to know new repertoire - even exam pieces were chosen by the teacher without ever asking the student for his/her opinion. Now I know why, when I was a music examiner, twelve students sent up by the same teacher would all play the same three pieces in a given grade. Even more disturbingly, having experienced some of this first hand, as a student, and later as a masterclass tutor, I know that these are not fabricated stories!
My very first piano teachers were Enid Roberts and Veera Pooniwala, at the St Cecelia's School of Music that Roberts ran out of her tiny cottage in Pune, India. Both these women demonstrated the qualities a music teacher should have. They never spent lesson after lesson on technique, yet I developed a fairly secure technique by the time I was twelve years old. They never forced any repertoire down my throat, simply because those were "competition" pieces or "Feis Ceoil" worthy (as is the case with many teachers in Ireland). As a result, I developed an understanding of a wide variety of piano and vocal music. Sight-reading was always as important as playing virtuoso music by memory, and I was always encouraged to accompany instrumentalists, the choir and other singing students. They were never embarrassed about explaining one bar of music, or helping me read through a new piece, slowly because THAT is what a piano teacher has to do! If you're a piano teacher, you're there to help the student, selflessly and without any ego, not demand that they learn the notes of a piece for the next lesson, and then and only then can you teach them. While neither Miss Roberts nor "Aunty" Veera claimed to be the world's best concert pianist, both of them could always demonstrate a piece at the piano, make a few mistakes if it was an unfamiliar work, but share their love and enthusiasm for what they were teaching. A love and enthusiasm for music. This is important. Hence, when I learnt a piece of music, even if it was a grade exam piece, I first grew to love it for what it was: beautiful music, a dizzying, fun piece that I could play in front of others, or a serene nocturne that I could play at home, by myself. The first concerto I learnt was one I performed for a concert which also included vocal music, guitars, choirs - not for a concerto competition!
Later, when I saw what life was like as a performance student in a music conservatoire, I realized that being a great piano teacher was not something that can be learnt by going to the best music college in the world. It was something innate, the desire to devote hours and hours of one's time, sacrifice one's own playing and practice time, simply so that a nine year old student could learn the left hand of a Bach invention! It was something that one chose to do not because he or she was trying to earn a quick buck on the side, or pay off a mortgage! Most importantly, it was not a second-rate vocation for failed performance graduates, or those who could not cut it on the concert stage. Ironically, two of the worst teachers I have ever encountered have been in two different music conservatoires. One, a former "Head of Piano Department" and the other, a senior professor of the piano faculty. Neither had ever played in a concert, nor had they taught "ordinary" students (i.e. not just extremely competent conservatory students from Russia or the Far East). Neither teacher had any ability to engage with the student (me, and several others of all ages) and if the students managed to do well, it was not because of their teaching but despite it! A few years ago, I interviewed past and present students of the aforementioned "piano professors" as part of an article I was writing for Pianist Magazine. Once they knew they didn't have to disclose their names, the revelations began: the average lesson mainly consisted of a few generic comments and lots of unnecessary lecturing and gossip. Most of what these students learned was in masterclasses with visiting musicians. No surprise then that nearly all these students (who were, at the time in full-time Undergraduate or Post Graduate performance degrees) never kept up their piano playing upon graduation. I'm talking about extremely talented, gifted people here. One former competition winner went on to pursue accounting, another returned to college to do an MBA, while another is a part-time piano teacher who, in her own words "can't stand children!"
Obviously, I'm not saying that a pianist with a B.Mus degree is going to make a bad piano teacher - that's not the case! I'm just saying that an academic qualification or ANY qualification is no way to discern if someone can actually play the piano, or teach instrumental music. In the past, diplomas were considered the be all and end all - in actual fact, a diploma simply means that one has prepared four or five pieces to a very high standard and performed them. I taught adult, amateur students who, despite no previous knowledge, were able to play advanced level repertoire in two or three years - does this mean they are able to teach? Of course not! While any and every piano teacher should do what they can to constantly better themselves, add to their musical knowledge and education, the priority should be to obtain a thorough understanding of the art of teaching. That is something that takes years of patience, practice and a genuine love of teaching itself.
As a teacher, I instinctively know if a student I am teaching will one day become a teacher - irrespective of age or background. I also know that some of my best students may not necessarily have any flair or aptitude for teaching. Nowadays, anyone who does a couple of piano exams starts teaching, often charging top dollar, irrespective of whether they know anything about what it involves. So I am always overjoyed when I know a student will make that most wonderful transition from talented piano student to instinctive, hard-working, passionate piano teacher. A rare, selfless individual who has no desire to be rich or famous, just to share her love and knowledge of this great art form to her next student!
