As a piano teacher, we only have 30/45/60 minutes with each student in a week. Therefore, it is quite important for us to be able to fit as much musical knowledge into the lesson as possible. Of course, children often have other plans for the lesson. Even the most mature students get distracted, or has an off day.
That being said, I expect none of my students to be perfect. After all, most of them are very young and are learning discipline and respect for the first term. Below, I list out some guidelines for student etiquette, so that the lesson can be both productive and fun!
Etiquette for Piano Students
- Don’t play while the teacher is talking. If the student is playing on the piano while the teacher is trying to talk, that is a clear sign that the student is not actively listening. Most of a piano lesson is verbal, so if the student is not listening, then they will not hear the instructions to improve.
- Don’t excessively complain about the “hard parts”. Of course, not every part of the lesson can be fun. Scales in particular are never very exciting. Exercises in a book are never particularly exciting. However, if a student can gather their focus and be walked through the exercise, there can be more time left over for the fun parts of myself! After all, a piano teacher’s job is to teach music, not just play music.
- Don’t play something that the teacher did not agree on hearing. This is not to say that the piano student should not explore other music on their own. When the piano teacher is there, there is a limited amount of time to get through the necessary basic material. A piano teacher may leave some time at the end of the class to hear other musical material (I do!). Otherwise, the piano student is encouraged to do this type of playing on their own time.
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Eric Ng (B.Mus, A.R.C.T , ECE ) is a piano teacher based in Richmond, B.C. Mr. Eric has taught in a variety of early childhood education styles, including Reggio-inspired, Montessori, Play-based, and Outdoor-based settings. Along with his formal classical music training from the RCM curriculum and the University of Victoria, Mr. Eric brings a unique perspective to teaching music to young children today.