About me
For 33 years I have been teaching students with ages ranging from 5 to 60 plus. As you can imagine, their needs and interests are extremely varied. I spend time each week planning lessons for each student, with a particular focus and clear aims and objectives defined. I take time to reflect on last week’s lesson, focusing on what went well and what could have gone better and look at ways of improving my teaching approach. Each of my students have very different learning styles, therefore each lesson plan is unique.
Many students choose to sit graded piano exams, so again, I help them identify which exam board and style is right for them, before preparing them to sit their exams. A vital part of exam preparation is encouraging students to have the confidence to believe in themselves and make their exam experience positive and enjoyable.
As a piano teacher, I have to be versatile, adaptable, creative, organised, confident and often have to think on the spot as often the lesson plan I have created is not appropriate at that particular time. Maybe a student has struggled with their piece during the week, so we need to spend time looking at it a different way, sometimes students have a particular interest and have a plan themselves for what they would like to cover in a lesson or something has happened at school to upset them so we need to have a really fun lesson to help cheer them up. I need to stay on top of current music and what is popular so I can suggest learning familiar pop songs, particularly to keep the interest of my teenage students.
Being a good listener, empathetic, understanding and encouraging are some other important traits we piano teachers must possess. We want what is best for our students and, for them to develop as pianists, we often have to help them overcome other issues they may have.
Our students often look up to us and often ask for advice. They confide in us with concerns they may have, which is a privilege in a way, but we still have to fulfil our primary role of teaching them to play piano.