 I am fairly new to piano teaching. I am now coming up on rounding off my second year. Due to this, I am constantly learning new things about the teaching world. Regardless of my methods (Music is like language, you have to have precedence in judgement) I recently had a great conversation with a fellow piano teacher that I have been networking with in Arizona. We were speaking of the dreaded economy that has effected each and every business person lately. To be more concentrated about the issue, we were discussing more candidly about how the sad drop in the economy has effected private piano teachers. Dan Starr is an amazing individual. I recently came across his line of publications that work towards the bettering of music educators. I am only into the first book from his collection, and I know that it will help to better my studio as a whole. Oddly enough, Dan and I were on the same page. A teacher with MUCH more experience than me was on the same page with me about how to deal with the financial value of our profession! To his credit, This individual has been teaching 20 years! He had even made a joke saying, "When I first started teaching (ouch-20+ years ago!)". I completely commend him. When I find out that sombeen contributing to education for this long, it gives me hope for my own career. We were talking about the value of your method of teaching. When the economy is bad, sometimes business will panic and lower their prices to the point of desperation. My thoughts? If you know that you are offering a service or product that is of great value, there is no need to do this. It is understandable to try to adjust to what is happening in this day and age, yet you know that someone is "That much more serious" about their own or their child's musical education if they are still willing to pay the deserved priceless quote of education.  There are many different methods for teaching sight reading. There are ways to teach a child to gradually get used to sight reading, there are ways to work with the piano, and bring the grand staff into the equation much later on, and there are ways to bring the grand staff directly into repertoire from the start. I think that it is important to keep your standards high as a music educator. I do not believe that you should have unrealistic goals for your students, although, I think that it is very important to be aware of the capabilities of the human mind. All of my students are extremely unique in their own way, and also very intelligent individuals. Out of all of the elements that are involved in learning how to play the piano, I think that sight reading is of the utmost importance. If a musician is able to sight read, they are able to adjust to any situation. When starting with a young student; I like to bring the grand staff to their attention immediately. I feel that when I do this, it keeps the bar high and the student’s level of concentration right there with it. It is imperative that my students are well aware of how the grand staff correlates to the piano. If this is implemented straight away, I believe that it conditions the young mind to grow. What are your thoughts about introducing sight reading to young students, and beginners? |  _____________My name is Suzan Pleva. I am the owner and instructor at a private piano studio called Melody Piano. I teach out of Michigan, but love to share ideas with other musicians. ____________ ______________ArchivesAugust 2010 ______________CategoriesAll ______________
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