Any pianist who takes their craft seriously wants to be better. Ultimately, you will never be a better piano teacher without the desire and drive to become one. There are no quick fixes here, just hard work and consistency. As the headline says, here are five tricks to improve your piano teaching skills – habits you will need to get into.
Never Stop Learning
Don’t just teach, learn new piano teaching skills, and never stop learning. When trying to improve your piano teaching, it is essential that you dedicate your time to practising and expanding your way around the instrument. It is not enough to simply rely on your experience with the piano or playing along with a song.
For your students, a riff, a lick, a chord, a song, a melody, or an altered tune would be okay. The best way to teach is to adopt a mentality of a lifelong learner. Be open to learning new things and considering new ways of playing a piano. Consider signing up for more piano classes or continue your education through webinars and online conferences.
Network with other Teachers
For teachers, professional networking with other teachers presents a lot of benefits. By connecting with other teachers, you can gather new ideas from a wealth of sources. If you are new to teaching piano skills, finding a pro to dispel some words of wisdom, advice, and encouragement can save you from plenty of mistakes along your journey.
Networking also allows you to draw from the portfolios of other teachers. It can be daunting to design a lesson or activity from scratch – all you have to do is ask, and another teacher will be able to send you to the right resources. One thing you should keep in mind, teachers love to share their creations, so take advantage of that desire.
Stay in Touch with your Students
Communication is a key ingredient in the success of any relationship – teacher-student included. Thinking along these lines, stay in touch goes a little further than one phone call here and there. It means finding out your student’s reason for playing the piano and encouraging them to master the musical instrument. If you are comfortable teaching what they aim to achieve, make the space in your piano lesson.
There are plenty of arrangements that a beginner student can play. You can bank on these themes to ignite the interest in your student and get them excited about practicing and learning to play the piano. Focus on uncovering new ways to teach and help your students excel, rather than noticing how they fall short.
Be More Than a Teacher
Teaching music is an art, a sacrifice, and the goal is to change the lives of your students. It is a noble profession; you are in a unique position to impact the student in so many meaningful ways. You spend so much time, one on one with your student on a regular basis, and this could earn you the trust of your student.
Consider adding a non-musical curriculum into your piano lessons to instill the right kind of attitude and morals in your students. Things like staying true to your word are easy skills to incorporate into the piano lesson that will stick with the student long after your lesson. Promoting student physical, emotional, and mental well-being will help them concentrate better and achieve more.
Switch it up
Don’t let the students to get too used to playing one particular piano; they may have to play someone else’s. Obviously, not every student will have the opportunity to showcase their piano playing skills on a multitude of pianos at any given time. But if they are lucky enough to access more than one piece, be sure to alternate between them when they practice so they don’t develop habits on one. Another good idea is to have a bunch of premium piano keyboards to offer students a different feel. Piano keyboards are incredibly versatile and they can play any tune without a single issue.
It is worth having a couple of cheap pianos for this purpose. When they practice obsessively on the same piano, they may find that they reach legend-like levels of ability on that particular piano but struggle somewhat when they pick up someone else. Your student will get into true piano mastery when you switch it up for them.
The Key Takeaway
What you can do to improve your piano teaching skills is to make efficient use of your practice time. You are going to be working hard, regardless of your methods. But with clever time management, you can see more improvements by dedicating at least 30 minutes a day to carefully thought-out piano practice and lesson planning.