Teaching piano students is a wonderful experience.  There is something incredibly rewarding about seeing another person master music, especially if they are enjoying it along the way.  Therefore, as a teacher, it is vital that I give all the tools I can to learn music efficiently and find joy in the process.

            First and foremost, I strive to be kind and respectful to my students at all times.  I genuinely care about my students as people, and I strive to make this come across in my teaching.  I am firmly committed to never putting them down or making them feel guilty for not playing well.  Instead, I strive to be lovingly honest in my evaluations of both the positive and the negative.  Over-complimenting helps no one – the students need to know the areas in which they need to grow, and they also need to be able to trust that my compliments are well-earned when I give them.  Overall, I strive to push them to achieve their best without overwhelming them.  My goal is to be the kind of teacher who inspires students to want to practice and do well.

            Another cornerstone of my teaching philosophy is a tailored, student-specific approach to teaching.  One of the most fascinating things about teaching is that every student is different – with different strengths, weaknesses, motivations, and overall personalities.  I am willing to teach any type of student who wants to learn, as long as I can teach the student well.  If I am not equipped to justice to any particular student’s musical education, I will do my best to find them a teacher who does have the proper skill set.  Although I primarily teach classical repertoire, I will explore other styles with students if they prefer.  Also, I try to figure out what motivates each individual student and use that to encourage home practice and love of the craft. 

            I believe that good technique is absolutely essential to any musician of any level, so I am committed to developing strong technique in my students from the very start.  Students will always have technique exercises, but these can range from scales and arpeggios to etudes, etc.  My central philosophy of tailoring my teaching to the student applies here too: I will give students technique exercises depending on their current technical challenges or techniques needed for upcoming pieces.  As proper hand position has made a world of difference in my own playing, hand position is something I will constantly stress in my students’ lessons.  Relaxation and use of arm weight are two more fundamental principles I will instill into all of my students, since they eliminate scores of technical issues and injuries.  Despite the importance of technique, however, technique will never be an end in itself.  The primary purpose of technique is to make the piece playable so for the student so that he or she can focus completely on the piece’s musical aspects and/or emotional meaning.

            Complete musicianship is the ultimate goal in my studio.  I will do my best to help my students achieve truly musical playing through proper dynamics, a beautiful tone, smooth and connected phrases, and a vast array of characters and moods.  Other aspects of complete musicianship include ear-training, which is extremely important for musical understanding and appreciation as well as for the student’s internal feedback system.  Many piano method books lack sufficient ear-training and aural skills, so I will make sure to supplement this if it is not taught explicitly in the student’s book.  Other elements of musicianship include performances and ensemble playing, both of which I plan to incorporate into my studio.  All students will be required to participate in piano recitals approximately twice a year.  Even if a student does not want to perform, I will work as hard as I can to make performance a pleasant experience for him or her.  I would like to instill in my students the attitude of performing music for the purpose of bringing joy to others.  Not only does this help reduce stage fright, but it also provides a higher goal than simply playing for oneself or for applause.  I would like to investigate opportunities to take my students to perform in nursing homes, as this can be a rare and tremendous blessing to the residents.  In addition to performances, I would like to give my students opportunities to play with other people.  Of course, teacher duets are the easiest way to do this, but I would like to go beyond this.  My ideas include things like student duets, trios, and even 10-hand pieces(!); collaborations with studios of other instrumentalists; partnering with other piano studios for events such as mini competitions; or even specific extracurricular experiences that a student is interested in.

            Although some studios make regular use of technology, I currently have an extremely limited use of technology in my own studio and plan to keep it this way for now.  This may change as I learn more about available technologies; however, I also tend to prefer old-school methods, especially because I focus my teaching on the Classical music tradition.  My students and I do, however, enjoy using the app Staff Wars, which helps them learn the notes on the staff in a fun and engaging way.  I would also encourage my students to record themselves and listen back to the recordings to hear their performances more objectively.  At some point, I may also experiment with orchestra accompaniment tracks, simply because these sound fun and I think that my students would enjoy them very much. 

            This is my current philosophy.  As I grow as a teacher, I expect that my philosophies will grow and change with me.  However, I anticipate that my ultimate goal will always remain the same: to train many students to play the piano with fluency, complete musical understanding, and enjoyment.