Piano Teaching Tips for New Teachers

Many pianists who opt for teaching get frustrated and decide to leave very soon. This happens if you begin to teach without knowing the basic elements of teaching. Confusion begins when you start your first lesson and do not know how and what to start teaching it and from here it goes long if you do not have a proper planning. Those early experiences can be dreadful but you can make them most pleasant ones by following proper guidelines of teaching especially when you are new to the field of teaching. All the new teachers have some common queries and the tips and details that we have shared in this section will surely answer all your queries. The to-do list that we are sharing will surely make your teaching piano experience more valuable and fruitful for yourself as well as for your students.

Tips for New Piano Teacher:

1. Gather proper resources for teaching:

It is always best to have some material in hand in order to follow proper guidelines for teaching piano. These resources include:

• Training Method Books and Magazines: For a new piano teacher, it is best to grab some of the popular and favorite books. Either you can get it from a library or can buy some that you find good for references at various points during teaching. Some of the good books that gives impressive guidelines for teachers include “James Bastien’s How To Teach Piano Lessons”, “Practical Piano Pedagogy”, “Nancy & Randall Faber’s Piano Adventures” and more. Once you search you will find some excellent books giving a variety of teaching ideas making teaching and learning piano more engaging and fun. These books not only present engaging support system for new teachers but they also motivate them. You can also find some good teaching tips with piano teaching magazines such as Keyboard Companion.
• Online Teaching Videos: New teachers can also get directions for teaching piano with some instructional videos online. These videos demonstrate step by step teaching directions for teachers to give a great start. You can observe such videos and can experiment new ways of introducing concepts to your students.
• Online Training Tools: Various online training tools are available that guide you on improving piano playing skills. You can make yourself familiar with such tools and can then use them to guide your students on improving piano playing skills. Some great resources for becoming conversant with such tools are Emusic Theory Drills, Tonic Tutor.
• Online Activity and Game Plans (Printable): This is more important when you are teaching piano for kids. In order to make piano more appealing for kids and more of a fun thing, teachers must include some fun musical games. You will find various blogging sites where similar concepts are introduced for beginners as well as experts. You will be able to find various games for introducing various new terminologies and concepts of piano.
  

2. Teachers must do regular practice:

In order to deliver well as a teacher and for excelling and improving your own skills at playing piano, you should regularly practice. Goals must be set for regular piano practice sessions so that you can improve your weaknesses.

3. Attend workshops, trainings and be part of organization for piano teachers:

Playing any instrument is a skill where you can continuously work to improve yourself. In order to do that you should become part of various piano/music teachers’ organizations and associations where you can undergo training and can attend various training sessions. Such sessions and training would prove to be great learning opportunities as you will be exploring different fresh ideas for teaching as well as learning. Not only that but you will be able to groom your personality and will grow professionally.

4. Subscribe to a piano teacher’s email list:

Becoming part of it would give you enormous amount of information via email that you can use to improve your teaching methods and piano skills. You should also actively participate over teacher’s forums and follow some exclusive blogs for additional teaching tips.

5. Find students by advertising:

You can give our fliers in your locality or can give an advertisement in a newspaper. Publicity by word of mouth also proves beneficial. Adopt various advertising techniques in order to fill in your studio.

6. Plan what you will teach in each session:

Before doing that you must know everything caliber of your student/s. Always plan your lessons. In the first session, you should give your introduction and try to grab some details from your student by asking some questions about him/her. Try to find out what they know about piano by asking them questions like…Have they played piano? Since how long they have been playing? Can they play a simple tone for you over piano? What is their purpose of learning piano? Their like and dislikes related to music? Etc. You can also suggest them some reference books according to their level of learning. Being a teacher, you should have good knowledge of such books.

7. Enjoy teaching:

You and your student may not achieve anything if you do not love your job. Tune your teaching skills and enjoy it to the extent that you continuously find ways to improve your weaknesses. When you love teaching piano, you yourself will be motivated towards finding creative activities and lessons to spice up teaching sessions.

Conclusion:

For a piano teacher it is important to know what your strength and weaknesses are. You should be able to teach students of different age and at different levels of learning. However remember that do what you are comfortable with. Follow materials and procedures that you are comfortable teaching with. Try to include different methods of teaching piano along with introduction and details of various concepts. As a teacher you should encourage your students and give them as much knowledge as they can get hold off. Regularly plan sessions and insist students for regular practicing. All these key tips together will work towards making of a good piano teacher and a successful piano student.