Skills for becoming a Pro Piano Teacher

Teaching is surely an art that needs you to have the right kind of skills. Not everyone could prove to be a good instructor and when it comes to teaching music, it is crucial to consider a teacher with proper skills of becoming a pro piano teacher. Attitude and professionalism of piano teachers may vary. You may find some teachers who are really strict, straightforward and harsh while others could be really gentle and caring though goal-oriented too. Teaching piano would prove to be rewarding for you as a teacher as well as for students if proper guidance and instructions are given with right attitude. Competency and skills of a teacher may not only be judged by the number of years in the career but it goes much beyond it that we will explore later through this page.

Range of Professionalism:

All around the world,piano teachers have different professional quality and skills. Some teachers come with a rich background of higher education in the field, some may be undergraduate, some may have teaching experience of years or some may have learnt to play piano independently. Some organizations and institutes also offer certification programs that gives you learning of musical history, theory and practice of piano. No matter what style of learning piano you may have opted as a teacher, most important is to have competence of playing piano like a pro.

Factors that Judge Teacher’s Quality:

Apart from learning academics through institutions, books or from any professional; in order to become a good piano teacher you must have:

• Knowledge of musical genres,
• Knowledge of history and theory of music,
• Ability to perform,
• Teaching experience,
• Methodologies to teach different styles and to different people.

Skills required for becoming a Pro Piano Teacher:

Teaching or learning piano can turn out to be a beautiful experience provided you have aspiring piano teacher with a proper skill set and experience in the field. Unfortunately there are no prerequisites set for a piano teacher like we have for other professions and this is the reason why many students may not be able to differentiate between professionals or casual unqualified music teachers. By saying that we do not mean that a great qualified musician could be a great teacher. In order to become a good piano teacher, you must possess the following set of skills:

Passion Towards Teaching:

This is an important aspect when teaching is considered for any field at any level. In order to build a long term relationship between the three of you; teacher, students and the piano it is imperative to have passion towards teaching and learning. Without passion growth of teacher or students is not possible. Teacher should be enjoying all the aspects of teaching and should make all his/her efforts to make the session enjoyable for students too. If teacher is passionate and enthusiastic while teaching them piano, this skill is most likely to transfer to students and you will be able to see a spark of passion in your students too.

Set Realistic Goals and Organized Learning:

As a piano teacher, you should be able to keep everything organized for your session in order to save your time as well as of your student. Give importance to each practice and learning session and set realistic goals both short term and long term. Keep your student well-informed about goals and give clear instructions on how to achieve them. Organized goals and assignments would make your teaching straight and focused and result would come out more easily.

Know your own skills:

As a teacher you should be well aware of your skill set and should know what your limitations are. It is true that students will come to learn and then they may bring with themselves some challenges for you. As a piano teacher, you should be at that level where you should handle challenges. Apart from that as you teach your students, they will grow and thus a time will come when you will not have skills to teach them more. You should have a clear idea of that point and then you can recommend them some other instructor or teacher for guidance or teaching at that higher level.

Continuously Work to Improve Level:

A pro piano teacher should always be focused on improving his/her level of skills over piano. He/she should be focused on learning more and more so that he could share those experiences and expertise with his students. Teachers should be willing to learn from other professionals belonging to various groups or organizations or individuals for that purpose.

Honesty is Crucial:

Distrust in a relationship can ruin it forever. A false appreciation or pretending to show interest when you are not really interested in a student’s success or failure can be deadly for your teacher-student relationship. A student may then never be able to trust you once he/she finds out about a false connection. Never do that! Always be honest and sincere. Assess performance of your student with honesty and you will be able to make the most out of time and efforts that you both are devoting for the purpose of teaching/learning piano. Teacher should make observation and identify problem areas for students. Do it on regular basis and in a clear manner and then you can help in solving those issues with your student.

Have Control but Be Flexible:

There may be chances that a student may miss some lessons and may need to re-schedule because of any unforeseen circumstances, the teacher should be flexible. Though the control should be in your hands and if you must not allow student to take advantage of your flexibility. But when situations are conflicting and cancellation or rescheduling is required, try to be flexible in order to keep your students connected with you.

Conclusion

As a piano teacher, you should stay positive and motivated towards making your students learn to play piano. Believe in your students and in their eagerness of learning to play piano and together both of you can make this a journey to cherish for a lifetime. Remember that you yourself can justify whether you have the key skills of teaching and guiding someone’s musical journey or not. If you find that you are right one for this job, then teaching piano could become the best part of your life. Be focused and continue learning too in order to excel your professional piano skill levels.