Can a kid have two different piano teachers?

[Dingdong99]

My 9 year old has recently taken up the piano. I tried for months to get her lessons at school, so instead organised for a lovely teacher to come to our house instead

School have been rubbish about getting her lessons and I've been asking for about 12 months. One of my friend's kids got lessons right away, whereas after 12 months, they finally emailed to say she was starting the very next day

She's now had one lesson at school, and school say she can't have 2 different teachers as it's conflicting for both pupil and teacher, and cannot continue unless I cancel the home teacher

I do understand a bit where they are coming from, but feel annoyed that they are makind demands, and i'd feel bad about cancelling the home teacher

Maybe IBU? It seems a little precious to me, as she's only a beginner

I don;t play the piano so can't make my mind up about who is in the right

Stick with your home teacher if your child is progressing well? I imagine they’re cheaper than your school one? Just keep the school aware of progress.

Two teachers isn't a good idea at all.

but it's irrelevant, the school say she can't have school lessons if she's having private lessons. They have a rule, abide by it or don't have school lessons. 🤷🏻‍♀️

if you can afford it, stick with the private lessons. Much better for lots of reasons, most of which will take you a while to understand.

(not a music teacher)

I’d also say no to two teachers.
She’ll be given things to practice which is how you make progress - the number of lessons won’t make much difference if you don’t practice. Two teachers each giving her a piece to practice means either twice the amount of practice or not properly practicing either piece.

Is she Year 4 or 5? Something else to bear in mind is that when she leaves primary school you’ll have to find another teacher anyway so
would it be better to stick with the private one - less upheaval later on? Especially if she’s Year 5 - you’ll be trying to find someone with space this time next year.

We had a very similar situation, and we were also advised that two piano teachers for a beginner was confusing and counterproductive. We went with the home teacher, and it's great - I can see she's a brilliant teacher, it's much more flexible, better feedback, better value. The only downside is my child can't take part in school concerts etc, which I think can be quite motivational.

I’m a piano teacher and 2 teachers really doesn’t work, especially for beginners. Assuming you can afford it stick with the home tutor if your child likes them.

Thank you all - comments very helpful as always

DC are not beginners (one of them is considering a professional career) but they have two teachers and have done for a while. Although it's unusual, they built a good relationship with the teacher they had online during Covid, and aren't willing to give him up. However, both he and the school they do their other piano in agree that online is not enough at this stage, and the piano school (a specialist one) also offers them the opportunity to do concerts, exams, masterclasses and so on. The online teacher also helps with other masterclasses, competitions and so on beyond what the piano school does.

So they are keeping going like that. It's the exception and not the rule, but it can work. Dc are advanced enough that they take it in their stride when their teachers say conflicting things though (and masterclass teachers yet another, often), which could be much more confusing for a beginner.

Best to stick with one. As pp said it's the practice that is most important for progression.

Does your home teacher teach theory/musicianship? Then (s)he could come over and teach that instead and perhaps 'help' DD do a bit of piano practice.

It it helps I moved my DC from a private teacher to school. We weren't happy with the attitude of the private teacher, so it was an easier decision for us.

The pros of in school are:

1. It's in school - so no cleaning the house or having to arrange your family life around it - it keeps the weekends/evenings at home free for other things.
2. DD has told me she likes being called out of lessons (silly I know but it makes her feel a bit special). This is in direct contrast to loathing having to wait around (on a weekend) for her outside-school lesson. It is much more time efficient.
3. DD gets to perform in the school concerts/ensembles. All children are eligible but you have to put yourself forward rather than be selected if you have lessons outside school.
4. If teacher leaves or is sick they get a replacement so DD never misses a lesson.

The cons:

1. It's in school - so make sure they rotate the lessons so DC don't miss the same thing every week (in secondary school I missed a GCSE maths lesson every week - not great - but I don't have a problem with DC missing primary school work).
2. I will be looking to have out of school lessons once DC is in secondary as it's unlikely the council peripatetics that serve the local secondaries are better than the local private teachers. Luckily the current private music school can offer this - check with your school what happens when they leave (i.e. can they keep teacher privately).
3. It's not cheaper for me as school use services of a private music school. Your school may use county/borough peripatetics so you may save money this way.

Stick to just your home teacher - we considering cancelling our in school teacher as lessons move about too much and conflict with core subjects - we get catch up work to do at home, which I can understand but I'd rather her doing music at home than core school work. We are in primary.

I agree with the majority - particularly for a beginner two teachers is likely to be confusing. If you like your home teacher I would stick with them. Aside from anything else if you only have the school lessons that's at least 13 weeks with no lesson, including 6 over the Summer which is enough time to get rather rusty!

My DD has always had two music teachers for French Horn. The one at school is the "main" teacher, who decides on the pieces she work on, organises the exams and the home teacher supplements the work set by the school teacher, in a similar way as a tutor would. It's definitely taken the stress out of practicing and both teachers leave brief notes for each other in the practice book.

I think it depends on the level the child is at and whether it's a good match with the teachers - and you putting in a lot of work coordinating.

DD has two singing teachers - one she's has been with for over seven years and sees for an hour every week all year round, the other is now nearly 4 years and is for 30 minutes a week during term time.

It works brilliantly as they focus on different genres and different bits of her voice. But I do a lot of work keeping both informed of what each is doing and focused on. Initially there was a bit of 'how will this work' but in practice it has been great. Home teacher also works on School teacher stuff in holidays so no big gaps.

For a beginner though, it could be very confusing - and the same if teachers have very different styles.

Much as I love both, if I had to pick I would go with Home as there is more continuity - all DD's other instruments are outside school. It does also depend on how seriously they are taking music though.

Yes this is absolutely true.
My DS has 2 piano teachers for a while and it was fine, but he was quite experienced by then, they knew each other, communicated and took on different roles.
It's the same with lots of things. My DD is a dancer - well a teacher herself now - and when she was very little her ballet teacher strongly discouraged parents from taking their DC to other schools and would ask them to leave her if she found out they were doing so. At the time I thought she was being a bit precious but as time went on I understood it. When DD was older she had loads of different teachers and learned different things from each of them, but by that stage she had sound basic technique, could appreciate that there was more than one correct way to do something and waz able to adapt to different teaching styles. But as a young beginner one good teacher is probably best. Now DD is a teacher she feels the same.
I think it's even the same for academic subjects. My DC have had a maths tutor for GCSE and A level and I think they've benefited from having a different approach at times. But in primary school when they were getting the hang of the basics, even if DH and I showed them a different way to the way school taught something it seemed to confuse them.

We were in a very similar situation, though DS was in year 3.
We found a home piano teacher after school said there were no spaces. Eventually DS was given a tutor at school and as I wasn't sure how things would go, I discussed with DS' school piano teacher about initially retaining the home teacher to allow for a good transition (and in case school weren't a good fit).
It quickly became apparent that 2 teachers was not a good idea and that our home teacher arrangement was far better in terms of fit and being able to get a full practice in without disturbing any lessons.
He still gets to perform at school and still gets to share his grade certificates.
Having a home teacher means that we can continue lessons over holidays too (important for my DS who hates having to stop/start them). Another benefit was being able to take part in local church concerts - great experience.
Oh and it was FAR cheaper!