Teaching style in music

[mamakoukla]

DD is at a music school, working on grade 2 piano. In the last year she has had three teacher changes. Her current teacher (second lesson in) approaches the pieces in a completely different way. With previous teachers it was more learn the notes then add in musicality. The new teacher is going through the piece, writing in how to play notes on the music. DD is struggling with this approach - in part because it is quite different and also regimented (she has to play with the dynamics etc as the teacher insists). On the flip side, I can see how this will help her learn to understand the musical landscape of a piece right from the start. What are people’s experiences and opinions please?

DS’s teacher tried a variety of approaches to find what suited him best. He has an amazing memory and a natural appreciation for the music but is young and so the brain hand thing isn’t a quick as it will be.

She’s told me that she always alters her teaching style to fit the pupil. To capitalise on their strengths and practise the weaknesses.

Does the teacher know DD is struggling with this approach?

I haven’t spoken with her about this yet as I am trying to think this through re. is it just that DD is in at the deep end with a different approach/steep learning curve?

Could be. Maybe it will be beneficial in the long run. Its can be demoralising to get worse to get better though. On the other hand if she improves it’s good experience for the future to be able to work with different styles of teaching.

Personally I prefer the note perfect then add the emotion way but I’m impatient and want to see results quickly. It’s not necessarily the better way, just different.

If you get them to listen to a recording of the piece, and pieces from a similar period, they will pick up the style naturally. Seems a bit daft to learn a piece twice, once for notes, once for style ...

Yes, Extrapianolessons - this is the sort of approach I have generally seen where the student learns the notes and as they gain fluency, the musicality is built in. Listening to the piece (if you can find a reliable recording re note values especially) is really useful Moominmammacat. To me, it isn’t so much as learning it twice as learning and then developing the detail. The two things I am pondering are

1. Is this method too restrictive in terms of musical interpretation being set by the teacher?
2. Or, will this allow the student to learn skills on how to interpret a piece?

The bottom line is will this be a good way for my daughter to learn and how, as a person with very limited knowledge of music and its related pedagogy, can I evaluate this?

What sort of things do you mean by musicality? I find with DS that it's vital to get dynamics, articulation, correct note lengths (e.g. if RH is supposed to hold a note while LH moves) in from the start, because he finds those habits really hard to change later. Other aspects of mood and rubato can't really be done until he can actually play the notes.

At the beginning, DD works on learning the notes, with correct note values, rests, rhythm. Once she is becoming familiar and knows these, she adds in dynamics, articulation, etc. When she is learning at the start, it doesn’t flow and I guess that is what makes it difficult to do say dynamics as she cannot necessarily follow the change in volume by ear if it is disjointed. So she is struggling to do this from the first time playing/ slow sight reading.

The teacher also seems to be quite rigid re interpretation and it must essentially be played as she says. Is this typical? I understand DD needs to learn this, but this is the first teacher who is quite strict about using this method and not deviating from the details she sets.

Hmm, I think it is generally a good idea to follow teacher's instructions re interpretation at this level. Different pieces do need a different style and teacher will know more about that than the student. As a very experienced grade 8+ adult, I go more with I'll try the teacher's suggestion for a few weeks, then decide which I prefer. Teacher's still usually right though!
That said it does slightly drive me up the wall that every single student of DS's teacher fails to slow down in the slow section, DS won't listen to me because "teacher says" and DS gets penalised in the exam for it. So I'll be taking responsibility for having a conversation with teacher if I spot that one happening again.
Dynamics yeah maybe. Articulation i think definitely worth putting in at the hands separately stage as holding a legato is quite a different physical movement to separate notes or staccato.

Thank you all for the comments and feedback so far. It is helping put things straight in my mind.

Op, you are uncomfortable with this teacher and I think you are right to be. Really at that stage practice to achieve accuracy and some technique is the aim. If the student is musical the expression with arrive by itself, with some guidance and listening to good performers.