Can I have people opinions on music teachers. DD8 and I have both been learning piano for 3 years at a music school nearby. DD is about g3, I'm about g6. DD plays trombone to about the same level (she's played trombone for a year less but it's now her primary instrument) and I've actively played the cornet for 30 years to a pretty decent level in the brass band world.
About two years of piano lessons up to April were will the same teacher who we both had a good relationship with. Like all teachers there are a couple of aspects, (some technique and a focus on fluency) that I felt she lacked but I enjoyed the collaborative aspect of lessons, DD also had some ownership in her lessons and really enjoyed lessons and we were both making progress. This teacher left the school and since we have had two teachers who have really underwhelmed me.
The first one was fine with DD (if a little unorganised) but I really struggled moving from feeling like an adult and a collaborator in lessons to just being told what to do with a very dry relationship with the teacher. This went on for 2 months and I was leaving lessons feeling really frustrated and cross so I figured I didn't want to pay for the privilege!
We asked to move teachers in the school and the new teacher is even worse. No rapport, no enjoyment of lessons, just a dry list of things to work on. While he's clearly an excellent pianist now neither of us are enjoying lessons. The last straw last night was after her first piece, he asked DD whether she had played it better this week or last and when she said this week he gave a derisive snort of a laugh at her. She's 8, she tries, she pays attention, she practices at home with my supervision, she gets nothing but good feedback for her effort everywhere else and I sit in lessons so I see her working - she doesn't deserve scorn.
I'm now thinking about moving again but am I the problem and do I need to change my expectations about teachers. I want both of us to progress, but I want someone to treat me as an adult with musical opinions and experience of my own. For both of us, I want the enjoyment to be primary. For comparison we've found an excellent trombone teacher for DD that I'm really happy with, he is a top class performing musician and manages to deliver his feedback in a very engaging and positive way and she is making amazing progress.
I'm torn that maybe I need to give it longer to build the relationship and maybe I'm being the problem, but also I feel like I'm spending substantial money each week for neither of us to enjoy our hobby. (The amount of the money isn't a concern and I'd happily pay more for the right teacher but when we are having 75mins of 1-2-1 lessons between us, that mounts up for the monthly invoice if something isn't right).