So I mentioned a few entries below that I'm hoping to take piano lessons again in the fall. I've been to see and/or talked to five teachers so far, and have now narrowed it down to 3... This is where I need input.
Here are the options.
Here are the options.
- Teacher one is an older teacher, has been in the business for YEARS, but has admitted that she's cutting back and working on retiring. If I go with her, I could easily be out of a teacher in a couple of years. Having said that, she's worked with mature students for years, and has a special interest in injury prevention (which is great, considering I spend all day at a keyboard and then would be spending my evenings at another sort of keyboard). She is also a stickler for technical studies which is what killed me when I was taking piano before - that's the part that almost made me fail my grade 10 piano, and she seems like she'll push me super hard on that. Her teaching style makes up for some of what I've lacked in the past - learning about harmonic progressions in the music, and focusing on how those work. I have not yet met this teacher, but our phone conversation was super informative, and she really assessed my needs quite thoroughly. Having said that, I'm worried that I would get bored with the technical aspects and pressure in that regard.
- Teacher two is younger - she can't be much older than I am. This means I would likely have the opportunity to grow with her, work with her, and hopefully manage to strike a balance. She has worked with mature students in the past, and has helped them to do what I'm planning on doing, with great results. She doesn't seem like she'd be such a pusher on the technical aspects, but having said that, I don't think she'd let them slide either. She had me play for her today, and watched for any major issues in my technical performance. She was very intent on not letting me get bored with what I was doing, but also on making sure that I'm able to achieve my goals. With her, I'm a bit worried that the technical requirements for the exam that I want to take might not get as much work, but I believe that we'd have the sort of rapport that I might not get from an old-school teacher.
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My theory is go with the old-school teacher for now so that you get your technical work well underway but maintain a rapport with the younger girl so that when your first teacher retires, you still have her as an option.
Then again, you may want to actually meet with the technical woman to be sure that your personalities would mesh; it's easy to land a phone interview, but it's another thing to do the in-person one.