Something just went through my mind and wanted to write it down.

Basically a piano lesson is not just a one way flow….!

If it only goes from the piano teacher to the student, or close to 100% of the time, the piano lessons may break down after a while.

I really think the teacher should let the piano student express him/herself in different ways.

The problem you may encounter is the student just keeps on talking…. the one-hour lesson is already gone… almost nothing was covered! That would not really be an optimum lesson, slowing down the progress.

Using good communication and keeping the goals set for the current lesson, the piano teacher can direct an efficient piano session.

The student has something to say, let’s have fun and talk for a second.

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But this is only one aspect of what I wanted to cover in this blog post.

The other one is letting the student play as much as possible.

This reverses the flow.

While he/she is playing piano, he/she is communicating something!

If the student can play about 75% of the time during the lesson.

Of course, some lessons will concentrate on theory and that is totally fine. But overall the piano teacher needs to look at the balance between theory and actually playing the piano.

I would say that just playing and not covering the theory would also be unbalanced lesson plan (when looking at a whole series of piano lessons).

So here, the piano teacher talks and explains and shows and makes the student do things, repeat things, etc. That’s pretty intense when you think about. That’s the flow from the teacher to the piano student.

That is why it’s crucial to let the student play. After all, you need to hear and see what your student does. And by him/her playing, you can observe and point out exactly what he/she will need to focus and practice for the coming week. This can be done without much talking at all. Very efficient.

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To conclude, the piano lesson scenario should involve free communication but quickly reorienting the student with the purpose of meeting this particular session’s goals.

The student should be “communicating” (via the piano) at least 50% upwards to 75% (and I tend to make it close to 75% as mentioned above).

So that’s it for today. I just thought I would put this down and hopefully this could help you sort out what is a piano lesson for yourself.

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I’m a piano teacher in Los Angeles and teaching for over 10 years now…. (that makes me look old, well, older at least). I meanly teach in-home in any of the cities close to Hollywood such as Burbank, Glendale, Silverlake, NOHO, Hancock Park, Beverly Hills, Studio City and the eastern part of San Fernando Valley.

Patrick
Los Angeles piano lessons