Dear Bernhard

[minsmusic]

Hi!

You've mentioned a number of times that you don't have the half hour lessons once a week for young students.

I'm interested in how you go about it.  When do they come, how do you get the parents to agree, how much do you charge, when (if ever) does this change, and how many students do you have on this approach?

I can see the benefits, but how do you implement it?

Appreciate your thoughts.
Jenny

[bernhard]

Briefly (as if!):

1.      I don’t do lessons. I do courses.

2.      Course 1: Standard for children and complete beginners: 1 hour per week.

Students start by having the hour spread during the week: 10 – 15 minutes everyday 5 days/week. After 3 – 6 months (depending on progress) students are upgraded to two 30 minute lessons per week. After 1- 2 years (depending on progress) students upgrade to one hour per week. After 3 years student is independent to pursue his/her own interests. S/he is given two choices depending on how s/he wants to move on. S/he can continue with me, but this time through advanced classes centering on a particular piece that take 2 – 2 1/2 hours and are one offs – or they can be referred to a performer teacher.

Course 2 – Mainly for adult students. (I will accept children in special circumstances). This is an intensive course. Daily lessons lasting 45 minutes – one hour, five days per week.

3.      Every prospective student is given thorough explanations in writing on how all this works and why. Every prospective student/parent has an interview to make very clear that there must be an agreement: I will teach to the best of my ability, but I expect the student to learn to the best of his/her ability. The student must understand that I expect piano to be his/her priority in life. Practice is the single most important activity (although I tell the parents that it should come right after homework in my heart I believe it should come first).

4.      At 6 months if the student has failed to progress to an expected standard (taking into account his talent/efforts) s/he will be referred to another teacher. This happens rarely these days because I don’t take time wasters in the first place. As my experience grew over the years I developed an uncanny ability to spot them.

5.      I prefer to work with students from scratch: it is easier to develop technique and good habits this way. I will take advanced students that learned form other teachers on the basis of an audition. If I consider that I can help them I will. If an advanced student comes to me with too many bad habits I may give him/her a three months trial period to see if s/he can change. If s/he can’t change in three months, I will probably not be able to help him/her and I will refer him/her to another teacher.

6.      Payment is monthly, in advance, all months of the year. Fees are very high. There are no cancellations. If possible (and I will bend backwards here) I will always try to make up lessons missed for good reason (e.g. sickness).

7.      Parents who do not agree with these conditions (and others) are welcome to look for another teacher. I get many enquiries, and I reckon that about 90% decide not to pursue a course of study with me. Yet my waiting list is now two years long.

8.      I have never advertised, I only teach privately (I have an intense dislike for Institutional education) and I am always surprised how some people get to hear about me.

9.      Ideally I try not to teach more than 25 students at any given moment. At the moment, because of unforeseen circumstances, I have 29 regular students varying in age from 4 – 64 and at different levels. Plus a few advanced students who come infrequently for one-off advanced classes.

10.      None of my students is a prodigy (although I have a five year old that may surprise all of us). They vary in talent form highly talented to desperately untalented (and thrown some learning disabilities in the pot too). But talent is of no importance to me. The only important consideration as far as I am concerned is capacity for work, and obedience (I expect my students to follow instructions to the letter). If I have to choose between a hard working obedient student and a wilful prodigy, I will always choose the former.

11.      For me, personally this is the most rewarding way of teaching music (if you share my concept of reward which is to see a student grow musically). However it will limit your intake of students severely. When I first started teaching like this, I could only cope with 7 – 8 students. As I learned the ropes of this system, I became more efficient.

12.      Ultimately I don’t think of myself as someone who teaches the piano, but as someone who teaches how to learn the piano.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. I am happy to elaborate, but it might be easier if one concentrates on one issue at a time.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[minsmusic]

Do you teach in groups? or individually?

How did you arrive at your strategy?

[chopiabin]

WOW! Did you come up with this method yourself? I wish my teacher would make me do this.

[bernhard]

Do you teach in groups? or individually?

How did you arrive at your strategy?

I only teach individually. (I have taught groups in the distant past).

Teaching in groups is a great idea if you want to make easy money (hence schools, where you can milk the most from a great number of students, paying the least to the poor teacher). However nothing beats individual tuition for quick progress, which is all I am interested in.

The strategy is nothing new really. If you read the lifes of all great pianists, all of them had daily lessons and daily supervision. We tend to be obsessed by the idea of “genius” and “prodigy” and pay little attention to all the effort and discipline that runs along with it.

Ultimately what drove me to it was sheer frustration with the lack of progress of my students. I knew the problem was not with me, or with the students, but with the system. So I changed the system and everything changed.

Imagine for a minute trying to teach a child to read and write with weekly 30 minute lessons. So why do piano teachers do it? Part of the reason is that you will not be able to have 60 students. Part of the reason is that most parents are not really interested in their children learning music. All they want is the “façade”. But contrary to many so called music educators, I have no interest in teaching music to the masses (the masses are not that interested, believe me). So this way of teaching will not reach to the millions, but this is perfectly fine with me.


Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[rebecca]

Hi Bernhard,

I read all your comments.  They are very inspiring and helpful.  

You seem to be running your studio successfully with great studio policies and innovative teaching ideas.  May I know what method book(s) you use for teaching?  What are your comments on the method books that are available in the market?  Do you use other instruments to assist your teaching (e.g. percussion instruments)?  

- R

[bernhard]

Hi Bernhard,

I read all your comments.  They are very inspiring and helpful.  

Thank you

You seem to be running your studio successfully with great studio policies and innovative teaching ideas.  May I know what method book(s) you use for teaching?  What are your comments on the method books that are available in the market?  

I do not use method books.

I teach according to the student’s capabilities and tastes. For me the most important step is to find a piece the student really likes. A piece s/he is prepared to go to hell and back in order to learn. If I succeed in finding this one piece then I know I will be able to successfully teach the student.

It will also take care of the single element that will make or break a piano course: motivation.

Once I find this piece, all the teaching goes from there: technique, theory, scales, harmonic analysis, everything is taught using that piece. We then move on to the second piece the student would like to learn. And so on and so forth. By the fifth piece the student is beginning to grasp the principles of music and has also five pieces s/he loves in his/her repertory. This is very quick because of the daily lesson scheme. In fact it is common for my students to have about 15 – 20 pieces in their repertory after 3 – 4 months.

The difficulty of the piece is completely irrelevant. The only important consideration is the desire of the student to play it. If the piece proves to be impossible (like someone wanting to play the Revolutionary Study on the first lesson), I will:

a)      find a piece of similar character that is possible

b)      work towards preparing the ground for later tackling the impossible piece.

In the meantime I will be exposing the student to pieces s/he never dreamed existed, since many times their taste is very limited. After about a year they are choosing pieces in a wide rage of styles/composers. But I always start with something they like. You can only lead if you join them first (Or as Ghandi said: “There goes my people: Let me run ahead of them so that I can lead them”).

The real problem starts when the student comes to the lesson and has no idea of what piece s/he wants to play. This is surprisingly common with children. For all the muzak around, they have no connection to music (I blame the parents). Typical conversation:

-      So Mary, which tune would you like to play?
-      I don’t know.
-      Well, what kind of music do you like?
-      I don’t know.
-      Have you seen Beauty and the beast (or any other Disney movie)?
-      Yes.
-      Did you like the songs?
-      I don’t know.
-      What about this (I play something) Or this?
-      I don’t know.

I turn to mother who is there watching (I usually ask one of the parents to attend the first lessons so that I can explain to them what I expect in terms of practice, etc.)

-      What kind of music does she enjoys listening at home?
-      Er… We actually don’t listen to much music at home…

This is really the most difficult scenario that can possibly exist. It means that you have to postpone piano lessons (as most people would understand them) and work on music appreciation. I will give children like that 6 months trial to see if I can interest them (I reckon my success rate is about 30-40%), otherwise I will advise the parents to wait until the child develops some sort of interest – otherwise piano lessons become a torture and a sure way to put the child of music for life.

Having said that, I am not against methods. I just don’t use them. I think they can be important for teachers who are just starting, or who do not yet feel confident or experienced enough to tailor their teaching to the student (you can almost say “improvise” here – except that I do a lot of preparation – which to me goes against the idea of improvisation).

Methods (the good ones anyway) provide a grade progression and lesson plans you can rely on if you don’t know yet what to do. The main problem I see with methods is that they are basically what some other teacher does. It may or may not work. It certainly will not work for everyone (I know my methods don’t work for everyone).

At the moment there are so many methods in the market that I don’t know even where to begin. But of many I have seen through the years, I was very impressed with Jon George’s “Artistry at the Piano” series, Candida Tobin’s methodology (which uses colour and is a big hit with the little ones), and Walter and Carol Noona “Scriva” series.

Do you use other instruments to assist your teaching (e.g. percussion instruments)?  

Yes. I do use other instruments in my teaching. The basic one is the recorder (which I play). All my piano students must learn the accompaniment part to a recorder piece, and then play it with me since I believe that nothing furthers musicality more than ensemble playing. I encourage them to bring me duet pieces they can play with their friends who play another instrument (flute, violin, etc.), and in the case of my recorder students, they must be part of a recorder consort. I often have my recorder students being accompanied by my piano students. And there is no greater joy than to find out that they are exploring duet repertory behind my back and playing unassigned pieces on their own (it does not happen as often as I would like, sadly ).

We also work through a lot of four-hand and two piano repertory.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[minsmusic]

I didn't know you taught the recorder as well Bernhard.
I've had a few requests to teach recorder - as it is I teach piano, keyboard (you know, with all the auto accompaniment, drum fills, breaks, what have you) singing, and guitar.  I think,   another instrument.  
Don't get me wrong, I love playing the recorder, just not the ole three note songs you have to start with.   I think ahead about four years and get thrilled at the idea of a baroque recorder quartet, but then think, ah! I have to persevere with all those horrible sounds first.  

Mmmmm.  I have to be inspired and filled with information.  I've got a recorder book (sorry, can't remember the name - the book's downstairs in my studio and I can't be bothered getting it ... had a long teaching day today ..) that I'm happy with.  Piano accompaniment to solo recorder.  And I record my own backings on CD for my other instruments, so it's no problem doing the same for recorder.  So what's my question ...

How do YOU go about it?  (I made it as general as I could so you can anwer any ole way you like)

Thanks Bernhard.  I really appreciate the time and consideration you put into your posts on this forum.  (I'd give you a kiss smiley but you might take it the wrong way )

[bernhard]

I didn't know you taught the recorder as well Bernhard.
I've had a few requests to teach recorder - as it is I teach piano, keyboard (you know, with all the auto accompaniment, drum fills, breaks, what have you) singing, and guitar.  I think,   another instrument.  
Don't get me wrong, I love playing the recorder, just not the ole three note songs you have to start with.   I think ahead about four years and get thrilled at the idea of a baroque recorder quartet, but then think, ah! I have to persevere with all those horrible sounds first.  

Mmmmm.  I have to be inspired and filled with information.  I've got a recorder book (sorry, can't remember the name - the book's downstairs in my studio and I can't be bothered getting it ... had a long teaching day today ..) that I'm happy with.  Piano accompaniment to solo recorder.  And I record my own backings on CD for my other instruments, so it's no problem doing the same for recorder.  So what's my question ...

How do YOU go about it?  (I made it as general as I could so you can anwer any ole way you like)

Thanks Bernhard.  I really appreciate the time and consideration you put into your posts on this forum.  (I'd give you a kiss smiley but you might take it the wrong way )

Er, what exactly is your question?

I am not sure I should be talking about the recorder in a piano forum. But very briefly:

1.      I use the same system for recorder as for piano (lessons everyday, etc.)

2.      I spend a lot of time of the first month just teaching to hold the recorder properly and to get a good intonation (basically breath control). Then a lot of time is dedicated to tonguing (the most under taught recorder skill, but probably the most important since articulations and dynamics will completely depend on it).

3.      I try to start on the treble recorder: the sound is nicer and the majority of the repertory is written for it. However size of hands may not allow it.

4.      I expect students to be at grade 8 (playing baroque sonatas) at the end of one year: the recorder is far easier than the piano.

5.      Recorder consort music is far easier than recorder solo music. I use the Steven Rosenberg books (they are collections of original recorder consort music from all periods) from the very beginning. After two or three months everyone can be playing music that sounds very professional and impressive together, even though the individual parts are terribly simple.

6.      I do not use educational music. I only use the real stuff – there is plenty of it at all levels.

7.      I do not start with three notes (BAG – soprano; EDC – treble), since this will create all sorts of wrong habits. I start with GED – soprano and CAG – treble since this forces the student to use both hands from the start. I move to six – seven notes as fast as I can possibly do (two–three days). Then I will stick there for quite a while. There is quite a lot of wonderful repertory using only six –seven notes.

8.      The most important reference books for a teacher would be Anthony Rowland-Jones (Introduction to the recorder, Recorder technique and Playing recorder sonatas) all published by Oxford University Press and the indispensable Walter Van Hawer – The Modern recorder player (Schott). You don’t really need any other books, and at the same time you cannot do without them; although there are other nice ones out there.

9.      Contrary to popular perception the recorder is a very difficult instrument to play well (aren’t they all), a difficulty that is complicated when you enter the minefield of “authentic” baroque/renaissance performance. Nevertheless it will teach one everything there is to know about things like style and ornaments. In fact I am grateful to the recorder because I now have a very solid foundation of ornamentation practices – something that most pianists do not have.

10.      Finally I make no concessions to age. I expect my six year olds to play Handel sonatas, and not just some silly nursery rhymes. And I don’t take kindly to the notion that some parents have that the recorder is a provisional instrument “until Johnny grows old enough to learn the clarinet”. I make it very clear that I am not going to waste my time just to see little Johnny drop the recorder after six months because he likes the saxophone better.

Sorry to all piano buffs for including this here.  (Complaints to Minsmusic, please – she brought it up ).

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[minsmusic]

Interpreted my incoherent ramblings beautifully.  Thank you for risking a piano forum lynching.  Will look up the  recommended books and never mention the word 'recorder' again.

(The only - - - - - - - - forum I found doing a quick search was filled with eight year olds wanting the notes from the Simpson Theme.  Someone gave them the notes, but they filled the next two pages with the exact same request  Know any worthwhile ones? you can post in the non-piano forum if you feel like you're sinning)

[bernhard]

I don't know of any recorder forums (I am not sure I want to. As it is this one already takes a big chunk of my time! )

However, this is the best site I've ever come accross for recorders. They have loads of links. Try it:

http://members.iinet.net.au/~nickl/recorder.html

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[minsmusic]

Ah yes, I've come across this site too. Lead me on some pretty interesting adventures.  Downloaded a few things.  

Thanks Bernhard.

[bernhard]

You are welcome.

[bernhard]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Let's start a new thread GUESS HOW OLD BERNHARD IS, and if anyone gets it right, he HAS to say which one  
       

Do I have to?

Here is aproblem I have with my age: I can never remember it, since it keeps changing every year.  

[rlefebvr]

Never heard of such a thing.
Greatest thing I have ever heard.

Wish we had teachers like you where I live.

When I first started playing, friends would say, what king of music would you like to learn and I would always answer...Music....no...I want to play Moonlight Sonata and feel my soul leaving my fingers.

And by God, one day I will

Ron

[pianista]

Hello!

Re; Bernhard's commentary:
-------------------------------------------------------
The difficulty of the piece is completely irrelevant. The only important consideration is the desire of the student to play it. If the piece proves to be impossible (like someone wanting to play the Revolutionary Study on the first lesson), I will:  

a) find a piece of similar character that is possible  

b) work towards preparing the ground for later tackling the impossible piece.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
QUESTION no.1:
Similar piece, like what piece is comparing the revolutionary Study?

Question no.2:
Do you have any idea to recommend a few interesting pieces for four-hands repertoire ? ex. to a 9 years old boy (played piano for 1/2 years ago).
Thanks  

[bernhard]

QUESTION no.1:
Similar piece, like what piece is comparing the revolutionary Study?

When faced with an impossible (at that moment in time) request by a student my question is:

“What in this particular piece attracted the student? And where can I find a piece within his level that will exhibit the same characteristics? At the same time will this new piece prepare the student to later on tackle the piece s/he is interested in?”

Now, many times the student himself cannot answer these questions, so you will have to probe. Once you have the answer, it will all depend on how much repertory you know. But given the ridiculous size of the piano repertory chances are that there are several pieces that will fit the bill.

I cannot give you a complete list because it would depend on what attracted the student to the piece in the first place. But I can give you some examples and then you can go and apply the same principle/strategy to whatever impossible piece they ask for.

So the revolutionary. What is it that attracts people to it?

1.      Maybe it is the fact that the left hand is so prominent. If that is the reason, then any piece with a lot of left hand movement will probably do.

2.      Maybe it is the fact that they have seen someone play it, got thoroughly impressed and now they want to impress people the same way.

3.      Maybe they like the feelings of revolt and urgency that study elicits. Are there any other pieces that elicit the same feelings?

4.      And so on and so forth.

If I do not know an alternative replacement, I will be looking for it everywhere. Eventually I will find something. But I will not be happy. I will keep looking. Forever. Then bit by bit I will create a database of pieces that can be related to impossible pieces. I suggest you do the same

So to get you started.

It is almost sure that for any piece by Chopin you will find a similar composition, but somewhat simpler by one of his less known contemporaries. Remember that in those days there was a big market for printed music that was not too difficult to play. True it is not the highest quality music, but sometimes you will be surprised by a real gem.

For Chopin the sure bet is Stephen Heller, who modelled most of his studies in Chopin’s and Liszt’s pieces. One such example (amongst others) is his study op. 46 no. 21. It makes a good preparation for the revolutionary. It is fast, most of the movement is in the left hand (which is of course much simpler), the right hand consists mostly of chords, and most important, its main difficulty is the co-ordination of the chords with a running left hand as in the revolutionary. So, this is manageable piece that gives a student a taste of what may come his way later. And on top of that it is a nice piece of music, not just some dry boring technical study (one reason I like Heller studies). So the student gets pacified: he is learning a real piece, and that will eventually lead to the piece he wants to learn.

But there is also great music out there that resembles the revolutionary and is nowhere so difficult. A good example is Mendelssohn’s Song without words Op. 53 no. 3 which actually sounds very similar. And has similar technical demands albeit on a much lower level.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[bernhard]

Question no.2:
Do you have any idea to recommend a few interesting pieces for four-hands repertoire ? ex. to a 9 years old boy (played piano for 1/2 years ago).
Thanks  

This is such a good question that I started a new thread in the repertory question asking for four-hand repertory. Have a look there:

http://www.pianoforum.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=repo;action=display;num=1078182413

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[anda]

29 students??? how can you handle that? i've never had more than 10, and i could hardly ever find time to practice!

your methods are at least interesting - but i don't think they apply to well to other kind of students than amateurs who learn playing the piano just  for the fun and usually don't reach beyond clayderman and stuff like that.

how about methods for very young beginners? most of my students are 5-9 year old beginners, and i'm developping right now a method of my own - i usually keep them for about 3 months strictly on exercises, and i never teach notation and keys simultaneously. what do you think?

[minsmusic]

- i usually keep them for about 3 months strictly on exercises, and i never teach notation and keys simultaneously.

Why?

[bernhard]

Why?

She believes in FUN!

[bernhard]

29 students??? how can you handle that? i've never had more than 10, and i could hardly ever find time to practice!

1. I am not a professional performer, so practice is not a matter of life and death, I am a professional teacher.

2. 29 is a small number. Successful piano teachers have between 60 - 80.

3. 29 was a momentary situation, now things have eased a bit again, and I am down to 24 which is about right.

4. When I first started everyone was having lessons everyday I could barely cope with 7 - 8 students. Then as I learned the ropes of what I was trying to do it became easier: I got organised but also, only a small fractions (6 actually) of these students have lessons everyday. The others have been upgraded to two or one lesson per week.

your methods are at least interesting - but i don't think they apply to well to other kind of students than amateurs who learn playing the piano just  for the fun and usually don't reach beyond clayderman and stuff like that.

I am not in the business of proselitism. I talked about my way of teaching because someon asked. I expect no one to follow me. It is just one more option to try if you are dissatisfied with the way things are going. I myself keep changing things all the time. The way I teach now is radically different from the way I started teaching. And the way I teach tomorrow will probaly be different from today. The only question I ask myself is: "Is it working?" If it is not, I change to something else.

how about methods for very young beginners? most of my students are 5-9 year old beginners, and i'm developping right now a method of my own - i usually keep them for about 3 months strictly on exercises, and i never teach notation and keys simultaneously. what do you think?

I have talked about this briefly here:

http://www.pianoforum.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=teac;action=display;num=1075591135

Have a look.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[minsmusic]

She believes in FUN!

I'm not sure if you're having a go at me or anda  :-/

[bernhard]

I'm not sure if you're having a go at me or anda  :-/

Both, he he

[anda]

Why?

why what? why don't i let them learn the written notes at the same time with the keys on the piano? because the connection they would make would be between the written note and the key on the piano, leaving out the most important - THE SOUND! in those three months (not always the same time - depends on the kid how long s/he has to make these exercises before we go to short little pieces) the kid has to:

- learn very well the keys on the piano - worse, his/her hand has to find the keys without visual help (i let them choose a key to put their finger #1 on and then they have to play various notes (in hand reach, of course) with different fingers while looking at the ceiling

- learn a correct position of the body as well as of the hand; learn various ways of attack (play leagato, play staccato, play chords), always concentrating on the quality of the sound.

i think for a young beginner having to concentrate on so many problems with the hands as well as on keeping the sound good (i never allow them to beat the piano - and i request small sized kids to play soft since they don't have the height or the weight to get a ample good quality sound) is bad enough not to add the written notes.

i know what you think - my classes are boring and i'm a tyrant - well, i'm not! i cover the sour pill in a sugar coat - i make the exercises seem fun by colorful comparitions and i compensate my severity by joking and making fun of them all the time. and, in spite of this, i must admit i can't understand for the world how come they still love me and are so obviously dissappointed whenever i have to cancel a class (i know i wasn't when i was their age )

[minsmusic]

i know what you think - my classes are boring and i'm a tyrant  )

Not at all anda!
I asked because I was curious, as I aksed why Bernhard teaches the way he does.  Learning from each other is what this forum is all about, and I have learned much.
Thanks for responding.

[minsmusic]

Both, he he

Are you doing an Ed impersonation now that he seems to be missing?

Just as well you're a brilliant teacher, 'cause you're a lousey comedian!!

[bernhard]

, 'cause you're a lousey comedian!!

[aki]

So where do you teach, as in in which city?