Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Torn on finding a teacher

pablobear --
I think it's correct that if you just want to become a piano teacher, it may be easier than doing professional esports. However, realize that you've probably been gaming for 20 years, and maybe seriously for 5-10 years as a teenager. You may not realize how much that skill accumulates. You have just started on the piano. It may be harder than you realize, and you will certainly have to put in several thousand hours to get to a point where a university will accept you as a piano performance major.

I've had decent success by stealing from my favorite pianists. You figure out certain ways of phrasing, or certain techniques they are using, etc. by trying to imitate them. It's not blind imitation.

He’s taken an important first step in finding a well qualified teacher. Everything else will follow— however the time and effort,

Yes, I've seen similar things. Even my teacher talked about lifting the fingers high off the keyboard. It's usually a tool to develop finger independence. Once you get the finger independence, your teacher will probably ask you to do the same thing from near the surface of the keys. It's a Russian piano school thing from what I've seen, even my teacher follows that. It allows you to feel the weight at each fingertip, and you need to get used to the sensation.

I know what you mean by commonalities, I've been looking for them as well. One point of disagreement for example is the influence of finger strength vs weight. Anyway, many teachers shy away from getting their hands dirty with the minutiae of technique while teaching a student. This is probably what your Russian teacher was referring to when she was talking about the poor quality of education of American students. Not many students, even those starting from childhood, are taught "proper" technique, and they get by with something that is good enough, but won't advance them to a high level.

I suppose it's just that I have higher standards for a teacher. I improved on certain things with every teacher, but I really needed someone who knew things properly and who could tell me exactly why my playing wasn't as fluid as that of someone who had been learning all their lives. People had pointed out that it was very good, that they wouldn't expect better from someone who started learning as an adult, but that there was some strength and finger independence missing. And that vague thing which was "missing" from my playing drove me crazy for a while because I couldn't find anywhere online exactly what they were talking about. I tried going through books etc. with limited success. So, I finally met a teacher, and told him that I wanted to play high level concert rep properly, and to train me accordingly, and he was the one who was finally able to teach me some of this stuff that I was unable to figure out on my own.

Why not pitch your life to TV stations as the topic of a reality show? If your life is interesting, the idea will be picked up for production.

Or if you want to learn to play piano, just buckle down and practice according to a teacher's instruction.

If Pablobear would give up just because he received a negative opinion in a post from someone he doesnt even know, would say little about his motivation. To become a top musician he will have have to overcome much greater difficulty and have a solid mental and rock solid determination. I dont even count the number of times i had to overcome serious negativity in my pro life. Hopefully he is not made out of sugar and can handle some hard comments.

Most of us with professional lives have had to endure harsh comments , but that doesn’t mean they need to occur here from a bunch of anonymous members in a forum, whose qualifications are often unknown. Pablo has already pushed back.

Pablo, almost every boy wants to play video games all day long despite the wishes of his parents. But if one does, it hardly shows his high discipline, but rather shows a big lack of it. Some kids really show good results in video games when they play that much, but it doesn't change the matter with discipline. And I would also like to say something about gaming in general. There is a good reason why parents usually don't allow their kids to play video games much. Because there is a critically important period in pre-teen and teen years when many life skills, analytical abilities and personality traits need to develop. (Pablo, I'm not talking about you now, I just speak theoretically.) These things are developed by focusing on studying progressively complex concepts in school and also by socializing, observing and analyzing real-life behaviour of other people and learning how life works. When these important maturing activities are largely sacrificed for video gaming during that key period, it may have a long lasting negative impact on a person resulting in a phenomenon now known as a kidult, when a person doesn't seem to be mature enough for his or her age, having difficulties in practical reasoning, building relationships, and adaptation to job. These persons need to work very hard on their development in order to overcome the insufficiencies of their young years. I would like anyone having kids and reading this thread to be aware of it.

Pablo, I apologize for my previous post. As a I said my intention was not at all to hurt you. Of course I may be completely wrong in everything I say. Certainly you have a right and all possibilities to pursue a classical pianist career, and I would be happy if you become a good professional pianist and prove that I was wrong.

I did not say they should or should not. That is another subject. But the idea that someone would give up just because they got a critical opinion is irational. For the content i think everybody is entitled to say what they want as long as it remains polite and within the boundaries of the forum policies. Just like you are free to not like certain posts. There are moderators to enforce the policies. Pablobear is coming to open the discussion about his objectives, he should be ready to receive all sorts of responses and deal with them. Which he did, thats part of the forum life.

Animisha, dogperson, I hope by now you know that I'm not a rude, abusive kind of person. But sometimes dealing with a young person I feel a need to say a harsh thing and it's my thought-out position, I'm sorry if you don't agree with it. I think that sometimes a young person needs to hear something, and the sooner he or she hears it, the better it would be for him or her in long term. It is also based on my personal experience, because now I feel gratitude for people who told me harsh truth politely when I was young, and I wish I had been told much more during my teens and 20's so I would do many things differently.

I agree with that, the young people should learn how to listen and interpret the opposite opinion. Especially the children who want to learn piano seriously, they should learn to listen, analyze, complain, make opposition and interpret since the beginning. I agree that it is not something completely "funny" to do.
Today the opposite and straight opinion is a rare resource.

Iarolslav, I have always known that you are not a rude, abusive kind of person. Neither is Jethro.


I think that on a forum, you should be very careful when saying harsh things to any person, young or old. There are so many things you don't know about this person! For instance, somebody may come across as arrogant, but in fact they are insecure. People may exaggerate or understate.

Also, if you feel the need to say a harsh thing, it would be good if you think about the effect of your words. For instance, someone who says "I don't need a teacher", and then shows a video of a too difficult piece with adominable technique. If you give this person an honest response that may feel harsh, this may make them understand that they do need lessons in order to improve their technique. So in that case, the honest but harsh words may do some good. But if you say, "you don't have the right personality" - what can someone do with this? You cannot change your personality...

Personally, I want to know more about how you can become a millionaire by playing video games, lol.

You can. In fact our personality changes throughout our lives and it can be changed by our effort. But even if it wasn't so, I don't think it's a taboo to talk about personality in regard to a profession. In fact there are many professions that require special personality traits. I know that my own personality is incompatible with many professions, it's normal. And if I didn't know that, I would like to learn it before spending my time, efforts and financial resources, even if hearing it may be unpleasant.

Esports or gaming tournaments. Prizes can be upwards of $1 million, plus sponsorships, ads, etc.

Here’s just a random article talking about how much pro-gamers can earn:
https://careergamers.com/professional-gamer-salary-the-truth-revealed/

When I finished my degree, there was a pro career advisor who was supposed to help us choose what profession/activity we should/could research. He told me I did not have the right personality to do what I explained to him that I was envisionning to pursue. He said that it wasnt the right path for me and he gave me his rationale. It helped me to understand what would be the expectations to be successful in that career path.

This thread is a little bit convoluted. So can anyone tell me in a nutshell what is OP's ultimate goal regarding piano?

OT - One can adapt one's personality to specific tasks, when that is required, without actually changing one's inherent personality.

For example, as everyone here knows, I'm anti-social, introverted, monosyllabic, taciturn, never using five words when twenty would do ; and when I was a kid, I envisaged myself - if I couldn't get a job in CERN - spending my adult life alone in my own lab, while working part time as a clerk in a patent office (like someone famous with a 'mad-scientist' hair, whose name escapes me ), never having to speak to anyone 24/7, until I discovered the secret of unlimited environmentally-friendly, non-polluting energy by taming nuclear fusion. My career advisor agreed with me that that was the kind of job I was suited to (one where I didn't have to speak to or meet anyone), and science and math were also my best subjects. (Music was, of course, just a sideline.)

Similarly, I hated team sports (apart from the fact I was rubbish at anything involving kicking or throwing ball-shaped objects) and tried my hardest to avoid them as a kid, which was why - in adulthood - I became a runner and mountaineer. I don't need any companions to run or climb mountains with.

So how did I end up switching - in my last year at high school - to a university course (and subsequent profession) that required me to speak to lots of total strangers and 'connecting' with them immediately, as well as being around people 24/7......and flourishing? Well, I decided that my original ambition was perhaps too ambitious, and so switched to something that was more secure and always needed by humankind. I 'learnt' to speak to total strangers easily - but only as part of my job, not in social settings. (I never could chat about nothing, not even to my non-existent cat.) Same way I also discovered I could learn to do that with music too, which was how I started performing regularly, and then chatting to my audiences afterwards about the music I played, and answering their questions about classical music.

I'd guess that almost all of my work colleagues as well as my regular audiences in my recitals would be quite surprised to know that I prefer to be alone, and have never been to any social gathering (parties etc) that was not required for my job or not music-related (which automatically meant I had no interest) - ever. In other words, my personality never changed from when I was a child, but I could change my persona to suit the circumstances .

Ohhhhh, OK! So it’s not like a profession then, I was wondering why more people don’t go that route! 👍

So the end of the (short) story is that I actually did not follow my advisor recommendations, though I recognized his points were accurate. Being fairly adaptative, I was able to draw the best out of my native skills and work out the others. It did work out quite well for me and I am still in the same line of business till now, but many people around me did quit as it was not working for them. Of course I cant say what would have happened if I had chosen another track. But I certainly dont regret my decision.

Not everyone is adaptable and can adjust to any given situation. I have no idea what the OP is capable of and I dont want to get into it, but it is good that he gets some ideas of the challenges ahead of him.