Dorla's Piano Studio

Why not: The student needs to be able to focus entirely on the teacher, and the teacher needs to be able to focus entirely on the student. Parental interference, no matter how well-intentioned, interrupts the lesson flow, takes up precious lesson time, and causes student and teacher to lose their train of thought.

What to do instead: Listen intently to the lesson with a goal of understanding the concepts and the manner of presentation so that you can provide meaningful guidance at home. You should ask questions about anything you don’t understand at the end of the lesson or in an email or with a phone call later that evening.

1. Don’t attempt to teach your child topics not covered by the teacher or in a way not presented by the teacher.

Why not:

My teaching approaches are based on the results of years of research in piano pedagogy (the science of teaching). Many of the practices used in years past have been demonstrated to be ineffective in producing good pianists and good music readers. The older methods had a 90% drop-out rate; those of us who survived (including me!) did so in spite of some of the practices, not because of them. We want our students to benefit from the much higher success rates produced by these newer approaches.

What to do instead: Review with your child the assignments given in class and ensure that the child completes them. If your child needs help at home, make sure that your comments match what the teacher presented at the lesson. Also, if your child is not able to practice effectively without substantial guidance, I need to know so email me as soon as possible.