Private lessons for children are the traditional teaching model for piano lessons. There are draw backs to one-on-one instruction that parents need to be aware of. First, private lessons create a dependence on the teacher that is hard for children to overcome, and second, they don’t encourage children to develop independent learning skills necessary to learn piano. Although it is true that private lessons have been the norm for centuries, how many people do you know who took piano lessons as children, but as adults don’t really know how to play the instrument.
Unfortunately a lot of excuses have been made by the profession for this failure including a tendency toward elitism, where only a few students are thought to have enough talent to learn this instrument. But think about it. Is there any other educational area where students are taught only in a one-on-one situation? In every other educational area children learn best in small groups. Here each student receives thorough instruction, but then is expected to work independently within the group to master their lessons. The tutorial model of private piano lessons leads students to believe that their piano teacher’s knowledge and effort is more important than the student’s. In the past, piano teachers have even tended to glorify themselves and their enviable musical ability. They knew the truth - that learning to play the piano takes consistent study through years of experience. They knew too that they would have many piano students, but only a handful of them would actually learn to play well.
I have to argue with this premise. I don’t believe it is necessarily true. I know from personal experience that many more children learn to play well in group lessons where they learn how to go about taking responsibility for their success in a supportive, family styled and creative learning environment. The energy kids in group lessons share and the fun they have playing for each other also breaks down their worries and fears about performing that help kids go on to achieve their musical goals. Plus they are able to see that other children face the same challenges in learning to play the piano as they do.
The best time to give your children one-on-one instruction is at home when they are young. Just as parents can teach their children to read, parents can also give their young children a solid foundation of musical language skills at home. Together with the benefits of group piano lessons using keyboards afforded by modern technology, many, many more children are successful in piano lessons today than ever before. This is good news for kids because of the overall educational benefits piano lessons have for children. So don’t wait to prepare your young children with home music study programs for piano, and when they are old enough, enroll them in group piano lessons.
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