# This really annoys me.



## Jaws

I get really annoyed when someone suggests that all you need have done in terms of study to teach beginners are some really elementary exams like associate diplomas. 

Beginners need the most experienced and best qualified teachers. Someone who not only has some sort of playing qualification but who also has teaching qualifications, an academic music qualification and a lot of experience of teaching. 

You can pass an associate teaching diploma by only learning the pieces for grade exams followed by the diploma. You don't need to know anything about the history of music or style or history of the instrument you are teaching you only need to have played a few pieces. You have NOTHING to offer a pupil and yet I see this advice given on a regular basis to young people who want to earn some money from their hobby music playing. 

The really annoying bit is that someone who passed an associate degree in the UK is only a beginner themselves.

Edit. Sorry I meant associate diploma.


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## arpeggio

A problem that I have run into is the techniques that one uses to teach an adult are not the same as those used to teach a ten year old.

I have had many adult friends who have had problems finding a music teacher because most of the teachers only knew how to deal with young students.

I have a friend here at TC who knew how to play electric bass but wanted to learn upright bass so he could play in a community orchestra. He had to go through a few teachers before he could find one was compatible with his needs. One of his former teachers was teaching him like his college music students. One uses different technique to teach an amateur as opposed to someone who is wanting to be a professional.

One of my former teachers plays with the National Symphony. He specializes in teaching bassoon to adult amateurs who objectives are to play for fun.


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## Krummhorn

My piano teacher had a Masters in music, as did my first organ teacher. My college organ instructor had a DMA in organ & harpsichord performance. 

I can safely state that I learned from the best people right from the very beginning. I studied piano privately with the same teacher for six years. Private study with the same teacher for organ for another six years. There was 2 years of study with the college professor. 

Okay, studying with these highly educated people was not cheap by any means ... but one tends to get what they pay for, and I got the best deal in all those years of keyboard instruction - enough to launch a career in classical organ at age 13.


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## PetrB

Jaws said:


> I get really annoyed when someone suggests that all you need have done in terms of study to teach beginners are some really elementary exams like associate diplomas.
> 
> Beginners need the most experienced and best qualified teachers. Someone who not only has some sort of playing qualification but who also has teaching qualifications, an academic music qualification and a lot of experience of teaching.
> 
> You can pass an associate teaching diploma by only learning the pieces for grade exams followed by the diploma. You don't need to know anything about the history of music or style or history of the instrument you are teaching you only need to have played a few pieces. You have NOTHING to offer a pupil and yet I see this advice given on a regular basis to young people who want to earn some money from their hobby music playing.
> 
> The really annoying bit is that someone who passed an associate degree in the UK is only a beginner themselves.


It is the way of the world. Ideally, a beginning student of any age should have the best teacher and the best instrument.

Just find that highly accredited and professionally experienced player who has the patience (and pedagogic expertise) to teach children or beginning adults while not dropping their fee rate below the minimum $60 to $90 per hour (if not more) they can routinely command.

With these programs where someone does eight years of study at their instrument, with 'grade level exams' and polishes that off with what amounts to a part-time two years of 'pedagogy,' it is hard to take those teachers as being fully qualified to teach! But _this system is an industry unto itself,_ and I imagine in places where public monies are partially subsidizing those systems, there is that mentality of don't spend too much and 'good enough.' It is then up to the public who avail themselves of those services to sort out the real merit / status of what those programs deliver in comparison to the 'big boys and girls' programs at conservatory level, where a masters in performance (including pedagogy courses) means there will be that much more there to be had.

Then again, how many beginners (or their parents or a tax-subsidized program) are willing to pay for the caliber of fully qualified and experienced professional teacher who has gone the full route through conservatory? That 'good enough for a beginner' mentality is far too commonly in place. It is going to take more than a little sea-change merely within the musical community to turn that around!


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