Do You Really Need a Teacher?

No you don’t — Yes you do
With all the TV infomercials and website piano teaching courses out there, all exclaiming how fast and easy it is to learn to play piano with just a little practice each day and their fantastic, innovative secrete system, who needs a teacher? Why pay 40 to 75 bucks a week for a teacher, when all those magic courses can teach you to “play like a pro” with little effort?. Well folks, in plain English, it ain’t gonna happen! -- you playing like a pro that is -- from a TV, website or email/mail-order piano course.

"If all it took was a few bucks and little practice,
there'd be piano player on every corner"

Playing at a professional level requires years of study under the tutelage of more then one piano teacher/coach, along with much OTJ experience playing with other musicians. How does the adult beginner, with job, family, and all of life’s daily challenges, find the 2 to 4 hours of daily practice needed to begin to accomplish this? Let’s stop talking about “playing like a pro”--especially as an adult beginner.

"A teacher's purpose is not to create students in his own image, but to develop
students who can create their own image" ~Author Unknown

Now, Down to Reality
What CAN be accomplished without a teacher; with those courses? Plenty! Music theory can be learned, chord and scale knowledge, how to read music, play songs at an intermediate level, and most important—enjoyment. If that was the goal...success! Other things that WILL be gained from this type of learning WILL be the development of many bad playing habits, (unavoidable) incorrect fingering, a bad sense of time, incorrect pedaling, etc. Which won't matter if your goal was simply, and wonderfully, fun!

But... (there’s always a but) over time, what happens quite often is, (for many) frustration, boredom, and a feeling that something is missing, or just not right. Many self-taught students begin to desire more; a better sound, better technique, more knowledge, etc.

Even though many of these courses claim to be able to take students to an advanced level, the student can’t seem to do it on their own. Many folks who spend from 6 months to two years playing on their own eventually decide to take formal piano lessons to advance their playing. They seek help. Enter the teacher... and there are some surprises in store...

The Battle Begins - (A Tough Situation For Both)
When the teachers evaluates this type of students playing, he realizes that much correction is needed to get them on track. So, it’s back to the basics in order to rebuild. The correction process begins. It takes work, and desire. Some students accept this and get down to work. Others, become stressed because they feel like everything they’ve done was a waste of time. Some will defend and fight to keep what they do because they've done it so long, much of it feels and sounds right to them. They don't hear the colliding of chords due to incorrect pedaling for example—along with so many other self-developed bad habits. Many will just back off the lessons. It's easier then all that work.

It will take a special teacher to motivate them to stick with it—to encourage them on. But it’s not easy to break bad habits whether on the piano or in life—it takes work. So, do you really need a teacher? I vote yes—from the very beginning if possible; that is if you want to play above an amateur level. If you use this site or any of the others to help you with your playing, you will accomplish even more, and much faster if you've got someone to keep an eye out for you—keep you on track. So, think about it.

See the 'Finding The Right Teacher' - Not So Easy' and the 'Teacher Types' articles for more info.