Piano Lessons - should we continue

glenstan

You say that it is not about the cost of lessons , so if your daughter is enjoying the learning why stop, it is not about the grades she attains its about the pleasure she takes from the participation. if you where not giving time to these lessons it would be to dancing, bowling ,karate or whatever the in thing is at her school at this time.

skintchick

Lunar_Eclipse wrote: »

Which means she is really good. Although I would have thought you would need to be able to read music to pass Grade 1?

If she loves it and you can afford it, I would continue. If not, then stop.

Depends which board but I know with ABRSM that if you get good/full marks on everything else, you can totally fail the sight reading and still pass.

Some boards only require pieces to be played (eg Trinity) so she wouldn;t need to read music at all for that if she memorised her pieces.

suniil

my daughter started going to a vocal coach/ piano teacher last month, she says my daughter has the right age (7 years and 4 months) to start vocal coaching but piano could even start at age 5!

The teacher is from Hongkong

I've recently noticed that my daughter is not improving in sight reading, but simply play from her memory. After an extensive research in google, I feel reading the notes and playing would pickup gradually (though teacher keep reminding her to read and play)

tamlem wrote: »

She advised us not to start our daughter too young for several reasons but mainly because finger stretch is not wide enough to make learning successful when children are too little. Since learning should be enjoyable and fun setting up obstacles before kids start seems fruitless.-So I guess I am wondering why your daughters piano teacher took her so young? Although clearly she is loving playing and not struggling so that's good.

Hollyberry

In addition to the issues of enjoyment, expense and time, I think it is worth considering what else the lessons may be contributing to your daughter's development. I used to be a shy and retiring young Hollyberry , but music lessons gave me a lot of confidence, and also meant that I joined in activities I would otherwise have missed. And the singing lessons were great for voice control technique when I started out doing speaking engagements for work. You never know what will come in handy in the future.

Btw, I didn't read music until I started flute at age 11, and still got to Grades 8 (flute) and 6 (voice/piano), so there's plenty of time to develop the sightreading.

Susan_Frost

She enjoys the lessons, you can afford them, so what is the problem?

So what if she does not get through tests and grades because of not reading music (yet).

Why do you want her to learn the piano? People do a hobby for enjoyment, which is what she is doing. Making an issue about tests and grades will probably spoil the enjoyment she has. She will do it in her own time.

Are you really considering not letting her go to something she loves just because it takes up your time and she may not go through the conventional grades?

Maybe get another opinion from another piano teacher, but then leave the poor kid to enjoy herself.

Anastasia

What a great gift to be able to play be ear. I have always envied people who can do that as I have to have music in front of me.

Lessons and exams can really be a turn off to children. It is too like school.

remembered_nights

I'd love to be able to play by ear like that If it's as you say, she just finds it too easy at the moment, she'll probably try harder as the pieces get harder and she can't automatically copy by ear.