Piano classes in group

[bart]

I was wondering if anyone has any experience with attending classes (in groups) for piano. Can that work?
In London, there are a number of organisations that offer this, such as City Lit or Morley, does anyone have any experience with any of these? Local authorities also offer this, but I am a bit dubious about these.
I have one2one classes right now, but I would not mind a bit social interaction round this as well.

Thanks

Bart

[Gill the Piano]

As in any group, it can only proceed as fast as the slowest in the group. Often there is one member who will 'hog' the teacher...if you're going for social interaction, fine. If you're going to advance your playing you may be frustrated. No way of telling until you go - unless you find someone in the group first!

[joseph]

can you let me know how it goes? I'm sure its fine for learning the basics and working through some simple pieces with some support for morale.

I think that if you want to study for grades though, you should probably go to private lessons. Try it though, I'm interested.http://start.ubuntu.com/8.04/

[samasap]

Hi I use to teach in a pop music school weekends when i was younger, and it use to be two pupils to one teacher. Which did kind of work, but it just depends what sort of teacher you get. If you get a good teacher who can organise their time efficiently, so they can bring out the best in each pupil, then it can work well.

What we use to do was to learn pieces of music and scales e.t.c, so help progress with playing, but there was a jamming song that was also learn't in the lesson. So at the end of the lesson the whole class would play this song together, as you had guitar lessons, vocals, bass and drums also having tuition.

If your going for the social side and to learn performance skills then it is a good idea, but I think also its good to have some one to one tuition as well. May be once a month with a private teacher.

Thanks

[tdow]

It's been my experience that groups work best for the average-paced learner. If there are students in the group who take longer to learn (or those who are fast learners) then the dynamics of the group can be a bit tricky to navigate for the instructor. Obviously, one-on-one attention suffers, but if its the only option for a child to learn the piano (for financial reasons etc.) then it's better than nothing! As a group teacher it would be very important to do your best to match ability and age before even starting.

Group lessons work great for things like summer camps where there is a specific theme for the camp, and where everyone has previous knowledge but is working on an extension of what they already know . For example, last year we held a CD recording summer camp where students learned to compose as a group, and then recorded their own 4-track CD at the end of the camp. The group setting was great as it provided students with lots of inspiration and motivation.

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The Art and Business of Piano Education
http://www.teachpianotoday.com