Evan McAuley, M.M.

As someone who has taught in the piano pedagogy field for the past five years, I have always made the success of my students my first priority.  Throughout my five years of teaching, I have become more sensitive to the general concerns and problems that my students may face during their week of isolated practice.  Because of this, I consistently make it my goal to clarify even the tiniest shred of doubt that any student may have, in the hopes of eliminating potential roadblocks and worries they may hit.  I refuse to end a piano lesson until I believe a student is fully and properly prepared for a week of practice.  I also alleviate these concerns by staying in contact with students, especially right after their lessons (to clarify and outline all expected assignments for our next meeting).  I additionally am happy to field any questions throughout the week from either the student or the parent; I encourage this atmosphere, because I truly hope each student’s lesson builds upon another in a curricular fashion.  This cannot happen if students are still clarifying assignments from last week’s lesson.  A piano curriculum is detrimental simultaneously to the student, parent, and teacher if it only relies on monotonously moving page by page through a lesson book.  Each student must be met weekly with any personal and performative challenges they face; it is the teacher’s job to cater to this while encouraging the student to push themselves to the best of the student’s abilities.