Most piano teachers teach classical piano including sight reading, music theory, and maybe a little music history. Not much attention is given to good playing technique, but these form the core of a "classical piano education". I teach these things, but add a strong emphasis on developing a technique that will carry the student into advanced playing as soon as possible. However, I believe that if the education stops here, as it often does, a person becomes "half a pianist"; able to play anything if the music is in from of them, but completely unable to create, compose or play without the aid of written music.
There are some pianist out there I like to call "jazz pianists". They can play lots of cool things, but if you put a piece of musicin front of them, they can't play it. These people almost never teach piano because they don't want anyone to find out that they cant read music. There people also fit my category of "half a pianist". When I was young I thought that only a few super talented prodigies could play by ear and improvise. It wasn't until I started the doctoral program at Julliard that I realizedimprovisation could be taught, and that no super talent was required. I have now been teaching the skills of improvisation,arranging, transposing, composing, and playing by ear for the last 10 years with great success. I love that my students now can become full pianists, possessing the full set of practical skills called upon in musical settings.
With classical music reading, theory, history, technique and composing, transposing, arranging, improvising, there still remains one crucial element needed for a full music education at the piano. I will call this "musicality". It is the ability of thepianist to move their audience. It is not enough to just play the notes on the page or make up a series of notes and chords that sound good together. The pianist must tell a story, communicate an emotion, paint a picture, all with abstract sounds. This is the chief aim of all music; to communicate. Sometimes it is in getting the audience to tap their toes, sometimes it is to get them to feel sadness, joy, fear, or peace, but it is always to get them to have some kind of response to the music beyond just hearing the notes. Over time, I strive to teach students how to play with great musicality and communicate wordless stories filled with emotion.
