I am know I definitely want to teach piano and will hopefully begin later this year. I am currently grade 7 and have a primary PGCE, although I am not teaching in a school at the moment, but I am confident teaching and am aware of different learning styles and lesson plans etc. I have the ABRSM 'The Music Teacher's Companion' but wonder if there are any books specifically on teaching piano, or with ideas on how to teach aspects of music.

My piano teacher is a great help, but any other help, recommendations, advice would be gratefully received. Also, I am guessing everyone felt slightly anxious when first going into teaching their instrument. It feels like a big change. I want to make sure I feel prepared. How is this best achieved?

There are lots of books on the subjects you mention. One of my favourites is:

Instrumental Teaching: A practical guide to better teaching and learning
Susan Hallam (Heinemann)
It cost me £13.75 in November 1999.

Hi and welcome to the forums I only joined a year ago and now can't keep away!

Even though I started piano teaching nearly a quarter of a century ago I still remember the lead up to the first lesson I gave. My mother was teaching at the time and I used to sit in and observe her lessons on a Saturday morning. So I would suggest finding a local teacher you can trust and see if it is possible for you to go and watch him/her in action. Organisations like EPTA might be able to help.

Re books: I'm going to be accused of being old fashioned but there is a book called 'The Young Pianist' by Joan Last, first published in 1972, but the pedagogical principles of piano teaching are very sound. Also along similar lines is Fanny Waterman's 'On Piano Teaching and Performing'. I would suggest these for the technical aspects to introduce in a first lesson for a beginner. You have a PGCE so you know how the delivery of lessons will have changed over the years - it's not the book but how you present your ideas that matters - but you need the ideas first - if that makes sense.

For up to date material on how to relate to pupils one-to-one etc you have the ABRSM book and there is another one by Lucinda Mackworth Young called 'Tuning In' which has some very sound advice. And there are the ABRSM courses and taster days.

If it's any help the tutor books I first used for beginners were 'Tunes for Ten Fingers' by Pauline Hall and 'The Green Schaum pre- A'. I still use them but there are simply masses of resources out there now which are fantastic - especially when the pupil has got a little beyond the very early stages.

Good luck - let us know how you get on

Good book, but sadly no longer in print, but you might find on at the library. There is one listed on Amazon for £120 second hand - eek!

It is worth keeping an eye out on the net at Amazon and eBay, and at specialist book-sellers like Alibris. A year or so ago a rare chess book (Attack by Julian Hodgson) appeared on the market at over £100. It was not long before several more copies came out of the woodwork and the asking price fell to a more realistic £20 to £30

Wow - looks like I have a first edition of the Susan Hallam book - I didn't know it had gone out of print. However, I thought maybe that Eustacia was looking for something piano specific - like the 'what' to do in a first piano lesson and how to get the children started on actual playing. The Hallam book is great but I would have thought it was focussed more on learning styles, motivation etc which is covered in PGCE training.

Are there any more up-to-date books on how to teach beginners to recommend? There is a reading list on the AB diploma website - might be worth a look.

Thank you for all these suggestions, they are really helpful.

Improve your teaching (Faber) by Paul Harris is really good. Good luck,

Tasha

Also The Music Teacher's Companion by Paul Harris and Richard Crozier, published by ABRSM.