Hi all,

Once again I'm after any experiences to share of courses I considering doing, this time at City Lit in London:

Either Piano workshop 8

http://www.citylit.ac.uk/courses/Music/Pia...p_level_8/ME257

or Piano Repertoire

http://www.citylit.ac.uk/courses/Music/Pia...epertoire/ME254

I'm curious as to how well the group learning works - though of course that depends partly on the people in the group I guess... trouble is if you get a few weeks in and feel like it's not working, you've already already paid for the whole year!

Anyway this is a different style of piano lessons than I'm used to, so I'd be curious to know if anyone has attended these classes. I know that City Lit is a great place in general...

Thanks

I can only offer second-hand experience - I have a friend who took the jazz equivalent piano courses and loved them, group learning and all.

Hello dolchebaby

I need to preface this by saying I'm at a much lower level than you - currently about grade 4. Anyway for what it's worth, I have been to a few courses at the City Lit (not music) and they are mostly OK. I did think about a piano one when I was looking for a teacher, about 2 years ago. I went in to see them (pre-arranged I think) in the middle of a term, and had to play something so they could judge my level - not sure if this is compulsory or not; depends on the course. Anyway they then gave me a sort of ticket to sit in on a class at the right level. The class I sat in on was "OK". Everyone had an electronic piano, of course, with headphones. Some of the time you were doing your own thing with headphones and the teacher would walk round and help individually. Other times everyone played out loud together. My impression was the ability range was quite wide and so I am not sure how much I would have got out of it, so I opted for private lessons (not at the City Lit) instead. That's not to criticise the std of tuition; in fact it so happens my teacher has taught there in the past.

ANYWAY - your timing is excellent! City Lit courses are usually v v popular and get booked up quickly. The autumn syllabus is coming out on c. 23/06 and the bookings start c. 27/06 (check their website for exact dates) so my STRONG recommendation would be to fix up an i/v if necessary asap, and sit in on a class BEFORE 27/06 if at all possible, then you can book as soon as the bookings open, while there are still places, if you like it.

Btw I'd be surprised if you had to pay for the whole year at once - for the languages course I am doing, I book and pay for one term at a time even though the course is a whole year - but it's still a lot of money if you don't like it.

Good luck

PatC