By: Jingwei Zhao

Ever since I was five years-old, I’ve been learning to play the piano. I started off playing an electrical keyboard, rather than a real piano. In the time I used the keyboard, I was enrolled in Bach to Rock. Bach to Rock was an enjoyable experience, mainly because of my kind teacher and slow pace. At the time, my friend took piano lessons from a teacher named Mrs. Yang. My friend was more skilled in the piano due to the rapid learning pace of his teacher, and my parents noticed that. They decided to transfer me to Mrs. Yang.

Mrs. Yang was a great teacher from early on. She always helped me out when parts of the pieces I played were hard. In every class, she pointed out my mistakes and thoroughly explained my problems. I would occasionally cry when she told me that I had numerous mistakes, but she would reward me with chips when I played well. With her help, I learned to play pieces such as A Maiden’s Prayer and Turkish March. I played pieces by Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Haydn, and more. However, I was not improving as much as I did when I was six or seven.

My mother found another teacher that had many competition-winning students, so she transferred me to him. I found the new teacher intimidating during my first classes, but later I discovered that he is quite funny. He also taught me music theory, something that my previous teacher rarely did. When it comes to competition, he focuses on having his students play a few pieces well, rather than having them play ten pieces that take a long time to practice. I am still new to him, but his teaching style is making me improve at the same pace as I did when I first started with Mrs. Yang.