Ricardo Abapo

I have been teaching professionally for over a decade. I have been teaching privately now for years, and also teaching in a music studio. I also have taught music students at a university before completely shifting to private practice.

My piano lessons are very catered to the need of every student. Each student has very different needs and as much as I possible, I personalized my lesson based on these. Although that is the case, a set of guidelines and flow to the lesson is also followed so that the class can be as smooth as possible and every minute is used as efficiently as possible.

A normal class would start with the assessment. Asking questions such as how did the student's week go, were they able to practice and for how long? While I believe in discipline, but I also believe on "letting things be". What do I mean by that? Some students take piano lessons to be their stress-reliever, or to be a hobby, or something to love. If the student has not practiced, what should I do? Should i yell and get mad? No. I always tell my students that I appreciate their honesty very much if they tell me they have not practiced and we will just do what we can do in the lesson. While I do have the patience for this, I also tell them what the consequence of not being able to practice. It won't be a very good lesson since they didn't do their part. That's how I inculcate discipline.

Apart from this, the main philosophy in my teaching is making my students become independent learners. Therefore I am very heaving in making my students being able to read music and really understand the basics in their core. A healthy amount of scales and exercises will always be part of the lesson before we go to an appropriate assigned book for the student. The rest of the class will be spent on working on the current repertoire of the student.

After the class, a lesson note will be given to the student/guardian detailing what transpired in the lesson so that the progress, or lack thereof, is always tracked and appropriate actions can be done or improved for the next lessons. Lesson notes also function as guides as to what the student needs to work on and take note of in their personal practice hours.