Kato Music Studio

Certain teachers insist on squeezing all students into a cookie-cutter lesson structure, rather than viewing each piano student has a wide diversity of musical strengths / weaknesses, ambitions, and goals. The classic example is the teacher who teaches as if all students are headed towards a career as a classical concert pianist. It needs to be acknowledged most students are not headed towards such a career.

Other teachers behave as though there is a wall between the worlds of classical, jazz and popular music, dismissing outright any style of music with which they have not had enough experience. Lessons focus solely on classical piano repertoire, musicianship skills and music theory critical to the understanding of jazz piano typically fall by the wayside. This winds up discouraging far too many piano students who are truly curious and creative.