Dr. Xin Chang's Piano Studio

Teaching Philosophy

As a piano teacher, I believe asking students questions is essential in the piano lessons. A friendly and open communication is always what I am pursing. Instead of telling students what to do or giving them strict discipline, I prefer asking what students want first and ask the reason. For instance, some students have strong feelings about repertoire, but they have hard time to deliver the emotion to the audiences in the live performances. I start with asking them questions as what image in their mind. The responses from students are always full of imaginations. I try to combine their ideas with the knowledge and interpretation I have. In that way, students can perform their pieces with more passion, at the same time, they can gain knowledge from the performances. It is a crucial process as it could be applied to similar issues in their future studies.

In my piano studio, I encourage my students to participate all kinds of competitions, concerts and various public activities. Presenting ourselves in public is a good training for students to gain more confidence and be more brave. Practicing performing is always a great way to make the repertoire more solid. Instead of requiring the accuracy of the performances, I expect my students to gain more experiences from each performance. Group class and studio concerts are important events through the teaching year as well. Those events are great opportunities for students to use musical language to communicate and encourage each other. At the same time, they share learning experiences and ideas together which can make the piano journey more effective and not too lonely.

Cultivating students’ collaborative ability is also included in my teaching philosophy. Playing piano duet with them is always part of the lesson. Students can learn how to listen better and coordinate better in this process. At the same time, it gives students more motivations to learn more and play better. Besides playing piano duets, participating various music ensembles is being encouraged in my studio. I believe additional experience in ensemble playing expands students’ capability to perform in diverse environments and situations. Considering that a performance career consists of both solo and collaborative concerts, a student with this experience will have greater options when provided with future engagements.

Besides what I mentioned above, I also apply music theory, analysis of the repertoire, sight-reading session and improvisation session in my piano teaching. Music theory is a basic support for each pianist. For instance, knowing each intervals is helpful for students to understand the musical language in a deeper way. Analyzing the repertoire can give students bigger pictures before learning each note. It enhance students’ abilities of memorization as well. Sight-reading and improvisation session are fun parts of the lessons, instead of making students play the same repertoire over and over, sight-reading a new piece and improvising an old melody can motivate students to develop their imagination and musicality. At the same time, those sessions strengthen students learning ability and improve their listening and musical sensitivities.