My piano journey with Mia

What are the ideal qualities that I look for in a teacher? This is the question I asked myself as I filed through the endless sea of immaculate profiles. The internet has made finding a piano teacher so much easier, yet so much more difficult; you need to choose your teachers very carefully - and I’m so glad I found Mia.

Learning with her has always been a breeze - which sounds strange as I say it aloud because of my impossibly demanding checklist: from ABRSM exams to theory, to sudden short notice of auditions and questionable choir accompaniment, she managed to juggle all those topics and beyond, allow me to elaborate:
As I approached my grade 5 piano exam (with a different teacher back then) I decided to check it with Mia, and found out my techniques sucked. Not only am I not playing to the expected tempo, but I also lacked projection and interesting interpretation of the music - this has always been a problem for me as my sight-reading are always one step ahead of my hands. We did not give up, however, as I furiously practiced for the last month before my exam, and with her guiding me every step along the way, I am proud to say that I passed with distinction.

With the grade 5 exam out of the way I can now climb up even higher into grade 6 and beyond, however in order to take grade 6 you need to pass your theory exam first - which is a problem because my last teacher did not bother to teach me any theory at all, but not only can Mia teach excellent piano, she has also proven herself to be an amazing theory teacher, I managed to learn my grade 5 theory in less than 2 months and is now waiting for my upcoming theory exam.

My school really do not like to plan ahead, announcing the audition for the school show band three days before the actual audition, and frankly the piece I’m learning is for another audition in the school, which cannot be used, so Mia decided that she will teach me a piece that I can use, but not only that only that, she went into extreme detail about articulation and dynamics and everything, really. So thanks to her I have secured a place in the school show band which was quite competitive indeed.

For my last point, (my favourite) is when the school decided it would be a good idea to give me a 7 pages long music sheet for the choir accompaniment to learn in two weeks for an upcoming concert, bear in mind I have never done anything close to accompaniment before in my life as I was very much a solo person. But Mia believed in me, and she taught me everything I needed to know, because of that, I was able to have my most successful concert - even the teachers thought I was an actual backing track.

After all that writing, I really hope I got my point successfully across, that is: you are always bound to learn something in her lessons - I was taught amazing techniques that allowed me to further advance my skills and truly immerse myself in my music, although I have to practice more now because Mia always has ambitious standards for her students, I love piano more than ever right now. I was able to achieve more than I had ever imagined; so thank you, Mia :D

媽媽心得：
女兒在英國上了中學之後 學校經常舉辦音樂會 想請英國的鋼琴老師另外指導表演曲目參加表演 老師表示很難配合 因緣際會在Amazingtaker上找到Mia老師 老師超專業又無敵認真 從古典現代流行樂曲到樂理都難不倒她 從此女兒的鋼琴學習黑白變彩色 短短數月在Mia老師的指導下進步神速 參加了數次的音樂會表演鋼琴獨奏以及合唱團伴奏 從持續的學習和表演中漸漸的增加自信心和對音樂的熱情 學期末更因為音樂項目得到了年度校長獎的榮譽

網路上課零距離 在家上課超級方便 女兒現在每周固定和在台灣的Mia老師學琴 常常還可以視情況隨機加課請老師加強指導校內及校外參加的音樂活動 非常感謝Amazingtaker給我們機會碰到Mia老師 希望大家都可以在這平台上找到合適自己的好老師 在提升能力的同時也得到學習的樂趣