How to tell if you have a bad piano teacher?

I get to see transfer students who exhibit number of problems with their hands, understanding of the music, musicality and behavior. While many of them are not to blame on the teacher, (he can do only so much during the lesson and cannot supervise home practice), others are completely the fault of the teacher. Here I will examine what one needs to observe as signs of bad teaching and leave immediately so the student does not accumulate bad habits which will almost impossible to reverse if done for over 2-3 years.

1. Bad posture and hand position- rounded back, knees under piano, elbows tight to the torso, hands that are twisted and fingers bended, full fist finger lying on the keys. This all suggests your teacher does not pay attention to proper technique, or does not know how to work on proper technique.
2. Lack of interest to play the correct notes at the correct time. Student MUST play what is on the page. Teacher MUST insist on it. While I have students which I fight constantly for this fault, they slowly improve on being responsible to what composer wrote on the page.
3. Lack on interest to improve the sound quality or to learn the music in more polished way. Teacher MUST cultivate standards to each student (what is good sounding music, what is not). Focusing on the correct tempo, not missing the sharps/flats,
4. Random fingering–teacher who does not insist on correct fingering (yes there are rules based on the ergonomics of the hands and safety as well), and allows bizarre fingering either does not know what correct fingering is, or does not care at all.  
5. Not able to play scales after 2-3 years of piano studying– scales are not rigid rule or stubborn idea teachers love. Scales help the hands to develop singing tone quality, improve the technique and are indispensable for healthy hands warm-up.
6. Avoiding warm up—big red flag, if you need to warm up before running, dancing, athletics, soccer, swimming, then you need to do it before playing any instrument. Teacher who does not insist of warm-up is a bad teacher, leave! Warm-ups prevent injury, but your teacher does not care, leave!
7. Teacher which focuses on written plans and descriptions of progress while actually their students play very poorly. I call this “teaching simulating.” While seems the teacher is tracking the progress, he/she is actually simulating the process, because they must spend the time on actual teaching and correcting errors not on writing comments, which parents can’t address at home anyway. The best testament of tracking progress is the students to be able to play.
8. Allowing a bad/ unruly behavior/unfocused work during the lesson sold as “freedom,” “easy going,” “exploring.”  There is a time and place for these too, but to explore and have a freedom while you are beginner knowing almost nothing means lazy teacher or teacher who does not know how to teach in a professional way. Is your teacher acting as a glorified expensive baby sitter? Just allowing everything?
9. Having fun. Most of the teachers with deficiencies in teaching package their teaching as “fun class,” “having fun during lessons” etc.. Fun is actually when you learn something well and are  proud to be able to play it, there the fun begins. Random banging on the keys with lots of errors is not fun, especially for a teacher that is a good teacher, they do not allow it. So watch out. How much “freedom” your teacher allows?
10. In a society that does not acknowledge almost any rule, having a bit of discipline while learning is a very positive thing. Precision and acknowledgment of copyrights by playing the correct notes is the first step in the right direction.

Why I am writing all this? Because I get requests from transfer students every year. Occasionally, I see so badly damaged students that it is difficult to tell the truth to their parents who trusted that they had the “good, fun teacher.” Often the damage is so big, that reversal is not possible (due to solid bad habits, and student who will not understand and take the time to overcome the bad habits).

The argument- we just want to play piano for fun- is not working here. What fun is to play wrong notes? Wat do you gain from this? You can go home and play as many wrong notes you want without spending money on it.

Whatever you want to achieve with piano playing, be respectful to the music, the author, and to yourself. Playing badly (wrong notes, bad sound) is disrespectful to yourself first, then to the author and to the music. Have standards and have morals.

©Matova Music, 2026