Yanran

Being a professional classical pianist for almost two decades, I am now pursuing my second Master degree in Art History in London.

I finished my Master’s program under the guidance of pianist Richard Goode. As a musician, though performing is a major part of my life, I found music teaching has been much more rewarding for me as a person!

Besides teaching music, I also teach Chinese language (Mandarin) and enjoy sharing my love of Chinese culture.

Tutoring Experience

During my 7+ years of giving piano lessons, I also teach improvisation, sight-reading, ear-training, and music theory. I have helped students prepare for ABRSM’s exams and public performances as well when I worked in piano-teaching studios. When I taught in Beijing, I had experience with a variety of students, including very young children (from three years old), teenagers with learning disabilities, adult students, advanced students seeking professional training, non-piano music majors, etc.

In early 2020, I was honored to have my role as a piano teacher be promoted by the Steinway and Sons Website. I am including the link here as an evidence of my qualification as an enthusiastic music educator: http://teacher.steinway.com/listing/yanran-piano-studio.html

You can also find my detailed teaching experiences in a chronological order below:
— Four-year experience as a teacher working with students of all ages in China, from 2012 to 2016. (Two of the students got accepted by the Central Conservatory of Music in China.)
— Two-year experience of working with Music-teaching agencies. (Identified as an ABRSM teacher.) (2014-2016)
— Hired as a part-time vocal coach in China National Traditional Orchestra from 2014 to 2016.
— Hired as a Musical Theory Tutor at Mannes School of Music since 2018
— Trained in Teaching Fellowship program at Mannes School of Music
(2019)

Tutoring Approach

As a teacher, my goal is to let my students step into the world of music fearlessly and full of curiosities. In order to achieve it, differentiating a musical ideas by singing and dictating through some specifically composed exercises can help students execute the ideas on the piano eventually. Often, I find the most effective teaching method is by giving exercises to cooperate auditory sense, visual sense and tactile sense of students based on their interests.

It is also important to assign students different works based on students’ personalities, in order to help them establish an ever-growing understanding to the concepts.

My piano lessons are always filled with laughter while students making productive progress. I have felt the learning process is never only about music, but about developing the student as a whole person. I keenly believe that the study of music, when taught with enthusiasm, develops the hands, the mind and the heart of not just the student, but also of the teacher.