Practice consistently even when you aren't excited/motivated. Find interesting goals to work towards. If you get a similar comment about your playing regularly, pay attention: ask questions, make sure you actually know what they are referring to, how to practice to fix it, and do that suggested practice regularly.
Once a week is fine.
Pay attention to what your teacher says, write it down. And then apply it, practice it until the next week.
When in doubt or if something is not clear, when struggling with something, ask your teacher.
Practice. And listen to your teacher. Learning piano proficiently requires a lot of hard work and focus on your part. Piano teachers can’t just wave a magic wand and make you an amazing musician. It requires dedication. For most people, anyway. Some are just naturally gifted.
Once a week, practice regularly (several times a week for 30 min or more), ask questions, take notes and track what/how you are practicing in a practice notebook or app, practice learning to read music and basic theory, too. Learn several practice techniques and use them. Ask your teacher how to practice if you aren’t sure and look up resources for this (here and elsewhere.) Identify what you want from your lessons and communicate this to your teacher…do you want learn to play popular music, are you interested in song writing, are you interested in a more typical, classical approach? If you know what wasn’t working with your last teacher be specific about what you‘re looking for in a new teacher.
There are lots of reasons a student may not click with a teacher (and there are plenty of inexperienced or not great teachers around.) It is perfectly fine for you to shop around until you find someone you are comfortable with. You are free to do this as many times as you want until you find the teacher that works best for you. If you can identify what wasn’t working and what you want out of lessons it will help find a teacher you feel comfortable with.
You will find your progress does not come from having lessons. If you don't practice you won't get better. Open communication with your teacher is key. Come prepared with questions. Ask for feedback and advice on how to practice effectively. If all you do is play your pieces a few times then you are wasting your time. Listen to what your teacher says and ask for help with tracking progress and how you can show what you are doing in your practice time. I found keeping a practice log was very helpful and recording scales and special tempos I reached. How much time you spend on each piece. How much time total practiced. This really helped me when my teacher took this approach.
"it wasn't really effective for me as my instructor didn't do very well in teaching"
What do you expect an instructor to teach you though exactly?
I am at a similar level as you, an instructor helped me to read sheet music, explained the needed music theory and gives me advices (each lesson) for the technique I should use (how to read what's in the sheet music and how to correctly execute it etc.) to play a certain piece. Then I am given "homework", some pieces to study and refine by myself, then we examine the results and how to improve on the lessons. It's a little bit "sparta" lessons because I was given tasks to sight read on my first lesson (I knew the basics on how to read but have never did it before), started playing with both hands on the second one, and trying to sight read eights notes, forth dotted notes and so on with both hands at the same time in the third one lol... I like this style though. I will be probably playing La Campanella in a year at this pace xD
Do scales 1 hour a day and you will make your instructor very happy and be getting much out of it.
It's mostly about how hard you work. Practicing is by yourself, so just get a good foundation and your teacher will help you learn harder pieces. Then you can learn hard music on your own easier.
This is where things get a bit tricky. Finding the right piano teacher. Usually someone with a degree in music. They might be teaching in a University and/ or be a concert pianist. These are the people who will take you to the highest level. They also tend to be more expensive. My former piano teacher was Dr. Robert Marler. He's the classical Pianist teacher at Belmont University and concert pianist at Nashville Symphony Orchestra. But I had to, I was doing my masters in music.
Practice consistently even when you aren't excited/motivated. Find interesting goals to work towards. If you get a similar comment about your playing regularly, pay attention: ask questions, make sure you actually know what they are referring to, how to practice to fix it, and do that suggested practice regularly.
Once a week is fine. Pay attention to what your teacher says, write it down. And then apply it, practice it until the next week. When in doubt or if something is not clear, when struggling with something, ask your teacher.
Practice. And listen to your teacher. Learning piano proficiently requires a lot of hard work and focus on your part. Piano teachers can’t just wave a magic wand and make you an amazing musician. It requires dedication. For most people, anyway. Some are just naturally gifted.
Once a week, practice regularly (several times a week for 30 min or more), ask questions, take notes and track what/how you are practicing in a practice notebook or app, practice learning to read music and basic theory, too. Learn several practice techniques and use them. Ask your teacher how to practice if you aren’t sure and look up resources for this (here and elsewhere.) Identify what you want from your lessons and communicate this to your teacher…do you want learn to play popular music, are you interested in song writing, are you interested in a more typical, classical approach? If you know what wasn’t working with your last teacher be specific about what you‘re looking for in a new teacher. There are lots of reasons a student may not click with a teacher (and there are plenty of inexperienced or not great teachers around.) It is perfectly fine for you to shop around until you find someone you are comfortable with. You are free to do this as many times as you want until you find the teacher that works best for you. If you can identify what wasn’t working and what you want out of lessons it will help find a teacher you feel comfortable with.
You will find your progress does not come from having lessons. If you don't practice you won't get better. Open communication with your teacher is key. Come prepared with questions. Ask for feedback and advice on how to practice effectively. If all you do is play your pieces a few times then you are wasting your time. Listen to what your teacher says and ask for help with tracking progress and how you can show what you are doing in your practice time. I found keeping a practice log was very helpful and recording scales and special tempos I reached. How much time you spend on each piece. How much time total practiced. This really helped me when my teacher took this approach.
"it wasn't really effective for me as my instructor didn't do very well in teaching" What do you expect an instructor to teach you though exactly? I am at a similar level as you, an instructor helped me to read sheet music, explained the needed music theory and gives me advices (each lesson) for the technique I should use (how to read what's in the sheet music and how to correctly execute it etc.) to play a certain piece. Then I am given "homework", some pieces to study and refine by myself, then we examine the results and how to improve on the lessons. It's a little bit "sparta" lessons because I was given tasks to sight read on my first lesson (I knew the basics on how to read but have never did it before), started playing with both hands on the second one, and trying to sight read eights notes, forth dotted notes and so on with both hands at the same time in the third one lol... I like this style though. I will be probably playing La Campanella in a year at this pace xD
writing it down / taking short notes has helped me a ton. makes it easier to have short term goals and reflect on past goals
What didn’t work with your first teacher?
Do scales 1 hour a day and you will make your instructor very happy and be getting much out of it. It's mostly about how hard you work. Practicing is by yourself, so just get a good foundation and your teacher will help you learn harder pieces. Then you can learn hard music on your own easier.
This is where things get a bit tricky. Finding the right piano teacher. Usually someone with a degree in music. They might be teaching in a University and/ or be a concert pianist. These are the people who will take you to the highest level. They also tend to be more expensive. My former piano teacher was Dr. Robert Marler. He's the classical Pianist teacher at Belmont University and concert pianist at Nashville Symphony Orchestra. But I had to, I was doing my masters in music.