Harpgirl said "I know it wasn't my technical skill. But I looked and felt happy and that's why I won, I'm sure!!"

Find a teacher like that. You'll be glad you did. I've taken lessons in the past from teachers who rarely even smiled, let alone laughed. One was so obviously only concerned with getting my money and watching the clock that I finally had to ask him "do you actually CARE whether I ever learn to play"? He looked puzzled and said "what you do with the information is YOUR business." He knew a lot about music (though I don't think he ever actually entertained professionally) but very little about people.

Shop around. A (qualified) happy teacher will probably be a good teacher. A miserable one will definitely NOT be good. Thanks to advice from Mudcat I found an excellent teacher over a year ago.

As a therapist, I know that to be effective, I have to either like my client or find them interesting enough that I might one day like them.

marty