Investing in private music lessons is a big decision. You’ll be committing to spending dedicated time with your teacher each week and practice time in between lessons, not to mention a monthly lesson fee. So how do you make sure you’re getting the most out of your private lesson experience, and make sure your getting a return on your investment?
Here are 4 ways to make sure your music lessons will be a meaningful experience:
Be honest with your teacher
What are you most excited about at the thought of taking private lessons? I love to personalize music lessons based on my students’ unique interests. In addition, let me know right away what your goals are — do you want to be able to play for a hobby? Become a career musician? Maybe there’s a particular song you’d like to be able to play? As your teacher, I can structure lessons to best help you achieve your goals!
Practice
This may seem obvious, but it’s much easier said than done! Practicing is the hardest part of taking lessons, and yet it’s also the most crucial. Our time together each week is limited and it will fly by, so it’s important to take the concepts we discuss during lesson time and practice them at home. This will drastically improve your progress speed, and make lessons more enjoyable and meaningful as we move through material at a quicker pace.
Take advantage of additional opportunities offered through your studio
Does your teacher offer additional opportunities outside of lessons, such as recitals, lecture series, small group ensemble opportunities, etc? Take advantage of everything you can! You gain more value for your lesson fee the more you participate in studio activities, so soak up all you can!
Be on time
Another often overlooked piece, being timely to your lessons is a very important part of making sure your music lessons are a meaningful experience. Most students want lessons during a very concentrated window of time, so we teachers try to accommodate as many as possible during that window by scheduling lessons fairly close to one another. This means if you’re late to your lesson, I unfortunately can’t make up the time by extending the lesson to run later, because then we’ll be cutting into another student’s time. So the later you are, the less time we have together for the week, and the less material we can get through during our lesson time. Try to arrive a couple minutes early to your lesson, to allow yourself time to get inside, take of your coat, pull out your books, etc. - and maximize every minute!