my questions

[maarvel]

i dont have a teacher but i would love to find one
i have a few questions
1, how did you find your teacher?
2, how can i recognize the teacher is good?
3, how much do you pay for each lesson?
4, how many hours do you have per week?

[hyrst]

Hi,
1. I found my teacher through a music shop - she worked for them and taught privately.  I 'stumbled' across her - I wasn't looking actively.

It is possible to find teachers through exam boards, internet searches, recommendations from music shops, asking around, yellow pages, etc.  Quite a bit of searching can turn up a lot of people around.

2. My teacher is not a geat teacher, but she does explain things (even though it takes a while for me to get what she means) and she is a very good performer.  She knows how to play extremely well and in time I believe I will learn a lot from her.

Meet a prospective teacher.  Have a trial lesson.  See how you feel together as people, if they are respectful but give good criticism and explanations.  Experience can be important.  See if there are any students you might be able to talk to - like if there is a studio recital go and meet people and see how they play and what they say about their lessons and the atmosphere (is it happy and enthusiastic or perfectionist?).  Find out about their music teaching qualifications. 

3. I pay $60 (Australia) for an hour lesson - or $1 per minute, my teacher puts it.  For my own teaching, I ask $52 an hour - about low average in Australia.

4. I usually have a 1 hour lesson per week.  Often we go over this time (although she talks a lot about other stuff) and sometimes we work for up to 2 hours when a recital or something is coming up.  I would love to have more time, especially if all that time was productive, but I just can't afford it.
My students have lessons between 30 minutes and 1 hour.  A lot have 45 minutes.  It is very hard to cover everything that students need to learn, even in the one hour.  A very good student could easily use 2 hours.  I have one little girl who is just amazing and she has 2 lessons a week adding up to 2 1/4 hours. 

[amelialw]

1) through music schools...when i mean music school's I don't mean Yamaha, I mean music academys

I found my canada teacher through relatives when I moved to canada as she was teaching 2 of my cousins

2) the way the teacher teaches, addresses the student's problems, must be able to identify weaknesses&strength's etc.

My teacher who taught me in canada is excellent, even right from the beginning, she already could tell what we needed to correct and after almost 6 yrs she knows me so well that she can just pick pieces for me according to what i need to learn. Of course now i'm more independent

3) Paid about $57 canadian per lesson, it's cheap compared to singapore where i now pay $100 singapore to a teacher who i feel is'nt worth the cost

4)1 hour....that's all my present teacher teaches and that's the max only once in a long while she might stretch it. My other teacher teaches me a min. of 1 hr 15 mins when her time is really tight which was probably once in 2/3 months and the rest of the time 1& a half hours to 2 hrs plus, once in a while it goes it up almost 3 hours and that's all in one session(if it's 3 hrs she will put a half an hour break in between)

[mr music]

Hi Maarvel,

Well here’s my 2 bits worth,

1. How did you find your teacher.
Recently, I was just in your situation. In years gone by I (more or less) began on trumpet and always had teachers associated with the bands that I played in or by word of mouth in music in general. However, your circumstances may not permit this. Where I grew up music was a big thing and everybody knew everybody, but I usually found this a bit intimidating and mostly found it difficult to approach teachers in this way. However, about nearly 3 years ago I decided to play piano and got a teacher by word of mouth (unfortunately, due to ill health of the teacher it didn’t work out), but please remember, if someone suggests you go to this or that teacher just remember, it’s only a suggestion and that’s it. When I had to look for another teacher, I immediately looked to the internet.

2. How can i recognize the teacher is good
You carn’t. Until you have your first lesson anyway. If you have found a teacher by word of mouth please also remember, just because that particular teacher was good for someone you know or knew, it doesn’t mean that they will be good for you. Personalities have a lot to do with it. If you’re the quiet type then you probably won’t get on with someone who is roarcus! It’s really just like winning the lottery. If they have their qualifications on a web site or hung up somewhere then you can read them, if that makes you feel any better. But I don’t go by this method. In fact, I always make it a point never to ask anyone if they have any qualifications. You will know as soon as you sit down and start to play by the reaction you’ll get. The response/s should be constructive and helpful, if they are not then there is something wrong but it may just be a matter of communication. My first trumpet teacher played in a professional orchestra all his adult working life and never went near a conservatorium or music school. In fact trumpet was not his instrument and it was only many years later that I found out that he never actually played it ! But what a great teacher he was. I go on my gut feeling. If someone appears to be a reputable teacher, has the necessary qualifications and appears to have been playing the instrument you require instruction on for any extended period of time and you are new to it, then it is probably more than likely that they would be able to teach you something. But of course you may not know all this from just finding someone on the net. It’s just potluck. If it doesn’t work out, then you’ve made a new friend or not. If you are left wondering where he time went, then they are a good teacher.

A good teacher will show you how to correctly practice for a start. When you find a teacher look at some things you want to play (or the teacher may suggest somethings) but ask even if you think you may be doing it right. Communication is important. There is no point in practicing 4 hours a day if you are doing something incorrectly. So it’s not ah well, I’ve got 20 minutes to spare here, I’ll think I’ll go and do some practice. Yes by all means do that, but really you must eat, drink and sleep music. If you want to get more proficient you will practice, and what follows should be obvious if your doing the correct practice for a start ! The more you practice the more you will get out of your teacher. I digress.

3, how much do you pay for each lesson
Please don’t get confused that if you are paying an enormous amount of money for lessons you are naturally getting the best. There are trumpet players that I knew once (about 15 years ago) that charged $90.00 (Australian) per hour. But only the right student would learn anything from them. Good performers are not always the best teachers (in bands anyway). By all means look up the union rate, however, if they turn out to be a suitable teacher, give you the adequate attention required, are a nice person and if circumstances permit, then you won’t care how much it costs. I don't think it's that unusual to find players traveling 50 miles to have a lesson with their teacher.

4, How many hours do you have per week
It will obviously depend on what you want to do with things. You may wish to make it known however, that in the beginning you would like to have a trial run first, just to see how things develop. Or, even having a lesson on a needs basis. Or, you may wish to pay up front for say three lessons, then if you don’t like it after 3 weeks you won’t need to go back and you’ll never see them again but it is always better to leave things amicable. Years ago, I actually had a teacher say to me, "Well if you don’t come back next week then that’s fine" ?+!*@#. But from where I come from, generally, lessons are usually weekly.

Good luck in finding a teacher.

[m19834]

I don't think it's that unusual to find players traveling 50 miles to have a lesson with their teacher.

hmmmm ... I travel roughly 600 miles (one way ... 1200 round trip) from door to door (as the crow flies), once a month, to see my mentor . 

[mr music]

hmmmm ... I travel roughly 600 miles from door to door (as the crow flies), once a month, to see my mentor . 

I'm glad someone brought this up. I was a bit apprehensive to say, thought it may have been a bit over-kill. I knew a trumpet player once that used to travel by train from Sydney to Melbourne (Australia) every fortnight about 900ks or so. Just another example as to what extent people will go to get to their teacher, not everyone could do this of course, but if you can why not. I applaud you K for going that distance, it is an incredible feat. One story in Australia even made front news headlines where it was intended the whole family move interstate so they could be with the same teacher. Though, I do not know if this actually eventuated.

[m19834]

Just another example as to what extent people will go to get to their teacher, not everyone could do this of course, but if you can why not. I applaud you K for going that distance, it is an incredible feat.

Thank you.  I have to make a point (of course) here.  What I am doing is an example of an extent people will go to get to the RIGHT teacher.  Now that I am finding what truly is working for me, I would not so much as lift up a phone to my ear for the wrong teacher, let alone step a tiny toe out the door.  In some sense, though the traveling -- and how that affects mine and my husband's lives -- is an effort of sorts, I am quite happy to do it.  In that sense it's not really a feat.  On the other hand, as I said, even lifting the phone to my ear to talk with a teacher whom I know is not right for me, is beyond my ability at the time.

Also, this was not a flippant decision on my part to be doing this.  It is not just because I "can" and so I do.  It's because I am serious about what I am doing and needed to find the right person to work with me in this endeavor, and it became very apparent that I needed to broaden my scope in terms of how I go about finding the right one, though, actually finding him is a bit of a different story.  But, the point is, the main reason I "can" do this is because my husband and I have made it a priority over other things in our lives.  I just want to make that point not for your sake really or what you said, exactly, but for the sake of those people who may be looking for a teacher.

One story in Australia even made front news headlines where it was intended the whole family move interstate so they could be with the same teacher. Though, I do not know if this actually eventuated.

I have a similar story in mind, though I don't know if it would actually ever eventuate .

[mr music]

not for your sake really

? Sorry If I offended you in any way.

[m19834]

? Sorry If I offended you in any way.

Wow, thank you very much, but unfortunately, I am not offended in any way by your response to me here .  What I meant was that I didn't think that your response alone warranted my full response to your response,  , as I don't necessarily think you are in the market for a teacher and I wasn't trying to actually "correct" anything you said (though it may have seemed that way ... almost).  I was rather speaking to readers who may be looking for a teacher by piggybacking on your response to me  .

Cheers !