How to find the right music teacher for you (or your child)May 22 '07 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line The right teacher can really enhance the student's experience. here are some things to consider.
To me, the relationship between a student and a private music teacher is special. The right teacher can help the student express themselves musically and feel the joy of accomplishment. Plenty of band directors do an outstanding job. Some even conduct private lessons with the band students. However, a good private teacher who is a specialist on an instrument can help a student immensely in starting out. This includes making sure the student has acceptable quality equipment and understands the fundamentals of producing music on their chosen instrument. Even though fundamentals can best be developed when starting, it is never too late to have a teacher assess a more experienced player and offer suggestions for improvement . Answering these questions will help you find the right teacher relationship for your child. What are your objectives? This could be anything from the following: A pleasant, recurring activity Support in the player expressing themselves (especially for adult students) Coaching for improved musical performance More intense coaching, with fairly high expectations Intense work on particular areas of improvement for a short period A player experienced in one style (classical) wanting to learn another (jazz,rock) Objective advice on equipment? Books? And there are many, many more possibilities. The important thing is to determine objectives before you set the relationship. It also helps to understand under what circumstances the student has responded well in the past. How can you find teachers Ask around. Most band directors have a good feel as to who are the good local teachers on a particular instrument. Music stores often have good teachers on staff and/or a recommended list. Oftentimes, there will be ads in a local paper. You can ask good players on the same instrument. I found a teacher that way when I was in high school. Once you have identified teachers, you need to check them out, using the following criteria: Can they play? This would seem simple to assess but there are fewer performance opportunities and more players chasing them. What musical groups are they in? Do they have any recordings or samples? Where did they study music and with whom? What is their philosophy? Coaching modality? The taskmaster? (don’t dismiss this outright. With a committed student, it can be VERY effective).Laid-back? How do they coordinate with local band directors? You want a teacher who enhances in-school performance by coordinating efforts with what the school is doing. Does the studio offer performance opportunities? This is more common for piano and violin; less so for band instruments, although there are often plenty of performance opportunities in local school music associations. How else does the teacher encourage performance?(for example, by attending student concerts and performances on occasion) Will the teacher provide references? Has the teacher had prior experience with your type of student? How have they developed? What are the studio rules – for example, about parents sitting in the lessons? Scheduling flexibility? Lesson length and cost? What is their attitude toward enforcing necessary practice? Is it the teacher’s responsibility to enforce? The parents? Honestly, I’ve been in a couple of situations where the student did not practice much, yet the parents thought the lessons were a valuable activity. The time to figure out how to deal with this is before the issue arises. Armed with these questions, you can locate a good teacher. However, once you have done so, keep up the involvement. Talk with the teacher. Ask how the student is doing. Ask how things could go better. Lastly, understand that the teacher relationship is great while it lasts, but isn’t necessarily forever. A player may need a different approach at various points in their career. Mature, experiences teachers understand that. A teacher might provide a referral to another teacher with a different approach. If any reader has any specific questions they would like me to answer, contact me through my member page. Thanks for reading. God bless! Please check out some of my other epinions pertaining to music education: How to get your child started on an instrument Rent or buy your child’s first instrument How to buy a decent musical instrument on Ebay Improve Your Intonation Ear Training I - Beginning and Intermediate Players Ear Training II - Prelude to Improvisation Ear Training III: Time to Learn Tunes and PLAY My worst gig Putting a Jazz Band Together Being a one man band for fun and profit I compose the way I play What music has helped me learn about myself Fast fingers are important How I help my students learn new music I learned about a lot more than music from my music teachers Ode to my Selmer Saxophones  |
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