Why do you need a music teacher?
There is a reason why private lessons have been the standard, for decades, for musical learning. Everyone is different, has physical differences, and learns differently. You need an experienced teacher to bridge those gaps for you and fit the instruction to your physical attributes and learning abilities.
If you think it is your band director’s job to teach you how to play, you are most likely wrong. It is his job for the first year, but after that, his job is to teach the music that the group is playing.
A good private music teacher can have you doing more in five or six weeks than you can likely learn by yourself in five or six months, even if you practice twice as hard.The practical advice ends here…you might want to jump to the “How to find a good music teacher” article.
HOW DO I KNOW THIS?
A little background information:
I attended the University of Illinois, the number one music education school in the nation. I then taught college for a few years, and then ran a Community School of the Arts for thirteen years. I hired the finest music teachers from a 40-mile radius to work in my school. How? I paid them a decent wage, but not as much as they could earn on their own. I offered them benefits they couldn’t get on their own – we did all the scheduling and notifying, they got w W-2 form so they did not have to figure their own taxes, full-timers got benefits, and they also had the comfort of knowing that needy students got lesson scholarships up to 50% of lesson costs and up to 100% of class costs. Scholarship students were required to take music theory courses, for free, which greatly accelerated their musical knowledge.
We taught over 600high-quality lessons and music, art and dance classes every week.
As a musician and administrator, what surprised me were the teaching abilities of the musicians from other music schools. All from reputable schools were fine players, but most were not ready to teach. Most of the recent graduates needed my time and mentoring to improve their teaching to acceptable levels.
Even my fabulous violin teacher (master’s degree from Eastman, doctorate from the Manhattan School of Music) needed some help translating his vast violin skills and knowledge into workable plans for young students. In those thirteen years, I had only two teachers who were 100% ready to teach any students, any time and anywhere. Thank you, Kathy and Sarah!
