music lessons

[ProudGrandma]

next year all 3 of our kids will be taking piano lessons and our daughter just started accordian lessons and so next fall we will be paying $128 a month for music lessons (which is a lot for us)....so I was wondering if anybody here who gives lessons ever had a parent request lessons every other week with the teacher giving twice as many pieces to practice? or if you are a parent in our situation, ever ask to have your children take lessons every other week. I was just wondering if that is a reasonable request. What do you think??

 

Kathy

[gandpsmommy]

We did this when dd just started piano, but found it didn't work well for us. We were trying to keep the cost down, too. Our piano teacher comes to our house, and initially ds was going to take lessons, too, so she was giving us a discounted rate. But when ds (only 5 at the time) seemed unready to do piano and we just had dd, she had to charge us more (for the gas to drive to just one student). So, we tried doing lessons just every other week. But, dd really wasn't progressing very quickly until we decided to have lessons every week.

 

It might work differently for a child who is already playing the instrument and is somewhat proficient, though. I just don't think it was a great way to start off.

[prim*rose]

We had our 8 yr old start on harp lessons 2x/month and the instructor was fine with it. She's a Masters student, so she totally gets the "budget" thing. We ended up going to weekly lessons, though, as my daughter really needed the consistency and help with form, etc. that I am not able to give her since I don't play.

[Pretty in Pink]

Our oldest plays the trumpet and we have done that in the past when our budget was tight, but he was already an intermediate player at the time and I am a musician and can help him with tricky rhythms and such. I wouldn't be as comfortable with that arrangement if I weren't confident in my ability to guide his practice.

 

To be honest though I noticed that my ds lost a bit of interest during that time. Do your kids have another student to practice with on the off weeks?

[musicmommy]

As a music teacher, I have this situation with a couple of my students, but both of the students are in high school and very motivated. The families just can not afford to have weekly lessons. It does get a little frustrating at times because the regular 30 minute lessons don't give us enough time to go through two weeks worth of materials. I do understand though on the financial side of things this is all we can do.

 

One thing that is difficult on the teaching side is that it is difficult to have a student take up a time slot every other week. I wouldn't be able to plug in another student there so they would still be taking up that time every week only I wouldn't be getting paid for it. Does that make any sense? Fortunately, the two I have swap back and forth during that time.

 

Both girls are very structured in their practicing and are highly motivated. I've also let them know that they can call or email me with questions on their music. Two lessons a month are still better than none.

[Donna]

I do this with my dd's fiddle lessons. Her teacher lives 2.5 hours from us so a weekly drive (5 hours total) would just not be fun for a 7yo. She goes every 2-3 weeks and he gives her enough material to last for the time in between. I video him playing the tunes she is to learn and she practices with the recordings to learn the bowings.

[ProudGrandma]

thanks...I am glad to know that this is not a request that is too "out there"...I will speak with the kid's piano teacher and see what she says.

 

Kathy