Learning a musical instrument cheap

[Stibalfamily]

I would like my son to learn to play a musical instrument. We do not have the funds to pay for one on one lessons and I don't see that ever changing. DH and I do not play any instruments. How can he learn an instrument and which one/ones would be cost effective? I would be willing to learn alongside him. I would like to give him a couple of choices and take him to a local music store. I just don't want to get him excited about learning an instrument if it turns out we can't afford any lessons. I know that there are online lessons and I would like advice if anyone has gone that route. 

[Condessa]

Hoffmann Academy is a great website for piano lessons.  You can get the basic lessons for free on their website, or pay a fee for all the extra practice materials, but that is still far far less than paying for lessons.  If you have the room in your house and people willing to move it, you can sometimes find pianos for free on Craigslist if you are willing to transport.

[Slache]

https://www.guitarlessons.com/ :)

[Rachel]

Are there any community groups in your area that have lessons? In addition to private lessons, my children’s piano teacher works with a group that provides lessons for low income students in this area. I think it is through or hosted at a Methodist church. A small private college in this area  offers music classes for homeschool students including lessons taught by music education majors. Our YMCA offers group guitar lessons that are reasonable too. 

[DawnM]

My son learned to play the guitar and piano on his own.  It can be done.  He isn't concert level or anything, he just likes playing.  He has played in some talent shows.

We didn't do lessons when they were younger for a variety of reasons, cost was one.

[wintermom]

Voice is a great instrument to start with, as it cost nothing. Then you can usually find a community or church choir that costs nothing or is very affordable. It's much easier to then branch off into other instruments when you already have a foundation in singing. 

[EmilyGF]

My 13-year-old son gives some homeschooled kids piano lessons for very cheap. For him, it is a good source of income. For them, they would otherwise have had to quit piano. He charges $10/hour and does 45 minute lessons weekly. You might look into the talents of kids around you to see if there is a good match. He is very thoughtful about the lessons and writes up notes for himself about how to make future lessons go better.

Emily

[Angie in VA]

We sacrificed - and it hurt - for our kids to have music lessonss. It was well worth it.

We know a teacher who lets a family alternate which child gets a lesson that week. Love that!

Ask around. You  might be able to babysit or tutor a child in exchange for lessons. I just saw a free piano offered on a local homeschool loop. If you attend a church w/ a good music program, the director might be able to help you out.

I hope your child gets to take lessons and fall in love with music. Our family saying is, "Music is forever." I have warm, fuzzy memories of ballet recitals and little league baseball games, but mine still play today: at church and for money. (Full disclosure: one of mine ended up majoring in music!)

[Ausmumof3]

Cheapest one on one is going to be if you go to someone who is still a student themselves.  The alternative is self taught online options.

i could actually teach my kids beginner flute and piano the issue being  that with all the other stuff we do I struggle with the self discipline to make it happen.  I wish we'd had the money to prioritise music.  We did do two years of piano and dd hated it by the end but ds wanted to do sport and we couldn't afford both.

[Aurelia]

Voice and recorder or tin whistle are pretty cheap. DD joined a local choir group one year for something like $50 for the entire school year. I learned to play recorder in 3rd grade music class because that and the glockenspiel were about the only instruments most kids wouldn't mess up. Most other instruments require careful hand positioning to do correctly and it's something young kids don't do well unless they have a good teacher. 

[Targhee]

I recommend a quality keyboard (polyphony and some degree of dynamic touch). You can do videos online or self-teaching books for piano.  Piano is an excellent instrument for solo play as well because it is polyphonic and polyrhythmic. 

[Dmmetler]

Well, if you live anywhere near me, I have a recorder class starting week after next. I use recorder largely because it is an inexpensive instrument to get the music reading, and some of the breathing, articulation, posture type stuff down. And can be a serious instrument in it’s own right. I would imagine that if you have an active homeschool community, there is probably something similar. 

 

[birchbark]

I have been teaching the kids and myself recorder with $7 recorders from Amazon and a $15 "Nine-Note Method" book. We start in first grade and the book provides a few yrs of music instruction. Very doable, low investment, portable, and great musical foundation for other instruments.

[4KookieKids]

On 4/24/2018 at 7:34 AM, Rachel said:

Are there any community groups in your area that have lessons? In addition to private lessons, my children’s piano teacher works with a group that provides lessons for low income students in this area. I think it is through or hosted at a Methodist church. A small private college in this area  offers music classes for homeschool students including lessons taught by music education majors. Our YMCA offers group guitar lessons that are reasonable too. 

 

 I would second looking around. In addition to the music classes offered at the local co-op’s, which are plentiful and relatively inexpensive even though they are individual instruction, the Salvation Army buyers actually has a music school that is super inexpensive, and the local university has a program where they partner with local middle schools and elementary schools to teach very affordable music classes in order to give music students experience teaching in a classroom  Setting before they graduate. My son took an entire year of viola lessons, twice a week, for under $100 at the local elementary school in the afternoons. 

We also do Hoffman piano, and the only real expense there is the piano or keyboard itself. But if you start keeping a lookout on local Freecycle or craigslist websites, you can often score a free piano if you are patient, because people move and do not want to move their piano. We have scored at least 3 free pianos over the last few years, and given several away to friends.  also, a basic guitar is not too expensive, and the basic ukulele costs even less, and there are plentiful curricula online for teaching yourself either of those instruments. A ukulele is easier to play, and you can often get started on your first song in your very first lesson, which is nice and encouraging for children. Recently Groupon had a years worth of ukulele online lessons for something like $10 on sale.  I’m not sure if they still have it, but it would be very, very affordable way to get started with an instrument. 

 Whatever instrument you choose though, it is helpful if someone familiar with music can offer occasional feedback and support at least. In our case, I am able to give some feedback on piano, guitar, and ukulele, but my oldest child is getting advanced enough in piano, that at this point I have a friend who is a piano teacher who is willing to watch him play for a few minutes every few months, just to make sure he’s not doing something small , But that will prove to be really bad habits in the long run. And I completely outsource strings, since I don’t know anything about violin or viola. So the student-teacher partnership with the schools was a really great thing for us! 

[Penelope]

Ukulele, recorder. Acoustic guitar, a simple keyboard. Probably NOT other woodwinds or any bowed instruments. 
 

It is hard to beat in-person lessons for making progress. Even on-line lessons are not a good substitute, IMO. BTDT during the pandemic. Maybe an occasional lesson would be feasible? 
 

Some people think that one can learn most things on their own until they get to the point where they need a teacher. But a good teacher does a lot right from the beginning to get the student on the right track and steering her out of bad habits before they take root. Going to a teacher later may result in a lot of backtracking to retrain those habits. We all work with the resources we have and it’s always great to expose kids to music making, however that can happen for them. Just something to be aware of. 
 

And the youtube channels that teach “songs” by rote are not the way to go. For some reason, I get zillions of ads for those. If I were going to use youtube, I think it might be better to go with one of those basic music theory ones that teach keys and chord progressions, plus a basic piano book like Alfred’s beginner self-teaching for adults. If the child is too young for that, maybe you could work ahead of him with this and then help him. 

 

[rebcoola]

Our library offers ukelele club now thats basically free group lessons. 

Also the boys and girls club in our area does group and individual lessons quite bit cheaper than other places no income qualifications needed. The teachers turnover is the only downside.

[maize]

I think guitar is a great instrument--portable, lots of inexpensive options new or used, tons of lessons available free on YouTube or minimal cost through apps, udemy courses, etc.

[8filltheheart]

This thread is from 2018.  

[Penelope]

I don’t know how I replied to a zombie thread! I thought I only looked at the first page on this forum. 🤨 I didn’t notice the date.