north bay trumpet studio

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How many lessons are appropriate?

I simply can not answer this question. Here is why:

• This is representative of exactly the type of "end gaining" and consumer mentality that I seek to avoid in my studio and in my teaching.
• The question implies that there is a "fixed" amount of information to give and that the student can receive that in full after a "fixed" amount of time (and with a "fixed" cost).
• Can one identify the difficulty of the above statement in this light?

I will offer the following suggestions:

• It would be helpful to know what the student's goals are at the outset.
• If the goal is to play one piece, one or two lesson may be enough (depending on the difficulty of a piece)
• Such an expectation would not be reasonable if the piece were a Concerto and the student lacked fundamental musical skills to play the piece competently.
• One frequently encountered difficulty is that the student does not have enough musical understanding to know what his deficiencies are.
• A reasonably intelligent student may have some sense of their own difficulty, but not an idea of how to go about solving it.
• Such a student may think they have one problem when they, in fact, have an entirely different issue or several underlying issues.
• Only an experienced and qualified teacher can be of assistance in such situations.
• Inexperienced and unqualified teachers can only, at best, apply the methods they inherited and the material they know-neither of which will actually address the underlying issues most students actually have.
• It may take a great deal of time to identify and define musical deficiencies
• Identification and definition dependent on the comfort and trust level between the teacher and student.
• It takes time to build that trust and an environment where the student is able to feel comfortable to reveal aspects of himself musically.
• It may take a great deal of work to correct deficiencies (through the guidance of a qualified teacher and consistent, regular, daily practice based on that guidance).
• Once deficiencies have been identified and worked through (to a greater or lesser degree) musical goals may have changed.
• There is always more work to be done, more territory to explore, more areas to develop and these get revealed as time passes.

Generally

• I have never reached the "end" of what I considered was everything that needed to or could be explored with a student in over 30 years of teaching.
• Students seem to begin to feel more comfortable and at ease and understand my expectations and method after 6-8 lessons.
• Most students who begin private study with me continue for 4-6 years.
• It would not be unusual to begin to see tangible improvements after 30 lessons (2 semesters).
• Beyond those observations, I do not have an answer.
• A curious student owes it to himself to investigate where private study might lead them.