north bay trumpet
studio
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 absurdity 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 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 26 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 3-5 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.