Music Video Lesson: Are 30 Minute Music Lessons OK?

Hi, I'm Robert Estrin here, virtualsheetmusic.com and livingpianos.com with our wonderful show for you -- our thirty minute music lessons, okay? Well, this is a great subject, one that's very important for you. So, I'm going to cover it for you a bit. Now, if you have children, let's say, a lot of people think, oh boy, longer than 30 minutes? Can my child sit still that long? And now, here's the answer to that. If your child can't sit for 30 minutes under the supervision of a teacher, how could they possibly be expected to practice any matter of time at all on their own? That's one issue.

The other question is, oh boy, longer than 30 minutes could be really intense. And you know what? It's exactly the opposite. Why is that? Well, as a teacher, a student may run into a certain snag, an issue. Maybe it's rhythm, or some hand position, or some other problem that takes some time to resolve. And before you know it, the half hour is done and you're frantically trying to get everything done in the lesson, and actually the lesson become more intense. Having at least a 45 minute or an hour lesson is so much better, because you have time to explore different aspects. It's not just a matter of correcting wrong notes, and the signing of material. You want to go through review pieces, technique, music theory, there are countless things.

Not only that, but it's important to develop a rapport with students, to understand their lives. After all, the most important part of the music lesson is not the time that you are with the student. That's right. It's the time they spend during the week. Your job as a teacher is to show the student what to do on a daily basis to be productive at home. If you could achieve that, the student will progress exponentially faster.

Now, there are some exceptions to this -- very young children. If you're starting a child at four or five years old, certainly more than 30 minutes is going to be tough. Even in this type of situation, you would be best off having two 30 minute lessons a week. In a perfect world, you'd have 20 minute lessons every day with a teacher, if you could. In fact, with very young children, it's really necessary to have the involvement of a parent on a daily basis, working with the child, because you can't expect a very young child to work independently. But, once the children are of school age, they're doing homework and they have a certain amount of self-reliance, they certainly can handle a lesson longer than 30 minutes, and you'd be surprised at how much better the progress is.

So, why are 30 minute lessons so popular? It's a simple matter of economics. People look at how much they're spending per week. It's much easier to sell a $25 lesson than a $50 lesson, after all. So, if you're looking for a top notch teacher, you'll find that most of the high quality teachers do teach, or at least offer, longer lessons than 30 minutes. So, consider this when you're studying music, or you're arranging music lessons for a member of your family, 30 minute lessons, most often times are a compromise.

Thanks so much for joining me, Robert Estrin here at livingpianos.com and virtualsheetmusic.com.

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