When you’re learning to play an instrument, your teacher is really important. You need to choose someone who really helps you progress well with your playing. But how are you supposed to find this person? There’s often a lot of conflicting advice around and people will want different things from a teacher so it’s important to get as much information as you can before making any decisions. I’ll list some of the things you should be considering when choosing your teacher.
When choosing a teacher, some things you need to think about are:
What is your budget?
What is your skill level?
Who has been recommended?
What style of playing are you interested in?
Can you get a trial lesson?
These considerations will help to give you an idea of what you want from your teacher and who would be most suitable. Someone who’s widely considered to be the best teacher around just might not be right for you, so you need to think about who the potential teachers are and what their pros and cons are in terms of your needs. Let’s think about each of the things above individually.
What is your budget for a woodwind teacher?
You don’t ideally want budget to be the deciding factor in which teacher you choose, but sometimes it will have to be. Before you look for a teacher, make sure you know what your budget is, so you don’t go looking at really expensive teachers, choose one you really like, and then realise there’s no way you can afford to pay them for lessons.
Sometimes, it might be possible to have lessons less frequently with a more expensive teacher. For example, you might find it more productive to have a teacher who happens to be more expensive but you get on really well with and progress quickly, but can only afford a lesson every two weeks instead of every week. This works well for some people but not for others. You will probably have to be more disciplined with your own practice schedule in this case.
If your budget is very limited you might not have a big choice of teachers. This could make things a bit more difficult, but some things bring down the price of lessons. It’s often cheaper to get a teacher who teaches in their own house, as they won’t then have any travel costs, and you might even find someone who teaches online, which is usually a bit cheaper. Your skill level can also have an effect on what budget you need to spend, which I’ll now talk about below.
What is your woodwind skill level?
Your skill level on woodwind can have a huge impact on which teacher is best for you. It’s not necessarily best to get a teacher who has loads of really advanced pupils and a great reputation if they’re not very used to teaching beginners. There are teachers who specialise in beginner lessons, and they will probably do more suitable, even if they’re not as well qualified on paper.
Typically, the higher your skill level, the more money you will have to pay for lessons. This makes sense – a teacher capable of getting you through grade 8 needs to be better qualified than a teacher capable of getting you through grade 1. Be aware, though, that if you get a teacher that specialises in beginners, you might progress through the grades and get to the point where you need a new teacher. This can be a big moment in your playing career, and can slow your progress down if you don’t make the right choice.
Which woodwind teachers have been recommended?
A really good place to start when choosing a teacher is from recommendations. You might have a friend who plays the same instrument as you. Ask them who their teacher is. If they don’t recommend their teacher, that can be just as useful, as it might help you to rule someone out. Don’t automatically assume you’ll have the same opinion though – some teachers can be great, just not right for a particular student.
Another thing you can do is ask for recommendations in a local music shop. A lot have a noticeboard with business cards of different music teachers in the area. These are likely to be recommended by the people working in the shop, but it’s worth asking them for their advice in general. They might even be part-time music teachers themselves.
You can also look for teachers online. There are plenty of websites that advertise teachers. The teachers are not usually recommended by the website (there is no vetting process) but they will usually have reviews from students they’ve taught. Be aware that some might have friends who put reviews on for them – they might be obvious! If someone doesn’t have any reviews (or only bad ones), but has been using the site a while, they might not be a good choice. If they are new to the site, the best option is to see if they’ll give you a trial lesson.
What style of playing are you interested in?
This is not usually a particularly relevant questions for beginners, who will just need to know the basics. For more advanced pupils, however, there could be a particularly style of music you really want to concentrate on, e.g. classical, jazz or pop. This can give you some idea of where to start when looking for a teacher.
Most teachers will specialise in a particular type or a couple of types of music. You will find that teaching styles can vary quite a lot between, say, classical teachers and jazz teachers. You need to work out which style you prefer and find a teacher who is appropriate for you. It’s also really important that you get on well with your teacher, as you’re unlikely to progress as well as you could if you don’t really like your teacher that much.
Can you get a trial lesson?
Probably the best, and easiest way to find a suitable teacher is to try a few different ones and see which you like the best. A lot of teachers will give a discounted (or even free) first lessons for pupils to try it out and see how they get on. This is something it can be really good to make use of.
If you’re getting trial lessons, here are some things you should do:
- Don’t try an overwhelming amount of people – keep it to 3 or 4
- Have the lessons within a couple of days of each other
- Take notes on what you liked and didn’t like about each person
It can be awkward trying a few teachers and then having to tell all but one that you don’t want to carry on having lessons, but most teachers will be happy to let you do a trial. You shouldn’t try too many at once, as you’ll just get confused about who’s who and it can be very overwhelming. The lessons you do have, though, should be pretty close together so that you can compare how much you enjoyed it and found it helpful more easily.
The best way to compare is to take notes for each person. You don’t have to do this during the lesson – just sit down for 10 minutes after each one and write down what you thought about them. Make sure you note anything that made you feel particularly strongly, as these are the things most likely to influence your decision.
You also need to base your choice on which teacher you liked the best, to some extent. You might think one of the teachers pushed you the most and could get you to progress very quickly, but you didn’t really like their teaching style. It’s likely if this is the case, that you actually won’t progress that quickly, because you’ll lose interest if you’re not enjoying it, and will stop putting the time in. Think carefully about who you think you’d most like to learn from.
Summary
To sum up this post, when choosing a woodwind teacher, it’s really down to personal preference. You should start by checking your budget and skill level and working out who the possible contenders are. Then you look for recommendations from trusted sources and try to narrow down your list. Once you’re down to about 3 or 4 people, contact them and see if they’re willing to do a trial lesson. You can then choose your favourite, based on who you get on with and you think will help you to progress.