Some of the following will come across as if I’m trying to talk you out of taking lessons. That might seem strange, since I’m selling my services as a teacher. Yes, I enjoy teaching and yes, I could use the money, but I also want to be useful. I don’t want to go through the motions just for a couple of bucks. I don’t want to waste your time, either.
If private lessons can help you, then great: let’s talk. But you might not need them. So, let us reason together.
The first question to answer is: Would private lessons be helpful to you?
To answer that question, think about your personal goals for improvement on the instrument. Private lessons are most beneficial when the student and teacher are working together toward a well-defined goal.
If you don’t have a clear goal, then this may not be the right time for you to get into private lessons. Think it over. There’s no rush; especially if you have no goal.
A goal statement usually includes a target you want to achieve and a time frame for achieving it. Can you state a goal for your playing in that form - a target for your performance and a timeframe to get there?
For example, if you’re a high school student your goal might be: “I want to make All State Band by 11th grade;” or: “I want to win a competitive audition for a university scholarship two years from now.”
If you’re an adult amateur, your goal might be: “I want to improve my sight-reading and expressive playing over the next 12 months so that I can contribute better to my community band;” or: “I haven’t touched my horn in 20 years and I want to get back into playing so I can join a band next year.”
Your goal doesn’t have to be a grand, long-term objective. If you’re a professional or high-level amateur, a goal might be: “Lately I’ve been getting this weird growling sound in the middle register, and I’m at a loss. I’d like some specific guidance to help me fix it in the next couple of weeks.” That goal could be met in one or two sessions; no need for an extended program of lessons.
Do you want to improve generally, with no specific goal in mind? You can always practice with an eye toward general improvement. There’s nothing wrong with that.
You may be able to do it on your own. Don’t underestimate the effectiveness of self-discipline, study books, and YouTube videos. It’s a powerful combination.
On the other hand, the self-discipline element is critical. One benefit of private lessons is the schedule motivates you to practice specific things on a regular basis. Think about whether you need that motivator, or if you can maintain consistent practice on your own.
Private lessons will supplement the learning you can obtain through the people and resources already available to you. Do you need guidance beyond that level?
Is your goal realistic in view of your other interests and responsibilities in life? Are you an adult with a family to support? An amateur musician who has three or four equally-important interests besides music? A student who must balance family time, friends time, and study time with practice time? There’s a limit to how much you can realistically commit to.
You need to be honest with yourself about this. Otherwise, you might agree to a practice schedule that you just can’t sustain.
Musicians take many paths through life. Some are university educated, some are not. Some are trained as teachers, others focus on performance. Some teachers are better than others at teaching. Some full-time music teachers are also strong performers. Some performers can also teach; others struggle to explain things.
There are several different university curricula in music, such as music education, music therapy, theory and composition, and performance. Within the area of music education, universities prepare two kinds of teachers to work in school systems - general music teachers who teach young children in a classroom setting, and band/orchestra directors who teach middle school and high school students in hopes of someday working at the university or professional level.
No university that I know of trains people specifically to be private music teachers for individual students.
There are two considerations for finding an effective teacher. Of course, the person’s qualifications matter. Equally important is the rapport the two of you have. You need to be able to trust the teacher and to interact with them for 60 to 90 minutes at a time without becoming frustrated or annoyed. They need the same, too.
There are so many variations in human personalities it’s hard to come up with a general rule for finding someone you can get along with. That’s really a matter of your own judgment.
When it comes to qualifications, there are three rules of thumb that might be helpful.
First, ask them to explain how they approach teaching private lessons and what, exactly, they consider important for a euphoniumist or trombonist to know.
They may talk about things you aren’t too familiar with, like embouchure development, but you should be able to make a gut-feel judgment about whether they seem to know what they’re talking about. Ask questions to see whether they can explain things clearly or demonstrate techniques on the instrument.
They might have information like this website where they lay out some of the topics they consider important, and they have something more-or-less substantive to say about them. This could be in the form of a printed brochure rather than a website.
Second, someone who is a reasonably strong player and a capable teacher might not be “famous,” even within the small world of brass playing; but the individual may have past or present experience playing in bands or orchestras, in pit orchestras, small ensembles, doing studio work, or any other relevant experience. You can ask them about that.
You can also look them up online to see if there’s any information about them. Don’t worry if you don’t find information online. Brass players aren’t usually visible that way, except for a few popularly-known players. They are, quite literally, not rock stars.
Third, in general you’ll benefit from someone with formal training/education as a music teacher if you are closer to the level of a beginner, and you’ll benefit from someone who mostly plays and maybe teaches part-time if you are closer to an advanced level.
That’s because an advanced player may not be able to help a beginner get started; they’ve been beyond that level for so long that they don’t remember what all the challenges are or how to advise someone with little or no background on which to build.
On the other hand, an experienced music teacher such as a high school band director has a lot of experience working with inexperienced musicians; in most cases, they have the same experience again and again year after year.
What they may be missing is direct experience with the day-to-day life of a professional musician. So, there’s a limit to what they can help you with beyond a certain point.
A note to high schoolers: According to an article in EdWeek from 2021, there are some 27,155 secondary and high schools in the United States. If you are second chair in your school band, don’t assume that means you are an “advanced” player. You might be, but it’s statistically unlikely. Compare yourself to your own band/orchestra director playing their primary instrument, rather than to other kids in your section.
If you are considering private lessons for your young child in the hope they will become the next Yuja Wang or Wynton Marsalis, it’s a near-certainty they will be better off learning from the music teacher in their school. Putting them into private lessons will be a waste of time and money.
General music teachers know how to introduce musical concepts to young children in an effective and enjoyable way. Those students rarely benefit from private lessons, in part because they have no goals and in part because they lack sufficient experience to benefit from the value-add a private teacher brings beyond what they’re getting in school.
To young children, music is an “activity,” like soccer or ballet or martial arts. They are exploring various activities and they may discover one or two things that interest them. But for the moment, they are not ready for private lessons. You won’t get value for your money.
Even when they are a little older and starting to participate in school band or orchestra, most children will not have any thoughts about “goals” and will still regard music as an “activity” rather than a lifelong passion.
When you see your child starting to show interest in becoming proficient on their instrument, look for a teacher on their behalf using the same sort of reasoning you would use to find a teacher for yourself, as suggested above. Even then, in most cases the band or orchestra director at their school will be able to provide all the teaching they need.
Young women (and possibly young men, too) have to consider another factor when choosing a teacher, or deciding whether to continue working with their current teacher. I discuss it on a separate page because it’s unpleasant.
You can learn many aspects of musical performance by participating in school or community ensembles, by watching online videos that explain and demonstrate how to develop particular skills, and by practicing on your own.
Even so, there are aspects of playing that are difficult to pick up in a group setting or through videos. Those avenues don’t focus on your individual needs. A school band director lacks the time to work with each student individually. Video is a one-way communication medium; the presenter can’t see or hear you, so if you’re not sure about something they can’t help you.
While you certainly possess the native intelligence to figure everything out eventually, a qualified guide can help you stay on track toward your goals without wasting time going down blind alleys.
In some areas - particularly embouchure development, articulation, and technic - there’s a risk of practicing “the wrong way” and reaching a plateau in your playing, then having to backtrack and re-build from scratch. It’s twice as hard to break bad habits as it is to cultivate good ones from the outset. A private teacher can help you avoid this all-too-common problem.
A school band or orchestra director who works with 100+ students each year and must prepare performances on a tight schedule lacks the time to listen closely to each student individually. Depending on the director’s education and background, they may not understand your instrument on a deep level.
University programs in Music Education prepare teachers to get students started on all the instruments, but no one can be an expert in every instrument. If your band director happens to specialize in the same instrument as you, or even the same type - woodwind, brass, etc. - you’re in a better position than otherwise.
While some group music teachers have a background in performance, the majority are trained specifically in pedagogy and have never been the principal or first chair in a professional or high-level amateur band or orchestra. Depending on your aspirations, they may or may not be able to advise you on matters such as how to function effectively as a section leader or how to prepare for advanced auditions.
In a nutshell, a private teacher can augment what you can learn from your school or community band/orchestra director and on your own; details and nuances beyond the beginner and intermediate levels. So, if your goals don’t call for much beyond that, you may not benefit from private lessons.