 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Mark Wing
Date: 2009-12-07 15:33
I am an adult who is just getting back into playing clarinet. I have been exploring my local options for lessons. The average rate for lessons seems to be $20 per half hour and $25 for a full hour. This has me asking some questions given the constraints of my budget. Would I be better off taking half hour long lessons every week or full hour long lessons every other week? My thinking is hour long lessons every other week saves money, is the same amount of instruction time and gives me more practice time between lessons. Obviously, I want to make progress in my lessons and not be paying someone to watch me practice.
Any feedback is appreciated,
Mark
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Author: Ed
Date: 2009-12-07 15:49
The weekly lesson with regular contact to monitor your progress would be your best bet. A lot can happen in two weeks (not always good)
Good luck!
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Author: tictactux ★2017
Date: 2009-12-07 16:20
I had 50ish minute lessons every week. 30 minutes is awfully short in my experience, you need 10 minutes alone for properly warming up.
If you can, go for [near] hour long lessons every week.
--
Ben
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2009-12-07 16:24
As a beginner (well, sorta), I agree that half hour lessons every week would be good at this stage. Make sure your teacher knows just how much time you have to practice so he/she can take that into account and not overload you with too much to work on between lessons.
A half hour every week will give you a quicker correction and feedback. If you're playing something incorrectly, or can use better technique, you won't have practiced with bad technique for two weeks and make it that much harder to reverse whatever habit you formed.
After you get better and have a very solid foundation of how to practice, good technique and a strong overall playing "base", I see no problem going to one hour lessons every other week.
Alexi
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Author: Chris P
Date: 2009-12-07 16:32
So long as the lesson time is well structured and you get the most playing time possible in that half hour, I think that's your best bet. But for an extra $5 you get double the time (which is a bargain as most teachers will double the rate for the full hour), so that will allow plenty of rest time in between playing and this non-playing time will decrease as you progress. I think try the full hour weekly for a while and if this does stretch you (in terms o stamina and financially) then drop down to half hour lessons every week or if you progress well, hour lessons every fortnight.
As you're new to playing, your embouchure can tire quickly so an hour may be pushing it if you're playing near enough solidly for 75-80% of that time.
Likewise with practice - a good half hour practice is more beneficial than several hours of mucking around. And if you can get several half hour practice sessions in a day with time in between them, then you won't get knackered out too soon than if you played constantly for over an hour at a time.
And as you progress and your embouchure develops, you can extend your practice time and then also your lesson time if funds allow.
Former oboe finisher
Howarth of London
1998 - 2010
The opinions I express are my own.
Post Edited (2009-12-07 16:40)
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Author: kdk
Date: 2009-12-07 16:41
I have found that for an adult or even an older child an hour every other week is enough. I can reverse any wrong roads the student has found fairly easily - the habits aren't ingrained yet. Most of my adult students don't have the time to practice enough in a week to really accomplish much.
I also prefer to teach adults in full hour blocks. A half-hour is too constrained to get to everything that should be monitored. By the time you get started it's time to stop and the process needs to be very tight and controlled. Adults, unlike many children, want to keep at things at the lesson until they feel it's right or at least improved, which takes time. Also, reed issues mean time taken up in wetting and testing alternates. In the ideal world (and with serious music students at the college or high school level) these time-users shouldn't be issues - the student should have a reed that works, he should do his practicing at home, etc.. But most adults are playing for recreational reasons and have limited practice time available. They often need the encouragement of getting something to come out right at least once at the lesson (there is benefit to some "supervised practice" at the lesson so long as it doesn't replace home practice)and guidance in identifying reed problems, mechanical problems with the instrument, etc.. And it's nice to have a little time in each lesson for something a little recreational in itself, like a duet or listening to a piece the student is going to play at a Christmas party (whether for help or just a dry run). Most of these need to go by the wayside if you're trying to cram into a half-hour, which must have a more efficient and streamlined format if anything is to get done.
I teach weekly half-hour lessons to very young students - 9 or 10 to maybe 12 years old - mostly because of what I've found to be a real limit on their attention spans.
While weekly lessons might suit you better (or not) than semi-weekly, I'd recommend against a 30 minute lesson for an adult regardless of frequency.
Good luck with your lessons.
Karl
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Author: ShazamaPajama
Date: 2009-12-07 16:45
those are pretty good prices.. i cant find anyone for less than 30 for a half hour and 50 for an hour.
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Author: Mark Wing
Date: 2009-12-07 16:58
Thanks for the quick responses. Let me add that I was a good clarinetist back in high school (too long ago), so I do have a solid foundation. If I were a beginner, I definitely wouldn't be asking this question.
Thanks again,
Mark
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Author: mrn
Date: 2009-12-07 17:18
I would do 1 hour every 2 weeks. If you're starting up again after having played in high school, most of what you need is practice. You'll get more out of your lessons if you have more time to practice in-between.
In fact, except for when I was just beginning, that's the way I took lessons as a kid, too.
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2009-12-07 17:24
Mark Wing wrote:
> Thanks for the quick responses. Let me add that I was a good
> clarinetist back in high school (too long ago), so I do have a
> solid foundation. If I were a beginner, I definitely wouldn't
> be asking this question.
>
> Thanks again,
> Mark
Unfortunately, it's the beginners that would best benefit from asking questions like these too....
Well, if your foundation is good, and you can (as said above) physically play through an hour session, as well as concentrate and have good practice habits, I would say take a lesson every other week. I was under the assumption that you were gonna have to work out some bad habits and needed to rebuild that solid foundation.
Price-wise, the weeklong lesson every week is GREAT. But maybe you don't have that sorta time to shell out that often, or you have to drive a while to get to your teacher or something. My next place I'm going to take lessons every other week, but it'll be about a 1 hour drive each way to the lesson.
However I'm confident that a good quality lesson, less frequently, is much better than a short, quick lesson (where you really can't get deep into too many issues) every week. But ideally, a good quality lesson, frequently, would be best if you can swing it.
Alexi
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Author: mrn
Date: 2009-12-07 17:27
sfalexi wrote:
> Price-wise, the weeklong lesson every week is GREAT.
That sounds very tiring to me. 
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2009-12-07 17:35
......... oops. Guess I must be getting tired. But an hourlong lesson every week would be better..... good catch mrn.
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Author: DavidBlumberg
Date: 2009-12-07 18:05
I teach 45 minute lessons to all but the most advanced/serious students and it works out great. For students just starting out I will do 30 minutes, but only for younger players if needed.
$5 more for the other 1/2 hour is a tremendous bargain - rare too. Price wise for the teacher it doesn't make any sense at all.
http://www.SkypeClarinetLessons.com
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Author: catkeel
Date: 2009-12-07 18:30
In the fall my teacher is busy with band camps and gives lessons every other week. I like this arrangement as it gives me more time to work on the lesson. It seems with every week there is always one thing that dosen`t suit her and I have to work on it and bring it back the next week which slows things down . Every other week I get enough time on the stuff and don`t have to repeat very much which lets me go through the book faster.
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Author: Bob Phillips
Date: 2009-12-07 20:02
My thought is take the HUGE discount for the teacher's full hour of attention.
As they say: "Give up one latte a week ..."
My hour-long weekly lessons consist of 2or 3 Kroepsch exercises, a 1or2 page etude, a sight-reading session and time for work on a piece for my repertoire or get coaching on interpretation or rough spots from my ensemble work.
I think that these 4 items are critical; but we don't spend equal time on them; and I can't imagine being able to cover everything in 1/2-hour.
Alzo: you may have an excellent foundation simply needing to be uncovered --or, like me, you may have terrible ingrained flaws that will take diligence and frequent observation to get rid of.
To support this, I work2 to 4 hours a day (in two sessions).
Bob Phillips
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Author: Ed Palanker
Date: 2009-12-07 21:38
I won't even give a half hour lesson and believe me, those prices are dirt cheap. ESP http://eddiesclarinet.com
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Author: allencole
Date: 2009-12-08 01:35
I think you need the weekly reinforcement. If you're not practing like you should, you need to go in and let the teacher walk you through it.
The 20 per half-hour is indeed dirt cheap, and 25 for an hour is not to be beat. My guess is that you've found a very generous teacher, and this may also indicate other virtues such as patience. I know that I couldn't give discounts like that in my prime earning time.
Allen Cole
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Author: Lee
Date: 2009-12-08 14:16
I'm taking an hour every week. I started out with a half hour but found out that it was not enough. My teacher is having to make up for a lifetime of self taught bad habits. She charges $25/ half hour and $45 an hour. The origional half hour sometimes wound up to more than an hour so I decided to pay for the full hour.
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Author: Bartmann
Date: 2009-12-09 19:52
I would suggest one hour every other week for several reasons:
1. Financially it is the better deal.
2. Given the busy adult work schedule you often don't not have enough time to practice for a weekly lesson. Sometimes you can't even play during the week. Having a lesson every other weeks guarantees that you will have two weekends to practice.
Bartmann
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