Music Lessons...Value For Money?

In a climate of funding cuts, how is value for money reflected in the cost of instrumental and vocal music lessons and what do music teachers, students, parents, schools and music services providers need to do show and add to, in order to protect the learning of this unique lifetime skill. 

We may be told of the enriched value that music making can offer to our lives and with increasing research, understand how learning a musical instrument develops the brain, social skills, creativity, discipline, relieves stress, builds confidence and develops transferable skills for other activities in our lives including school learning, but value for money must also be accounted for so as not to see instrumental music lessons becoming a luxury item available only to the few.

For most lessons, it will be the parents who will be paying, and in some cases, subsidised by the school or with some government funding.  This is a unique exchange, where the parents are paying for something that they are not directly receiving.   As it is rare for a parent to sit in on the child’s lesson, the parent’s perception of value for money is observed through the experience of the child away from the lesson.  ​

Is the student making progress?
This can be difficult for parents to know, with some technical and musical skills requiring a longer period of time to show progress. Graded exam results rarely happen more than once a year and many parents may not have the technical or musical understanding to accuratly evaluate the progress being made.  It is also worth noting that the cost of the lesson is determined by the length of the lesson rather than the progressing level of the student.

How engaged is the student?
For most parents, value for money is observed in the child’s enthusiasm, motivation and enjoyment in their playing and how engaged they are with practice and other musical activities including playing in an ensemble.  Not wanting to practise is usually the reason that parents stop lessons.

Students that are motivated to practise and understand how to get the most from their practice, will make enjoyable progress.  They will want to learn more and will learn it quicker.  Rather than practising in the lesson, they will attend lessons having practised, ready to develop their skills further. 
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Give them a fish, feed them for a day.
Teach them how to fish, and you feed them for a lifetime.

​How much will it cost to learn this piece of music?
Students who are not directly paying for their lessons will rarely give much thought to this question.   Beyond the cost of the purchasing the music, how many lessons will it take to learn a particular piece of music?  In practical terms, it can be quite shocking to add up the cost of all the lessons that the same piece of music was worked on for some students.  Provided that it is a piece of music appropriate to their playing ability and they are being supported by a competient teacher, the time will be determined by the amount of effective practice, understanding, motivation and enjoyment that the student engages with it.
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Value is gained from learning the skills rather than just the piece of music.  As the proverb says, "Give them a fish, feed them for a day, teach them how to fish, and you feed them for a lifetime".

Professionalism and effectiveness of the teaching
​A further indicator for parents to observe value for money is the professionalism of the service and the effectiveness of the teaching that the music teacher and schools/music services are offering.  Regardless of how one becomes an effective teacher, be it learnt, gained through experience or instinctive, ultimately, effective teaching aims to guide and inspire the student to become self-learners including the use of effective practice skills.  Is the teacher organised and keeping both students and parents informed?  This is reflected through the effectiveness of the communication link between the teacher, student and parent.  How informed are the parents?  It is a perfectly natural behaviour of a parent to want to support their children, especially in the early stages of learning.  What is my child working towards? How and what should they be practising? When is their next lesson and how are they getting on? How can a we help?

​Adding value to your music lessons, mymusicpb.com offers an interactive practice book that organises and links the teacher’s planning, notes and assessments with the student’s practice focus and term targets, while keeping students engaged through an interactive practice book and parents informed through an effective and secure communication link.   As an online application, teachers, students and parents have access from any laptop, tablet or smartphone.  All data is kept on a secure server with encrypted access and not stored on personal devises, complying with Data Protection requirements, including the new GDPR regulations.
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Playing in an ensemble offers the ideal support
​for your musical progress and enjoyment.

Other factors
If teachers are offering a paid service, then they should be able to show accountability by asking if they would pay for that same lesson if it was for their own child.  Based on the saying that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, one might also reflect on a group of lessons over a longer period of time, with the progress matched to a medium or long term target.

​Where shared lessons are an option, the cost of the lesson would be less, although all other factors including instrument costs, progress made, the engagement of students and the effectiveness of the communication links are still valued just as much.  A shared learning experience can offer a further value when effectively managed.

Playing in an ensemble supports the progress and enjoyment of the child's music learning adding greater value to the learning.  Shared music making develops teamwork, social skills, reinforces the learning from the lessons, while developing and strengthening key musicanship skills vital for a lifelong enjoyment of music making.

Finally,
Every student is unique including how they learn, show their progress, what they want from their lessons and what they gain from the experience, but if parents are observing value for money based on the engagement of their children and the professionalism of the service, then teachers would benefit from accessing an effective communication link with an interactive practice book that supports and compliments the effectiveness of their teaching, engages the students and informs the parents.  Ultimately, you will know the true value of the learning as it reflects through the shared enjoyment and enrichment that music making offers to us all.  

For further support and resources on efficient music learning, please follow us on twitter and visit mymusicpb.com