Learning an instrument is a costly endeavor that doesn’t necessarily have that much to do with the actual cost of the instrument itself. Buying any instrument is usually rather expensive even in the case of models designed for children. Students just starting out may have no need to pay for a professional model, but whatever the price of the instrument, it doesn’t include all of the other costs associated with learning to play it, which may add up to as much as a master’s degree. Here are some the unseen costs of learning an instrument:

Buying vs. Renting

Buying or renting an instrument is a decision parents will have to make from the very beginning. Each option has different pros and cons depending on the needs of the student.

Buying an instrument is a good idea if students have made a serious commitment to learn the instrument and plan on playing it in the future. Buying from the beginning is always cheaper compared to renting an instrument over time. However, renting is a good idea for students who’re just trying out the instrument and aren’t sure if they want to pursue it long-term.

Practice Time

Needless to say, learning an instrument properly requires students to spend a sufficient amount of time in daily practice, which usually means 30 minutes to an hour each day at the very least. This is time they must spend practicing rather than doing homework or focusing on some other type of activity. In some cases, parents will also have to dedicate some time to helping their children practice.

Commuting to Lessons

Commuting to private lessons can become an issue. Students just starting out will probably do fine with basic lessons anywhere, but if they become more serious about music it may be necessary to travel even farther to find better instructors. Lessons will usually be at least once a week, and will represent regular travel time and gas costs.

Sheet Music

The cost of sheet music and books can add up rather quickly as students progress. Like textbooks, sheet music and instructional books are really not cheap, and students will need more and more of these materials as they expand their repertoires and develop their abilities and musical interests.

Recitals

When students make a serious commitment to their music, parents likely must work around recitals, competitions, and other performance events. Just traveling to attend such performances can be expensive depending on where they’re held. As with attending regular lessons, scheduling issues may arise.

Maintenance, Repair, and Accessories

The costs of instrument maintenance, repair, and accessories add up very quickly. All instruments require regular upkeep and repair, whether they need new strings, reeds, or occasional cleanings. Accessories like cases, straps, and cleaning cloths will become necessary as well. Most instrument repair and maintenance procedures are expensive as instrument technicians are skilled workers with relatively high hourly rates depending on their experience, the instrument, and the nature of the procedure.

The true cost of learning an instrument can easily equate to thousands of dollars if it includes the long-term requirements related to time, lessons, repair, accessories, sheet music, books, and travel. Learning an instrument is a significant commitment if made seriously, much more so than the price tag of an instrument itself reveals.

About the Author

Elaine Hirsch is kind of a jack-of-all-interests, from education and history to medicine and videogames. This makes it difficult to choose just one life path, so she is currently working as a writer for various education-related sites and writing about all these things instead. She is currently a writer for an online master’s degree resource.

I decided to give the site a try,  so I went to  www.lyricsnmusic.com  and was impressed by the homepage.  I saw several tabs at the top for Lyrics, YouTube,  Touring,  Buy Song,  Images, and More.  Below the tabs was a search box as well as icons linked to popular music players,  such as Pandora, and music news sites,  including Billboard and MTV.  It was now time to try a search, either by song title, artist name or words in the lyrics.  I tried each and, to my surprise, was taken to the appropriate page.

The search took me to a page showing the lyrics,  and information about the song and artist I had requested.  Unlike most lyric sites,  I was not attacked by pop-up pages.  As I scrolled down the page through the lyrics,  I found thumbnails which took me to related pages on YouTube, Wikipedia,  photo sites,  and  Itunes/Amazons.  I was also given information about any tours by the band or artist in which I was searching, including the cities and venue names.

I found the site easy to navigate,  with most information on one page.  I tried several searches and never came up empty handed.  I did, however,  find a very few searches that did not show the lyrics,  stating a copyright infringement.  But on those sites, the rest of the information was shown.  Before I knew it,  I had been researching on this site for an hour.  I enjoyed visiting this interesting site,  as did my music students and musician friends.  I recommend the site to music teachers and students,  as they will be able to explore and research many areas of their favorite pieces of music. I have even posted this site on my Facebook page.

Web-based learning has been called the next step in education, and it seems that every aspect of learning has its digital angle. Learning through the Internet isn’t just the exclusive domain of online college courses anymore: even studio arts, with their inherent requirements for hands-on instruction and demonstration, have joined the Internet revolution.

For owners of dance studios, instructors of music, and teachers of art, this new digital dimension of arts instruction can be intimidating. From designing a website to posting videos to engaging new students, the digital medium requires providers of studio art instruction to develop new skills. However, when done properly the addition of distance learning to your educational repertoire will allow you to recruit new students, market new ideas, and reach people around the globe.

Website Management

As Inc. magazine points out, websites are now substitutes for front offices. They make the first impressions and an essential element to any sound business strategy. For studios taking dance, music, or art instruction online the website is just as much an extension of the studio’s craft. It isn’t enough to provide unchanging content when the goal is to create an online learning environment.

Any web-based learning environment by its very nature must provide changing content and an archive of previous lessons. Changing content is the key to any site created with a content-driven purpose. By archiving previous lessons and updating new ones on a weekly, biweekly, or even monthly basis you’ll develop your customer base by driving traffic to your website and ultimately into your studio.

Distance Learning: Advantages and Limitations for Studio Classes

The advantages and limitations of distance learning are well documented and should be noted by anyone interested in offering online classes. The primary disadvantages to online learning typically stem from the lack of student-instructor interaction. For students of dance, music, and the fine arts this lack of face-time with instructors can lead to the development of bad habits that would be corrected quickly if they occurred in the context of an in-person class.

However, online instruction also has plenty of advantages that make it remarkably popular for arts instruction. A brief discussion of those advantages according to those who know them best — online arts instructors — is provided below and grouped according to subject: art, music, and dance.

For students of dance, the Online Dance Company, a hip-hop dance school specializing in web-based instruction, offers an excellent overview of the advantages of online instruction for dance students. Among the benefits the company envisions for its students are universal access for people living in remote areas, scheduling difficulties, who are embarrassed, or who tend to get bored and want to move on quickly. By offering online classes, dance instructors might give up some of the corrective instruction of conventional lessons, but they’ll provide plenty of opportunities for students to experience all of the benefits of dance.

Online study of visual arts doesn’t pose as many instructional challenges overall. Web-based art classes can in many ways be viewed as an interactive extension of the television art classes that have dominated public television airwaves for years. ArtTango.com provides K-5 online art education, and emphasizes online art education can carry the same instructional power as that found in the traditional classroom. Because art instruction centers on demonstration rather than correction of students’ technique, it’s fairly well suited to an online environment. In many cases students can submit their work digitally for instructor feedback. If not, assessment rubrics can be used for self-evaluation, allowing students to progress at their own pace while receiving specific instruction from online class segments.

The primary disadvantage of web-facilitated music instruction is the inability of instructors to directly correct students’ errors, though even this isn’t a limitation in every case (for instance, when lessons are given through streaming video). However, the benefits, as online music lesson provider MusicLessons4You.com highlights, are numerous. With web-based lessons students can learn at their own pace and repeat any particular lesson until it’s mastered. With the chance to repeat lesson videos and study how the musician in the video produces sound and rhythm, students are able to grasp the finer techniques of playing an instrument and advance as rapidly (or as slowly) as is appropriate.

In the current climate of internet-savvy consumers, it just makes good sense to have a website for any business. For instructors of the arts, however, it makes even more sense to enhance that website with instructional videos and information that add an online learning dimension to the business and invite new students to experience the magic of the arts. By reaching potential and current students alike in an online format, you’ll enhance your school’s reputation, maximize instructional time, and build your reputation in the arts community.

About the author:

Lindsey Wright is fascinated with the potential of emerging educational technologies, particularly the online school, to transform the landscape of learning. She writes about web-based learning, electronic and mobile learning, and the possible future of education.

With increasingly cheap bandwidth and a growing library of applications to use, remote online music lessons are growing more popular, affordable and effective. Both in-person (traditional) and remote styles of music instruction have unique benefits that appeal to different students, leading some to prefer one method to the exclusion of the other. For most people, however, the choice is not mutually exclusive. There is great potential for the two styles to combine in a single curriculum, providing a rich and layered learning experience. In fact, many traditional lesson plans now include or allow for remote instruction. However, remote online music lessons are not a replacement for traditional lessons, but can be either a supplement or a partial alternative. Which approach is best for a particular student depends on how they weigh the advantages and disadvantages of each?

Commonly, music lessons taught at an online school use video chat programs like Skype that provide audio, visual, and text communication for free. This requires both instructors and students to have computers with high-speed internet connections and decent webcams and microphones in order to see and hear each other clearly. Generally these tools are attainable and inexpensive, but could represent too heavy an investment if they are used just for this one purpose. Remote instruction can also reduce costs by eliminating travel and replacing paper materials with digital files, but whether it is ultimately more affordable for a particular student depends on the circumstances.

When teaching online, instructors can still observe mistakes and give visual and verbal feedback on how to improve. Likewise, they are able to share written materials like sheet music directly so it can be used immediately, and are able to provide students with the necessary tools for most lessons. The downsides of online lessons are that they still don’t allow for any physical interaction between students and teachers, and the format opens the Pandora’s Box of technical difficulties and other interruptions.

For remote teaching, barriers to entry and operating costs are fairly minimal for instructors, which in turn increases the number of instructors who are able to offer their services online. As a result, students get a wider selection of instructors to choose from and instructors get access to more students. Additionally, the elimination of travel saves time as well as money, allowing instructors to offer more lessons per day. This helps reduce the cost per lesson without compromising the wages of the instructor.

Cost is hardly the only concern, however. One of the most important considerations in choosing a teacher is finding someone compatible with the student in their method and style. Being comfortable with an instructor is valuable for any student, especially if they have special needs. For example, Mark Miller is a pianist and music tutor who gained widespread recognition for offering lessons worldwide using Skype. He developed and refined a style of jazz piano instruction that is quick, easy, and geared towards remote learning. It is also flexible and allows him to adjust his lessons to fit his students. One of his students had her lessons interrupted when she lost the use of her left hand, but Miller worked with her to find and create piano arrangements and exercises that required only one hand to perform.

With remote online lessons, geographical location no longer excludes certain students. They now have access to a wide range of instructors who, like Mark Miller, are capable and willing to accommodate different skills, learning styles, and even disabilities. Finding the right fit is made easier because most of these instructors offer samples of their work that show their style and approach.

The expansion of the marketplace for students and teachers to a global level is one of the greatest advantages of remote online music lessons, and the technology itself can aid in instruction.  Nikki Saurman, a 9-year-old girl from Thousand Oaks, California found it extremely difficult to learn music through conventional lessons due to her attention deficit hyperactivity disorder as well as an auditory processing disorder in one ear. She was eventually paired with Marlene Cooper-Williams, an instructor specializing in children with learning impairments and teaching music through remote online lessons. Ms. Cooper-Williams runs a website that pairs students with music teachers who meet their needs and specialize in the instrument they want to learn. This accessible format allows almost any student to find the fit that is right for them.

Nikki started taking her lessons online, even though she lived within easy driving distance of her instructor. The online format and use of headphones reduced the distractions and discomfort caused by Nikki’s disabilities and allowed her to focus more on her piano lessons. The remote online format was the key difference for Nikki between struggling with her lessons and excelling. For most people, the decision between in-person and remote lessons may simply come down to a matter of taste and comfort, but some will find they prefer the online format just as strongly as others prefer to be taught in person.

Lindsey Wright, guest author

If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then send me an email! I are looking for one or two new bloggers to write articles or posts that will be of interest to music teachers. Our goal is to provide an even more valuable resource and community for music teachers here on our blog. Also, let me know if own and operate a music studio and if you are currently a subscriber of Music Teacher’s Helper or Studio Helper (not a requirement, just interested).

The requirement to be on the MTH blogging team is you need to write and post one article per month. If you’re a current Music Teacher’s Helper subscriber, Compensation is  a free Music Teacher’s Helper account!.

Applicants must have excellent English grammar and be familiar with the needs and interests of music teachers.

I will be accepting applications until May 10th, 2011. To apply, just send me an email with the following information:

• Outline of your writing experience.
• Ideas you have for interesting post topics.
• Write and attach an article, which could be used as your 1st article if you are chosen.
• A brief bio.

The article you write needs to be written in text format, using a text program such as NotePad. The embedded formats in software such as WORD does not work.

We may bring on several individuals, so if you’re at all interested, don’t hesitate to send us an email.

I look forward to hearing from you!

–
Ronnie

Ronnie Currey
Director of Member Services/Editor
Music Teacher’s Helper
ronnie@musicteachershelper.com

As a piano teacher, I know I have a few students every year who keep me up at night wondering and worrying about their ability to execute successful performances. As our recital date creeps up on us, I find myself weighing their practice and dedication against the feeling that they just aren’t prepared to perform in a way that would be a positive experience for them. Inevitably, I find myself backstage with at least one student who’s terrified of performing. I listen to the litany of reasons for avoiding the night’s performance, and at the end of it, I have to decide whether the student should play or be allowed to postpone the performance.
No one likes to be in that situation. No matter which choice you make, there are potentially negative consequences that could prevent students from coming back for more lessons. A negative performance experience can seriously affect a student’s motivation to keep learning and practicing.
To help you avoid this painful backstage melodrama, I’ve compiled some strategies that usually work for students who sit on the fence of public performance all year long. I hope you can use them to help every student in your studio arrive prepared for successful performances on recital night.

Choosing Music for Performances

Some students have a tougher time of memorizing music than others. Often, these students turn out to be the ones who feel unprepared for a recital. If you have a small studio and can give each student enough time to perform more than one piece, let each student’s first piece be a solidly memorized old friend that’s been in the repertoire for at least six months. This will build confidence both during practice and during the actual performance, preparing most students to play well on their second pieces. If you can’t allow two pieces for each student, those who risk being unprepared may need to re-perform an old recital piece instead of playing something from the new repertoire. Most people won’t remember that it’s the same piece, and if it gives your student a positive performance experience while preventing a catastrophe, it might be the right decision.

Setting Realistic Performance Goals

Make sure that the date and time of the recital are reasonable and that every student’s success is feasible. Try to avoid rushing the process of memorization and don’t force students to race from a mandatory event or appointment to your studio recital. This is especially difficult for large studios, but it’s important to prevent stress as much as possible so that your students will feel prepared for the big night.

Managing Practice Time Effectively

Teach your students how to practice and write down the process for them in a notebook. For example, I write down a student’s warm-up exercises for the week, then include any velocity or agility exercises before listing repertoire that needs practice. I try to include a time frame for each item, such as 10 minutes, to help students understand how much time needs to be allotted for practice each day. For younger students, having this information written down helps parents stay on top of their children’s practice habits.

Testing Students’ Practice & Preparation

About a month before a recital, try giving your students a test during their usual lessons. When your student arrives, tell him or her to get ready for a practice session, pretending to be at home. This includes any preparation habits like stretching, breathing exercises, or mental focus strategies. Next, have your student complete a practice session – this is the day’s lesson, so if you notice anything that needs to change, point it out and give helpful instruction. It’s well worth the time you might think you’re losing because you have the chance to correct your student’s practice habits, making his or her individual preparation for the recital much more effective.

Exploring Strategies for Dealing with Performance Anxiety

Some students feel unprepared for a performance because of anxiety. Talk to your students about how they feel as you get closer to your recital date. If any students are feeling nervous or excessively anxious, go through some breathing and visualization exercises with them to decrease anxiety. Simply taking a few deep breaths can help release muscle tension that is both a symptom and a cause of stress. It also helps to have your students imagine every aspect of the performance as it goes by perfectly in their minds. This kind of imagery can significantly affect students’ confidence leading up to the recital, giving them a way to access positive thoughts even if they begin to feel anxious on the big night.

Bio: Lisa Shoreland is currently a resident blogger at Go College, where recently she’s been searching for grants and researching no credit check student loans . . In her spare time, she enjoys creative writing, practicing martial arts, and taking weekend trips.

Why should music teachers spend the time and money to get a Master’s degree? So that they can teach at the postsecondary level and be called a “music professor!” Nah, but a Master’s degree in music qualifies music teachers for good paying college, university, and junior college positions. Many holders of master’s degree in music have gone on to teach at prestigious universities and conservatories.

Public School Jobs

Of course their are no guarantees of a college level teaching position, but there are plenty of opportunities in public schools. In most school districts, new teachers with a Master’s degree enter the salary scale at a higher level than teachers with Bachelor’s degrees. They will typically earn about five percent more per year than “Bachelor’s degree” teachers. And what does a Master’s degree cost? On average, about $12,500. Keep this in mind when determining if that 5% bump in salary is worth it.

Teaching Music at the Postsecondary Level

A Master’s degree in music is usually the minimum required teaching credential for college and conservatory teaching positions. The typical college music department includes teachers of music education, performance, theory, and composition. Some larger colleges have further specialization areas such as music therapy, church music, commercial music, and other allied fields.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’s May 2009 report, the median salary for postsecondary music teachers was $60,400. Teachers in the 75th percentile made $82,590 and those highly qualified teachers in the 90th percentile made $112,340.

Master’s in Music Degree Programs

Degree programs typically combine studies in an area of specialization such as music education, musicology, history composition, performance, ethnomusicology, or conducting with academic study in topics such as music theory, music history, and music pedagogy. These programs explore music studies in great depth. Students can focus on general music, instrumental music, or choral music.

The Master’s degree with a specialization in education is a variation of a traditional degree that combines theoretical music instruction with student teaching. These programs usually take from one to two years to complete.

Master’s Degree in Music Admissions Qualifications

Some colleges allow students to enroll in a Master’s of music degree program without even having a Bachelor’s degree in music. Typically, these applicants are required to take post-Bachelor’s degree certification courses and have at least one year of teaching experience. Individuals with a non-degree based conservatory education who can satisfy an undergraduate equivalent may be allowed to enroll in some Master’s degree programs as well.

If you’re considering enrolling in a Master’s of music degree program, check to see if the program has been accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM). If it has, you can be sure it’s a legitimate program.

Some schools offer online Master’s of music degree programs. However, they do require some on-campus courses. (The School of Music at Boston University is currently the only school offering a 100% online Master’s of music.) These programs offers working professionals more flexibility than traditional, on-campus programs.

Keep this information in mind if you’re considering going back to school to further your career as a music teacher!

Brian Jenkins writes about college degrees in music for BrainTrack.com.

This is an instructional book for aspiring guitarists specializing in the first timers.  It is a ten lesson guide that systematically takes the reader through the book as if the author was teaching you himself.  I found out the book was written by a high school guitar teacher who was teaching as many at 35 students at one time.

Ultimately it’s design stemmed from the desire to make a book that was the most user friendly to learn with and teach from while having so many students in the classroom at one time.  Additionally, the book was set up to help people learn how to play that could not afford private lessons.  In reviewing this book, I found that the mixture of musical theory and guitar technique really balance each other out allowing the student to learn only the most important beginning material. The book is entitled “EasyGuitarBook”, and it is just that, “easy”!  I read all ten lessons and believe this instructional book indeed meets its goals.

The ten lessons range from theory to chord building; bar chord formations to finger style; and common strum patterns to how to play scales.  The lessons are simple to understand and easy to follow.  It is my opinion that the lessons are arranged in a manner that puts the reader on a path of simplicity towards teaching themselves how to play the guitar. It is clear that following the theory lessons, lessons one and two, that the author has the reader learn techniques in a specific order focusing mostly on rhythm guitar and ending with introductory lead techniques.  If you or anyone you know wants to learn on their own, this book would be a great resource.

Additionally, this instructional book would be a great way for big groups to learn as the text for a  class curriculum.  The book is reasonably priced at $16.95 fo r a hard copy and $7.95 for an eBook download.  If interested in purchasing this item, go to easyguitarbook.com and the website gives you more information about the book and the author.  Though it was designed for high school students to adult ages, I believe that kids of middle school ages, 12 and up, would also benefit from this resource.  The reader will not learn standard notation as the design, ten lessons, was made for teaching students in one semester, or fifteen week period of time.  The theory is sound, the technique, easy to understand, and the lessons cover the major areas of learning how to play the guitar.  I believe that a dedicated individual could take themselves through the book in less than fifteen weeks if attending to the lessons regularly.  This is a great book!  Good Luck!

On several occasions I have had a student ask me to teach him to sing while playing. This task seemed impossible for the student(s), I explained that this was a learned skill, which takes hours of practice. When I am playing, I will make a mistake if I stay focused on my fingers. Therefore, I perform better if i subconsciously play the instrument while I am consciously thinking of something else or singing.

I have started working with some of the students on this process, and getting good results within weeks of the training.

First, I find a song in the student’s repertoire which he/she can play well, and by memory. As the student starts playing, I start a conversation. I will ask what he had for lunch, and then question what was eaten in detail. I also ask about each class that was attended in school, and the activites and homework that was given.

The first several times I do this exercise, the student, after being asked a question like “What did you have for lunch today?”, will freeze up with eyes bulging and eyes opened wide. He keeps playing, but is speechless. After a few moments he will answer the question as he starts missing the notes, or just say “I don’t know”.

After doing this exercise during a couple of lessons, the student starts looking forward to the exercises. Within four to six weeks, the student starts answering questions and having a conversation while playing, without missing a note,

Adults and children alike share the same initial response (a look of horror). An adult student asked me a few nights ago how he could continue the exercise at home. I told him to play his songs while watching tv, reading a book, or talking to his wife. The adult student, a medical doctor, told me that this exercise helped train his brain to think on two levels: the conscious level and the subconsious level.

Try it. With yourself. With your students.

If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then send us an email! We are looking for additional bloggers to write articles or posts that will be of interest to music teachers. Our goal is to provide an even more valuable resource and community for music teachers here on our blog.

The requirement is one article per month. If you’re a current Music Teacher’s Helper subscriber, compensation will entail all of your monthly subscription fee being waived (yes, you get a free Music Teacher’s Helper account!).

Applicants must have excellent English grammar and be familiar with the needs and interests of music teachers.

I will be accepting applications until November 10th, 2009. To apply, just send me an email with the following information:

• Outline of your writing experience (none required, we’d just like to know).
• Ideas you have for interesting post topics.
• Write and attach an article, which could be used as your 1st article if you are one of the chosen few.
• A brief bio.

The article you write needs to be written in text format, using a text program such as NotePad. The embedded formats in software such as WORD does not work.

We may bring on several individuals, so if you’re at all interested, don’t hesitate to send us an email.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Ronnie Currey

Director of Member Services/Editor
Music Teacher’s Helper

ronnie@musicteachershelper.com