Thinking of learning a new instrument? There are many different approaches to teaching and learning. Finding the right style of learning for you might allow you to progress quicker whilst also spending less money. Here are five different methods of learning to choose from.
Try standard lessons
Many people will choose the standard route of booking sessions with a teacher at a musical center. This could be a specialist place that concentrates in guitar lessons or piano, or a center for all kinds of instruments. Students may also be able to get lessons through school. It’s worth comparing rates as well as the reputation of musical teachers.
Try group lessons
Group lessons involve learning with other people. This can create a more social environment than your average one-on-one lesson and may teach such as harmonising as well as performing songs together with different parts. Of course the rate of teaching is slower as you won’t be getting one-on-one help – the teacher will instead have to divide attention between multiple people. This may not benefit those that need more attention than others. Some group lessons may have mixed instruments whilst other may be more focused such as a group violin lesson.
Get a personal tutor
You can hire a musical tutor to come around your house. This may save you having to lug around your own instrument and equipment, but could cost more as a teacher will want to charge for the travel of getting to your place.
Get taught virtually
There are now teachers who doing lessons via video communication services such as Skype. This allows you to pick a teacher from around the world and be more flexible with hours. Neither of you has to visit one another and so costs are likely to be less. The only downside is a teacher may not be able to demonstrate some things as well as in real life.
Self-teach
Many people choosing to pick up a new instrument will go down the self-teaching route. It’s cheap and allows you to learn exactly what you want at your own pace. You may wish to use Youtube video to help teach you, which you can pause and play back. You may prefer to buy books and learn from these. There are also plenty of sites where you can get free tabs and sheet music.
Some people may feel less motivated by this approach however, as they won’t have a teacher to spur them on if they can’t learn something. There’s also the risk of picking up bad habits that a teacher can train you out of. This may include positioning of fingers on the fretboard or hand positioning for playing the piano that could make learning harder pieces in the long run easier.
In some cases, a combination of self-teaching and lessons could work out beneficial, allowing you to iron out a few bad habits whilst learning the music you want to learn.
