How To Find A Music Teacher

Finding a music teacher is one of the most important educational decision you may ever make. But if you get it wrong, you could end up really damaging your learning opportunity and feeling really unhappy. CMUK shows you the right way to to find a music teacher...

Many adults and children take music lessons, but make sure you have the best teacher for your needs!

So you’ve made the decision to find a music teacher? This is a step that can be immensely important for your personal development - or detrimental, if you make the wrong choice of teacher - and is easily one of the most important educational decisions you will make concerning your future (or your child’s future).  A music teacher has as much influence on your eventual ability to play as he or she does on your overall connection with, and understanding of, music. The right teacher can guide an ordinary musician into extraordinary performance, and can influence your life more than most people you’ve known. The wrong teacher can be equally influential, leading you to despise the very thought of playing, practicing, attending lessons or performing. It is for these reasons that one should take the greatest of care in finding a music teacher. Below are some of the most important things to consider when you begin your search:

Passion is Everything

This is true, both in life and in music. Your music teacher should, above all, demonstrate an absolute passion for the music he or she plays. This is the mark of the best musicians: a consuming love for music’s essence, music’s history and everything in between. Even the most blasé of students cannot resist the lure of a subject that is taught by someone who loves what they do. A teacher who is passionate about music can make boring and rote exercises seem fun. A teacher who is passionate about music will make music come alive for the student, and show the student how to not only play the notes, but how to play the notes with feeling. A teacher who is passionate about music will teach a student that the essence of the music is as important as its theory, and demonstrate how to achieve mastery of both. 

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Location, Location, Location

You'll find it much easier to focus on lessons if the location and environment suit your needs, as well as the teacher

Taking music lessons, if done in the right way, is a consuming process. Students devote their entire lives to achieving mastery of an instrument, and even if mastery isn’t your primary aim, learning music on any level is a long process. This is why location is important. A music teacher whose studio or classroom is nearby will help ensure that those twice-weekly or weekly trips to lessons will be as stress free as possible. For this reason, CMUK’s Music Teacher Directory provides location information and email addresses for all of its advertised teachers, ensuring that you can find someone in your own area.

But being nearby isn’t the only consideration in regards to location; pay attention to where you will be taking lessons. Is it noisy? Are there a lot of distractions? Is the room itself uncomfortable? You’ll find that a stress free environment can do wonders for your ability to focus and study, and can make or break your learning experience.   

Opportunities for Performance

As you are interviewing potential music teachers, be sure to ask about their opportunities for student performance. While learning to play music is a very personal accomplishment, sharing your art with others takes music to an entirely different level. There is no greater feeling as a musician than to touch the emotions of an audience and know that your diligent efforts have affected someone’s life, making them smile, cry or simply pause to reflect. The act of performance not only inspires a musician to perfect his or her craft, but is also an affirmation of creativity and community. It can be a powerful force in influencing you to work harder, so that others will see only your best during a recital. It also gives students a goal to work towards, as well as inserting a level of competition and recognition into the learning process. These things will only encourage more skill in your art.

A Personal Connection

We’ve saved the best for last! Having a personal connection with a music teacher can be an incredibly awarding experience. Your music teacher should be someone that you can admire, someone that inspires you towards mastery, and ultimately, someone with whom you could develop a meaningful friendship. The process of learning music is an emotional one. You will doubt yourself and your abilities when you’ve played a Sonata through for the twentieth time and you still can’t play it right. You’ll wonder if you’re really cut out for this when your fingers refuse to move over the keys correctly, or when the strings make the tips of your fingers so sore you can barely touch anything. Make no mistake, studying music is a challenging process, and with its great rewards will come great sacrifice on your part. Going through this roller coaster of emotions will be quite unbearable if you dread seeing your teacher each week because he or she makes you uncomfortable, or annoys you in any way. Therefore, it is extremely important that you find a teacher who will be a mentor, someone who you can both respect and trust. The trying times will surely come, and having someone who believes in you can be the difference between success and failure.

When you finally find the right teacher (it might take two or three tries), your experience of learning music can be one of the most memorable experiences you will ever have. If you are surrounded by the right people, and find the right teacher, you’ll discover that studying music changes you in ways you’d never imagine.

“Without music life would be a mistake.”  It is a little known fact that Friedrich Nietzsche, one of history’s most influential philosophers, was also a music student. His quote about music rings true for anyone who has felt the undeniable importance that music has over our lives, especially when we study it first-hand. What better gift than to give yourself, or someone you love, the gift of learning music.

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