Not long ago I posted on what should be expected from a great band program. I hope that if you are in a band program, your program meets these expectations! If not, I would be happy to chat with you about how we might be able to help. Each of these things should be experienced in a part of any great music community, including students taking only private lessons.  But it occurred to me that I have not made a list regarding private lessons, which is equally as important.  

Your private lessons should be personal, friendly, engaging, and fun, regular lessons. Each of these words is essential. Don’t miss any of them. In my next post I will discuss some of the specific musical expectations that may stretch a bit beyond what you can expect in a great band program.

1. If you are in private lessons, your teacher should be personal. Your lessons should feel You should feel like your teacher is getting to know you personally. Musically of course, but beyond that they should be getting to know who you are, what makes you tick, what gets you excited, what frustrates you, what challenges you. Music is deeply personal, and these things are significant parts of who we are that we must wrestle with on the life-long journey of learning music. They should know your name and call you by name. You should feel known by them.
2. If you are in private lessons, your teacher should be friendly. You should enjoy hanging out with them, they should be encouraging, challenging in an appropriate manner for a friend and teacher, but always with the care and interest of a friend. And your relationship should develop over time much like a good friendship does. You should feel like you can talk to them, and you should talk to them about anything and everything as you feel led.

3. If you are in private lessons, your teacher should be engaging. Even if you aren’t having your best day musically or in life, maybe you are struggling to focus (we have all been there), your private teacher should be able to draw you in to the lesson and get you learning, making music, participating in the moment.
4. If you are in private lessons, your teacher should be fun. You should have a good time. Every time you come in for a lesson, you should have fun. You should have fun hanging out with your teacher, you should have fun making music and learning, you should enjoy the whole process. You should laugh. Laughter is important. You should learn to laugh at yourself, you should feel comfortable being silly, telling a joke or listening to one, laughing when you make a sill mistake or a silly sound. Music should be fun. We can be serious about the music and still have fun, and both are important. Remember, the harder we work on the music the more fun we will have.

5. If you are in private lessons, your private teacher should be teaching you regular lessons. This is important. Regular means consistent lessons ideally weekly, though sometimes in rare occasions every other week or even once monthly. But it is important that lessons are consistent and regular because music requires consistency for healthy growth and learning. A great private teacher knows that and cares about that and will be committed to teaching you regularly. The only exception would be a few regularly scheduled breaks and the occasional illness or need to cancel due to travel or work in the field.