What to Expect When You’re Expecting Music Lessons

Adult Edition

While most of our student roster consists of K-12 kids, we do have a handful of adult students on our schedule each year. Of course, we’re thrilled to invite and welcome anyone, no matter what age, to begin a musical journey with us. But as we’ll explore here, that journey takes a few detours from the path that a kid’s typical trek follows.

What Motivates the Move Toward Music Lessons?

There are as many reasons that people take music lessons as adults as there are strings in a piano:

• Many new adult music students want to try something new or explore something they were never able to as a child.
• Some adults want to revisit their childhood music lessons because they regret quitting.
• There are parents whose own kids are starting a brand new journey into music and they want to join them on the trip.
• Quite a few adults have set a goal to perform at a family wedding or join friends in a band.
• Many adults want to explore a new hobby.
• Some professionals/semi-professionals want to hone specific skills or expand possibilities within their repertoire.

Whatever the reason, private music lessons for adults are unique because of grown up expectations and challenges that are different from those of a child.

Find a Good Fit

It’s important that the relationship between a student and teacher is a good fit, especially for adult learners and music instructors. 

Children are generally more flexible with different teacher personalities and learning styles because they are themselves still discovering how to best learn. Adults, on the other hand, are typically more set in their ways. That’s why when choosing a music instructor it’s important to find someone with whom you feel comfortable taking direction as well as receiving both praise and criticism. 

Communication must be free and open and built upon trusting the path the instructor is laying out. That includes open discussion about the “why” behind instructions and the willingness to walk the journey that’s being laid out without negotiation.

For the adult learner, it’s important to communicate your ultimate goal as well as the style of music you wish to learn to play. 

(As an aside, we have had to turn away some adults who want to play “piano bar” or “dueling piano bar” style off of lead sheets. As a rule, we can introduce traditional piano students to lead sheets when they have reached that level of skill and knowledge of music theory, but we cannot put that cart before the horse with a non-musician. There is no shortcut. Over the years we have tried to find a more suitable teacher for this kind of request, and have yet to discover anyone in the Twin Cities metro area who accepts this kind of student request. So if you teach like this and want referrals, please drop us a line!)

Excess Baggage

The biggest challenge adult learners face is the baggage that they bring to music lessons. From the preconceptions of what they will learn, to the worry about the speed at which they’ll progress, to their expectations of the end results, our first job with adult music students is to pinpoint any misconceptions they may have that could tarnish the music learning experience. 

The first hurdle to clear is that when we practice or perform music, it is not the same experience as listening to music. In fact, the very act of making music is remarkable in itself, but it’s important to realize that what we hear when we make music will be very different from what we hear when we’re listening to others making their own music.

Where Do I Begin?

An adult’s prior experience of music will have more impact on how we start lessons than with the student’s ultimate goal. Certainly we keep that goal in mind, but the student starting with no background information will have a lot more ground to cover than the student that either had prior experience with the instrument from their youth, or even a student that played a different instruments throughout high school or college and is starting anew with a different instrument.

The curriculum and methods we select are carefully cultivated for this wide range of beginners. The “Adult Method” may not be the best choice for someone with zero experience because these kinds of methods typically do not have the repetitious content built in to allow adults with no background the time to learn a new concept or skill. So the adult wanting to learn to play the blues saxophone will find themselves playing Hot Cross Buns before we can get them to a blues scale. Rest assured, we will get to the goal, but if there is important information to backfill they have to have the chops to reach the desired goal. And that is step one.

How Long Before I Can Play Like Eddie Van Halen?

This question is a frequent one that we hear from adult learners. (Not necessarily all of them want to play like Eddie Van Halen, but their own particular version of the musicians they admire.) To be honest, it can be a difficult journey. 

It’s important to remember that when you hear the music of a musician you love, you’re hearing the end result of their journey. You must set aside stories of players who never learned to read music or the musical prodigy that played right out the womb. Those kinds of anomalies are not helpful in recognizing and accepting how long it will take you to learn how to play your instrument.

The Practice Problem

Unlike children, adults have other responsibilities that need to be prioritized over music lessons. Adulting is hard and few will have the discipline or even sometimes, the opportunity to make daily practice a habit.

It’s important to be realistic. Just as a surprise car repair or household appliance failure can throw you a curveball in your everyday life, realize that your musical journey may have more stops and starts than you anticipated. That’s okay.

Finally, remember that “natural talent” has little to do with your final outcome or what you envision as “success.” We believe that anyone can make music and that you will get out of it what you put into it. Some will move faster than others, but ultimately to make a sound that you hear performed by another is equivalent to years and thousands of hours of dedication. A thousand hours goes by so much faster than you realize. Practicing 30 minutes a day, every day for roughly five years is equal to 1000 hours.  In five years you can cover a lot of ground, but you have to be willing to do the work.  

Time Is on Your Side … Yes, It Is

“I don’t have much time to learn something” is something we hear often from adult students. Perhaps it’s spoken by the adult learning something for an event like a wedding. Quite often it’s a disparaging comment self-referencing the retiree’s age. 

Just remember, if you’re an adult thinking of learning music, the sooner you begin the less regret you’ll have later. 

The Cons and Pros

One rather large con to adults learning a musical instrument is the lack of opportunity to learn and play alongside others. Young students who start with band instruments have that opportunity presented to them at school.  In fact, even young piano students have a greater chance of playing with others their own age with perhaps siblings or friends at school.  

But for adults, music lessons can often be a very solitary undertaking with usually only their instructor as connection to a musical peer. Occasionally, however, we’ll learn of exceptions to this norm. Two of our favorite adult students just happened to be a couple of older gentlemen who were taking lessons separately. A few months after we began working with them we learned they would have dinner parties at which they would play for one another. It was wonderful hearing about the joy they were sharing together.  

The pros to making music yourself? 

• Reveling in your own creativity
• Learning something new 
• Discovering what you’re capable of
• A newfound connection to music
• Control over your body and instrument
• Exercise for your body and mind
• And eventually, hopefully, collaboration with other musicians and/or listeners

Let’s Get It Started

We’d be thrilled to launch you, the adult learner, on your own musical journey. If you’re ready to get started don’t hesitate to reach out to us today!