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My new teacher has contacted me to let me know that my first lesson with him will be mid-September. This will involved a term of 7 x 20minute lessons @ £58.

My previous teacher was charging me £60 for 6 lessons and sometimes they ran on for 1 hour, though he admitted he enjoyed the repetoire we were engaged in.

I have about 4 weeks to make a big decision here.
I am 48years old and as much as I love trying to play from printed music I think it is a bit expensive considering the lessons are only 20minutes.

Can I have opinions of teachers on the length of the lessons and what can be achieved in such a short time.

I don't like the idea of 20 minute lessons at all.

Think of it this way, it takes 10 minutes of every lesson just to say hello, get seated at the piano, adjust the bench, get your books out, and get warmed up. That means a 20 minute lesson is only going to have about 10 minutes of actual substance.

This is especially true if the teacher is teaching 3 lessons in an hour - some of those 20 minutes will be taken up by students just walking in and out the door.

When I taught pedagogy, I always told students that 45 minute lessons are twice as long as 30 minute lessons. In terms of instructional time, it's absolutely true.

That being said, when you do the math, the money works out to be a reasonable rate. 7 twenty-minute sessions works out to just over 2 hours, and £29 an hour seems fine, but given the reality of how that time's going to be used, I don't see the time being of very good quality.

Kreisler's point about 45 minute lessons being twice as long as 30 minute lessons is so true. As a consumer of teacher services (for my son), I can't imagine choosing lessons that are less than an hour. If you want to make progress on any significant repertoire (quantity OR quality) you should not skimp on lesson time. My son's teacher can spend an entire lesson on one page of music.

I'm not sure of the exchange rate but somewhere about $2.00? $116.00 for two hours and 20 minutes might be good--or not--depending on the quality of the instruction you would receive.

Kreisler is right that one can barely get started in 20 minutes. Minimum should be 30 minutes and 45-60 minutes much better. Of course that depends on your ability, practice time available and technical exercises and repertoire. I have one student who comes twice a week for an hour each time. We spend about 12-15 minutes on scales and some kind of technical work first. He does repertoire after that and we have time to concentrate on problem areas. We also 'rotate' the repertoire by doing some on the first lesson of the week and the rest on the second lesson. That gives him time during his practice sessions to cover everything but he knows what will be heard at the lesson. With only 20 minutes we could hardly do anything.

20 minutes isn't long enough to get anything done unless you're teaching someone younger than 5 years old, or someone with learning disabilities involving a short attention span. I highly suggest you look elsewhere for a teacher who will give you more bang for your buck.

As you explain this situation are you experiencing the thought that this is an unproductive, exploitive situation of the student in that it's a number not frequently used except for the types of things Morodiene mentioned. Then it is appropriate for those needs.

You need minimum of 30 minutes and up to an hour!

Do you realize that the time you would have on the bench can be compared to the length of time it took to get there, and it does not work out efficiently to your advantage in time management, gas or cost of transportation.

This means you are getting about 4 lessons a month with is only one hour total of instructive time.

You can do better, and you should.

Did you ask the teacher his or her history, and why lessons are 20 minutes. What is his reputation and his students musical ability.

I don't see any logic to a brief lesson for an adult student.

I appreciate the comments above and have spent this morning gathering the numbers of other piano teachers in town. Some of these I will be contacting by telephone tonight. I'll report back later. Thanks

Yeah, 20 minutes is not good. The breakdown of the per-minute rate is about on par with lessons in many places (I converted pounds to dollars and then did the math) but a 20-minute lesson will yield no more than ten or twelve quality teaching minutes in all likelihood. You'd be better off with five half-hour lessons, although I almost always taught hour lessons with my adults if they could afford it. A lot of intellectual understanding and grasping of theory that can be passed along to adults that a young child isn't ready for, so even a beginner can benefit from longer lessons.

Tonight I managed to make a booking with a teacher for September 3rd. He spoke to me about what type of music I liked, what I expected from lessons and how much I knew already. He said because I had asked some technical questions I obviously understood my weaknesses. He liked that. He also asked me to bring some of the music with me that I am working on. He said he will introduce other pieces that I may like to consider.


He is offerring me 30minutes @ £10 per lesson on a weekly basis. He also said that it would initially be a 3 month trial basis. He felt that teacher/student must be compatable and that the trial period would be important.

I was quite pleased with what he told me and I am much happier now.

I'm now looking forward to Sept 3rd for my return to proper lessons!

I think you've found someone who is reasonable in his approach and with whom you will probably profit from your instruction. Good Luck!

Well, I don't know what the going rate is in your area, but 10 pounds seems a bit in the other extreme...too low! But since you appear to have had a good conversation with him, I'd go for it. 3 months trial is a good idea, because you can always break it off then if it's not working out. Enjoy!

The pound = $1.8655 so a little less than $2.00. 7 lessons at 20 minutes each would be 59 pounds ($110.0645) for a total of two hours and 20 minutes.

A 30 minute lesson at 10 pounds per would be $18.655 and for a month (assuming 4 lessons) would be $74.60 for 2 hours. A much better deal for 'Ragtime Clown' who only be missing 20 minutes! If things work out with this latest opportunity, then I would opt for that.

Morodiene, the teacher who I have found has not been teaching for a few years. He is only interested in taking on a few pupils this year to get back into things slowly.

My previous proposed teacher offerring 20mins is very 'exam driven' which I found less attractive. Whereas this new teacher wants to tailor the lessons so I achieve maximum learning through the type of music I love most.

Ah, I didn't realize the conversion rate was so high! The teacher at 10 pounds sounds much more reasonable then.

I thought that this teacher's way of selling his lesson prices to be good. He is a very educated pianists.
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