Just some advice really. Many of you will remeber me from earlier in the year.

I have been unable to play my clarinet for about 4/5 moths due to injurying my hand (thumb). Unfortunatly for one reason of another my circumstances have also changed during this time; meaning I can no longer afford regular music lessons. However my reasons for falling in love with trying to learn the clarinet remain the same, and I have started picking it up and playing it again.

As teachers do you believe there is any benifit from have occational lessons over none. I am no fool and know the obvious benifit of regular lesson especially at the stage I am at i.e. still learning basic technique but life has other priorities and I cant change that nor would I want too.

However I do believe I could perhaps afford lesson about once every 6 weeks or so. Would these be worth while? If so how do you believe I should use them? Given I am both keen to progress my exams as well as specific music targets.

Any Advice greatly appreciated

You would need to find a teacher who can give such a sporadic lesson, first, I think. I would imagine it is possible, but there is something else to consider - how would you manage if you had to wait six weeks and you were stuck on a small but significant aspect of technique? I know that if I have a long gap between lessons, then the questions and difficulties pile up, and sometimes I need a lesson more often than once every two or three weeks if there is a tricky problem to sort.

Occasional lessons work well for someone reasonably competent already, but even if you're just beginning I would say occasional lessons are definitely better than none.

It also depends how much time you have to practice...

I have recorder lessons once every 2/3 months and organ lessons once every 2/3 weeks - and I do about a week's worth of practice between each of them! Lessons are a good incentive to practice as far as I'm concerned! (Just playing for fun is a completely different issue...)

If you are intending to practice lots then you could get frustrated by not having anyone to ask advice from, and could get into bad habits, but the main thing is to find a sympathetic teacher and take it from there. Another way of doing it would be to have a bunch of lessons for a while (potential Christmas present?) and then leave it for a bit.

I hope you can manage to go for it - and have a great Christmas!

Any lessons are better than none but I know how frustrated I get when I am stuck on something and only have to wait two weeks to ask my teacher. I did once ask a teacher in this forum about something I was stuck on and somebody did help me but that is a bit cheeky I suppose really. Sometimes I practise things wrongly but because it is over such a short time I am able to quickly put it right as soon as my teacher has shown me what to do.

I used to have weekly lessons but can't anymore because I'm not working full time at the moment, it's frustrating not to have that "reason" to do things like scales etc and I do feel like my playing has regressed slightly. However any tuition is useful, even if it is only once in a blue moon!!

HI
I have ;essons every 2 weeks after a long break because I found I wasn't progressing and had no incentive to practise without.

I have a couple of students who have monthly lessons for financial reasons. Both got distinction at grade 2 recently. Whether it works for you depends on how disciplined you are between lessons...

I think the above poster and others of similar ilk above say it all: better to have sporadic lessons than none at all. That said, have you ever considered little and often, e.g. say, with a VERY symapthetic teacher 15 minutes per week? Or even ten minutes. That way, you could avoid some of the frustrations by meeting and brainstorming some of the problems on a regular basis. Little and often is better than rare and lengthy. The same adage applies to practising of the clarinet or indeed any instrument.

Certainly, from a teacher / professional point of view, sporadic lessons with keen pupils are infinitely preferable to weekly pupils who fail to practise or show inspiration. And there are a few of the latter around as many on these threads will testify.

LR

I have one or two adult students who get in touch when they feel some more input from me would be helpful. Sometimes they will come for several sessions quite close together. Other times I may not see them for months. Sometimes it's a case of "I've got this really hard piece for band...".

As adults can often come later in the evening than would be appropriate for younger students you may be able to find even quite a busy teacher who would be willing to work on these lines.