The title explains it all, really...
I'm a Grade 8 violinist, and I'm going to uni in October (not to study Music). I'm worried that my playing standard will start deteriorating if I don't keep having lessons - my teacher thinks I'm fairly self-sufficient, and I plan to join at least one orchestra/chamber group, but even so...I have to admit I don't practise much.

Anyway - advice would be welcome

I stopped having lessons when i went to uni to study a music degree.

Wish I'd kept them going.

Hey

My partner came to uni and it was 6 months until she let on she played well. I knew she played but I didn't know how well as she was shy and stopped playing when she got to uni.

I know now how much she regretted not continuing with lessons etc as it was a huge gap but also through groups and lessons when she did take it up she got a really good social group together.

I would say do it - you clearly love it - else you wouldn't have gotten this far - it will be a nice break from studying!

I would say try to keep up lessons, even just for a year or two before studying and exam pressure really takes over. I kept up clarinet lessons for a couple of years at university, and I think that without them, I wouldn't have practised nearly as much. Of course joining an orchestra etc. is great for keeping up your playing, but I always felt that having lessons (and having to pay for them!) really made me practise more.

If you can afford to continue having lessons, I would keep going. We all need some further guidance now and then, as well as a reason to practise each week. If you have a lesson to prepare for, you are for more likely to continue with a regular practise routine.

I stopped having lessons when I went to Uni, and went from 1 or 2 hours practising each day, to once a week if I got round to it... and oddly enough, yes, my playing has deterioated!

If music matters to you then it is better to have lessons. If for any reason you can't then don't beat yourself up too much. Once you have reached a good standard, and if your basic technique is sound - you don't lose it. When you start again, even after a very long break (I am talking years without playing, without lessons, or without both) it only takes a few weeks - a few months at most - to regain your skills and eliminate any bad habit you may have picked up. Of course what you do lose, and can never make up, is the improvement you could have made in those lost years.

So you have to decide what matters to you, and live accordingly.

And remember, you're at a uni. You're not going to study music, but other people are.

If at some point you have to stop proper with-a-'real'-teacher lessons due to being a strapped for cash student, you may find a fellow student who is a music student who will listen to you, or help you along, or just play some duets with you...joining the groups like you already intend to is an excellent plan, it will get you contacts for your instrument at your uni

why? i thought performing is always part of a music degree in uni.


by the way, which uni are you going (just of interest)? some of my friends go to uni that are very close to conservatoires and they have lesson either with teachers there privately, or have post-graduates instead.

This is what I did - I started having lessons with another uni student and only paid £6 for half an hour!!
It was a really good way to start

Durham - although my insurance is Birmingham, so conservatoirewise...

Again, thanks for the advice, everyone! I feel guilty now - I've never practised as much as I should, even with lessons... I think I'll try and find time to fit some in somehow though!

Durham, I'm jealous! I love it up there I've heard nothing but good things. Take it from me who unfortunately has had to stop lessons for this year - keep them up! Fortunately for me now though, I think my language skills could cope with it so I'm going to try to find a teacher.

A few reasons......Because i was doing lots of performance lessons at the uni. Because it was at a time when I had to start paying for lessons myself and couldnt afford it And finally because the lessons had lost focus and had become and hour of sitting down having a chat when really (looking back) what i needed was direction and pushing.

I regret it because i think I could have got lots more out of him as a teacher at that time of my life and I think I'd have been a better player now had i inciated the spark and purpose that the lessons lacked.