I'm not sure if this has been posted before, I did a search and can't find anything. I was just wondering, as an adult learner, how often do you have a lesson and for how long? Or are you just teaching yourself?

I've been having lessons about once a month and I've been teaching myself. I play a string instrument, so I can teach myself how to play in different positions, shifting between notes etc. It's not ideal. I think I should start having more lessons cos I'm not making too much progress. I was thinking maybe one hour lessons every fortnight or maybe 30 min per week. I'm not sure what will be more effective.

On oboe. 1 hour a week which normally stretches a little. I sometimes think I could happily keep myself occupied longer between lessons on the material I get every week but once a week keeps me at it and makes sure I do the required hour to hour and a half practice every day. Besides, I enjoy lessons.

Starting to need to find some time for reed making too - both in lessons and inbetween.

I have 45 minute lessons each week for violin.


I would imagine 30 mins per week would be better, since having a lesson more regularly means you are less likely to fall into bad habits etc. I guess it depends on what level you are at really/how much time you have to practice.

I currently have a 2hr lesson per week...Alllows a warm up (usually some duets from tune a day bk 2). then we go onto scales. Also have a look at the pieces im working on and break them down where needed.
Also allows time for a bit of theory and a warm down.

I started with 2hrs lessons to give me the best start as I only started playing 7 months ago and am a keen player. Im looking to take G4 in Nov. I also put in between 7 - 12 hrs practice per week. usually near the 8hr mark but depends on how I feel after work etc.

2hrs is intensive and you need alot of concentration and it wont be for everyone but like I say I decided to play the violin and I just wanted to push myself...

Half an hour, once a fortnight.

When I was working for my last exam, I'd try to get an hour-long lesson on average every two to three weeks, not easy to do, since I had to cross Scotland to do it, or rather, I'd cross to Glasgow and my accompanist and his wife would take me on for the second chunk to the west coast. At the moment I can't get to lessons because of The Rest of Life, and miss them terribly - I have less focus and am struggling to make myself practise. Since it was getting lessons in the first place which made my playing take off, I'm sad about this, but will have to see how I can get round the problem once everything else settles. I certainly couldn't have made the progress I did without my teachers - in fact, I'd tried off and on over an eighteen year period to teach myself, and made no significant headway until I started lessons about six years ago.

I have an hour about once a fortnight, which works well for me. I don't have time to do enough practice between lessons for once a week to be useful. For me, taking things slowly, an hour once a fortnight allows me to see continue to make steady progress.

One hour a week.

Ina

I have 1 hour a fortnight, but find I need them slightly more regularly as after about 10 days I find I really need some more imput.

I had a half hour lesson last week and will have another this week so that we can get back into a pattern of fornights that fits in with the rest of life, but i don't think i will have managed to cover what i wanted to between lessons ( I do about 1 - 11/2 hours practise most days).

I think on balance 1/2 or 1 a week would be better but i would struggle to find the time (I drive half and hour there and back, although that's nothing compared to traveling the breadth of Scotland) I'm also so buzzy after a lesson i can't settle to do anything else so that's the day used up really!

Approximately one a fortnight, each session being an hour, but that does vary (singing).

Half and hour a week piano, think I need to increase that as I'm working on G5

Just started singing lessons, 1 hour per week

One hour every fortnight for piano - works for me! Every week and I feel that I haven't practised enough.

I have one hour per week.

But as move up grade, I am thinking to do 1 hour for every 2 weeks or 3 times a month.
Becasue of music piece become longer and technical you need more time - so 1 week between (but weekend is very difficult as family day, so I want to be free.) is very tough.

But I agree with everybody, it is very vary depend on your situation.
I see a lot mums in adult learner, me too. Look after kids and house and job - then your lesson.
I think we are all doing very well and priviledge!

Aiming at 45 minutes once a week. But my teacher's health hasn't been very good lately so have had to skip a few weeks here and there and haven't had a lesson now for 7weeks!!! That hasn't stopped me progressing but am looking forward to starting lessons again hopefully very soon....

I have 1 half hour a month. Its not nearly enough. Am changing it to 1 half hour a fortnight but its probably still not enough really. My kids get the weekly lessons. So I cannot afford anymore.

What we sacrifice for our children!!!

There is no smiley for having the hump!!!!! Damn!

I used to have an hour lesson every Saturday..one week singing, the next piano. Now I don't have any. I've had some very good singing tips though that have helped greatly. I can't wait to start formal lessons again..one day...

I started off having 30 mins once a fortnight (assuming that I wouldn't get enough time to practise to make weekly lessons worthwhile). However, I switched after 1 term to 30 mins per week, since I found having lessons less frequently meant that I took about 15 mins - ie 1/2 the lesson - just getting used to playing in front of my teacher again, so I only really got about 15 mins actual 'tuition' per fortnight. Having lessons more frequently got past this issue. Also, since lessons are on a Monday, I kept ending up with big gaps because of bank holidays.

I have to say in practice I do tend to find that weekly lessons are worthwhile, even if I haven't had time to do much practising inbetween. It means that if I've got some query as to how I should be playing a particular section, or as to what's going wrong on a certain bar, I don't have to wait half a month to get it sorted.

When I started flute lessons my teacher offered half an hour once per fortnight. I thought for a moment, and as I am retired, I asked if she would give me half an hour once per week. My argument was that I would probably do the same amount of practice in one week as in one fortnight . She agreed and it has been the same for nearly 2 years, although she usually gives me 45 minutes and if there is nobody after me it has been known to go up to an hour.

My daughter and I, both piano students approaching grade 3, split an hour between us. She gets 35 minutes and I get 25. That is every week during school term.

I'd like more really if I could afford it.

Paul

I have an hour every fortnight (theoretically).

Since my lessons are based at a music school this ends up being 6 hour lessons a term.
They're usually every fortnight during term time but sometimes there's a 1 or 3 week gap between lessons if it suits both me and my teacher. The lessons are scheduled for an hour but since I'm the last student of the day tend to overrun if things are going particularly well. Then we go to the pub to wind down!

I have an hour once a week.

I started on 1/2 hour once a week then moved to 45 mins once we started to incorporate theory. It has now moved to an hour and will probably stay at that for the foreseeable future.

I never really thought 1/2 hour was enough time, I had no sooner arrived than I was going again.

I am doing 30 mins every week at the moment. I'll see how it goes. Seemed to go very quickly today, but we did get lots done.

I have half an hour a week and it's never enough.

I have an hour's singing about every 4-6 weeks - it's too expensive and too far to travel for anymore than that!

I get half an hour once a fortnight. I share the lessons with my son.

I have an hour a week of aural practice. I'm determined to become perfect at grade 8 aural tests.

I have half an hour each week but I am doing Grade 8 and we never have enough time especially as we have started practising ear tests - but we are very focused and we do get a lot done in 30 mins nonetheless. As I get nearer the exam in the spring we will hopefully step up a bit more and do an hour some weeks.

I don't really have "lessons" anymore, but when I go home (evey 4-6 weeks) I have 3 hour playing sessions with helpful hints and tips from my old clarinet teacher! I've taught myself flute, although think I should perhaps find a teacher now I'm heading towards the higher grades.

Half an hour a week when I was going through the grade exams.

Now the exams are over I've increased 3/4 hour a week, but unfortunately practice time has reduced dramatically.

All the best,

Nigel

I have an hour and a half piano lesson ( but that includes time spent on theory) each week and a one hour cello lesson each week. I wouldn't be physically capable of spending any longer than that on a cello lesson.

My piano teacher was away for 4 weeks during the summer and although I practiced every day I made no progress at all without lessons. I found myself becoming distracted and doing things like sight reading the piano accompaniment for my grade 2 cello pieces.

Hi

Between October and June I have an hour and a half every 4 to 6 weeks. I go to a teacher at one of the conservatoires and one lesson keeps me going for a few weeks. I come back really motivated and the tuition is excellent. As someone else has said, I couldn't afford it any more often!

Paris

PS I play the trumpet

I have an hour piano lesson a week. Well, the hour sometimes slips over, and its usually a 15-20 min social chat before the lesson and after with my teacher and his partner, so its all good. I have had to go once a fortnight sometimes depending on work and other factors, but miss it very much when I have to wait that long.

At first I had a half hour a week, but I got frustrated with that because I felt I wasn't making enough progress so I suggested I do an hour a week. My teacher thought that was too long, so we settled on 45 minutes a week which seems to be fine. I think the frequent lessons help keep me motivated to practice.

Thanks for all the replies Seems like a lot of you have quite regular lessons. I'm going to aim for one hour per week, but that probably won't happen because I might be busy or my teacher might be busy, so it's likely going to work out to be one hour per fortnight. My teacher is too busy to give me 30 minutes per week.

It's nice to know that you're all dedicated to having lessons and learning to play an instrument. I've had friends and family say to me "what's the point of learning, aren't you a bit too old to learn?" Sometimes I do feel like I'm wasting money, considering that the economy isn't too good. But I have to remind myself that it's fun, it's my hobby!

I dont see how its wasting money, as long as your enjoying yourself! I get the same response from some people, but i think i would rather "waste" money on my lessons than spend it in the pub! (or glued to the tv watching any rubbish)

I absorutely agree with Markey78!

Now I prepare lunch by myself for office most of days so that I can save money for lesson and reeds.
But it is not pain at all. I am eating healthy and enjoying learning and playing.
I think it is fantastic!
I believe music is very important and joy in our daily life so to continue music is very privilege!

Fortnightly lessons (piano) and they last for 1.5 to 2 hours each time. More frequent and there is not much improvement to show. Les frequent and bad habits get established.

I don't really have lessons any more (at least not on voice) although I do meet up with my old teacher whenever I'm back in the UK and we often have long jamming sessions and interesting discussions about the latest voice research (which leads to interesting 'let's try this out' sessions!)

My fiddle lessons are very irregular - basically whenever I can get the time and my teacher has time. I don't have to travel to these lessons though - I take them by Skype (with Randall Bays - a superb Irish fiddler from the States).

I'd really like to start taking classical violin lessons again - but I just can't see where the time will come from, like so many other people on here - life gets in the way!

I wonder if I can give up work and just have fun learning loads of new instruments and languages...

Just arranged weekly lessons (30 mins) for piano. I'll certainly practice in between!

*cough* and then there's the Kodály lessons *cough*

Piano - once a month (1.5 hours)
Harp - once a fortnight (1 hour)

Quite so! My fantastic Kodaly teacher who keeps me ever inspired (and sends me stickers in the post that I can award myself as we're about 1200 km away from each other when we have our lesson!)

1hr a week. Unless we can't find a time to suit both of us which is rare. Usually this only occurs about 1 in 10 weeks.

And 'cello now

The Kodaly I'm keeping ticking over, at the moment I'm aiming at approximately one lesson a school term, so I don't go all rusty.

I started with half an hour a week but we always seemed to need a bit more time and I didn't think it was fair on my teacher going over every week. So now it's three quarters of an hour a week and that feels about right. It gives us time to look at scales and at the moment I'm working on going over the break, with some time for actually playing a piece.

I don't know if you can teach yourself on some instruments or not but I know I'd have been really stuck on the clarinet without my teacher's help. I can't tell what I'm doing right or wrong. It might help if my hearing was still A1!

I'm supposed to have an hour a fortnight, but my teacher is constantly letting me down. She hasn't even phoned me this week - I'm so disappointed and I have an exam too. I thought that might make her get a bit serious, but alas. I have to go it alone and pray that on occasion she might give me a lesson. The problem is there aren't any other teachers in my area.

I guess thats a good thing, seeing as I want to be a piano teacher.

My internet went down for six days so our last lesson had to be aborted *sniff*...just think of ALL those stickers going to waste...*sniff*...

I wish I could find the time to put myself "on the other side of the bench" for change.

I would LOOOOOVE to take yet another course of organ studies (having done all the ABRSM Grades in my teens and again in my 40's) but I can't find anyone in this area unless I made overtures to Blackburn Cathedral.

Plus.......at this moment I have no time for either the lesson or for much practise as my teaching schedules are FULL!!

Roll on retirement !

An hour (although it sometimes stretches to more like an hour and a half!) between 1-2 weekly depending on when my teacher and I can find a convenient time - longer in between and I find I get into evil habits (poor cello!), closer together and being a mother/doctor/general factotum gets in the way of practice to the extent that lessons become more frustrating than helpful (yes, I know I am making the same mistakes as I did last time.......but I need uninterrupted cello and me time to fix them!).

Am just off to practice after a week's holiday - so my lesson in a week's time will not be too traumatic!
Wolfnotes

I've been having weekly one hour lessons for the past 3 weeks. My teacher has picked up on so many of my bad habits that she never really had time to notice before/ or things she picked on before and taught me but I never managed to fix the problem. Now I have to re-learn how to place my fingers and how to hold my bow properly

Oh well, at least I'm seeing some improvements, it's satisfying to know that I'm making some kind of progress.