Thinking about the fact I have a piano lesson this week (YAY) got me wondering -

How far do you travel?
How did you pick your teacher?

about a 25mile round trip for me so not too bad. Found this teacher through a local(ish) music school, had a trial lesson and decided almost on the spot. Very lucky not to have had to trawl through websites etc.

I travel a 40 mile round trip to my piano teacher! Mind you I did viola or a bit and that was 60 miles ... which did have some bearing on me giving up!

20 miles each way for me. I used to work about half way there, but now I work at home so it's 20 miles each way proper now
How did I find my teacher? By trawling and trawling and trawling and eventually finding an actual proper recorder specialist - haven't yet found one that's closer (not that I'm looking, though briefly did glance around a couple of weeks ago when it looked like I was going to be teacher-less!)

My viola teacher lives about 10 minutes drive away which is amazing given that I live in the country in the middle of nowhere!!! She was my first choice because of that when I was looking for a teacher but we actually got on very well from the start and I was hugely relieved that she decided to offer me a place.


Slightly off-topic: orchestra is a half hour drive at night which has actually put me off going, especially in the winter. It's on narrow country roads over a fairly high hill which is very unpleasant if there's snow or even ice. It starts at 7.30 and often doesn't finish until 10pm which is very late for me so I'm not going just now. Even in the summer I find that too late because I'm a morning person, up around 6am, and my brain tends to shut-down about 9pm

I would be happy to drive even as far as the city (about an hour) if there was a musical group that met during the daytime. There's another evening orchestra there but it's for diploma-level players.

about 5 mins walk - he lives other side of the road from me!

I picked him due to location (found him randomly on a teacher's website). We got on right away and the convenience of having lessons pretty much anytime that suits is a big bonus!
Was very thankful of this yesterday, but even so, found carrying a cello on one's back in ice and snow is a little unnerving and I shan't be doing it again!

About 10 minutes drive from work (I go before or after work depending on shifts), so very handy.

I was passed on to her by my first teacher (I didn't drive her away, she left of her own accord, honest) who I found through a combination of musicteacher.co.uk and hearing her play.

Three hours round trip for musicianships lessons. Teacher found on this forum. 20 minutes walk to new piano teacher found on musicteachers.co.uk.

About 40 miles round trip.

Found her by reputation having seen her give a masterclass-come-workshop.

I found my teacher by asking a music teacher at my son's school, who does the school orchestra my son plays in, if she knew anyone who would take on an adult beginner. Fortunately she did. Guernsey, where I live, being only 6 miles wide, he is not too far away! I walk to my lesson which takes 45 minutes. I could drive, but I am trying to keep fit too. Bit it's nice, as I arrive all warm and awake.
I realise I am extremely fortunate. Before we moved here I did a 2 hour drive round trip for music making.

Just a few steps to open my front door! Very lucky, no travelling required.
One of my young language students is a keen pianist and his mother asked their piano tuner to recommend a good teacher in my own area. So that's how I found my teacher. She's great, very patient -don't know how she puts up with me!!

I've only a ten minute tram trip - either from work or home (sometimes I go straight from work, sometimes I go home first - it's on a Friday evening). It's about the same to cycle which I do in the Summer.

Found my teacher though the place I bought my piano

I must be one of the closest then! My teacher lives less than ten minutes walk from my house, and given the route I usually walk "around the corner" is pretty much accurate!

I searched on google for singing teachers + Edinburgh, and then found a few who looked good. Went to sample lessons with as many as I could, and picked my teacher through a combination of getting along with her, feeling she was able to teach to the standard I was at and being a little more affordable than some of the people I saw!

I actually enjoy working with my teacher so much, I am hoping to be able to pay her to teach me piano as well, since that's also something she teaches, and she'll already know that my focus is learning to accompany rather than perform solo.

Just the distance between the kitchen and the room next to it, since Son No.2 has his lesson first and therefore is deputised to open the front door when teacher arrives !!

We travel about a 10 mile round trip to take Son No.1 for his trumpet lessons. Our teacher probably has about a 6 mile round trip to come to us for piano and sax lessons.

We got lucky with our piano / sax teacher - first name we phoned from the musicteachers.co.uk website for our locality. He came for a trial lesson for Son No.1 and was just fab. We went on from there. Trumpet teacher used to teach Son No.1 at primary school via the local music service, and we switched to private lessons with him shortly after Son No.1 went to high school.

I travel 16 miles - half an hour, each way, so an hour altogether. Teacher was recommended by a violinist friend who didn't fancy teaching me as she lives even further away. Now teacher normally comes to me. I have my lesson then make us all dinner while he and Oh play duets.

OH travels 46 miles - 92 mile round trip, about an hour and a half each way. I found his teacher on School of Everything (from a recommendation on here), before that he was travelling 2 and a half hours each way to RWCMD.

My teacher is about 55 minutes each way, something like 40 miles each way. But then she is a harp teacher and they are few and far between up north!

I found her from the Pilgrim Harps list and she is worth the trip, although I only go about every 3 weeks because it is a whole morning for a one hour lesson.

My piano teacher is 20 minutes/9miles away and is my son's cello teacher, I found him online via a search engine on one of the music teachers sites. He had been teaching my son cello for a year or so when I decided to swap from my existing piano teacher as she was very unwell and I felt I needed a new approach. He also teaches my other son piano too! So it is lucky he is quite close

I do a 4 hour (30 min walk, 30 bus each way) round trip for my violin and piano lessons, one after the other. I'm shattered when I get back!

my piano teacher is in the same village as me (well more like a small town really). It takes 15 minutes to speed-walk from one door to the other.

Oh dear *feels guilty*

25 miles each way, taking an hour each way as Dartmoor gets in the way.

I nearly took lessons with someone I found on musicteachers.co.uk who lives considerably closer. However, I talked to someone whose musical opinions I respect who I thought would know this first teacher and was very gently and politely advised against. He recommended my current teacher, who is great and worth the extra effort of getting there.

About twenty miles round trip to my singing teacher once a fortnight. I found her when I joined her singing group on Monday morning's last September. I asked if she was a private teacher and after a trial lesson she took me on. I left her singing group to focus on my solo singing, which I prefer.

I'm having a small procedure done at hospital tomorrow, so after a couple of weeks off, I'll be looking for a piano teacher. I'm prepared to travel the same sort of mileage to him/her too if needs be.

My piano teacher lives about half a mile from my house in the same village, in a direct line travelling south towards the river Thames. I am exceptionally lucky to have such a good teacher so nearby! Its a 10 minute fast walk (assuming level crossing doesn't go down)!

I do a 3 1/2 hour round trip whenever I can manage it, at the moment only about once a month, which isn't really often enough.

Big problem with driving so far is feeling whacked out once I arrive, especially if the weather is bad. There's also the difficulty of leaving to give myself enough time without arriving SO early I have to sit in the car for 30 mins.!

I'm lucky as mine is only a bus ride away, which is about 20-30 minutes depending on the traffic. As well as walking to the bus stop.

I do have a music school just round the corner from where I live, but I found them really snobbish and they wouldn't let you through the door unless they knew who you were. I wasn't paying ?120 a month upfront for private lessons.

Loz xx

If my son has lessons at his teacher's house, we have 180 mile round trip, but luckily it's not always at her house, normally it's just a 60 mile round trip. A conservatiore tutor recommended that he should have lessons with her. Jazz lessons are a 120 mile round trip every week, but it only takes as long to get there as the 60 mile one. It's amazing what you get used to.

It takes less than five minutes in the car for me to get to my piano lessons.

20 minutes' walk from home, or 10 minutes' walk from the nearest Tube station if lessons are after work. I found her through musicteachers.co.uk simply by typing in "piano" and "London" and only looking at those in postcodes near mine.

5 minutes by car but as I don't drive I often have to get the bus or walk - walking takes about half an hour, the bus takes about 15 minutes plus a 5-10 minute walk to the stop. I have occasionally had to walk over from work too - it's only happened once so far as I'm officially part-time so tend to organise lessons on a day off, but when I had to do it it took me all of 2 minutes.

I ended up going to the nearby shop first as I hadn't realised I could go the way I did and so had planned far too long to get there (and I was still insanely early)!!

Wow, there are some dedicated people here. My teacher is 10miles away from me - which is the furthest I've ever travelled for music lessons. I always walked to my piano lessons. My teacher was recommended by my local music shop.

About 20 minutes door to door with a short two stop tube journey, approximately every couple of weeks.

Same here.
With piano it became necessary when I outgrew my teacher.
I've recently added a once a month session with an accompanist who is a little further than that.
My husband didn't quite see why I needed to find another piano teacher.
I'm only able to do this because my husband is retired and I've been able to arrange lessons on a day when he is not likely to need the car even in the cricket season.

I have to travel about 15 miles, but the public transport is ok most of the time. The lessons were very local until the teacher moved, but I felt they were worth hanging on to so I don't mind the extra traveling time and money.

I thought I was the only one that was insane:
I do a 2 hour drive each way for my drum lessons But it's only every other week so not too bad.
Fortunately my combined piano/violin lesson is only a 5 minute drive from me

For us it's not insanity - it's Hobson's choice. There just aren't any other piano teachers in our area that cater for the level OH needs.

My teacher lives only couple of miles away from me.

I initially thought about joining ELSSO but decided not to, due to the distance.

I salute all of you who travel for hours for a lesson.

Each way?

Viol: 20 miles
Cello: 15 miles
Sax: 23 miles

Joys of living in a rural area. I stopped having singing lessons when I moved here as it would be about 45 miles each way

I travel all the way to the bottom of the stairs to open the door for my teacher,

I dont think there was a particular reason to pick him. I can see myself changing teacher in the next two years ~ for knowledge purposes

Not my travelling time - but I do have a student who comes from Perth in Scotland (not Australia!!!) once a month for a lesson with me in Darkest Croydon. I think he gets a 5.30am bus to the airport...then plane, tube, train, bus...and arrives on my doorstep at 9.30am.

He gets LOTS of stickers.

155 miles each way for an hour and a half lesson three or four times a year.

According to the TfL website...

Cello : 54 minute journey (one train, one bus or two trains)

Kodaly : 1 hour 47 minute journey (one train, two buses)

But you DO get a cup of tea at the end of it...perhaps there should be biscuits too...*ponders*...

15 minutes of walking!

A 10 mile drive to clarinet lessons and a 10 minute walk to piaono lessons.

the tea is always appreciated!

Tea, biscuits and stickers! You'd have everybody in the entire world wanting lessons

I suppose another question we could ask is how much it costs you to get your lesson, especially with people flying from Scotland and travelling such long distances.

Cello : 4.20 return

Kodaly : 7.50 return

All the above are TfL Oyster fares

About 120 calories (1 mile there, 1 mile back, at about 60 calories a mile).

And apparently this is what 120 calories looks like: http://www.fitsugar.com/What-120-Calories-Looks-Like-454335

Not quite in the same league as travelling from Scotland, but my 45mins each way to band may have to be reconsidered soon due to DD's increasing musical commitments (both time and cost!!) and to the ever increasing cost of petrol.

Hmm, I average about 45mpg, so on that basis:

Cello: 3.70
Viol: 5.70
Sax: 7.10

Depending on time of sax lesson, car parking might be payable as well.