When you enroll at a private music school, there are several things you should talk with your teacher about. Do you want to learn to read music? What are your favorite songs? What songs made you want to play your instrument? What are you listening to now?
If you’re playing piano, who’s your favorite piano player? What’s your favorite piano part in a song? What do you want to do once you learn to play piano? Apply the same questions to guitar, bass or any other instrument. If you can’t think of any answers to those questions, then why are you taking music lessons in the first place?
It’s a good idea to give your teacher a list of the songs you like, which include your instrument. Don’t expect your teacher to magically jump-start you into playing those songs. Your list can be a guide for planning a lesson strategy.
You should also talk about how much time, if any, you will spent reading music, and how much time you will spend on other aspects of your musical development, such as learning real parts from real songs. If you’re playing piano, you may not have many choices, since most piano teachers focus their entire lessons on reading music. You should still find ways to interact with real music in real time.
© 2019, 2020 Greg Varhaug