Half hour vs hour lesson's

[Yendoggy]

It absolutely depends on the student. Some people need an hour. Some need half hour. A good and honest teacher will tell u that.

Sure everyone could use an hour every week but lessons are expensive and it’s not for everyone.

[Guitar Slim II]

It's a good question. As a teacher, I used to find 30-minute lessons too short, and hour-longs too long. But a few years ago I was talking to another teacher and she said that at least half the lesson time should consist of "directed practice." That really struck a chord with me, and changed the way I think about it.

Remember, a music lesson isn't the same as a lecture class where you cover the material and then class dismissed. Think of it more as an exercise class or a martial-arts class. It should be a lot of actual doing. Whatever may or may not be discussed in the lesson, you can always spend more time practicing it together with your teacher. A big part of the private teacher's job is observing students while they play and providing individualized feedback. Lecture you can get from a book.

With that in mind, and if you have like-minded teacher, I'd go with the two hour-longs a month, I think you'll get more out of them.

[KDepew]

I think it depends on your level. But with my students that are mostly beginners, I find 1/2 hour a week works pretty well.

[SteveBurt]

Speaking entirely personally, I don't find a week nearly enough to learn something new. It always takes at least a couple of weeks of practice - often more. So I'd say one lesson a week is too frequent.
But maybe that's just me; my main problem is keeping motivated for the 2 to 4 weeks it takes me to learn anything.

[sayheyjeff]

Never quite felt like 30 minutes was enough for me. My best was 60 minutes every other week when I was working. Friends have also worked it out so they could have 45 or 50 minute lessons. That would work for me too but the little bit of extra time often allowed for playing a song or two from from an older lesson at a faster pace and that was valuable and fun. I think now that I am retired, I may start taking lessons again and take them every week as I will be able to prepare and practice for weekly lessons like I couldn't before.

Jeff

[Gmountain]

Originally Posted by mr. beaumont

I'm a teacher.

For beginners, I think a half hour is fine. Most people tap out after 15 minutes or so of new information or so, and then there's 15 minutes of question time, or "practicing in front of the teacher." I also think going every week is important at the start.

For more advanced students, 1 hour, maybe even longer, less frequently is fine, because I'm not as worried about catching little technique things that'll pop up and haunt the player later.

From a student point of view- I agree completely. Plus, I like going weekly- it' gets me out of work once a week early.

[beninma]

I take weekly 45 minute lessons. A lot of the time if my instructor doesn't have someone coming right in after me we might go over a little. But other times I am in a hurry to get off to fulfill family obligations after the lesson is over so I can't stay any extra anyway.

There are days I'm tired or something (I go after working all day) and I may hit that limit where my brain can't absorb any more. I've been going for about 16 months or so after struggling self taught for 2 years, my ability to take in material is better now than it was when I started, sometimes there will be some new section now and I'll have it down "OK" in 5 minutes so there is never really a problem going 45 minutes. I am often really ready to leave though, I would never want to do 1.5 hours in a 1:1 format I think unless we had a lot more practice/play time in the lesson.

There are plenty of songs that might have too much for me to learn in a week, we'll either only work on a part of it if only a part is relevant and/or appropriate to my skill level (e.x. skipping quite a few solos, although less so as time goes on), or we'll break it up and I'll learn the whole thing over 2-3 weeks.

[Big Band Guitar]

I have in the past taught beginning guitar in a group lesson setting.

I do a 8 week introduction to guitar. It is paid up front with no refunds after the first lesson. They are 1 1/2 hour sessions. first 1/2 hour is for going over the last lesson and fixing individual problems. Next 1/2 hour is the lesson. Last 1/2 hour individual help if needed.

The last time I ran one of these was at a senior center. Started with 13 students, half didn't come back after the 3rd lesson, 3 completed the course and could actually play some tunes. One was a 85 year old lady that had never touched a guitar before, her progress was amazing.

[rwmct]

I get a half hour lesson once a week. He tabs out part of a song I want to learn to play, he shows me the fingering he suggests (I will record him playing it on the phone sometimes if playing the record does not work as well). I then go home and work on it until next week.

I find that practice at the lesson works best when I have the notes down and we are refining how I play it, rather than learning how to play it. For learning the tune, I need to take the tab home with me and practice it there.