the Price of Clarinet Lessons

The type of service I'm describing is clarinet lessons. The lessons are offered every week on the same day each week, which happens to be Thursdays. The lessons are offered not in my home but at my child's school so they run from October through May each year. The lessons are one half-hour in length and are held from 1:30 until 2:00 in the afternoon. The instruction is provided through an outside company that is based in Philadelphia. The instructor comes to the school two days a week and offers lessons for different instruments on different days. So for example, on Thursdays she teaches music lessons for wind instruments like clarinets, flutes, trombones and trumpets and on Wednesdays she teaches lessons for other non-wind instruments like drums and guitar. Grouping like instruments together helps not only to keep the instruction similar, but it also helps to form a more cohesive sounding composition. The children taking the lessons also benefit from hearing like instruments together and how their sounds complement each other. Eventually, all different types of instruments will practice and play together since they are preparing for a final concert in May in which all instruments will have a part. The payment for services is broken down into monthly tuition payments sent directly to the company by the 10th business day of each month. The other payment is for instrument rental which can be done through the music company or through your a music company of your choice.

The type of service I'm reviewing is clarinet lessons for my child. These lessons are held at my child's school during the school day. At the beginning of the school year, a meeting was held at the school by the music company to introduce their services. This particular company has been offering lessons at the school for at least five years but parents new to the lessons were encouraged to attend to learn about the program. I feel that the quality of the lessons, so far, has been very good. The lessons are well planned out so that each week, the children practice the song from the prior week and start learning a new song that week. The instructor interacts very well with the children making the lesson fun and not some type of punishment. She also encourages the children to make up their own practice schedule and stick to it. One drawback to these lessons occuring during the school day is that the children must miss one class to attend the lesson. The schedule is stacked so that each week, they miss a different class thus not leaving the child behind in the same class each time. The children are responsible for getting any work they missed during the class. If a test is scheduled on the day of a music lesson, the music lesson will be missed. Overall, I feel that the price for the lessons is a good value, especially given the fact that I don't have to take my child to a lesson.

After having gone through these clarinet lessons now for six months, I feel I can offer a few tips to others seeking this type of instruction. I most definitely feel that if your child is interested in any type of music lesson, encourage them to try it out. Exposure to music and its components is an experience that not only advances a child's mind intellectually by understanding the relationships between time and space, (i.e. pieces of a whole), but it also entices them to more fully appreciate the arts and the beauty and relaxation they can bring to a society that's moving at the speed of light. If your child has never played an instrument before, explore them before deciding on one. Listen to types of music played by the particular instrument they're intereseted in. Perhaps a local music store will allow them to physically hold the instrument so they get an idea about its weight and how they can handlet holding the instrument. I wish I would have known though about having to make up the work from the class they missed and better understand how that would be handled before making the decision to go forward with lessons. There have been times when my child has been overwhelmed at the end of the day trying to get the missed work together as well as getting books ready to go and the musical instrument packed up. But overall, I would recommend the experience to anyone interested in taking music lessons.