Finding the ideal music lesson studio for you
- lukehaefner
- Aug 8
- 8 min read
It can be tricky to find the right fit—this guide will make it easy.
Finding the best music teacher for you can be really tricky in this day and age. Before you step in the door, every music studio is trying to sell you the perfect experience, but very few can actually follow through. Let’s walk through some important information that can help you succeed from the get go.
Types of Music Studios and Teachers
First, we need a basic understanding of the types of music studios and music teachers that you may find near you. Understanding these can help you narrow down your options and find the right music teacher on the first try.
There are three main types of music studios being run today. Click to jump to their section:
Each has their advantages and disadvantages, and we’ll cover all of that here.
Brick and Mortar Studios
Any music studio that is operating out of a stationary, non-residential location falls into this category. They may have a stand-alone building, space in a strip mall, or even be working out of a church.
PROS
Instrument Rentals
Lesson Books & Other Materials
Diverse Teaching Staff & Instrument Offerings
CONS
Underpaid, Undermotivated Teachers
Dealing with a Middleman
Noise, Noise, Noise
Instrument Rentals, Books, and Materials
The primary advantage of a lesson studio of this type is resources. Because they have a large space to fill, they often have many instruments on hand for your lessons or available for rent, which can be beneficial for people new to lessons. You may also be able to buy or rent books and other materials directly from the studio.
Lots of Teachers and Offerings
Larger studios of this sort may also have a diverse teaching staff, which can make it easy for you to try lessons with different instructors or experiment with new instruments without having to find a new studio.
Underpaid Teachers
While there are notable benefits to a larger studio, their size is also their downfall. To account for the significant overhead of running these operations, management often has to cut corners. They’ll take a significant portion of lesson fees (sometimes up to 75% or more) to pay their rent, receptionists, and of course, themselves. Underpaid music teachers are, more often than not, undermotivated music teachers, which can have a serious impact on your lesson experience.
Dealing with a Middleman
Additionally, at a studio like this you and the teacher will need to go through the receptionist no matter the circumstance. If you or the teacher is running late, that information needs to get sent through the middleman to make it to the other side. If you need to reschedule, you and/or the teacher can be inconvenienced by decisions the receptionist makes purely based on availability.
Noise, Noise, Noise
While all of these factors are important to consider, there is one thing that we have seen many students overlook when opting for a lesson studio: the noise. No matter how hard management may try, it’s impossible to completely soundproof these spaces, especially if they weren’t built for music in the first place.
So while you’re doing your best to learn an instrument for the first time, you may also have to work to ignore the sound of three other people doing the exact same thing. Suffice to say, this can be super overstimulating and slow your learning progress. Therefore, it’s an important factor to keep in mind when deciding on what type of studio is best for you.
You Should Take music Lessons at a Larger Studio If…
You want to try lessons with several different teachers
You aren’t certain what instrument you want to learn
You value the convenience of renting instruments, books, & materials from your studio
Work-from-Home Teachers
There is a growing population of music teachers who are opting to work from home. This can take two forms: in-person and virtual. These teachers are likely to be freelancers, unburdened by the management of a larger studio and interested in avoiding too much travel.
CONS
Travel to Someone’s Home
Potential for Disorganization
Fewer Teachers & Offerings
Like larger studios, learning from someone in their home has its own advantages and disadvantages.
Teacher-Student Relationships
One of the biggest selling points for work-from-home teachers is the way they can build relationships with their students. Because they don’t have a studio owner looking over their shoulder every second, they are free to make choices that may not seem “productive” but will ultimately be helpful.
For instance, a work-from-home teacher may offer you a cup of tea or have a long chat with you to help you both get to know each other (both of which would be frowned upon in a studio). Additionally, because you don’t need to work through a middleman, you will interact with your teacher more often. All of these factors will allow you to build a closer relationship with your teacher.
Experienced/Interesting Instructors
Work-from-home teachers are often (though not always—this is far from a rule) more experienced musicians and more well-rounded people. Obviously this is a broad generalization that may not always be the case.
However, work-from-home teachers typically have other interests or sources of income that make them more interesting to learn from than other instructors. Additionally, a lot of work-from-home teachers are older and have a lifetime of performing behind them. As such, they may have more wisdom to share with you.
Quiet Environment
A huge benefit of learning in your teacher's home is that you are the only musician making music at any given point in time. Naturally, you run the risk of your teacher’s children or pets interrupting you. However, generally, the environment in these situations is much more conducive to learning than in a large studio.
Traveling to Someone’s Home
While learning in your music teacher’s home can have upsides, it can also be an unusual experience if you’ve never done something like it before. Firstly, the commute to your teachers house needs to be taken into account, as they may live far away (as opposed to strip mall studios that you might pass regularly).
Additionally, it’s worth considering that your first lesson will feel like you are in a stranger’s home. If that’s weird for you, it may take a moment to get comfortable, which can make learning somewhat more difficult for the first couple of lessons.
Also keep in mind that you may be meeting people you didn’t expect, such as your teacher’s spouse, children, roommate, or pets. A thoughtful teacher will make this clear in advance, if relevant.
Potential for Disorganization
It can be argued that this is a risk with any studio, but it should at least be mentioned here. Without a larger management structure overseeing the daily operations of the studio, things like billing and scheduling can quickly become cluttered.
This can especially be a problem for those work-from-home teachers who only have a few students and don’t want to invest much time or resources into streamlining their systems. This doesn’t need to be a dealbreaker, but it should certainly be a consideration when finding the best music lessons for you.
Fewer Teachers and Offerings
Without a larger studio affiliation, freelance teachers working from home may not have as many offerings as you might hope. Often, they will teach primarily one or two instruments and fill their studio with students who are certain they want to learn those instruments.
It’s also worth considering that if for whatever reason you don’t like your teacher, you’ll need to start your search all over again.
You Should Take Music Lessons with a Work-from-Home Teacher If…
You value a close relationship with your teacher
You want to work with a more experienced/interesting teacher
You like a quiet learning environment
The last type of music teacher we’ll look at today is the traveling teacher. No matter where you’re located, the traveling teacher will fulfill your “music lessons near me” query, as they come to you and teach music lessons in the comfort of your own home.
PROS
Travel Convenience
Strong Teacher-Student Relationship
Learning in Your Own Home
CONS
Fewer Resources
Fewer Teachers & Offerings
Travel Fees
Travel Convenience
Out of the gate, traveling teachers win the commute category. Instead of packing your instrument in the backseat and driving to your studio or your teacher’s house, all you need to do is relax at home and wait for the doorbell to ring. Traveling teachers come to you and bring with them whatever they need to teach you.
Strong Teacher-Student Relationships
With the one-on-one environment of your own home, you are able to develop a strong relationship with your teacher quickly, much like learning from a work-from-home teacher. Traveling teachers have a leg up on work-from-home teachers however, as you never need to worry about meeting their spouse or children, or if you’re allergic to their pets or not. (And no need to worry about them—they do this for a living, and are completely comfortable working in your home and meeting your family and pets.)
Learning in Your Own Home
Arguably the most notable pro for traveling teachers is that your learning environment is already incredibly familiar to you. Our best learning happens when we won’t need to process any new stimuli or assess our surroundings for threats. By starting your lesson already feeling comfortable and safe, you are able to start learning at a high level right away.
Fewer Resources
Because traveling teachers are limited to what they are able to fit in their car, the variety of resources they can provide may seem lacking compared to other studio options. More likely than not, you won’t be able to rent instruments from them or buy books directly from them (though they’ll likely have an instrument and/or book to loan you for a short period of time if need be).
Fewer Teachers and Offerings
Similar to work-from-home teachers, traveling teachers may be freelancers who teach only a few instruments. If you want to explore other teachers or instrument options, you may need to look elsewhere (though you should ask them about their offerings before you go somewhere else).
Travel Fees
Because they spend a lot of time driving to and from their students’ houses, some traveling teachers may feel the need to charge a travel fee to compensate for drive-time and gasoline. A good traveling teacher will make this clear ahead of time and inform you how those fees may affect you given your geographic location.
An even better teacher would be like us at Songhorse Music where we don’t have a travel fee at all! No matter where you are in the Greater Roanoke area, we will bring music lessons to your home at no additional cost!
You Should Take music Lessons with a Traveling Teacher If…
You value the convenience of not leaving your home
You value a close relationship with your teacher
You want to learn in a quiet, familiar, comfortable environment
A Note on Finances
When looking for music lessons in your area, you may find that it’s hard to piece together how much things cost. It may also seem strange when you find one place charging pennies and one charging gold bars. At the end of the day, it’s a question of what you value the most.
Affordability
Resources
The Teacher Themselves
Convenience
A helpful exercise would be to rank each of these priorities on a scale of one through ten. Once you’ve done that, you can analyze every studio you research with a critical eye to see how well that studio aligns with your priorities.
Here at Songhorse Music…
We make every effort to combine all of the pros of every studio type. We focus our efforts on piano, guitar, and composition, encouraging our students to mix and match those disciplines at will, giving them a strong musical foundation that can be generalized to other instruments later on if they so choose.
We work with every student to find them the best instrument for their needs and within their price range. Likewise, all of our lesson materials are available for purchase online. Links can be found on our FAQ page at any time. We’ll also send links directly to you if you’d like us to.
As an entirely traveling-teacher studio, we offer the pros of work-from-home teachers in the comfort of your own home. Simplify your commute, and have us come to you!
Even as a small studio, we are proud to have the smoothest-running system in the area for scheduling and billing. All of your scheduling is done directly with your teacher, and both scheduling and billing are integrated with our My Music Staff student portal which can be accessed at any time from our website.
