Piano lessons/learning piano

[maisykins]

Have been thinking about piano lessons for DD who seems interested and isnt interested in sports so I thought maybe music would be an option for her - have no idea how to select an instrument but we have an opportunity to acquire an old piano. I am just strating to look into it but...

have just read a thread which suggests that people pay £20 for a half hour lesson for their child? Can this be true? Does anyone else mind telling me what they pay for private lessons and what part of the country you are in?
Also I think group lessons might be available at our school (group of 3 children £6 each week for each child) - do you think that would be okay for a beginner (age 6) or is piano something which needs one to one attention.
Lastly (sorry so many questions), how much practice is involved each week to begin with?

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In the South-West, the going rate for any musical tuition seems to be £10-12 for half-hour of individual tuition.

Our school does group lessons for brass and woodwind and they are OK. Not as good as individual but a good, inexpensive starting point. Mind you, £6 a week sounds a lot for shared lessons, we pay £40 a term.

Some friends of ours go to shared keyboard lessons, I think they're called Soundsteps or similar, it's a franchise operating in different parts of the country. My friends rave about them but I've heard others in different areas don't like them, I think it might depend partly on who runs each particular franchise.

As to practice, it depends on the age and stage of the child, but for a 6-year-old I would try to get them to do 10 minutes a day, say 5 days a week. If they want to do more, fine, but that would probably do for starters. As they get older and progress, you can increase the daily amount.

dd's violin lessons £45 per hour
dd's piano lessons £32 per hour

A lot of music teachers round here approx £30

Group lessons is one way of keeping the price down, but I don't they progress as quickly that way.

Practice needs to be little and often - even 10 mins helps.

£10 for a half hour individual lesson. I'm in Glasgow. That's quite standard for here.

Stirlingshire/W of Scotland - £12/half hour.

I'm paying £7 for a 20 min lesson for my 6 year old. In the north east.

£20 is steep for half an hour

I pay £17 and tha t is at a speicalist school.

I belive practicing in a group of 3 is not helpful. One to one is the bestr way to go.

I would suggest for a bingiiner you practice 5/10 mins per day - and I used to bribe mine.

10p for one practive and if they do more than 5 they get a pound

Thank you for the replies - we are near London so I guess I should expect at least £10 to £15 for half hour but not as much as £20. I will have to talk to DH about the expense.

How much does a piano cost, out of interest? Can you get them cheap second-hand?

we're in north london and we pay £15 for half hour with teacher who comes to our house. dd1 practises for about 5 minutes most days and started on the john thompson easiest piano books.

we bought a reconditioned English piano (all strings etc taken out and rebuilt by local family firm) for about £1,000

(dd1 is 7)

jura

but you can pick up freebies eg on freecycle. another cost - about £65 to get it tuned.

I paid £350 for a piano 4 years ago.
The piano tuner told me it was worth £1,000 about a week after I paid for it!!! It was from a house sale and I later found out she was a professional paino player so that explains it.
I think I was lucky.
I have actually paid almost as much for the double piano stool for my DD and I to sit side by side, so try to get piano and stool as a single item!
The "dozen a day" books are good as they give you a sound idea of the time for practise appropriate to the age/skill level

Prices vary hugely. Round here (East Anglia) prices starts at £4 per half hour lesson (this is what ds's old teacher charged - after her price increase) which is ridiculously cheap. More typical would be £8-12 per half hour, but our school charges £18 per half hour.

Practise you don't NEED much to start with - but it's good if you can establish a regular daily habit. If you do more you will progress faster though.