Music lessons for children - cost

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I emailed our local authority’s children services music lesson provider for prices as they’ve got many ads at the moment about how beneficial and affordable they are. And this is what I got -
Prices / Durations:
30 minutes - £30
45 minutes - £40
60 minutes - £50
As this is not fully private provider, but one supported by the council, I was very surprised - to me these are unaffordable, especially as this will have to be a long term commitment.
Is music a more accessible extracurricular option where you live?

Music Services are notorious for charging high fees. They will be taking a substantial cut. It is far better to deal directly with a private teacher and you are likely to get better and more flexible teaching.

That’s a lot! Our music service is through the school and it’s £2 for 10 minutes one to one. Heavily subsidised I know!

Dandydairy Is that a typo? £2 for 10 minutes?

Our music service in London charges £20 per 30 minutes standard rate or £10 discounted for those on benefits.

£40 per hour is a lower end market rate so not much difference.

Nope £2 for ten minutes, it includes the instrument that they bring home and is theirs for the duration of the time they continue with lessons. The teacher is excellent too.

A family member teaches privately at £21 for half an hour. He doesn't do longer lessons for children.

My kids have music lessons through school , it's about 8 pounds per lesson but there are 2-3 kids in a class. Maybe 30 pounds is reasonable if it is an 1-2-1 lesson at home.

We pay £30 for £30 mins.

I think its not bad for 1 to 1 with an educated professional who is self employed.

But I also think its not afforable for huge numbers of people.

There isnt a schools programme. My sons school doesnt even teach music let alone an instrument.

I pay £13 for 20 mins privately.

We pay over £20 for 20 mins, so this looks about right to me! Ours is also one supported by the council. I do think it's pricey but I have honestly seen worse.

It is notoriously expensive to send them to music lessons. We have ruled out horseriding as the prices were wild where we live, but are ok paying for the music lessons.

We pay £20 for 30 mins with one teacher, and £35 for an hour with another, and we're in an expensive part of the country, so it sounds like we've got a good deal. One of those teachers is single, making a living entirely as a musician (he also arranges music, leads groups, performs etc.) At one stage DD had (individual, 30 minute) lessons in school, and they were a similar price.

Private music school costs for DNephew are much the same.

£25 for 30 mins 1:1 private lesson delivered at school (so teacher can do back to back lessons with no travel)

we also have music service on weekends which is £50 per term for 2 hours of group practice, which I think is tremendous value for money. It wouldn’t be a substitute for private lessons, though.

My ds’s piano lessons are £35 per 45 minutes.

I pay one to one privately - 40 pounds for 30 mins
Its expensive especially when you have more than one child.

That looks similar to our school. But music lessons gave always been expensive.

The going rate for private lessons round here seems to be about £20 per half hour.

I pay £32 for an hour, 30 minutes for one child on the flute and 30 for another on the piano. Am going to appreciate that more after this thread making it seem a bargain!

It's about £200 a term here in SE London.

It's been a looong time since local authorities had the interest or cash to subsidise music. You may be able to access a bursary through a local music Trust if you have one. They also offer instrumental rental often.

Music teachers are professionals though so I don't know why people expect they wouldn't charge similarly to private tutors, driving instructors and other one to one situations.

Really?! Many are charities.

There is probably some cross subsidy from middle class full payers to the subsidised means tested lessons though.

Personally I'm very happy for my payments to subsidise others' lessons a little because I received generously subsidised music lessons in the 80s that had a hugely beneficial effect on my life.

The thing about music lessons from school is although they are usually cheaper the teacher usually spends a while rounding the children up, cancels for no apparent reason and its very hard to monitor progress. Private lessons can be not much different in price if you hunt around but the dedicated teaching time is much greater.

That’s expensive - we pay £19 for 30 mins for peripatetic teachers at the children’s (state) school

Wow yes that’s extortionate. We charge £42 per hour (private not music service).

We're in Scotland. Dc1 has 40 minutes of violin per week at school (plus violin "hire") for free. It's free across the board, not means tested.
There are only 2 children in his class and we get regular reports on his progress.

We pay £10 for half an hour…but there’s up to 6 kids in the lesson!

those prices look about right to be for 1:1.

Music lessons are up there with swimming in terms of expense.