Christmas help! Music lessons in Bath?

[Bathlady11]

Hello!

I'm new here (to Bath and Mumsnet), and have a big Christmas present idea so need advice. I have one boy whos eight, one girl whos fifteen years old and I've decided to get them music lessons for Christmas. I've been scheming about productive hobbies for awhile so getting a good tutor and putting their instruments under the tree may give them a good start. As its a suprise so I'm going to have to find something appealing to their ages (any help on this?! not so keen on violins though!).

I've been looking around the web but word of mouth is always best! Any help with the following would be very much appreciated:

I'm looking for good pricing (i'm a bit sceptical as to how much to pay) how much do you pay/ would pay?
What instruments are popular with your children?
Do tutors go to you/ live near by or should I expect to drive them far? (some are on Skype faints, too modern for me).
How did you choose a tutor? (I've found some more expensive due to experience or range of instruments..)

Anything would be helpful; the dreaded rush for Chrismas is looming.

Thank all!

Piano/Keyboard is often the most picked instrument to learn and gives a good understanding of music, there are usually lots of tutors about. As regards to types of lessons, some come to you, some ask you to come to them, some ask to meet at a convenient location [church, school or youth club]. As for tutors in the Bath area I'm a bit out of touch but try asking at the local school as sometimes they have tutors that come in that are known to them. Also BA Music students at Bath Spa University often do private tutoring and can be reasonably priced. My piano lessons were after school using the school piano.

Guitar is possibly popular for the 15 year old, but would say that at 15 they are as changeable as the wind and may prefer to do Piano to start with the promise of moving onto something else if the need should take her.