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I did a search but didn't find any answers to this question.

Would you recommend or encourage an adult student, who has time, to take lessons in person AND supplement with one of the online programs?

I don't want to dilute my lessons with my teacher by doing too much and yet.....I have the desire to learn more than the 30 minutes per week provides me.

Or am I just trying to run before I can walk? Am I wanting too much too soon? Do I just need to reign in my enthusiasm and focus entirely on my in person lessons? I have no performance goals....just simply playing because I love it.

I've been taking in person classes for a year now. Childhood experience was about a year of classes when I was 8-9. I'm 62 now and retired.

Thoughts? Ideas? Experience? From teachers or students?

What about extending your in-person lesson to 45 or 60 minutes if you feel thirty is too short?

If you find yourself fully learning the objectives of each week's lessons within a few days of your lesson, and, you like your teacher and your teacher's approach, perhaps you might benefit from twice weekly lessons with the same teacher?

That is also my suggestion. The potential problem with an in-person and a different online teacher is that there is the possibility of getting conflicting information, whether it be about solving a technical problem or whether it be about phrasing, pedaling, i.e., interpretation in general.

In such a scenario, whose advice would you follow? Would this not require, at some point, two different preparations? This would not seem to be a good use of time.

In the meantime, if you can't increase your lesson time, you can spend time after your daily practice reading about composers, performers, technique, and interpretation and you can listen to music of all types to broaden your musical background.

Regards,

Are you interested in learning a different style of playing or music or learning in a different way? If you are that would make sense to get an additional teacher for that. If it’s just a lack of quantity but you’re happy with current direction then I agree with others, longer or more frequent lessons makes sense.

I would definitely encourage you to explore as much as possible, in whatever fashion you wish. This is exactly what I did in my early days of learning piano and it did me no harm. After eight years of lessons, I can safely say that lessons have always been the anchor for my musical journey rather than the sole place of all learning. I believe there is a natural trepidation to think in the early days that everything must be taught, but in reality so much is learned through exploration. That sometimes means there will also be failure but that is ok, we can always pick ourselves up and move on. Perhaps the biggest issue is conflict of information, but dealing with that, and finding out what works for you is all part of it.

As a fellow retiree (also 62), we have a lot of time on our hands. Might as well be using that time doing things we enjoy.

Unless the specific online help is approved by your live teacher, I strongly agree with those who say not to do both. All teachers don't teach the same approach to technique and everything else. Getting two different approaches would almost for sure be disastrous.

I take lessons in person. There were some techniques I wanted to work on that my teacher doesn’t cover. So I took an additional in person lesson from someone else for a couple months.

Although I’m a diligent practicer, I was unable to fully properly practice the stuff from both lessons before the next lesson. I think I could have if the supplemental one had been monthly. But it takes time for the material to sink into the brain, and for me, two lessons a week covering two different styles of music didn’t work.

If your teacher doesn't do ear training with you, I recommend you do some of your own, with any of several YT videos (like the one I recommended in another thread). Aural skills are often neglected by teachers who aren't teaching to a recognized syllabus like the RCM, and IMO, they are immensely important to help the student understand why music is written the way it is, as well as the usual ones about understanding various scales and intervals and harmony. They are also a stepping stone towards developing the ability to play by ear, which is always a useful skill to have alongside reading music.

But I definitely won't recommend any online teaching of similar or related stuff to what your teacher is teaching you. You'll likely get contradictory advice, especially about technical and musical issues, and as a teacher myself, I really can't be doing with wasting time trying to explain to my student why the other teacher's teaching is all wrong.......

Hi Kris,

I took 30 minute guitar lessons for several months and they always felt too short. Just when I started feeling engaged the lesson was over. For piano I made sure to request one hour weekly lessons from my teacher and thus far its been a much better experience overall.

Like you, I have a lot of time on my hands these days and have decided to dedicate 2-4 hours per day to piano practice. I've only been playing for a few weeks with a couple of lessons under my belt, but I have already found it helpful to supplement with outside resources like the Alfred's book when I feel like I've exhausted the material my teacher gave me for the week, or when I just feel like doing something a little different. My teacher doesn't mind me asking about the Alfred's material if I run into questions, so that helps a lot. I also keep a "stretch piece" on hand so that I can practice a significantly more challenging piece that I *really* want to learn.

Since you're playing for your own personal enjoyment I would argue that if you feel like you want to do more you should do more. Though I would probably stop short of taking lessons from a 2nd teacher (even online) due to the conflicts that might end up frustrating you and your teachers.

I'm taking lessons with an adult group. We play music as a hobby and tend to repeat the same pieces for 3 or 4 weeks. I have no problem downloading music at the same level and learning them on my own.

You repeat the same assigned pieces many times you would get bored. Once in a while I'd get a piece off the Net to play.

I'd say go ahead and add additional online class or an extra book, etc. If you have the drive and desire to add more that's great. I see my teacher 2x a week and I still find my own books, programs, and other materials to work on. I always let my teacher know and get his input too and my main focus is everything he assigns. For most adult learners I think we can only focus so much time on 'homework' we also want to explore and find other things to work on. If budget and time allows I would also agree that bumping up lesson time would be great too and adding on that extra material.

What online program where you looking at?

I'd love to if $$$ wasn't an issue. I'm paying $48 for 30 minutes -which I'm ok doing - but I can only make my retirement dollars go so far. Honestly, I think 45 minutes would be ideal as I feel rushed in 30 minutes.

Too bad I don't have something to barter with.

Excellent points. Your last suggestion about supplementing my lesson is what I think I need to do. I'm currently reading The Perfect Wrong Note by William Westney based upon a recommendation in the forum.

Great idea on performers and composers. Do you have any recommendations? Or just select someone I like and run with it?

Also, I'm itching to learn scales, chords and do more sight reading and have let my teacher know this so she will incorporate more. She also is concerned with trying to fit too much into our 30 minute lesson.

Thank you for the encouragement! And you are right....lots of time on our hands - especially with the intermittent isolations happening.

I think I'm going to bring it up to my teacher next week....find out her thoughts on supplemental material. Not necessarily things that we would cover in the weekly lessons but a direction that she could point me in that wouldn't conflict with her methods. She's very relaxed about what I learn...after the first Thompson book, she leaves it up to her adult students to determine what direction they are interested in going.

And thanks everyone who replied! Many valuable perspectives to consider.

This is not at all the same as learning from two different teachers. Finding additional pieces to learn or sightread by oneself is not something anyone would find inappropriate.

Another thing you can learn online is the more theoretical aspect - music theory , harmony etc. It will help you in your in person lessons too. There are a few excellent basic music theory courses in Coursera. And a few sources for more advanced material.

There is a lot of free online material, but the more organized and especially the more moderated programs do charge a sometimes hefty fee. Do inquire about the cost of a 45 min lesson, if that length would work well for you. Cost-wise, it might not come out much more than a fee here and there from online sources that in the end don't work well for you. Good luck!

For the past 2-3 years, I've taken weekly one-on-one practical lessons in person, and each lesson lasts between 1h to 1.5h, depending on how much time my teacher has that day and how much correction I need.

I also take weekly one-on-one theory lessons via zoom, and each lesson lasts between 1h to 1.5h, and this also depends on how much correction my assignment needs, the number and nature of questions I have, how busy the week is, and so on.

This is definitely not healthy for my bank account, and they demand quite a bit of my time and energy, but this has been the best... 'arrangement' thus far, because the customised theory lessons supplement my learning of the pieces I play and enhances my appreciation of not just the pieces I play, but music in general. I used to enroll in online courses but instructions went above my head--I couldn't keep up, and I had too many questions that demanded personal attention. I still do purchase other music (theory) books and such to supplement my learning, but nothing beats customised lessons. They're expensive, but the gain, though arguably little, to me, has been worth the money, time and effort.