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When I was young, I learned a few years of piano at a conservatory's children's prep program. We always had small group classes. We had several subjects and for our instrument, each student had different pieces chosen from the yearly syllabus to match their skill level. We were taught on them every week (One student plays, the teacher teaches, the rest listen. Next is another's turn, and so on). At the end of the year, we had exams and a public performance. The nice thing about it is that it was more fun in a group, and also, I ended up learning a much wider range of repertoire & skills/expression/theory by osmosis than I would have otherwise.

Now, getting back to piano after almost 30 years and now in the United States of A, I'm finding that for adults, mostly one-on-one lessons are offered and I find the thought a little intimidating.

There are extension/adult education programs from local schools of music that do offer group classes, too. But, these group classes are priced similarly to one-one-one lessons though, and I wonder if I need more instruction time than what I can get there as an adult (maybe there is a reason why adult lessons are mostly one on one? Maybe adults learn slower than kids and need that...)

So, finances aside, has anyone experienced both types of instruction, and how did you find it? And/or, what are your thoughts on individual vs. group instruction for adult learners? I would say I'm about early intermediate.

If your aim is to play Schubert, one-to-one lessons are the only way to go.

If you just want to play Rock, group lessons are fine.

BTW, kids learning piano (or violin, or clarinet, or horn) properly have one-to-one lessons.

I have only taken individual lessons, and I would not be interested in a group lessons. I do not feel that l learn slowly, but I need the full lesson time: 1. To answer all my questions from the week’s practice including fingering, phrasing, interpretation, etc. 2. Yo fully understand snd to discuss/demonstrate the suggestions from my teacher. 3. To work on more than one piece.

I strongly recommend a one hr lesson for adults. If you view the lesson as a chance to learn from an educated professional, the lesson does not feel intimidating—- but rather like a mini-conservatory lesson. If you view the lesson as ‘let me show my teacher How much better I am this week’ you will set yourself up to feel intimidated…. And will lose the advantage of the one-on-one lesson.

As adults, we are generally more comfortable with asking questions than children. Take advantage of being an adult.

Just my .05 sorry for the tangent.

In a private lesson, one certainly gets far more personal attention and help geared towards one's specific problems and questions. You will learn much more in a private lesson.

Thank you for replying...and ha! You caught both parts of my name. My aim is to play both.

But: I am sorry but I strongly disagree that only individual instruction works for "serious" learning. Perhaps I explained poorly. I called it "group" instruction, but it is more like individual instruction in front of a small group of others, who are the other students. Maybe you've seen masterclasses on yt. Of course, we played pieces of our grade level, but the format was the same. My prep program was at the national conservatory, the epitome of seriousness. Some of my former classmates, formed there, have become nationally known musicians, composers and performers (one of them, ironically, I remember as an 8-year old who could not do solfege to save his life. Really teaches you that musical talent manifests in different ways...persist!).

Anyway. Myself, I started with private individual lessons at 5 years old. Then, a few years later, I entered the children's prep program. My prep program was supplemented with private one-on-one lessons with another teacher too, at some point.

But, I always felt I got more out of the conservatory prep program, *as a kid*. What really helped there is by having individual instruction in front of others, you are naturally doing public performance all the time. You also get exposed to a wider range of repertoire, and learn from others' learning (again, referring to masterclasses to yt you'll see what I mean), it is a much richer experience. And the structured syllabus gave us direction, on what we could aim for for a given year and it was a special point of pride if you got assigned something from syllabi above your level. (Also, we had several other required subjects--like theory, ensemble, etc...later on, came courses like harmony I & II, counterpoint, composition, choral and orchestral direction, etc.)


I think being with other musicians is an education in itself, too (not just teachers, but peers)...all the monkeying around the piano together teaches you a lot, too.


But, I don't know now as an adult as it's my first time as an adult learner (ha). Even at my old conservatory, after a certain grade level you move on to one-on-one instruction with the professor, I don't know if as a supplement or as the main. It just feels a little lonely and like I might miss the group, that's all.

That's a great point, though. I'm not a kid anymore, and, teachers don't need to be these authority figures but rather these professionals I'm interested in hearing. Thank you.

Yes, private lessons are very lonely. A couple of suggestions: look for a local piano group- maybe through MeetUp

Consider Adult Piano Camps. Pre-Covid, I went yearly

That seems to be the consensus, and I think I'll try it out. I'm also in NYC, and here I go on my piano teacher seeking journey.

I am an adult returner as well...nearly 4 years into private lessons. When I read your post, my first thought was that I would never consider group lessons, but what you said here sounds really good:


The only group "lessons" I'm aware of in my area are tailored to beginners. As an adult, one thing to remember is that you may not find many other adults at a similar level...although maybe that's not a problem in NYC! I've worked with several teachers and always been one of just a few adult students, and I was typically the most advanced of that group (at mid intermediate).

I'd recommend you give private lessons a try, but also keep an eye out for piano groups as dogperson mentions. My area has a fairly large Meetup group for performing as well as a few smaller groups that I heard about from my piano tech. Sometimes you just have to ask the right people to hear about these opportunities.

You might check At Julliard or Mannes to see if either teach non-conservatory students,

Yeah, they do! Juilliard has an active extension program, and NYU Steinhardt does, too, or at least they did last year (I've emailed them). Mannes I think they stopped. Those were the "group" programs I was considering vs. individual lessons. They are pretty pricey so for the about equal cost I was considering whether individual lessons or these classes would make sense. Lots to explore! Exciting

Yeah, it's all very interesting, isn't it? I think I will have to try, as you say, to really know. Surely I have evolved as a person, and my learning style might be different, too. I would like a chance to play often in front of others, but maybe I can find it in other ways, as several of you have suggested.

Besides the music school extension programs I mentioned above, I've found individual lessons given through private music academies (is how I would describe it, I guess? regular private places of music instruction, not degree-granting institutions, but that are larger in size and teach several instruments. Like the 92Y comes to mind), and that might be another way to have a "community" setting, if they are big enough in size.

Those individual lessons for a few years made all the difference for a beginner. You were no beginner by the time you went into your 'group' lessons, and I doubt there were any beginners or near-beginners in your classes.

I don't know which country you had those lessons in (?Hungary) but the group music lessons I'm familiar with are nothing like masterclasses for young virtuosi (BTW, they're already all virtuosi): they cater to the lowest level of the students, and those more advanced are left twiddling their thumbs while the teacher gives basic explanation to others. So while it's less lonely, you would be bored by all the basic teaching at your level.

Adult summer camps (which are held here during the summer holidays in the music schools) are popular for those adult amateurs who enjoy the camaraderie with like-minded people and relish the chance to perform in a masterclass-like setting (though far more inclusive and less intimidating), but they are only for a week or two.......

Yep--different countries have different pedagogical cultures, and hearing all of your opinions it seems to me that the best thing is to try individual lessons first, and also try to find other ways to engage with others. Then, we'll see how it goes.

The country is Argentina, land of Daniel Barenboim and Martha Argerich Though neither of them are conservatory alumni--they were too brilliant for us, and moved away early.

At children's prep were *very* far from being virtuosi...but I take your point--we were not complete beginners and we were at a similar level.

As you can probably tell, I had such a great time there and even though I left after 3 years because of my family moved countries, I really appreciate the education it gave me. Sadly, the conservatory has since been broken up--making a "superior institute" for lower to intermediate levels and reserving the conservatory for the advanced levels. It was such a luxury to be little kids banging out our Fur Elise speed contests (...) on full concert length Steinways and Bosendorfers that were in our classrooms and halls--as well as being exposed to really accomplished musicians all the time--hearing singers, violinists, contrabass players, you name it. Now I'm being hit with all this nostalgia, lol.

I'm taking adult group lessons at a conservatory. The place my lessons are held do have 4 levels of group lessons Keyboard Club 1-4 for those who play for fun and decided not to take RCM level exams every few years. The teacher does both individual & group lessons so switching at anytime is not a problem. And we have the option to take RCM exams later.

2 years ago the teacher was meeting students regularly until the pandemic lockdown. The conservatory got the teacher on Zoom 100% for a while and now she is doing both. People like myself prefer in person sessions would go to the conservatory once a week while others would be on Zoom.

The group lessons I'm having is different from the ones described above. We don't get to listen to each other's playing. We use a Yamaha Clavinova keyboard. We'd follow the teacher when she is doing her demo with headphones so the sound we hear is our own and the teacher. The good thing is the social environment that we have more people to talk to. The repertoire is not too difficult and the teacher is not pushing us to play overly advanced pieces until we're ready. And she is definitely open to repertoire from various books & online downloads.

I took violin in high school. Back then we were in string class so the teacher would be teaching violin, viola, cello & bass at the same time. Having 4 instruments some of the time we'd be playing scales and other exercises together. When playing repertoire pieces, the violins would be split into violin 1 (always playing the melody) & violin 2 playing a lower part at sync with the melody. The other 3 (viola, cello & bass) would do mostly accompaniment parts unless in an exam when each person playing his/her instrument would be tested individually playing challenging solo pieces. There were 2 performances per year for the parents (winter & spring term). We had separate orchestra & ensemble groups students could join for extracurricular activity.

Group classes with violins or strings would be different from piano classes. Piano is mainly a solo instrument. It's common to see violin students play the same pieces as a group at sync but piano students rarely play the same repertoire together. In a performance you may see several pianos playing the same piece together but not common. I assume piano students playing in the same concert wouldn't be playing the same pieces 1 after the other. Otherwise the repertoire would be nothing but repetition for the audience.

Unlike years ago, sheet music is much more accessible. I can download PDFs in the comfort of the living room instead of going to a music store or the local library to find sheet music. At my level (intermediate to lower advanced) I'm comfortable downloading pieces and learning on my own than being limited to the teacher's assigned pieces including Classical, Jazz & Blues.

Unless you were getting the same amount of time/week in the group lessons that you would have in private lessons. I don't see how group lessons could be as helpful. This doesn't mean attending master classes isn't at all helpful, but how could it be as helpful as presumably more time devoted only to you, your pieces, and help with the musical and technical problems in those pieces?

There is a group piano course in London called citylit where people learn in a group. So yes it's possible and yes it caters for all levels. It's entirety possible to learn like this. It is cheaper amd probably best for a more advanced player than a beginner. The problem I was told is it's like 3 hours and you play for only a short time. So people often do not stay.

There is another thing where people come and a teacher comes and critics different people who play a piece and gives advice. I did sign up my mistake to one course like this online. I thought it was THE most boring thing to do in the world.

I actually think playing for a piano teacher is much less intimidating than playing for a group. Especially if you are getting critic in public. It's up to you however but I doubt most people bwill find this less intimidating.

Also, if you are Hungarian and like Schubert check out this. I learnt it and it's awesome.

The benefit of being in a group is that we can hear what each other is doing and hopefully avoid the same mistakes. Violin group lessons are definitely helpful. In a piano group, teacher won't be devoting the same attention to each student but part of the learning is to listen to other people doing the same pieces when you're not playing.

Whether we're in 1-on-1 or group sessions, we only get 1 hour with a teacher each week. A lot of issues need to be fixed at home. Practicing at home for an hour a day everyday would add up to around 85% of the learning while the 1h meeting with the teacher is only 15%. We're hoping to get the most out of that hour meeting with the teacher but we actually spend more time on our own unless the teacher is available 24/7.

But I think time in lessons is very important and it guides your practice out of lessons. I used to have 30 min lessons for almost 10 years as a child. I heard some say this isn't long enough but it is fine. If you play grade 5-6 pieces where they are like 5 minutes max it's ok. It just means progress is slower. I am now having hour lessons, but perhaps not as frequently, but I'm more advanced so need this length. Sometimes the pieces can take almost 10 minutes to play.