Could someone give me advice on what I should look for in a music teacher for our son?

He has expressed a strong desire to learn fiddle and piano, in that order.

His public school music teacher (taught DS to read music and the recorder) has offered her services for piano, but I'm not sure how to determine if she's the right fit. DS seems to like her well enough, but I don't quite feel a "click" with her. Does that matter? She has said I really should get a piano, but really, would we need one or would a good keyboard do?

As for fiddle, we are trying to source a violin teacher and so far can find one about 45 minutes from us. Not ideal, so should we concentrate on the keyboard, DS' second choice?

A prior school DS attended hosted a fiddle player who also offered to teach DS. He's over an hour's drive away, so violin would substitute for now. (Sorry if I offend our musically talented with my clumsy questions. I really don't mean to.)

Hi Ametrine! I'm so happy you're asking these questions! How old is your son?

I would suggest doing a summer or semester of piano lessons with the piano teacher to see if piano clicks for your son. People take to one instrument better than another. Piano is one of the most difficult instruments to be emotionally expressive with, so some people don't care for it. However, it's relatively easy to learn at a beginner level.

Violin (or fiddle) are the same instrument, with variations of techniques and other nuances. At the beginning level the instruction would be the same. Violin requires more hands-on teaching at the beginning. It's not a do-it-yourself instrument. This is a situation where you could find a local teacher for violin for a couple years before going to a teacher for the fiddle technique.

I'm from a musical family - my parents were both piano teachers, my dad is a piano technician and they have a piano store too! I started learning violin about 2 years old but piano is my instrument. My parents did not want me to become a musician (for financial fears) so I had limited lessons. I played without instruction. I have repetitive stress injuries to my hands, wrists, thumb, shoulders, and jaw from self-teaching bad physical habits while playing musical instruments.

For this reason, I very strongly caution against staying with a lesser-trained music teacher for more than a semester or year. I think assessing the financial risk is wise before committing to spending thousands of dollars on musical instruments and lessons, but whenever possible, get the most highly trained teacher possible.

If your son plays past the first book, he will NEED a real piano to practice on. Not just any piano. Don't buy a used piano from an individual - you'll get ripped off! Used pianos lose their value faster than used cars! Don't forget they need tuning once or twice a year (depending on climate)! They're expensive (but a cheap one is not wise!). I'd suggest trying to find a piano for him to practice on that you don't have to buy. Universities have practice rooms with pianos. Churches often have pianos. His school might have a practice room with a piano. Community Center? Nursing Home?

I can't really help too much, but I can tell you that I started piano lessons with a very good keyboard, but (and my teacher said this would happen) I was only able to go so far before not being able to practice on an actual piano held me back and I had to quit. I was not developing proper strength in my fingers and my technique was just not able to keep up with the music I was learning. In the end it would probably have been better if I had not even bothered as I don't play at all anymore. Only positive was that I was able to play xylophone/glockenspiel in HS band without having to "learn a new instrument".

In my case we did not have space for a piano in the home, but modern pianos can be so small they barely take up more space than a full sized keyboard and prices are lower than they used to be, especially on used pianos. It's the key action that is most important and I have yet to see a keyboard that duplicates that well. Good luck with your decision!

I would agree that minimizing investment before you know how interested a child is in an instrument is wise, but that acquiring really solid foundational technique will require a decent-quality instrument. Used uprights purchased from estate sales certainly can be sketchy, but you can get some very good deals on respectable instruments from piano technicians who rebuild old instruments.

I would also agree that having a technically skilled instructor is very important. You want someone who understands both musical technique and the body mechanics involved in playing the instrument, to avoid injury down the road. Any technique that creates pain, tension, or discomfort anywhere in your body (not just in your hands) is questionable. (Other than the kind of surface pain in the pads of the fingers that beginners sometimes experience from unaccustomed contact with the strings or striking the keys too many times while one is still developing calluses.) This includes shoulder, back, hip, and neck pain.

If you listen to and watch the students of a good teacher, you should be able to hear and see patterns that demonstrate the teacher's instruction--internal rhythm, voicing, phrasing, clear dynamics, hand positions (a shared characteristic "look" to the students' hands and body positioning while they are playing), a sense that more advanced students are actually more musically and technically skilled, and not just playing more notes.

It probably won't hurt to start off with the known quantity for a piano teacher, but while you are trying out whether your child really enjoys the piano, you might try attending some student recitals (May and June are good times for this) of area teachers, and getting a feel for the kind of students they are turning out, not only from a musical and technical perspective, but in terms of their positivity, warmth, relationship with students, ability to inspire joy in music in children, etc. The amount of time and effort to be expended depending, of course, on the desire of your child to learn the instrument.

He just turned ten.

I didn't realize the physical damage that could come of being poorly trained. For that reason alone, it is worth paying for a well-qualified teacher.

I found this organization online and will look into it.
OMTA

DS has consistently asked to learn violin, but I know he wants to play it as a fiddle, so who knows if he'd stick with it.

Thanks for the advice on the pianos. The school's music teacher has mentioned the piano there is junk. I'll need to find a good one for lessons. Perhaps someone at OMTA would know where to look.

Any more advice, anyone? DS seems to be able to listen to a song and with quick practice, play it by ear.

We started off my two boys on a keyboard with weighted keys, before we committed to a real piano. I always knew no matter how good the keyboard is, it is still not a piano. However, we didn't want to invest in a piano until we knew the boys would continue the piano lessons.

I would recommend to get a used keyboard with weighted keys first. If your DS is really into the instrument, you'll need to get a piano within 6 to 12 months. That's what our piano teacher recommended and that's what we did (we got a piano just over a year after they started the private lessons with the teacher).

We now have both the keyboard and the piano. My boys often go to the keyboard to play something fun because it has many different options and features. So it was not a total waste of money :-).

HTH

aeh's post is really great. I'd say though that a keyboard with weighted keys is totally appropriate for a beginner. I'm a mid-level pianist (good enough I can teach beginners, not good enough to go pro) and I find the keyboards with weighted keys comparable to decent uprights and better than junk pianos (not least because they don't have to be TUNED, which most families I know with real pianos don't do often enough).

It's hard to vet teachers! I went with a teacher for my daughter (since she doesn't really listen to me) who fills some of our needs -- she is really good at getting DD to enjoy playing, and connects with her on a warm level, which at the time DD needed more than anything else. But she teaches almost no technique to her, which I didn't realize until we were a couple of months in (I wish I'd been able to see a recital, but we joined this teacher right after she'd had her recital). We stayed with her another semester because of her warmth, but I'm going to try to find another teacher in the summer.


Ugh, totally this. The teacher we're with turns out students who... can play more notes, at the end of the day, which I realized when we finally saw a recital.

I don't know how I would feel about engaging the public school teacher for private lessons - but then again, she does know your child already, and hiring teachers as private tutors is common, right? It might be fine.

Buying a piano is a big commitment. We just bought a high-quality digital piano on the recommendation of my daughter's piano teacher but my child is very young and we are committed to at least a few years of lessons. If your son is more about "trying it out" then it's harder to make that financial commitment.

Do you live in a very rural area? I'd be surprised that anywhere decently populated would not have a violin teacher available to you. That said, I also found it hard to find a teacher even though we live in a reasonably sized town. It seems that many private music teachers have not found the need for professional websites. Word of mouth seems to be the way many teachers find students, at least where I live. It makes finding a teacher pretty tricky. If your son is more interested in the violin, I'd really try for that as he'll be more invested in learning.

A fiddle and a violin are the same instrument but played in different styles. A piano background is very helpful for a violin player at the advanced levels because piano is a requirement for advanced music theory understanding (and test taking).
Here is our cautionary tale:
We stayed with a "wonderful" teacher that the owner of a music school referred us to (her employee). After 1.5 years with her, my son had progressed a lot, but was hitting a wall and could no longer progress. He was staying at the same level for months and struggling despite longer lessons and more practicing. I found a piano teacher referral from MTNA (music teachers association of north america) and asked her to evaluate my son. She pretty much said that many of his basic techniques were sloppy and he was playing well because he was compensating for his lack of technique with his intellect. She predicted that such kids end up dropping out of piano after a few years of lessons.
I was concerned about repetitive injuries from not being taught basic techniques correctly as well as taken aback that reputed music schools in my area did not have minimum standards for teaching or student evaluation. So, from then onwards, for all my son's music classes, I choose a teacher certified with a National Teacher's Association who also offers exams where my son can be evaluated by outside judges for his technical merit and his skills. I read all the comments from the judges and discuss them with the teacher. I make sure to ask if prospective teachers have a Master's degree in the instrument that they teach and if they have training in pedagogy for that instrument study (turns out that the person who originally taught my son did not have both of those qualifications). These have become very essential to me because I don't want to waste lesson time to find out later that some things have to be relearned.
Follow the teacher who are teaching the top instrument players in your area, request to attend their recitals, ask for a trial lesson before you take the plunge with any teacher.
A keyboard may not work well when your son gets to intermediate level piano and the teacher might even insist on an acoustic piano (they do, in my area). They will refer you to rentals if you want to wait to buy. Good luck.

While I'm not a musician myself, we do have one son who played Bassoon in symphony, upright bass and bass guitar in jazz, and percussion in the marching band. What that equated to was an uncountable amount of music lessons. Though that what I learned was the following as a parent:

1. Just like athletics, any musician needs to start developing their musical "core" That means learning to read music well, music theory, and recognizing tone. I know that our local HS requires those in percussion to take at least 2 years of piano before being allowed into the percussion group for that very reason. I'd suggest starting on the piano rather than the violin if that's possible.

2. What I personally think of a teacher other than as it relates to safety isn't nearly as important as how my child "clicks" with the teacher. How I learn isn't necessarily how my child learns, what inspires me isn't necessarily what inspires my child. Try to match your child's learning style with the teacher. Does your child respond better to a nurturer or someone that is more strict? Someone who is goal driven and takes a direct path or someone with more flexibility in their approach?

Youngest son had a old school piano teacher, a very young flexible in his approach jazz musician as a percussion instructor, and an old hippy HS symphony instructor teaching him upright bass and bass guitar. He got along with all of them wonderfully and appreciate the diversity among them. Find the right fit is the most important thing.

3. Your child WILL eventually resist practice, help them to work though it. They'll learn a great deal about how consistent practice over time equates to excellence. If nothing else learned though learning an instrument, that was the key take away for my son and a very valuable one at that.

4. The music community is much more welcoming of ages differences than the athletic community generally speaking and they nurture each other a great deal. Playing an instrument at school opens a lot of friendship doors.

Enjoy!