all the teachers our district employs for music are professional musicians with degrees in theory as well as intrumental playing and instruction...we also have some parent volunteers who are still professional musicians...
ColinsMum-here, the kids take either orchestra (strings) or band (woodwinds) starting in 4th grade. The teacher, Mr Mo, teaches both at our home study school. He is qualified to instruct in individual instruments. I'm guessing that yes, learning to play in a group with a piano to accompany is very different that learning to play solo, but this is pretty standard here, to learn in a group setting like that. Are you thinking she may not get much out of it? The advantage is that this is a free option (other than the violin rental) so I guess if she really gets it and wants to push on, we can quickly move to private lessons...I have no way to gauge the teacher's skill, not being a musician like that myself...
This "home study" program is more like homeschool with provided cirriculum and an optional 3 hour classroom day once a week. She blows through the required work at home, so she really has plenty of "extra" time to fill...even if we add 20 min each of violin, keyboarding and French, that's only one hour of the day, lol!
