What are the current rates in your area for music lessons?

￥５０００ for a 45 minute lesson. About 50 bucks I guess. Guitar lessons don't come cheap in this country. And I'm in the countryside.
 
$25 per half hour lesson
private instructors here usually get $40 - $50 an hour. sometimes more depending on who they are.
 
Most of our teachers at the academy are around $20 per half-hour (well, guitar teachers.) Aaron is at $23 and mine is $21.50, when you break down the even billing. I know some other store teachers (Buddy Rodgers, Willis, Angels) where it's around $15 per half-hour, plus you have the CL folks offering hour lessons for $15-20.
 
I was paying $18 per half-hour.
I stopped over the summer months and haven't started up again.
I will go back and hopefully to the same teacher. I just think I need to build a foundation first to be able to get more out of the lessons.

I think I've figured what went wrong. I went in being able to play a lot and promptly showed off my stuff, but the problem is that I had no notion of what it was I was playing. The teacher assumed a lot and even after I talked with him about it, it was still difficult for him to not think I knew what I was doing. That and the time that I was able to dedicate to working on the lessons made me think that I needed to find some other way to learn the basics.

Wait.... You didn't ask about that.

$18 per half hour.
 
Where I am now, I'm not even sure there are lessons available. When I was in Dekalb, There were many offerings between $80 and $100 an hour from the college profs and grad students and I think the little guitar store in town offered lessons for $50 an hour.

I'm in north central IL.
 
I just checked out where I took lessons for awhile....$25.00 per half/$38.00 for 45 in/$50.00 per hour. And that is in Denver proper. If you are a member of the folk music society they give you a $2.00 discount.
 
Denverdave said:
I just checked out where I took lessons for awhile....$25.00 per half/$38.00 for 45 in/$50.00 per hour. And that is in Denver proper. If you are a member of the folk music society they give you a $2.00 discount.
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I'll just pay the $2.
 
lol. We just did a little research this week and I'll post what the rates are around here in a few days (with names redacted).
 
Everyone around here charges from $10 a lesson to $100 a lesson. It really depends on what you can. You get what you pay for (charge what you should). Also, keep in mind that professionalism (on time, prepared, having policies, etc), being personable (not a weirdo, this one in particular can put you above the rest), and knowledge (experience as a teacher and a player, ability to answer questions about theory, technique, etc) are all factors on top of your skill as a player.
 
Oh yeah, I found that, in my area, you don't have to "give a free lesson to start" or something. It give the impression that you or the teacher unconfident (no offense to people that do, just how it works here maybe?). Also, it takes more than one lesson to know if it is going to work between a student or not. I have mine pay a month at a time, including the first day: "Four weeks please!" By the fourth week, they understand what I am talking about a little more and usually don't stop taking lessons after.
 
Last time I took any, it was $60/hr for privates with my good guy, and maybe a bit less at the local kid's lesson shop. I think we pay $80/month for my younger two's piano classes. That is in a kid's class environment and includes one 1/2 hour session/week. I have to double check and see, but I think that check covers both their classes.


Oh, and that is in Hailey, Idaho, which is 12 miles outside of Sun Valley, Idaho. I think the rates would be similar up in SV/Ketchum, as it is all the same players. Classes up in K-town are through the YMCA, but are run by the same people that have a little studio down in Hailey.
 
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Baer.Music said:
Everyone around here charges from $10 a lesson to $100 a lesson. It really depends on what you can. You get what you pay for (charge what you should). Also, keep in mind that professionalism (on time, prepared, having policies, etc), being personable (not a weirdo, this one in particular can put you above the rest), and knowledge (experience as a teacher and a player, ability to answer questions about theory, technique, etc) are all factors on top of your skill as a player.
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Baer.Music said:
Oh yeah, I found that, in my area, you don't have to "give a free lesson to start" or something. It give the impression that you or the teacher unconfident (no offense to people that do, just how it works here maybe?). Also, it takes more than one lesson to know if it is going to work between a student or not. I have mine pay a month at a time, including the first day: "Four weeks please!" By the fourth week, they understand what I am talking about a little more and usually don't stop taking lessons after.
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we do a free first lesson if someone seems on the fence while I'm talking to them on the phone because I'm confident in our ability to close the deal. Just getting someone to come into the studio is half the battle. We have a massive amount of folks who are not qualified to teach music in the area who advertise "I'll come to your house for $20 an hour" that end up taking a lot of potential new customers off the playing field who don't realize that there is a difference in quality between the dude who has no education and will just show you what he knows by wrote vs. a highly educated and experienced musician who also happens to be a good teacher.
 
Oh yeah...since I posted this thread we've upped our rates:

Private Lessons:

Paid by the month in advance $28 per half hour $50 an hour

Paid "a la carte" or one at a time $33 per half hour and $60 per Hour

Classes are $90 a month or $80 a month if you pay for any other lesson or class in that month


I've tried to discount the "frequent flyers" since some folks pay for 3-5 lessons a week around here.

Online we've kept the lesson rates low since its such a new thing:

SKype private lessons a $100 for four 30 minute lessons or $30 per half hour if paid for one at a time

The classes are $40 per month for a 30 minute class once per week
 
Mark Wein said:
We have a massive amount of folks who are not qualified to teach music in the area who advertise "I'll come to your house for $20 an hour" that end up taking a lot of potential new customers off the playing field who don't realize that there is a difference in quality between the dude who has no education and will just show you what he knows by wrote vs. a highly educated and experienced musician who also happens to be a good teacher.
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Point well taken. Every location has it's different points. Here, the uneducated and unprofessionals are the ones advertising "first lessons free." So I don't, to separate myself from them. At this point I have a waiting list of 15 students, teaching 40 a week, and charging at least twice as much as the average dude of CL. However, teaching is just as important to me as performing, if not more, and I feel that if someone is a teacher, they should feel the same way. Too many teachers are teaching "because they have no choice, because they are not gigging enough". That attitude is not good. If someone doesn't want to teach, they shouldn't be teaching. I'd hate to think that one more kid quits the guitar because they had a bad teacher.

Anyways, I am getting off on a tangent! Point well taken, and I didn't meant to insult anyone. I guess what I should say is, separate yourself from the competition.

I remember one person on the phone saying "well this guy only charges $10, can you come down a bit?" My response is that the difference between him and me was that I do it for a living, full-time, and therefor have much more experience and testimonials. It would be impossible to concentrate my life on teaching at $10 a lesson. I'd have to give lessons on flipping burgers!
 
No insult taken....we have a pretty good reputation in the area but its super competitive here. We have 8 music schools within 3 miles of where I'm sitting right now and that doesn't include all of the independent folks too. And I used to be more like you before I had a 2000 sq ft building to pay for. I had to become a bit more flexible with how I deal with customers after that :embarrassed:
 
20-25 for a half hour lesson, 50 for an hour. And since we have UMass Lowell in town, you can find dozens of semi educated musicians looking for teaching jobs for a little less. I could always go hang around Berklee in Boston if I truly wanted to rape my wallet.

It seems that music stores are going the way of the dinosaur around here. I know of only 4 places that do lessons, and one of 'em is the GC in Nashua NH. Daddy's Junky had instructors, but since those stores went away that option is gone.
 
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