Private Lessons V.S. Group Lessons



Parents often ask us if they should let their child start with private lessons or group lessons. The answer could never be one or the other. If you have a child who is about to begin his or her musical journey, please take a look at the following comparison chart for the private lessons and group lessons.



Advantages of Group  Classes

  • Fun Factor: Children enjoy learning in games and with their peers, and a well-run group lesson includes plenty of musical fun.
  • Price: Typically, a 30-min group lesson involving about 2-4 students will cost less than 1/2 of the price for a 30-min private lesson at Arete Music Academy.
  • Performance classes: Children learn to perform in front of their peers.
  • Group activities: These are ideal for teaching musical concepts such as rhythm and counting. Marching around the room to a beat, dancing, and clapping are all more fun for children in groups, and these activities teach fundamental skills that will set the stage for a student's later learning.
  • Lower stress: The low-key recreational approach of many groups may be appropriate for younger children who don't yet have the dexterity to develop finer instrumental skills.

Advantages of Private Lessons

  • Individual attention: Private lessons focus on the individuals strengths and weaknesses. Learning an instrument is a multi-sensory, complex activity requiring learning by ear, eye, touch, and intellectual understanding. Each student combines these elements differently.
  • Appropriate pace: A group class that involves mismatched students will deprive both slower and faster learners for the attention they need. Private lessons go at the student's learning pace, stopping whenever necessary to review concepts, repeat material, or explore a topic the student shows an interest in.
  • Skills development: For more advanced students, private attention is needed to work on micro issues such as fingering, as well as finer points of expression and interpretation. Issues such as technique and hand position are also better dealt with privately.
  • Progress: Progress is almost always faster in a private lesson than in a group lesson.
  • Stability: While the advantages of a group class often fall apart under the weight of an unruly or mismatched group, private lessons can follow a tailor made plan developed for each student, without being derailed by the needs of the group.
It is a difficult decision to make, and no one knows your child as well as the you as a parent.  But if you still need help deciding which type of lesson to take, please feel free to contact us at [email protected]
 

Music Lessons Are a Lifetime Gift to Your Child

Music is a part of life from the earliest stages. Many children begin encountering and experiencing music prenatally through recordings that parents play for them as they develop. Newborns will hear parents singing lullabies to them and begin associating music as something to be enjoyed even at that tender age. 

Babies realize that they can create specific vocal sounds themselves and make percussive sounds with rattles and clapping within months of birth. Creating sounds becomes fun for them, and the next natural step for children is to learn how to create and explore sounds in a more structured way through listening to and learning about music. Children under the age of five and even those in elementary school enjoy music, because it is fun and often provides some social time for them. Studies of children who have received music lessons in some form since early childhood demonstrate that music is beneficial in other ways as well.

When children take music lessons, they develop skills necessary to excel in other areas of learning. The NAMM Foundation is an organization that advocates music study and collects information about research supporting music study. It states that playing music positively affects the development of children’s cognitive skills, and it builds confidence, self-discipline and inspires creativity.* It encourages the use of listening skills, cognitive skills, and fine motor skills simultaneously. In a study done by professors at Boston College and Harvard Medical School, there were changes in the brain images of children who studied music and practiced for just fifteen months. They showed measurable improvement in sound discrimination and fine motor skills.+

Studies also show increased neural activity and even structural differences in the brains of those who have studied music. Magnetic source imaging was used to measure activity in the auditory cortex of the brain. Those subjects who had studied music demonstrated a notable increase of neuronal activity as opposed to subjects who had not studied music. The strength of neuronal activation to piano notes coincided with the age of the subject and the length of time music was studied.^ Another study showed that students who began music study before seven years of age showed an advanced level of sensory-motor integration. The same study notes that starting study later still provide benefits in correlation to the amount of music practice.

The effects of this increased brain activity in the sound processing centers of the brain shows in early speech and reading skills. Studies clearly show that music training physically develops the left side of the brain, which is accountable for processing language.+ Professor Nina Kraus, director of the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory at Northwestern University, states that “to learn to read, you need to have good working memory, the ability to disambiguate speech sounds, make sound-to-meaning connections. Each one of these things really seems to be strengthened with active engagement in playing a musical instrument.”#

The benefits of music study continue beyond early childhood. Studies done by the University of Sarasota and East Texas State University indicate that middle and high school instrumental music students score significantly higher on standardized tests than nonmusic students.* Music also give students a noticeable benefit in understanding advanced math concepts. A group of second-grade students were taught some advanced math concepts using math software. Some of the test group was also given four months of piano lessons during the study. The students who studied music as well as using the software scored twenty-seven percent higher on tests than those students who only learned with the aid of math software.* A study done by Dr. James Catterall at UCLA tracked more than 25,000 students over ten years. Music students scored higher on not only standardized tests, but also on reading proficiency tests, regardless of the student’s socioeconomic background.*

Parents should get their children interested in music as early as possible to reap the benefits of a good music education. Many older infants, toddlers, and preschoolers enjoy a small group experience that gets them listening and moving to music, singing simple songs, and experimenting on different instruments like drums, keyboards, and recorders. There are private music schools, Kindermusik programs, and even some good preschool programs that can offer some very good early music experiences. One thing parents need to ask when making decisions about early music education is whether actual professional music teachers are teaching the music. Even the very earliest musical lessons should have some structure and objectives, and a qualified music teacher is needed to provide that. Some young children are able to begin very elementary studies on an instrument. A preschooler who shows interest in sitting down at a piano and playing should be encouraged to try some private lessons. Violins and guitars are made in a variety of sizes for tiny fingers to play. The key is to find a qualified music teacher who has some experience training very young children. Whether it is a group class or private lessons, children need to enjoy music while they learn about it.

 

Halloween-Concert-2013


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Statistical benefits of music in education

  1. Children who are involved in music lessons show greater brain development and memory improvement within a year than children who receive no musical training.
  2. Regardless of socioeconomic status or school district, students who participate in high-quality music programs score 22 percent better on English and 20 percent better on Math standardized exams.
  3. Children who study music tend to have larger vocabularies and more advanced reading skills than their peers who do not participate in music lessons.
  4. Schools with music programs have an estimated 90. 2 percent graduation rate and 93. 9 percent attendance rate compared to schools without music education who average 72. 9 percent graduation and 84. 9 percent attendance.
  5. Children who study a musical instrument are more likely to excel in all of their studies, work better in teams, have enhanced critical thinking skills, stay in school, and pursue further education.
  6. In the past, students who participated in a music group at school reported the lowest lifetime and current use of all substances (tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs).
  7. Children with learning disabilities or dyslexia who tend to lose focus with more noise could benefit greatly from music lessons.




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(201) 205-1121
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120 Van Nostrand Avenue
Englewood Cliffs NJ 07632


 
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