<p>We offered up front too. But phew. Bigger cities equal bigger prices. I’m glad my sons teacher does not charge 125 per lesson. Ouch! </p>
<p>Right on @cellomom6! We are ever so grateful at the ridiculously affordable rates of DS’s current teacher. We also know that his days of paying $25/lesson are numbered 
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<p>We pay $75 per lesson at home so $100 doesn’t seem like too big a stretch</p>
<p>Actually we paid $100 for every lesson during the two years before my son went to college–and that was 6 years ago. So, that price doesn’t actually seem like much any more to us.</p>
<p>My daughter’s teacher charged $250 an hour for private lessons outside of school when my daughter was in pre-college. During her senior year she took a second lesson every week, so we had to foot that huge bill. There was talk of my daughter doing some boot-camp lessons privately with her this summer (she studied with the same teacher in college), but the expense was prohibitive.</p>
<p>@glassharmonica!!! $500/week, $2000/month!? Wow! At one point my daughter took both classical and musical theatre lessons every week but each teacher only charged $75. Well you know what, I feel blessed to have been able to do this for my D and I am sure all of you feel the same. So whatever the cost it’s money well spent.</p>
<p>The cost of teachers varies, and it can be hard to figure out relative value. My S’s prior teacher (whom he stopped studying with when he was about 11, he turns 19 this year), was charging 80/hour at the end, and looking back, they were nowhere near the level of his teacher he had through high school…I can argue about the ways the teacher taught in some ways, but they were very generous with time, they often refused extra payments, and gave him a lot of time, and they were much, much higher level than his prior teacher. With violin it really depends on the market, too, some big name ego teachers get 300 bucks or more an hour, others who are just as high a level don’t charge half of that, it all depends. My S also worked with other teachers in high school, as well, so yeah, it could add up.</p>
<p>@Dradsmom, it was $250/week on top of the regular precollege tuition, which was about $9000/year. </p>
<p>Wow! My son’s private lesson teacher only charges $40/lesson. Who knew he’s such a steal?! He’s young and isn’t a big name quite yet. My son started working with him in his first year of teaching full time after earning his masters four years ago. S is his first student to go on to study music beyond high school and lesson teacher is so excited about it.</p>
<p>It seems that some teachers are flexible and generous with their time if they are excited to work with talented students. Several months ago, my son was considering studying privately in NYC to allow him to attend Yale. He ultimately decided against it but made some very interesting contacts in the process. He met with one respectable teacher associated with several of the NYC conservatories willing to take him as a private student. He quoted him $150/lesson but also said he could be flexible with his rates. Hmmmm</p>
<p>I have to say I was impressed. The teacher sought me out and talked about my son’s playing. I appreciated he took the time to do this and made me feel it was money well spent.</p>
<p>My daughter’s teacher was expensive–but she also helped my daughter rework her technique in a way that has helped reduce tension in her playing and has saved her from injury. My daughter was with her for six years, mostly for lessons covered by general tuition. Every moment was worth it.</p>
<p>With all this talk about lesson costs nobody has said how long the lessons are. Is it right to assume that the lessons are 1 hour ? We are in a major metropolitan area and paid $150 per lesson but the lessons were 90 minutes. I told my kid to tell me when music would come to her in dreams and wouldn’t let her sleep. When she did I moved the lessons from 1hr to 90min. </p>
<p>In my daughter’s case the lessons are an hour. Her old teacher, when she was a kid, used to schedule her before his lunch break and then go on for 2 hours. It’s really apples and oranges–as you become more advanced and self-sufficient, long lessons are nice, but not really necessary. In college, count on 55-minute lessons.</p>
<p>Voice lessons are usually an hour- can be a bit more when they are older and if they are taking make-ups or working on something big.</p>
<p>The general "unit’ of time with lessons seems to be an hour,but what constitutes that hour depends on the teacher and so forth, some teachers that means 50 minutes, others an hour and 10…and can fluctuate. </p>
<p>In terms of lesson time, and effectiveness, it is like practice IMO, there is a number that is right that fits the situation. Put it this way, I have run into some violin students from well off backgrounds, who literally had lessons 5 or 6 days a week, and while they were accomplished, they weren’t necessarily the greatest student violinists around…</p>
<p>The issue with longer lessons might be fatigue, that after a while the student stops absorbing what is being said, so a 2 hour lesson might only get 1 1/2 hours of instruction, all depends. </p>
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My daughter’s old teacher used to scoff at situations like this. He called it “practicing with a teacher.”</p>
<p>We found that having longer lessons worked better because the pace slowed down. With competitions, state orchestra auditions and prep for college auditions there just wasn’t enough time not to be rushed. Now that she’s in a conservatory hour lessons seem just fine. Five lessons a week sounds like a great way to produce a player that can’t think for themselves. Being a musician myself I was asked to stay for most of my kid’s practice lessons for college and the first thing I noticed was that all of the teachers had ways of seeing right off whether the kid could think for themselves and if they could make minor changes without losing their focus. I’m sure at that level a prospective teacher can tell if a student has had five lessons a week forever and takes that into consideration. Teachers value intellect and creativity and flexibility more than flawless technique. After all they aren’t going to get five lessons a week in college. </p>