What is a fair price for a violin lesson for a beginner/semi-beginner? 6th grade

Anonymous
just wondering what is reasonable. We are in the exurbs. Outschool is not working because the instrument keeps breaking.
Anonymous
We've paid $30-40 per half hour for private lessons for our DCs.
Anonymous

The instrument keeps breaking????!!! “Keeps” and “breaking” are not what you associate with a musical instrument. I hope you don’t mean that. Rent a violin from Potter’s, a very good luthier in Takoma Park. Fox is good in VA.

We pay $90/hr in an excellent private studio. If you go to Levine Music, it will probably work out to a similar price, but the teacher will only get a portion of the tuition.

Please avoid teachers who come to you - good teachers do not waste their valuable time driving around, believe me.

Anonymous
We pay $50 for a private lesson for cello. That's for a half hour. It's at a suzuki geared music school if that makes a difference
Anonymous
What does outschool mean in this context? The violin is not a guitar or a piano that you can figure out by yourself - students need weekly lessons with a professional and help in maintaining their instruments.
Anonymous
We've rented several fractional violins from Music and Arts. While I'm sure that the rental violins from Potter's or Foxes are better, the violins from M&A are properly set up, good quality student violins. And they haven't broken, despite less-than-gentle treatment from my kids.
Anonymous
Is the violin actually breaking or going out of tune?
If the later, some of our local violin shops will tune for free even if you didn't buy/ rent it from them as a service due to distance learning.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:We've paid $30-40 per half hour for private lessons for our DCs.


This is the going rate. We pay $35 for a music lesson.
Anonymous
OP, it’s rented from a local music store. The strings come off, this little wooden piece falls off, his strings teacher from FCPS just says take it back to the store, we go back, they fuss with it, two weeks later same problem. I have never played any instrument so I’m just at a loss.

We have paid for online lessons but the instrument breaks so much. In person would be much better so the instructor can help with explaining how to fix it.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:OP, it’s rented from a local music store. The strings come off, this little wooden piece falls off, his strings teacher from FCPS just says take it back to the store, we go back, they fuss with it, two weeks later same problem. I have never played any instrument so I’m just at a loss.

We have paid for online lessons but the instrument breaks so much. In person would be much better so the instructor can help with explaining how to fix it.


The bridge fell on my DC's violin when he dropped it. His teacher put it back up and retuned it.

You're correct that in-person lessons would be good. Some violin teachers are teaching in-person now. Call around.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
The instrument keeps breaking????!!! “Keeps” and “breaking” are not what you associate with a musical instrument. I hope you don’t mean that. Rent a violin from Potter’s, a very good luthier in Takoma Park. Fox is good in VA.

We pay $90/hr in an excellent private studio. If you go to Levine Music, it will probably work out to a similar price, but the teacher will only get a portion of the tuition.

Please avoid teachers who come to you - good teachers do not waste their valuable time driving around, believe me.




We have had the opposite experience; the teachers who have come to our home have been significantly better than the ones we had to drive to, so I wouldn't make a blanket statement either way.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:OP, it’s rented from a local music store. The strings come off, this little wooden piece falls off, his strings teacher from FCPS just says take it back to the store, we go back, they fuss with it, two weeks later same problem. I have never played any instrument so I’m just at a loss.

We have paid for online lessons but the instrument breaks so much. In person would be much better so the instructor can help with explaining how to fix it.


If you rent one from one of the places named here —and I’d add Brobst in Alexandria to the list— that won’t happen. I’ve never heard of a bridge (that wooden piece) falling off on a regular basis. It’s actually pretty hard to do without taking all the strings off. Is your child trying to tune it with the pegs (not the small metal screws near the bridge) and breaking the strings?

Agree that $30-40 for 30 mins is pretty standard. More at conservatory-type places like Levine or Mason Community Arts Academy.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
The instrument keeps breaking????!!! “Keeps” and “breaking” are not what you associate with a musical instrument. I hope you don’t mean that. Rent a violin from Potter’s, a very good luthier in Takoma Park. Fox is good in VA.

We pay $90/hr in an excellent private studio. If you go to Levine Music, it will probably work out to a similar price, but the teacher will only get a portion of the tuition.

Please avoid teachers who come to you - good teachers do not waste their valuable time driving around, believe me.




We have had the opposite experience; the teachers who have come to our home have been significantly better than the ones we had to drive to, so I wouldn't make a blanket statement either way.


I'm in the classical music world. This is incorrect, and means you have had very bad luck with music school teachers or private studios (a few are little better than teachers who come to you), or, and please don't take this the wrong way, you are not able to distinguish between a good teacher and a bad one, yet! That's OK, and it's why teachers who come to families' homes can still make a living

Please ask around and do a little more research. Most teachers at Levine Music are good, for all instruments. International School of Music is a lower tier. If you post the instrument, perhaps someone can point you to excellent private studio teachers.

Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:OP, it’s rented from a local music store. The strings come off, this little wooden piece falls off, his strings teacher from FCPS just says take it back to the store, we go back, they fuss with it, two weeks later same problem. I have never played any instrument so I’m just at a loss.

We have paid for online lessons but the instrument breaks so much. In person would be much better so the instructor can help with explaining how to fix it.


For the Lord's sake, please be cognizant of basic terms, since you're paying for this service!

Stop saying the violin is broken. Everyone thinks you're stupid when you say that.

It's called the bridge. It's not even broken, it's merely detached. It would cost a lot more to fix if it were broken - you would have to pay for a new bridge, which can be $200 - so the difference is important!

Perhaps the bridge is falling off because your child is not tuning properly, which means the strings are not applying enough pressure on the bridge to keep it in place. There is no glue because the bridge needs to vibrate. The bridge is kept in place by string pressure. When non-experts tune, the string are usually pulled more in one direction than the other, and therefore the bridge can either snap (break), or slide and fall. Your child has to be taught to tune properly, by exercising a very controlled release and tightening of the string pressure, and holding the violin to eye level to see if the bridge is still perpendicular to the violin table.

The other possibility is that the bridge is not high enough or the right dimension for the violin... but a good luthier would have told you this by now. Where did you go?

If he's in his first or second year of violin, yes, he needs in-person lessons, otherwise the teacher cannot fix his posture or left hand or right hand, and he will develop terrible habits that will take extra time to fix later on.
Anonymous

I hope you're going to a luthier, OP, not a music store that does not specialize in repairing and maintaining violins, cellos and violas...

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