Music Teachers - What to Look For?

In a mecca for educated and talented professionals like Cambridge, MA, finding a cheap option for lessons can become difficult – as someone who moved to New England recently I’ve noticed the high cost of living and inflation for every kind of service. This is fantastic for having access to a large array of options but if you’re looking for a cheap way to get started on an instrument, for example, the best way to find a great and cheap teacher is often an exercise in mind reading or trial and error.

THE SITUATION:

For most students, you start playing instruments when you get into middle school and join the band. Inevitably, there is a less than ideal spread of instruments across the already small group so any music teacher at the beginning of the year goes through a period of persuasion mixed with a little begging to get enough people to transfer to a new instrument in order to allow them to successfully get through another Sousa masterpiece.

For me, I started sixth grade prepared and ready to go with trombone, automatically putting me above the transfers to my section and setting me up to be ahead of the curve from the very beginning. Here are 8 instruments that will help make you a more competitive musical participant from the start.

Best Boston, Somerville, and Cambridge Area Music Stores

A good local music store can be a life changing experience – when I was 10 I decided that the whole reed thing was not for me and therefore, instead of becoming a saxophone-playing child-star, I sought out my local music store to try out some other options. It was that trip that decided my fate as a not-so-famous, no-longer-a-child trombone player and I couldn’t be happier. When I got there, I must have tried out 5 different brass instruments (remember, reeds got nixed) before deciding that having a slide was BY FAR the most exciting thing I had come across, and that was that.

The best music blogs for listening that stands out from the crowd:

Why you should care:

Starting an instrument can be the time a person either falls in love with playing music or walks away forever. For many, this experience happens at a young age - maybe they join their middle school band or their elementary school requires band class. These younger years are a precious time when learning can happen more easily than any other time in their life and making sure that students get off to a strong start can be crucial to their long-term commitment to the practice of music.

For me, I was lucky enough to have several great influencers when I first started out and I wanted to pass on some of my tips to help out any parents or students out there looking for ways to hedge their bets.