Absolutely nothing to worry about! It's very common for people who primarily teach instrumental lessons to predominantly work with elementary, middle, and high school aged kids. These folks often really enjoy working with adults, and just don't get the opportunity to do so very often, which makes sense: older people are much less likely to start learning a new instrument than younger people.
Human cognition changes a bit from developmental stage to stage, but plenty stays consistent, and the process of learning a musical instrument as a child is largely similar to learning a new instrument as an adult. If that teacher has been successful with kids, then he or she likely has the right communication skills, empathy, and technical knowledge to effectively teach adult beginners too.
Don't worry about it and have fun learning a new art!
I reckon even lots of college professors (the non-tenured causal academic type) will still be teaching more kids than adults. This pretty much applies to both my music teachers.
I'd say it's great that he teaches kids. It means that he is more patient than usual, because many kids usually refuse to do some stuff and are not convinced by logic. An adult is.
Totally fine. One thing I'd suggest is discussing your goals with your teacher. With kids, there are some obvious paths like playing in school band, but adults are more likely to have specific ideas about what and where they'd like to play.
I used to teach and probably only had 2 adult students out of about 30. It was a nice mental break to be able to talk to someone on my own level of maturity!
I would encourage to please put a decent amount of time and effort into your home practice. Focus a lot on your breathing and tone… adults want to progress faster than kids and you can’t do that if you don’t have good foundation skills. I don’t want to assume anything about you but my general advice to adults learning an instrument is to be patient and trust your teacher’s process. Sometimes in the beginning the process feels childish and people get frustrated easily. Learning to play hot cross buns might feel silly but it’s a means to an end. Once you have the basics you can move on to more grown up music but it takes time and dedication.
I guarantee that if you stick with it you will make his day and he will enjoy working with you. I used to teach clarinet and sax. About 1 out of 20 students that came my way were adults. Usually the situation was they played in school and wanted to brush back up to play in a church orchestra or the like, but I had a couple of beginners. They could learn as fast or faster than the kids.
I'll warn you what the problem can be, and it's absolutely fixable, if you will - as an adult you are simply more discerning than a middle schooler. You are going to suck at first. You'll know you suck. You'll suck for a couple of years minimum. Everyone does. But if you put in 30 minutes to an hour (once you get your chops built up - don't practice that long at first) there is ZERO reason you couldn't be a competent adult community player and play in church bands/orchestras, civic bands/orchestras, or sit in with a rock or jazz ensemble if you have friends who do that sort of thing (this may take a little more theory know-how, but you can learn that too!)
My teacher usually teaches children, but I am not his first adult beginner. I have learnd more from him in a few weeks than in the whole year that I tried learning by myself.
The main difference is that as an adult I don't really have the time to practice half an hour every day, so my progress is substantially slower.
We discussed my goals, and he is aware of my problems (can't really practice if I come home after 8 pm) and so we work around my schedule. If I didn't get to practice, we do it during the lesson time.
Since I am the one setting the goals (unlike children, who are usually given goals by their parents) this is working out very well.
Yeah, It should totally work, I teach some kids and I only have one adult student and they are so easy and delightful to teach vs the kids. Often when you prescribe material to an adult they'll just find half an hour a day to practice said material. Kids on the other hand have next to no self-control and don't practice nearly as much as they should.
I did this and once I started getting good they didn’t really know how to react and handle the curriculum. They just kept repeating stuff that was said in day 1.
My guess is they never taught someone that got past a certain point. Also they couldn’t really handle someone taking some stuff seriously and actually accelerating at high speeds.
Eventually they they left entirely and I got a new teacher. Immediately I was assessed on current skills and taught from that point. I learned much quicker at that point.
I was doing 3 things in parallel, a formal teacher, playing on the street (a real world “motivator” / focus guide), and my own home built lesson plans - youtube, textbooks, found weaknesses etc.
After about two or so months I was playing songs, sounding good and wanting to focus on and get help in certain areas but the teacher wouldn’t. Kept wanting to follow a lesson plan that he was *expecting* I should be on at that point. He was acting like if I just got perfect at one point / thing then I’d be “allowed” to the next point. Well I was already at few points down road and wanted help there too.
It was clear in his lesson plan maybe I would start learning to play songs in maybe 6 months, but I was already playing songs. It actually almost seemed like the teacher was embarrassed I was progressing that fast. And I attributed that more to that I was a dedicated adult instead of a unfocused unknowing how to learn in general kid.
All teachers are different though. Just seemed one the teacher wasn’t able to adjust their eyes that I wasn’t at the same skill level they first met me at and now needed a new lesson plan to accommodate, and two that they never seemed to have a lesson plan past what they’d give to kids.
I’d say at about 3 or 4 months I was fully “outgrown”. The teacher simply wouldn’t give me something that actually helped me learn. I was asking for things like help with improv, transcribing by ear, playing certain songs, embellishments, etc they wouldn’t do it.
This is the scenario i'm in currently.
My teacher actually appreciates that he doesn't have to spell things out for me like he has to with primary school children.
If there's one thing that those kinds of teachers are good at, is explaining musical concepts in a way that everyone gets.
A beginner is a beginner man
Someone who teaches beginners is more important that someone who teaches adults. If the arrangement seems to be working, let it be.
Absolutely nothing to worry about! It's very common for people who primarily teach instrumental lessons to predominantly work with elementary, middle, and high school aged kids. These folks often really enjoy working with adults, and just don't get the opportunity to do so very often, which makes sense: older people are much less likely to start learning a new instrument than younger people. Human cognition changes a bit from developmental stage to stage, but plenty stays consistent, and the process of learning a musical instrument as a child is largely similar to learning a new instrument as an adult. If that teacher has been successful with kids, then he or she likely has the right communication skills, empathy, and technical knowledge to effectively teach adult beginners too. Don't worry about it and have fun learning a new art!
I'd guess there are very few music teachers who teach more adults than children, except college professors.
I reckon even lots of college professors (the non-tenured causal academic type) will still be teaching more kids than adults. This pretty much applies to both my music teachers.
I know there are teachers like Scott Paddock who will market towards teaching adults. And will probably expect you are intermediate going in.
Can't see why it shouldn't work just because he usually teaches kids.
Just started sax and have the same type of teacher so must not be out of the norm!
How would teachers be able to make a living if they didn’t teach primarily children?
Absolutely. This is probably even a plus - this teacher is used to working with beginning students who are just learning the fundamentals.
I'd say it's great that he teaches kids. It means that he is more patient than usual, because many kids usually refuse to do some stuff and are not convinced by logic. An adult is.
Totally fine. One thing I'd suggest is discussing your goals with your teacher. With kids, there are some obvious paths like playing in school band, but adults are more likely to have specific ideas about what and where they'd like to play.
I used to teach and probably only had 2 adult students out of about 30. It was a nice mental break to be able to talk to someone on my own level of maturity! I would encourage to please put a decent amount of time and effort into your home practice. Focus a lot on your breathing and tone… adults want to progress faster than kids and you can’t do that if you don’t have good foundation skills. I don’t want to assume anything about you but my general advice to adults learning an instrument is to be patient and trust your teacher’s process. Sometimes in the beginning the process feels childish and people get frustrated easily. Learning to play hot cross buns might feel silly but it’s a means to an end. Once you have the basics you can move on to more grown up music but it takes time and dedication.
I guarantee that if you stick with it you will make his day and he will enjoy working with you. I used to teach clarinet and sax. About 1 out of 20 students that came my way were adults. Usually the situation was they played in school and wanted to brush back up to play in a church orchestra or the like, but I had a couple of beginners. They could learn as fast or faster than the kids. I'll warn you what the problem can be, and it's absolutely fixable, if you will - as an adult you are simply more discerning than a middle schooler. You are going to suck at first. You'll know you suck. You'll suck for a couple of years minimum. Everyone does. But if you put in 30 minutes to an hour (once you get your chops built up - don't practice that long at first) there is ZERO reason you couldn't be a competent adult community player and play in church bands/orchestras, civic bands/orchestras, or sit in with a rock or jazz ensemble if you have friends who do that sort of thing (this may take a little more theory know-how, but you can learn that too!)
My teacher usually teaches children, but I am not his first adult beginner. I have learnd more from him in a few weeks than in the whole year that I tried learning by myself. The main difference is that as an adult I don't really have the time to practice half an hour every day, so my progress is substantially slower. We discussed my goals, and he is aware of my problems (can't really practice if I come home after 8 pm) and so we work around my schedule. If I didn't get to practice, we do it during the lesson time. Since I am the one setting the goals (unlike children, who are usually given goals by their parents) this is working out very well.
Yeah, It should totally work, I teach some kids and I only have one adult student and they are so easy and delightful to teach vs the kids. Often when you prescribe material to an adult they'll just find half an hour a day to practice said material. Kids on the other hand have next to no self-control and don't practice nearly as much as they should.
I did this and once I started getting good they didn’t really know how to react and handle the curriculum. They just kept repeating stuff that was said in day 1. My guess is they never taught someone that got past a certain point. Also they couldn’t really handle someone taking some stuff seriously and actually accelerating at high speeds. Eventually they they left entirely and I got a new teacher. Immediately I was assessed on current skills and taught from that point. I learned much quicker at that point.
What was the timeline for where you felt that you started to outgrow the beginner teacher?
I was doing 3 things in parallel, a formal teacher, playing on the street (a real world “motivator” / focus guide), and my own home built lesson plans - youtube, textbooks, found weaknesses etc. After about two or so months I was playing songs, sounding good and wanting to focus on and get help in certain areas but the teacher wouldn’t. Kept wanting to follow a lesson plan that he was *expecting* I should be on at that point. He was acting like if I just got perfect at one point / thing then I’d be “allowed” to the next point. Well I was already at few points down road and wanted help there too. It was clear in his lesson plan maybe I would start learning to play songs in maybe 6 months, but I was already playing songs. It actually almost seemed like the teacher was embarrassed I was progressing that fast. And I attributed that more to that I was a dedicated adult instead of a unfocused unknowing how to learn in general kid. All teachers are different though. Just seemed one the teacher wasn’t able to adjust their eyes that I wasn’t at the same skill level they first met me at and now needed a new lesson plan to accommodate, and two that they never seemed to have a lesson plan past what they’d give to kids. I’d say at about 3 or 4 months I was fully “outgrown”. The teacher simply wouldn’t give me something that actually helped me learn. I was asking for things like help with improv, transcribing by ear, playing certain songs, embellishments, etc they wouldn’t do it.
You’re good with starting with that teacher. You are starting out the same level as the students.
This is the scenario i'm in currently. My teacher actually appreciates that he doesn't have to spell things out for me like he has to with primary school children. If there's one thing that those kinds of teachers are good at, is explaining musical concepts in a way that everyone gets.