There can be some misconceptions surrounding group music teaching, and whilst some of these concerns are justified, group lessons may be the right path to take you or your child.

Let’s investigate some of the pros and cons.

The first thing to be said about group lessons is that the students of the group will need to be of a similar skill level. Having an advanced player in a group of beginners can frustrate the advanced student as the lessons may be too rudimentary for their ability. However, having a slightly more advanced player can be positive in some ways, one of which being that the slightly more skilled player can teach the lesser advanced, reinforcing the musical lesson objective in their mind and imparting the knowledge to their peer in a more relatable way.

Another aspect of the group dynamic is that discipline can be an issue. Maybe the lesson was too easy for the specific student. Maybe the lack of engagement is due to frustration. The group lesson situation allows us to give learners of different skill levels a different task which can come together during the lesson, fostering teamwork as they learn to play their music using differing levels of technique, but with a satisfying result for all.

This fostering usually results in more confidence in the students as there is less pressure than in a one-to-one learning environment. The competition of the group environment can encourage students to practise more, to do better than their peers. It can also ultimately lead to friendships, more positive socialising skills.

The group learning environment can also lead to better exam results. In her book “Instrumental Teaching” by Janet Mills, she outlines the results of studies that show higher music exam results on average in those who are group taught as opposed to those taking individual lessons. While this may not be reflective of the need for more advanced students to take individual lessons for a specific purpose but it is certainly to be considered for beginners and intermediate level players.

The things to remember when selecting whether group lessons are right or wrong for your child:

1. What size is the group? – It should be not so large that time is wasted.
2. What skill level are the members? – A small skill deviation is perfectly fine and even to be encouraged in some situations, but too large a gap and the group dynamic isn’t optimised.

Thank you for reading, and happy learning! 🙂