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I am a music teacher, but in observing musicians who learned via a music teacher and musicians who figured out music on their own, I am beginning to question the utility of teaching music—or at least the ideas that music lessons must start at an early age and continue for many years and that the only way to learn music is through a teacher.
I was educated in the classical realm, taking nine years of both piano and violin lessons. After graduating college in music education, I started to play non-classical forms of music, specifically the fiddle. I began to be exposed to self-taught musicians.
The bottom line becomes, who takes responsibility for a person's music learning?
My experience in the classical world was that for the most part, with some input from me, my teachers chose what I played. I wasn't "allowed" to play some pieces because they were "too hard." I had to play etudes, no matter how hateful they were. Ditto for scales and arpeggios. Although I can see the utility of various forms of exercises now, they were presented as something you do, without a whole lot of connection to one's goals in music.
The worst part was that my teacher's opinion of how I played mattered so much that it affected my relationship with my instrument and my sense of self. Although now I think I could take lessons without this happening because I am mature enough to avoid falling into that emotional trap, my teenage self was not able to. My self-esteem rose and fell on the quality of my lessons because the point of the lessons was to please my teacher. Sometimes I did. Many times I didn't.
In contrast, many bluegrass musicians I know have become very good by setting their own goals and working on the things they liked. Bluegrass musicians don't learn in isolation—they get information from each other at jams and other gatherings. I know of musicians who have followed other players around at festivals so they could learn a lick or two off of that person.
Bluegrass musicians may play a lot—not a bunch of isolated exercises—but working out tunes by ear and playing along with recordings. Practice consists of playing the things one feels like playing at that time, so the practice session is more fun than drudgery. No one tells a beginning banjo player that Foggy Mountain Breakdown is too hard—if the player wants to work on it, he or she does. There may be performance-related goals—such as a concert coming up, so practice may focus on particular pieces across a number of weeks, but it's not the same kind of pressure as performing for a grade each semester.
Now, with the internet and computer technology many tools exist that can help people learn to play an instruments. Youtube has many videos of traditional bluegrass masters as well as young hot shots playing all the classic bluegrass tunes and songs, not to mention online lessons. You can get programs for the computer that slow down a track on a CD without changing its pitch, which is wonderful to work with. There are free metronomes. Companies that make and sell instruments often have resources online for learners because they want people to succeed. Music aficionados have created endless web pages that teach about the structures of music as well as the playing of particular instruments. Tablature and printed music abound on the web along with audio files so you can hear what you are learning.
The advantages to having a music teacher include the music teacher's expertise on the instrument, the music teacher's expertise on the process of teaching, and the fact that music lessons on a regular basis can help with goal setting. So getting a music teacher may help you out—if the music teacher can let you stay in control of the learning process and goals.
Playing music is one of the greatest joys possible in life and I hope everyone who wants to learn has an opportunity to do so. I have played music with people who didn't speak English—we communicated through the sounds of our instruments. Being able to play music has opened many doors in my life that would have remained closed if I did not play.
But it is really important to understand that music teachers do not have a patent on music learning. If you find a good music teacher, enjoy and count your blessings. But don't let rigid, narrow-minded music teachers talk you out of something that can be so life-enhancing.
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