I spend considerable time on the internet, chasing down YouTube videos and other sources of music info, and can’t help noticing the number of music teachers advertising “lessons in your home”. Now and then a parent or an adult student will ask me to teach in their home, instead of at my studio. I nearly always refuse, and here’s why.

One of the more subtle parts of what I do is helping my students to build boundaries between whatever they were doing before I see them, and what they plan to do after. Simply put, I want the rest of the world to fall away so we can focus entirely on playing and listening. I see most of my students for only thirty minutes a week, and want to make each minute pay off.

Those of you who have seen my studio know that it is a place with a purpose, and it contains all the tools we’d ever need to work effectively. I could never haul a mini-version of this to your house, then set it up and tear it down at each lesson, over and over each day. That’s not what I want to do. I want to teach, not move music gear around.

Travelling to your lesson in my studio is part of your commitment to the process of learning. You’re on my turf, and you are there for important reasons.

If I’m in your home, I have to compensate for all the noises and distractions of that environment (if I even can), and not enough work is going to get done. If you’re in my studio, we get into the zone immediately, and nothing is going to distract us during the lesson. My turf is there so I can teach well, and you can learn well, too.

I understand the appeal for parents of spending less time driving their kids to activities, or for busy adults who’d rather not have to get back in the car late in the day. That greater convenience won’t benefit the student, in my view.  Students need to meet their teachers in places where they can fully enjoy playing, and get the necessary work done. See you at the studio!