Selling Points

I've noticed a trend in the selling points of some music schools and teachers.

With headlines like...

These aren't your grandma's music lessons...skip the method books, sightreading exercises, and music theory, and get to playing your favorite music right away!

Learn to play your favorite songs...and you won't need a PhD in music theory first!

Say goodbye to method books, and learn your favorite songs now!

There's nothing inherently long with these. After all, kids and adults have music they aspire to play. And this makes it more exciting.

But, I wish these headlines came with a disclaimer. Yes, you may learn to play some of your favorite tunes right away.

But appropriate, flipside sub-headlines might be:

But you'll never be able to learn a tune on your own without a teacher.

It will always take you several weeks if not months to learn a new song.

You'll learn your favorite songs, but won't be able to do much else.

There's nothing wrong with wanting to learn your favorite songs right away, casting music literacy and theory aside. As long as you know what you're getting when you sign up.

And what you're not getting.

Because when those aspects of the process (and the consequences of leaving them out) are left out...

...that's when music teachers become car salesmen.