Have you ever thought to yourself, “If only I had private lessons, I would achieve my goals?”
That usually turns into:
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“But I don’t have time for lessons.”
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“I can’t afford lessons.”
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“I don’t have time to practice the material from the lessons.”
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“I can’t find the right teacher.”
Well, I have good news and bad news.
Bad: Private lessons won’t do what you think.
Good: You don’t need to wait until the kids grow up, or until retirement, or until life magically clears out space to finally improve.
I’ve said it many times before, but today I want to back it up with both my experience and the science.
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BTW!
If you've been nervous about giving my science-based teaching methods a try, you can now try risk-free by signing up for a 7-day free trial:
Why Traditional Lessons Fail
I’ve been playing for over 20 years and teaching for almost as long. In that time, I’ve taken well over a thousand private lessons myself—everything from $10 neighborhood sessions to $200 lessons with world-class New York musicians. And here’s the truth I’ve learned: one-on-one lessons are mostly bad.
Here’s why:
1. Bad teachers.
Music has one of the highest dropout rates of any serious pursuit. The people who “make it” are often the ones with natural talent. That means many teachers never struggled themselves—so they never learned how to teach. Educational psychology calls this the expertise reversal effect (Kalyuga et al., 2003). Experts skip steps because what’s obvious to them isn’t obvious to beginners.
The result: You leave lessons with vague advice and inspiration, but without a clear path forward.
2. Lesson length overload.
Most lessons are 45–60 minutes. On paper, that sounds great: a full hour of scales, chords, licks, and theory. But research shows we can only process about 3–5 new chunks of info at a time (Cowan, 2001). Beyond that, nothing sticks. Sweller’s Cognitive Load Theory (1988) explains why: too much complexity overwhelms working memory. And the Spacing Effect (Cepeda, 2006) shows that shorter, repeated sessions beat long crammed ones every time.
The result: You walk out with a notebook full of material but remember almost none of it by the next day.
3. Consistency is impossible.
When you miss a lesson—or two—you feel like you’re failing. That’s where learned helplessness (Seligman, 1972) sets in: repeated failure leads to hopelessness. Bandura’s research on self-efficacy (1977) shows that belief in your ability drives motivation. If you feel like you can’t keep up, motivation collapses.
The result: You stop practicing, not because you don’t care, but because you believe you’ll never catch up.
4. The illusion of progress.
Even if you show up every week, it’s very likely you aren’t making the progress you think. Psychologists call this the illusion of competence (Bjork, 1994; Koriat & Bjork, 2005). In lessons, you listen to your teacher play, nod along as they explain concepts, maybe jam with them a little. It feels exciting in the moment—it feels like growth. But recognition isn’t the same as mastery. It’s like reading a self-help book and feeling inspired, only to realize weeks later that nothing in your playing has actually changed.
The result: You mistake the feeling of progress for real progress, and your playing stays stuck at the same level.
5. The economics don’t work.
At $50–75 an hour, lessons are expensive for the student but not sustainable for the teacher. Most teachers can’t keep a full roster, and even if they do, they can’t give their best energy for five hours straight.
The result: You pay a premium for an overworked teacher who’s recycling material just to get through the day.
So What’s the Alternative?
Here’s the truth: you don’t need weekly private lessons to finally get better. What you need are small, flexible, consistent wins.
My new affordable guitar program has been open for less than 2 weeks, and guitarists of all skill levels are already making massive improvements.
I'll leave a couple of examples below. These are normal adults (busy lives, jobs, kids, etc.), all skill levels, and they are from every age bracket (early 20s to 70s). They're all making progress. Why not you?
