Piano Lessons? - Saint Paul,MN

That seems like a bargain IF the teacher is good. I pay $51 for a 45 minute lesson. It would be $45 if I drive to the teacher's studio. I absolutely love my daughter's teacher though and he is worth the money IMO.

J....I live in the Twin Cities too (in Woodbury) and I pay $19.50 for 30 minutes which in my opinion is a great deal. I looked into some of the music schools and some of them are $25-35 for a half hour. We go to our teacher's house for the lesson but she is on the same block within walking distance which makes it really easy.

All I have found for 30 min private lessons here is $20 per lesson.

However, the MWR of the Army post here is starting group lessons next month for $60 per month - 8 classes. We are gonna try that to get our daughter started.

We pay $18 for a half hour lesson at our home. The teacher is wonderful! Try to get a teacher that comes highly recommended from someone you know. Good luck!

Those rates sound great to me. In our area the rule of thumb is at least "a dollar a minute" for any kind of private, one on one instruction, whether it's piano or swimming or anything else. Our daughter's piano lessons are $30 for 30 minutes and so are her violin lessons.

It's worth the extra $4 to have someone who comes to your home. Saves you the driving time and hassles of "Come on, honey, we have to get out the door right now or we'll be late." We get in-home piano lessons and it's terrific not to have to schedule another drive to another place into our week.

If you find someone for "much less" than $20 for 30 minutes I would actually question the quality of the instruction. Any decent instructor should be paid enough to make the lesson time worth his or her while and if it were less than you quote, it would be impossibly cheap, to me. It's throwing your money away if you pay next to nothing but get lousy instruction. Just my two cents. A bad instructor will turn your child off of doing piano forever but a good one will make your child want to play (and practice!).

I paid $20 for a half hour lesson. I went to my teacher's house for lessons.

That's pretty much the going rate around here. Maybe $25 per 30 min lesson. But there are some that charge more ($45 per 30 min lesson or so). I've never found anyone around here who would even come to my house. I have to take my daughter. There often are, however, the private school(s) who allow teachers to schedule pull-out time during school hours. My daughter did that for awhile, and so did my son. The teacher schedules a day at the school each week. And has her list of however many students. Then consults with the office about which class times are "best" to pull the students out for 30 minutes. My daughter's teacher had about 7 students at the school my daughter was at. She'd go down the list of kids, and the kids would go take their lesson and return to class.
The teachers were aware of the scheduled lessons, and never had any issues adjusting slightly whatever they needed to in order to accommodate. Whether it was starting a quiz 15 minutes later in the day or whatever. It was elementary school, so the kids had the same teacher/classroom all day and it didn't seem to be a big deal. She only charged $15/per lesson... but I think that was because it was like a bulk rate, for being allowed to come into the school like that. She had a booth at Open House and such, to sign up students.
She was good, too. :)

I paid $15 for lessons a few years ago. I think I found my teacher in the penny saver.

Check at a local university in the performing arts department. Professors frequently do lessons as do some students. The students would obviously offer a lower price, but they are usually still very good. Just check around and see what you can find!

The rates you mentioned sound pretty good/fair. We take my daughter to her piano teacher's home, and we pay $25 for each 30 minute lesson. My friend teaches private clarinet lessons and she charges $40/half hour (or somewhere in that neighborhood).