I'm 18 and I want to learn to play the piano or violin.?

Question

I'm from vegas and I took piano lessons for a short while when I was 8. I'm 18 now and completely forgot about everything. I want to start from scratch again. Where can I learn? do you think taking courses in my school (UNLV) would be the best option? I want to learn either the piano or the violin.

Answer 1

I would suggest getting private lessons. Public lessons are no where near as effective as private lessons are as the teacher needs to split up his/her time among the students.

As for the instrument, I think piano would be easier to learn. If your like a challenge, then you can take up playing the violin. I found it much easier to learn and play the violin since I learned how to play the piano first.

If you want to know which teachers to go to, go to your local music store and ask for good piano/violin teachers. Don't look on the internet, I find that the internet doesn't give as good information as professionals do when it comes to music.

Answer 2

I used to teach class piano and music history courses at the university level while I was working on my Masters and PhD degrees.  If you wanted to take piano again just to bring your playing up to standard, you could easily take a class piano course at UNLV.  All instrumentalists are required to take 2 years of class piano as their secondary instrument (and they all complain about it, too  :) !).  As long as you can read notes, you should be able to take a class piano course without any problem, and it would count toward your humanities elective in whatever degree program you are currently in.  

However, if you really can't remember anything about the piano, you might want to think about private lessons.  Since you are a college student at a university that has a music degree program, contact the piano department (I can't think offhand who is in charge over there anymore), and tell them you are interested in taking beginner private piano lessons.  All grad students are required to teach privately, and they receive a grade for it.  It should probably cost you between $12-$15 for a half hour lesson, which is much less than it would cost you if you were to take lessons from someone outside the university.  Just to give you a rough estimate, when I was at The Boston Conservatory, I charged $75 an hour for private lessons, but admittedly, I couldn't think of getting that rate where I live now.  I think in most suburban areas, the going rate is between $20-$25 for a half hour lesson (reserved for beginners) and $30-$40 for advanced students (an hour lesson).  

My son is a violinist, and the going rates are just about the same.  And you should be able to find instruction easily at the university for either of these instruments for a relatively low rate.

Answer 3

Once you decide whether you want to study violin or piano (or both?), you could get lessons from UNLV, but you probably should just find a good private teacher.

Answer 4

stick with piano

it is much easier to play and i personally think its sound is much better

try to get a good private teacher