I signed up for a flute lesson, excited that I would finally be able to play music with my husband who is an experienced musician. My husband plays guitar and piano, and he sings, but he couldn’t help me understand how to produce sound properly on the flute, or how to execute confusing fingering patterns in the book I had purchased. So, I went to Catalano music on Jericho turnpike for a flute lesson with a teacher named Frank.
First, they would not let me pay for a single lesson. Most schools will give you one free lesson, or one discounted lesson, or at least one single full priced lesson before having you pay for a month, to see if you like the instrument and the teacher. In Catalano, I was informed the only option was to pay $88 for a full month. My husband had to call back a few times before he got someone on the phone who agreed to let us pay for one lesson, but we had to wait until the last Wednesday of the month, even though the instructor was free other days as well. So on the last Wednesday of the month I went for my lesson.
It started out with a call of “Next!” He didn’t even ask me my name, and when I introduced myself and told him what I was looking to accomplish, and that even though I had been practicing on my own, the notes sounded to airy and almost inaudible, he replied “it’s supposed to sound airy, it’s a flute.”
As the lesson proceeded, he made mistakes with basic notes and couldn’t answer the elementary questions about fingering and note production that were my main reasons for scheduling the lesson in the first place.
He often seemed confused, and had to look up a lot of information that he didn’t know in the beginners book I had brought with me.
When I started to play notes, even if they sounded terrible or didn’t make any sound at all, he said “good that’s how it’s supposed to sound.”
I didn’t learn anything I didn’t know in the entire half hour that I was there except to make sure the embouchure lines up with the keys. A good teacher could have taught that in ten seconds, or less. And I didn’t even really learn it, I was just reminded of something that I had already read
on page 1 of my beginner book.
Don’t waste your money here, they obviously don’t screen their teachers properly.
