Whatever your age and whatever the instrument you are dusting off or picking up for the first time, that first music lesson only comes, well, once! The anticipation, the excitement, and perhaps some butterflies…all these feelings propel you along as you approach the day. The first lesson! What will happen?

At the heart of a first music lesson is an opportunity for connection. Why? Because we all are wired for belonging, for community. We can find this in so many different places in life, for sure, but there is a special connection that musicians share, for music is fundamental to the experience of humanity. More to explore there for sure, but for now, back to that first music lesson! The opportunity for connection is fundamentally first with your teacher, as they facilitate and help cultivate your own learning journey and relationship with your instrument, with music. The music! That familiar yet ever elusive collection of tones, rhythms, timbres, which we must revisit again and again as we develop skills, deepen understanding, and gain independence channeling it. As the student gains connection with the teacher and develops skill with their mode of expression (instrument or voice), the opportunities for connection with others via music multiplies. The opportunity for connection is really at the core of that very first music lesson, for it is where the relationship with your teacher, your instrument, and music itself (formally) begins.

Out of this connection comes an invitation to collaborate. Learning music really is a collaboration between teacher and student. It is a back-and-forth, a dialogue, a constantly evolving, entirely unique journey between the teacher and each student. This collaboration is dynamic, sometimes surging forward when connections and learning forge new skills quickly, while sometimes the collaboration is steady, plodding along with consistent commitment. Other times the collaboration feels somewhere in the middle as the juggle of everyday life is quite real. What fuels collaboration? Curiosity. That first music lesson is the first chance to ask questions and express wonder as the connection, the relationship, is established.

Of course, there are also the practical and usual tasks that are central to the first music lesson: scheduling, specifics of setting up and holding your instrument, posture, how and what to practice to name a few. Taking a moment to consider what the first music lesson represents and offers is helpful in setting expectations for that special day. So, choose your instrument and enjoy that very first music lesson; it’s a special moment in your musical journey!