Questions to Ask a Potential Grad School Music Teacher
For musicians applying to master's and doctoral programs, to take to a trial lesson or an audition visit with the studio teacher they hope to study with. The 53 questions follow the visit: what the teacher heard when you played, how lessons run and how often the teacher is away, the studio, performing and ensembles, the degree and its funding, and where former students work now. It is written for instrumentalists and singers alike, with opera casting and young-artist auditions beside orchestra seats and excerpts.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
After you play
After hearing me today, what would you want to work on first?
Why ask it
Ask this as soon as the playing or singing stops, because the reply previews your first semester. Two or three named things, such as how you release the sound at the ends of phrases or what your left hand does in fast passages, mean the teacher was listening closely. If you get only general praise, ask what separates you from the strongest student in the studio.
How would you describe the way you teach graduate students?
Why ask it
Most teachers have a sentence ready for this, so ask next what happened in a lesson with a master's or doctoral student this week. Then set the description beside the lesson you just had. If the two do not match, trust the lesson.
Do you expect to have room in your studio for the year I would start?
Why ask it
A place often depends on who graduates, so the honest reply may be a number with a maybe attached. Schools differ on whether you are admitted to one teacher or assigned after the audition, and on whether naming a first choice on the application matters. Have the teacher explain how it is done there before you rank your schools.
Would you want to change anything basic in my technique or setup?
Why ask it
Some teachers rebuild an embouchure, a bow hold or a singer's breathing before anything else, and a rebuild can take up a large part of a short degree. Ask how long they think it would last and what you could still perform in the meantime. Hearing about a change you already suspected you needed is a good sign for the match.
What do you look for when you decide which students to take?
Why ask it
One teacher wants the most finished player on the day, and another wants the one who changed most inside a single lesson. Knowing which tells you how to spend the weeks before the audition, and how to read the corrections you were just given.
How do I compare with the graduate students you teach now?
Why ask it
It takes some nerve, and it is the fastest way to learn whether you would be chasing the room or leading it. Near the bottom of a strong studio you learn a great deal in studio class and wait longer for solo chances. Near the top, ask what would stretch you besides the weekly lesson.
Who were your own teachers, and what did you keep from each of them?
Why ask it
Teaching habits are often inherited, so the names tell you which school of playing or singing you would be joining. The part to listen for is what they dropped as well as what they kept, because a teacher who can say why they left an idea behind has thought about their own method. If one of those names also taught your current teacher, say so: it explains what felt familiar in the lesson.
Is there anything in my audition program you would rethink?
Why ask it
Useful only when the trial lesson comes before the audition. A teacher who sits on the panel hears these programs every year and knows which pieces show a player at this level and which get in the way. Keep it to this one question: asking to be coached through an audition by someone who will judge it puts them in an awkward spot.
Lessons
How often would I have a lesson, and how long is it?
Why ask it
An hour a week is a common pattern, but schools count it in different ways: a fixed number per semester, a longer slot for performance majors, a shorter one for some degrees. Get the count per semester and whether master's and doctoral students receive the same.
How often are you away during the school year, and what happens to my lessons then?
Why ask it
A teacher with a busy concert calendar is part of the appeal, and every tour is a week you do not see them. The arrangements vary: doubled lessons before a trip, an assistant who covers, video lessons, or a long gap. Put the same question to a current student and count how many lessons they had last semester.
Do you teach every lesson yourself, or does an assistant take some?
Why ask it
In large studios a doctoral assistant or a second teacher may hear you some weeks, sometimes for technique alone. That can be a real benefit if the two of them plan together. Find out how many of your lessons would be with the person whose name drew you to the school.
Who chooses my repertoire?
Why ask it
At this level you should arrive with opinions, and a good teacher will still overrule some of them. Name one large work you hope to learn during the degree. Whether you hear 'second year, once the sound is settled' or a flat no tells you how much of the program would be yours.
How do you divide lesson time between technique and repertoire at this level?
Why ask it
A graduate lesson may still open with scales, etudes or vocalises every week, or fundamentals may be left to you and heard only through the pieces. Neither is wrong. Choose by what you need: if your basics are the weak point, a teacher who never hears them will not fix them.
What do you expect a student to bring to each lesson?
Why ask it
The expectations are rarely written anywhere: new material every week, memory by a set date, a score already marked, a recording of your own practice. Hearing them now lets you judge the pace against your ensemble and assistantship hours.
How much do you expect your students to practice each day?
Why ask it
The number says as much about the studio's culture as about the workload. Bring up how it fits around rehearsals and any teaching duties, and notice whether the teacher talks about rest and pacing or only about hours.
What happens in a lesson when you and a student hear a piece differently?
Why ask it
By graduate school you have interpretive habits of your own, and some teachers want them argued for while others want their own reading reproduced. Ask for a recent case. If the former students you can find on recordings all phrase alike, you already have part of the answer.
How do you feel about your students playing for other teachers, in masterclasses or over the summer?
Why ask it
Studios range from open to possessive about this. A teacher who names colleagues they send students to is confident in their own work. Hesitation here matters most if you plan to keep taking the odd lesson with a former teacher.
May I record my lessons?
Why ask it
Most of what is said in an hour is gone by the next practice session, and a recording lets you hear the before and after. A few teachers decline, or allow audio but not video, so settle it before the first lesson and not in the middle of one.
Have you taught students through tension, pain or a playing injury, and how did you adjust?
Why ask it
Worth asking if you have had trouble before, and worth asking anyway given the hours involved. Listen for practical changes, such as shorter sessions, different repertoire or a referral to a specialist, and not for a diagnosis. A teacher who says they would send you to a medical professional is answering well.
Which repertoire would you want me to have learned by the end of the degree?
Why ask it
This turns the degree into a list. Check it against what the jobs or auditions you want will ask for: orchestral excerpts, art song in several languages, a concerto, contemporary works. If the list and the goal do not overlap, say so now.
The studio
How many students are in your studio, and how many of them are graduate students?
Why ask it
Size sets how much of the teacher you get and how many people compete for the same chairs and roles. A small graduate group inside a large undergraduate studio often means the mentoring of younger players falls to you. Follow up on whether the number is rising.
Would you call your studio competitive, and how do the students treat each other?
Why ask it
Nearly every teacher will say supportive, so ask for evidence: do students play mock auditions for each other, share parts and fingerings, turn up at one another's recitals? Then watch the hallway outside the studio during your visit. People who are after the same seats or roles and still eat lunch together are the best answer you will get.
Do you hold a studio class, and how often would I perform in it?
Why ask it
A weekly performance class is where you get used to playing for the hardest audience you will meet, people who know your instrument. Ask who gives the comments, the teacher alone or the students too, and whether everyone gets regular turns or only those with recitals coming.
Could I sit in on a lesson or the studio class while I am here?
Why ask it
Watching the teacher work with someone else removes the pressure of your own trial lesson and shows what an ordinary week sounds like. Watch how a mistake is handled and whether the student talks back. If visitors are not allowed in lessons, ask about studio class instead.
Could you put me in touch with one or two of your current graduate students?
Why ask it
Students will tell you what a teacher cannot say about themselves: how many lessons were canceled, how feedback lands on a bad day, whether people in the studio help each other. Message them privately after the visit, and ask what they wish they had known before enrolling.
What kind of student tends not to do well with you?
Why ask it
Easier to answer honestly than its opposite, and more useful. One teacher will say students who need constant reassurance, another will say students who wait to be told what to do. If the description fits you, that does not rule the school out, but you should know it going in.
Do you have a sabbatical, a leave or a move planned during the years I would be here?
Why ask it
You are choosing a person more than a building, and people go on leave, retire and take other jobs. A teacher cannot promise the future, but a planned sabbatical is known well ahead. If one falls inside your degree, find out who teaches the studio that year.
If we turned out to be a poor match, how does changing teachers work here?
Why ask it
Awkward to raise with the person you hope to study with, so frame it as a question about school policy. It can be a simple form in a school that shrugs at it, or a rare move that the whole department notices. Knowing which matters most where there is only one teacher for your instrument.
Do students work with a staff pianist for lessons and recitals, and who pays for that?
Why ask it
For singers and most instrumentalists, rehearsal time with a good pianist shapes the recital as much as the lessons do. Arrangements differ widely: staff pianists assigned by the school, collaborative piano students earning credit, or a private fee per hour. Get the answer as hours per week and a price.
Do visiting artists give masterclasses for the studio, and who gets to play for them?
Why ask it
A list of last year's guests shows how connected the studio is to the wider profession. The second half matters as much, because a masterclass where the same two students always play is something you only watch.
What are the practice rooms and school instruments like, and how hard is it to get time in one?
Why ask it
Decisive for pianists, organists, harpists and percussionists, who cannot carry the instrument home, and a daily irritation for everyone else when rooms run short. Look at the rooms yourself on the visit. Reserved rooms or keys for graduate students are worth asking about by name.
Performing
How many recitals does the degree require, and what has to be on them?
Why ask it
Requirements are set by the school and differ by degree, so get the specifics: the number of recitals, their length, whether chamber music or a lecture recital counts, and who grades them. The date of the first one tells you how fast you would need to learn new repertoire.
How are ensemble seats, parts or roles decided, and how do graduate students usually fare?
Why ask it
Placement can come from a screened audition each semester, a rotation, or a conductor's choice, and each rewards something different. For singers the parallel question is how opera roles are cast and whether first-year students are cast at all. Ask what a student who arrived at your level was playing or singing by the second semester.
How much of my week would the required ensembles take?
Why ask it
Orchestra, wind ensemble, choir or opera rehearsals can claim your best practice hours. Add the figure to the teacher's practice expectation and any assistantship duties and see whether the week still works. If it does not, ask whether the requirement is ever reduced for graduate students.
How much chamber music would I play, and who coaches it?
Why ask it
Coaching by faculty every week is different from groups left to organize themselves. How groups are formed matters too, since being assigned partners and finding your own lead to very different years, and so does whether your teacher coaches any of them.
Is there a concerto competition or some other path to a solo with one of the ensembles?
Why ask it
Three details settle it: how often it runs, who may enter, and how many of the recent winners came from this studio. The teacher's view of whether you should enter in your first year also shows how they pace a student.
Do you encourage students to take professional auditions and enter competitions during the degree?
Why ask it
A teacher may build the year around the audition calendar, or want you off the circuit until the playing is settled. Either can be right for you. A mismatch shows up as conflict the first time you ask to miss a week for an audition.
How do you feel about students taking outside gigs and freelance work during the semester?
Why ask it
Paid work is how many graduate students cover rent and start building a name in a new city. The line is often drawn at missed lessons or rehearsals, so hear where this teacher puts it, and whether the area has enough work on your instrument to count on. International students should also check with the school what work their visa permits.
Which summer festivals and programs do your students go to, and do you help them apply?
Why ask it
Summers are where contacts outside the school get made. Named festivals show the level the studio is working at, and help can mean anything from a suggestion to a recommendation letter and a lesson on the audition material. Applications tend to be due months ahead, so raise it soon after you arrive.
Degree and funding
Are there assistantships for students in your studio, and what would the duties be?
Why ask it
Duties run from teaching undergraduate lessons or a class to playing in a graduate ensemble, accompanying or office work, and the hours and pay are set by the school. Get the weekly hours and whether tuition is covered in full, in part or not at all. Then confirm it with the graduate office, because a studio teacher may not control the award.
Who decides scholarships and assistantships, and how much does your recommendation count?
Why ask it
At some schools the studio teacher ranks the candidates and the money follows the ranking, and at others a committee or a dean decides from the audition scores. Knowing who holds the decision tells you whom to write to if the first offer falls short.
Does an award run for the whole degree, or is it reviewed each year?
Why ask it
Renewal can hinge on grades, on a jury result or on the budget, and those are three very different risks. Has anyone in the studio lost an award, and why? Whatever you are told in the room, wait for the written offer before you rely on it.
If the first offer is not enough for me to attend, is there an appeal, and would you support it?
Why ask it
Many schools have a way to ask again, and it is often the teacher's word that moves it. Raise it only after an offer has arrived, and bring facts: the size of the gap and any competing offer. Whether another school's letter makes a difference varies, so have them explain how it works there.
Would I get to teach during the degree, and would anyone observe my teaching?
Why ask it
For anyone heading toward a college job or a private studio, teaching under supervision is part of what the degree is for. Ask whether it would be majors, non-majors or a class, and whether a faculty member ever sits in and comments. Unsupervised hours are income, not training.
Which program would you suggest for me: a master's, a doctorate, or a performance diploma?
Why ask it
Names and requirements differ from school to school and country to country, so have the teacher explain what each one involves there. Their choice for you is also an honest read of your playing and your goals. A teacher who steers you toward a shorter performance-only program may be telling you the academic doctorate would cost practice time you need.
For the doctorate, how much academic work sits beside the playing?
Why ask it
Depending on the school it can include seminars, language requirements, comprehensive exams, lecture recitals and a written document or dissertation. The telling details are how long students in this studio take to finish and where they get stuck. Skip this one if you are applying for a master's only.
Which costs do students in your studio not see coming?
Why ask it
The tuition figure leaves out pianist fees, recital recording and hall charges, instrument upkeep, festival applications and travel to auditions. A teacher who has watched students budget for these can give you a rough yearly total. Add it to each school's offer before comparing them.
If I am admitted, may I come back to you with more questions before I decide?
Why ask it
Decisions come down to details you will not think of until two offers sit side by side. A yes, with an email address or a time for a call, also tells you how reachable this teacher is. Some schools will arrange a second lesson for admitted students, so see whether that is possible.
Careers
Where are the graduate students you taught in the last five years working now?
Why ask it
Request the whole group, including those who left music. A studio page lists the orchestra jobs and the prize winners, and the teacher can fill in the rest: who teaches in schools, who freelances, who changed fields. If nobody is doing the work you want, ask whether anyone was aiming for it.
What do your students who do not land a full-time performing job go on to do?
Why ask it
Only part of any studio ends up in a full-time performing post, so this is a question about an ordinary outcome and not about failure. A teacher who answers with respect, naming teaching careers, freelance lives and arts administration, will still take your calls if your own path bends.
How do you prepare students for the auditions that lead to jobs?
Why ask it
Listen for specifics: mock auditions behind a screen, an excerpt class, recorded run-throughs, help deciding which auditions are worth the airfare. For singers the equivalent is young-artist program auditions and how the package of arias is chosen. A teacher who has sat on hiring panels can tell you what gets a player cut in the first round.
Does the school teach the practical side of a music career?
Why ask it
Contracts, taxes for freelancers, grant writing, recording and running a private studio are seldom covered in lessons. A school may run courses or a career office for them, or leave it to you. If it is left to you, ask the teacher which of those they would talk you through themselves.
How do you stay involved with students after they graduate?
Why ask it
The relationship that matters for a career often starts at graduation: a phone call before an audition, a recommendation, a name passed to a contractor. Ask when they last heard from a former student and what it was about.
Getting more from a trial lesson or audition visit
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Arranging the visit
Write a short email, early
Teachers hear from many applicants in the months before applications close, and the messages that get answered are brief: who you are, what you are applying for, your current teacher, a link to a recent recording and a request for a lesson on dates you can manage. Write well before the application deadline if you can, since a lesson taken first can tell you whether to apply at all.
Find out whether the lesson is paid
Some teachers charge their usual rate for a trial lesson and some do not charge prospective students. Neither says anything about the teaching. Bring it up in the email so the end of the lesson is not spent on an awkward exchange about money.
Bring something unfinished
Two contrasting pieces is plenty. Make one of them something still in progress, because a polished performance leaves the teacher little to do except compliment it, and you came to find out how they teach.
If you can only meet at the audition
Audition days are crowded, and the teacher may have ten minutes between candidates. Keep the questions under After you play for that slot, and request a video call or a lesson later for everything else. Plenty of teachers are glad to do one once results are out.
While you are there
Play first, talk afterwards
The teacher learns the most about you from the playing, and your best questions come out of what they correct. Leave ten minutes at the end, and say at the start that you have a few things to ask so the time is kept.
Treat the corrections as the interview
While you are judging the teaching, the teacher is watching how you take it. Try each suggestion on the spot, even one you doubt, and say what you notice. How quickly a change happens in the room is what many teachers remember about an applicant.
Ask about the calendar without apology
Time away, sabbaticals and studio size can feel rude to raise with someone whose playing you admire. They are ordinary questions, and a teacher who performs a lot has answered them before. Put them plainly and in a friendly voice: 'I know you tour. How do lessons work around that?'
Write it all down within the hour
After three or four school visits the lessons blur together. Before you leave the building, note what was corrected, what you were told about lessons and money, and how you felt walking out. That last line is easy to forget and hard to reconstruct.
Who else to ask
Current students, away from the teacher
Take the questions under Lessons and The studio to a student: how many lessons they actually had last semester, what studio class feels like, how people treat each other. Talk to a first-year and to someone close to finishing if you can, since they will have seen different sides of the teacher.
The admissions or graduate office
Award amounts, assistantship hours, tuition waivers and deadlines belong to the office, whatever the teacher hopes to arrange. Ask the teacher who decides, then get the figures from the office in writing. Rules differ by school and by country, so do not carry one school's answer over to another.
Ensemble directors and coaches
If orchestra seating, opera casting or chamber music matters to your plans, the person who runs it knows more than the studio teacher. A short email asking how placements work for new graduate students is a normal thing to send.
Your current teacher
Bring your notes home and talk them through. Someone who knows your playing can tell you whether the changes a prospective teacher proposed sound right, and often knows by reputation how a studio is run.
Where applicants go wrong
Choosing the famous name over the lesson
A celebrated performer who is away half the year and a less known teacher who is in the building every week offer different degrees. Decide which you need at this stage, and weigh the lesson you had more heavily than the biography.
Hearing a warm lesson as an offer
A teacher can enjoy working with you and still have one opening and six applicants. Kind words in the room are not admission and not funding. Keep every application alive until a written offer arrives.
Comparing teachers on different pieces
If you bring a different work to every trial lesson, you cannot tell whether the lessons differed or the music did. Take at least one piece to all of them and compare what each teacher did with the same eight bars.
Leaving money until you have fallen for the studio
Once you have pictured yourself in a studio, it is tempting to make the numbers work somehow. Ask the questions under Degree and funding at every school and line the answers up before you let yourself choose a favorite.