If you’re looking to improve as a musician, you might consider instrumental lessons, music coaching, online courses, workshops or simply teaching yourself.
But what’s the difference between music coaching and instrumental lessons?
The simplest distinction is this:
Instrumental lessons often begin with the instrument and the skills needed to play it. Music coaching usually begins with the musician, their goals and the kind of musician they want to become.
There’s plenty of overlap, and individual teachers and coaches vary enormously. Neither approach is inherently better. The important question is which approach best suits your goals, the way you like to learn and the kind of musician you hope to become.
It begins with a different question
Instrumental lessons often begin with the instrument.
Music coaching usually begins with the musician.
That may sound like a small distinction, but it can shape almost everything that follows.
An instrumental teacher might ask:
“What shall we learn next on your instrument?”
A coach is more likely to ask:
“What kind of musician do you want to become?”
Neither question is right or wrong. They simply lead in different directions.
What are instrumental lessons?
Instrumental lessons generally focus on helping students develop the knowledge and skills needed to play an instrument confidently and musically.
Depending on the instrument, style and teacher, that might include technique, posture, tone, rhythm, notation, interpretation, repertoire, improvisation and stylistic understanding.
Lessons are often teacher-led. The teacher identifies what the student needs next, demonstrates new material, provides feedback and suggests work for the following lesson.
Some instrumental lessons follow a clearly structured route through graded examinations, technical exercises and carefully chosen repertoire. Others are much more informal, perhaps working through songs chosen by the student using chords, TAB, lead sheets or recordings.
Jazz education may place greater emphasis on listening, improvisation and learning directly from recordings.
So there is no single model of an instrumental lesson.
What these approaches generally have in common is that the instrument and learning to play it well remain at the centre of the process.
For someone wanting to master an instrument, develop specialist technical skills, learn particular repertoire or prepare for examinations, good instrumental lessons can be an excellent choice.
What is music coaching?
Music coaching generally starts from a different place.
Instead of beginning with a syllabus, grade, method book or predetermined sequence of pieces, coaching begins with the individual musician and what they want to be able to do.
One person may want to accompany their own singing.
Another may want to improvise confidently.
Someone else may want to learn and remember songs without relying on chord sheets, play more comfortably with other musicians, compose their own music or simply become more independent.
Rather than following a fixed route, coaching attempts to design a route around the individual.
The destination belongs to the musician. The journey is negotiated between coach and client.
That doesn’t mean coaching lacks structure. Good coaching still has direction, milestones and clear expectations. But the route can change as the musician develops and their interests or goals evolve.
Instrumental skill and holistic musicality
One of the more significant differences is the breadth of what is being developed.
Instrumental lessons naturally place considerable emphasis on the skills required to play an instrument well.
Music coaching can take a broader view, developing what I call holistic musicality: helping the different parts of being a musician grow together.
That might include developing the ability to:
- listen closely and recognise what’s happening in music
- understand how music works, both intellectually and by ear
- sing melodies, bass lines or harmonies to strengthen musical understanding
- improvise and experiment
- remember songs more reliably
- communicate with other musicians
- develop useful practice habits
- perform with greater confidence
- become less dependent on notation, TAB, chord sheets or online tutorials where appropriate
- continue learning independently
These abilities aren’t separate from instrumental playing. They support it.
Listening strengthens understanding. Understanding can improve memory. Singing can develop the ear. A stronger ear can make improvisation easier. Improvisation encourages experimentation and expression.
So coaching may sometimes involve activities that don’t immediately look like instrumental practice.
You might spend time listening carefully to a recording, singing a bass line, finding the home note, working out a chord by ear or transposing a song into a key that better suits your voice.
The immediate aim isn’t necessarily to master another piece.
It’s to become a more capable, adaptable and independent musician.
Teaching versus guiding
Another difference is the role of the person you’re working with.
Instrumental teachers generally explain, demonstrate and instruct. A good instrumental teacher brings knowledge and experience that can save enormous amounts of time and help prevent poor habits from becoming established.
Coaches teach and demonstrate too, but they may also spend more time asking questions, encouraging reflection and helping musicians discover solutions for themselves.
Suppose you’re struggling to work out part of a song.
An instrumental teacher might demonstrate what to play and help you play it correctly.
A coach might first ask what you’re hearing, how you’ve tried to find it, what seems to be working and where you’re getting stuck.
They can still show or explain the answer when necessary. But wherever possible, they’re also helping you develop a process you can use when you encounter the next song.
The aim isn’t only to solve today’s musical problem.
It’s to make you increasingly capable of solving tomorrow’s problems for yourself.
Does music coaching still involve teaching?
Absolutely.
Coaching isn’t the absence of teaching.
A music coach may explain harmony, rhythm, technique, theory or musical structure when those things will help someone move forward.
In practice, an experienced coach may move between coaching, teaching, mentoring, questioning and demonstrating according to what the musician needs at that moment.
The difference is that the teaching serves the musician’s wider goals rather than automatically determining the route they follow.
How is progress measured?
This can differ too.
In instrumental lessons, progress may be relatively easy to see: improved technique, more challenging repertoire, a successful examination, greater accuracy or a better performance.
Those things can matter in coaching as well, but progress may also be measured by what the musician can now do independently.
Can you hear where a chord changes?
Can you work out a melody without searching for TAB?
Can you remember the structure of a song?
Can you transpose it to suit your voice?
Can you join in with other musicians more confidently?
Can you make musical decisions without needing someone else to provide the answer?
The goal is gradually to need less help, not more.
Can instrumental lessons and music coaching work together?
Absolutely.
They don’t need to compete.
An instrumental teacher might provide specialist guidance on technique, tone and repertoire, while a coach helps the same musician develop listening, creativity, confidence, independence and broader musical understanding.
Some instrumental teachers already include many elements associated with coaching, while some music coaches have considerable instrumental teaching expertise.
The boundary isn’t rigid.
What’s important is understanding the emphasis of the person you’re considering working with and whether it matches what you want from your music.
Which approach is right for you?
If your main priority is developing your technique, mastering a particular instrument or repertoire, or preparing for graded examinations, instrumental lessons may be the most appropriate choice.
If you’re trying to become a more rounded and independent musician, develop your ear and broader musicality, overcome barriers or pursue musical goals that don’t fit neatly into a traditional instrumental syllabus, music coaching may suit you better.
You may even benefit from both.
Neither approach has a monopoly on good musical education, and excellent instrumental teachers and music coaches often borrow from both.
The useful question isn’t:
“Are instrumental lessons or music coaching better?”
It’s:
“Which approach will best help me become the musician I want to become?”