Instrumental lessons

Dorset Music Service during COVID-19

At Dorset Music Service (DMS), along with the rest of our Dorset Council colleagues, the health and wellbeing of our pupils, staff, school colleagues and the wider music education community is our highest priority.

This is a fast-changing and difficult situation for us all and we aim to support our music-making community as best we can. We thank you for your patience and understanding so far.

Cancelled music sessions

We've had to stop the following with immediate effect:

face-to-face delivery of instrumental tuition
ensemble rehearsals
weekly Beginner Friendly Groups (BFG) gatherings

We're currently exploring how quickly we can offer an online alternative and connecting with national partners to share best practice and safeguarding guidelines to make sure this is effective and safe for all involved.

If you're a current DMS tuition customer who'd like to take up our offer of online support with resources and tuition (where we can) email us at DMS with your child's name and school and we'll contact you as soon as we can.

Instrumental lessons are carried out in most schools and provided by our team of experienced and enthusiastic instructors, or private providers depending on your child's school.

Why should I learn an instrument?

Some of the reasons for learning an instrument are that:

20% of children learn to play music, 70% of adults wish they had
research suggests that early music tuition improves a child's maths skills significantly
music is one of the few activities in life that utilises the entire brain
trained musicians more efficiently switch from one mental task to another

How to book lessons

Tuition is available on:

strings
woodwind
brass
guitar
piano/keyboard
percussion
ukelele

Contact your child's school for more information if you'd like your child to receive lessons from a member of the Dorset Music Service teaching team.

If you are a school wanting to book tuition please contact the Dorset Music Service office with details of which instrument(s) you require tuition on and for how many students. We will then be able to advise you on how much time you will require for these lessons and send you a booking form to complete your request.

Help with Dorset Music Service fees

We can offer financial help of up to 50% for:

our instrument tuition
our instrument hire
county ensemble membership fees

You could get help if your child meets all of the following criteria::

is eligible for free school meals
attends a Dorset school or academy
is having instrument tuition in a group or a pair
is learning one instrument

Find out about help with music fees from Dorset Music Service and how to apply.

Benefits of using the Dorset Music Service for instrumental tuition

Tuition from Dorset Music Service comes with:

Benefit	How this is achieved
Quality assurance	Through structured performance management, which includes observations and in-service training. All our Instructors have up-to-date safeguarding training and enhanced DBS clearance. If you're looking for tuition privately please see the Private Tutors leaflet for guidance on safeguarding.
Communication notebooks	All pupils taught by Dorset Music Service get a communication notebook. This provides a means of communication between pupil, instructor and parent, while providing a record of tasks, pieces studied and achievement.
Progress reports	Instructors write a yearly pupil report at the end of the spring term.

How it is delivered

We provide lessons through Instructors who work in schools to deliver tuition on a range of instruments for 30 weeks of the academic year. Lessons are delivered depending on instructor availability and school requests before, during or at the end of the school day.

See our instrumental tuition delivery calendar for more information.