And I’ll add one more comment I didn’t have time to make before. I assume most people know this … teachers are “people” too, some with incredibly busy schedules and personal lives, so it can be hard to connect with them despite how important it is to your kid. In the “heat of the moment”, you may get miffed at these teachers as “isn’t it their job to teach” and “how dare they blow a young, hopeful student off”. There are definitely schools/teachers that are better at communicating with aspiring musicians. Many LACs wear this as a badge and it is to their credit. If this is important to your kid, you should definitely lean in the direction of good communication/support. Other teachers/schools may have a hands off approach and/or make you jump through a few hoops bc they may be extremely busy…so in this case you may need to be an assertive student. My D nearly got kicked out of studio Freshman year as she was not being assertive enough in getting time with her teacher (who was not the hand holding type). But the suggestion that she may need to move studios lit a fire under my D and she became aggressive for time and attention. It’s a skill that she uses to this day. BUT someone could learn that over years as opposed to first semester of Freshman year…lol. So as you get different reactions from schools and teachers be sure to put the “shoulds” aside and look at the way the teacher/school operate to gauge your kids comfort level with different approaches.