Does being "in" a band help with learning?

Sometime the best instruction around comes from a "band".  Some bands explicitly require that a student agree to become a "member" of the band to "pay back" the teaching team for all their effort.  Som times, there's an assumption on the part of the student that that's the case.

Quite honestly, being associated with a group of supportive pipers cannot do anything but help the prospective student.

In a good teaching environment, the student will be taught from a well structured plan or syllabus and will make good progress.  She/he will have contact with many different people to learn different aspects.  (Any good teacher is quite comfortable with having the student learn from other good teachers. )