Well, it’s about time for my annual Music Teacher’s Helper sales spiel. 
But instead of writing another review, I’ll let you watch the video that I produced for their recent testimonial contest. Plus, I’m super excited that they are getting ready to launch a completely revamped website! I love new things like this!
How do you schedule the right to take a week off each semester?
This is the exact wording from my studio policy:
The schedule for each semester, including weeks that there will be no lessons, is posted on the website (here) and included in the September newsletter each year.
At the beginning of each studio year I figure out my schedule and make note of what weeks I’ll be traveling or taking breaks. These are reflected on the studio calendar. The additional week off mentioned in the policy is primarily in case I am sick or have another emergency that prevents me from teaching. In theory, I could just take off the week if I wanted some time off, too, but I’ve never been able to bring myself to do this. So usually, my students just benefit from that extra week each semester.
Remember, if you have a question you’d like to contribute to next week’s Monday Mailbag, leave it in the comments below or send me an e-mail sometime this week with Monday Mailbag in the subject line!
What do you do in your first interview with a student?
Check out this Student Interviews post for an overview of what I include in Student Interviews and for free interview questionnaires that you can download and use in your studio. In a nutshell, though, here are the main things that I aim to accomplish in each interview:
1. Get to know the student and parent and ascertain if we will work well together. I try to get a feel for their personality, how they learn, and what their interests are.
2. Assess the student’s musical aptitude and interest and the parents’ expectations. Only under rare exceptions will I accept a student who is not personally interested in taking piano lessons. If they are interested, then I like to get an idea of what their musical strengths and weaknesses are/will be.
3. Give the student a chance to make music at the piano. I do simple activities and a couple of improvisation exercises to try to build excitement for learning to understand and make music. One of my primary objectives is for them to go home from the interview even more enthusiastic about lessons than when they arrived!
4. Discuss policy issues, studio opportunities, and scheduling considerations. I want to make sure that we are all on the same page and give the parent an opportunity to ask any questions before they sign that they agree to abide by my studio policies. We also figure out lesson times at this point.
I’d love to hear what things others include in the initial student interviews. What else have you found important to include?
Remember, if you have a question you’d like to contribute to next week’s Monday Mailbag, leave it in the comments below or send me an e-mail sometime this week with Monday Mailbag in the subject line!
Do you ever have issues with students taking off the month of December? For example, do they ever take off because they don’t want to pay for the whole month when they will only get 2 or 3 lessons?
In years past, when I was still making the transition to a monthly flat rate for lessons, this was an issue. It was hard at first to help families understand that the lesson fee included more than just the time at the lesson, but all the other “perks” that come from being a part of my studio. That’s why the monthly rate is the same, regardless of the number of lessons from month to month. Now that I’ve learned how to communicate better with families, this doesn’t seem to be an issue.
One thing that I have learned over the years is to openly and clearly communicate when these sorts of issues come up. Several years ago, I had a situation where an adult student contacted me to let me know that she wouldn’t be available for several of her lessons in May and suggested that we just take the month off and resume in June. I did a little digging and was able to track down the e-mail response I sent her:
Thanks for letting me know about your schedule. I just wanted to run something by you so you would have my perspective…one of the reasons I charge a flat monthly rate for lessons is because teaching piano is the way I make my living and I have to be able to budget a certain amount of income so that I can meet my expenses each month. Even though I am incredibly blessed that my parents have allowed me to continue to live in their home, there are a lot of expenses associated with running my own business (insurances, license, professional association fees, continuing education, website fees, etc.), in addition to just my regular living expenses. I have to factor all of these into the amount I charge for lessons and then teach a certain number of students to meet those expenses. While I certainly understand the dilemma you are in with various scheduling conflicts and it may seem best to just skip a month of lessons rather than paying the same amount and receiving fewer lessons, for me the result is a fairly significant reduction in the income that I was expecting to receive that month.
I hope that this doesn’t come across wrong. I just thought that it was important for me to express this to you. I wish I had more flexibility in my schedule to work out other times when you have other commitments, but sometimes things are just too tight to try to find other times that will work for both of us. If there is another time that you think would be better for you in the fall when I rework my schedule, just let me know and hopefully we can work that out!
Upon receiving my response, this student was not only understanding, but she was also incredibly grateful that I had taken the time and effort to share my perspective with her. Even though her children had previously taken lessons from other teachers for years, no one had ever taken the time to communicate this to her. I have had similar situations with other families that have helped me realize the importance of not getting upset or offended, but being gracious and patient, and equally open to hearing their perspective. Just like any business should, I want to make sure that I am providing the best value for my clients so that they always feel like they are getting their money’s worth. It takes a while, but eventually each teacher should be able to figure out the right balance between professional policies and a friendly personable approach to operating their studio.
Hope this helps! As always, any additional input is welcome!
Remember, if you have a question you’d like to contribute to next week’s Monday Mailbag, leave it in the comments below or send me an e-mail sometime this week with Monday Mailbag in the subject line!
Most of us teach because we love playing music, we love working with students, and/or we just love teaching. Few of us run studios because we just love doing recordkeeping, filing taxes, and handling other aspects on the business-side of things. I will confess, however, that I love the challenge of strategizing and coming up with good systems to set in place to streamline business operations. If you have a good system in place, staying organized is easy! Here are a few organizational systems that help me maintain some semblance of sanity.
1. Music Teacher’s Helper – If you’ve been reading here for any length of time at all, you know that I am a HUGE fan of Music Teacher’s Helper! Even though I haven’t even tapped into every feature that it offers, this has streamlined my bookkeeping and makes it a breeze. I love the way it keeps my finances organized and presents a professional image for my families since each of them have an account to receive automatic invoices, check records, pay on-line, and more. I’m in the highest cost bracket at $24.95/month, but it is so worth it for me!
2. Managing Receipts – This is a very simple binder system, but it’s essential for record-keeping and tax time! I have one binder for each of my businesses that serves to collect the receipts for the whole year according to the month in which the purchase was made. And then I archive the receipts for three years, so I have two other binders (again, one for each business) that each contain the monthly sheet protectors filled with receipts from the previous three years.
3. Student Worksheets – There are so many great resources on-line, but I needed a way to have just the right worksheet available at the tip of my fingers when I ascertained that it would be beneficial to a particular student. This binder system is what I developed for that purpose and it has served me well for several years now. I have a similar, but separate, binder set-up just for the sight-reading drills that we’re using this year.
4. Printed Music – When it comes to music books and sheet music, we’re all familiar with the Overflowing Piano Bench Syndrome and the impossible-to-keep-organized bookshelves, right? These file cabinets have been incredible for keeping music organized! Plus, with items like this that students will be accessing, it’s important to have a system in place that makes sense to them and is easy for them to utilize as well.
Those are some of the key areas that I’ve worked on over the past several years. This year, I’m hoping to come up with a better system for listing music books that I need to purchase for students and a way to keep track of what books/pieces students have used/learned. Any suggestions?
How do you deal with payments? I’ve been billing my students on the last week of the month, for the next month. Seems quite backwards, but I’m not sure how to do this! Do you do postdated cheques? Some teachers find that works well, but what if the student misses a lesson? Please just give me some ideas here, and tell me what works for you and why!
Over the years I’ve tried several different approaches and have now been using the same approach (which I love!) for several years. First of all, if you have not checked out Music Teacher’s Helper, you absolutely MUST do so! I’ve been using it now for about two years and it saves me so much of the time and headaches that were formerly a part of my bookkeeping efforts. MTH automatically bills families on the date you choose, allows you to set up a separate access code for each family so that they can check their payment record, amount due, etc. at any time, allows for on-line payment via credit card, and so much more! (You can read Review One and Review Two for more info.)
Anyway…on to a few specifics on how I handle billing. I charge a flat monthly rate that includes the weekly lesson plus all group classes and recitals. This amount is due at the first lesson of the month and is the same regardless of the number of lessons that month. I disseminate a calendar at the beginning of the school year indicating what weeks I will be teaching for the fall and spring semesters, plus I reserve the option of taking one additional week off each semester, if necessary. There are no refunds for missed lessons, but if possible I will offer a make-up lesson.
A handful of my studio families pay on-line, but most pay by check. I have heard of teachers allowing “postdated cheques,” but I think that is primarily a Canadian practice (at least I’ve never known any teachers in our area to use that approach). There are many different ways to handle payments (and hopefully some others will chime in with ideas!), but the key is to figure out what will work the best for you and your studio families. In my mind, the primary goal is to increase efficiency, streamline the process as much as possible, and provide great value for my students so that they always feel like they are getting their money’s worth!
Remember, if you have a question you’d like to contribute to next week’s Monday Mailbag, leave it in the comments below or send me an e-mail sometime this week with Monday Mailbag in the subject line!
I am 23 years old and have been teaching piano/theory since I was about 17. Back then the students I had were all students I knew for a while, because my mom passed them on to me, but recently I’ve gotten a lot more students that I dont know, and I’m just wondering how I should dress. I used to just wear my “normal clothes” (jeans, sweats, etc.), but was wondering if I really should be wearing dress pants and dressy tops and what not?
This is a great question and I will definitely be interested to see input from other teachers, as I’m sure there are a wide variety of thoughts on this topic! Years ago, I remember someone telling me that one should dress to convey the importance of their message. This has always stuck with me and I make a point to dress professionally for every lesson. If I want to communicate that studying music should be taken seriously and if I want to establish respect for the music teaching profession, then it’s important for me to dress accordingly.
Plus, I notice that the way I dress affects not only the perception of others, but also my own attitude. If I didn’t't take the time to dress up for the day, I would feel lazy and haphazard in my teaching. But when I dress professionally, I feel more organized, pulled together, and ready to approach lessons with verve!
Remember, if you have a question you’d like to contribute to next week’s Monday Mailbag, leave it in the comments below or send me an e-mail sometime this week with Monday Mailbag in the subject line!
What age range do you think might be best for a beginning teacher? Or maybe I should rephrase that as, “Are there certain ages which you find significantly more challenging to instruct than other ages?”
This one really made me think! There is a common misconception that it is less critical to have a good/professional/experienced, etc. teacher for the beginning years of a student’s piano instruction, because if they indicate that they are serious about studying piano, they can get in with a good teacher later. I wholeheartedly disagree with this mentality! The beginning years of a student’s music education are the most critical. This is when foundational musical concepts are learned, practice habits are formed, attitude toward music and lessons is developed, and so much more.
For this reason, I think I would almost recommend that a beginning teacher start by taking on some transfer students, rather than starting beginning students from scratch. You will probably find it easier to pinpoint weak areas that need attention and will feel more comfortable helping those students fix problems or answer questions that they have. This will also help you see firsthand what areas are important to include in a child’s beginning lessons.
I’m sure there are other thoughts on this issue, and it certainly depends some on your own personality and how well you interact with various ages of children or adults. And, of course, you may not have the luxury of choosing specific ages or levels – you may just have to take what you get as you are contacted by parents or interested students and learn as you go. As hard as it is to learn “on the fly,” there’s really nothing that can substitute for experience. I know I’ve made plenty of mistakes in my years of teaching, but my goal is to constantly be learning and striving to be the best teacher that I can be for the students that I have.
I would welcome input from any other teachers! What age or level do you think is best for a beginning teacher to start with?
Remember, if you have a question you’d like to contribute to next week’s Monday Mailbag, leave it in the comments below or send me an e-mail sometime this week with Monday Mailbag in the subject line!
Even though I’ve had a studio policy in place for years, it never occurred to me until this fall to put together a list for myself of studio procedures. In particular, I put together a list of procedures for enrolling a new student, and a list of what needs to be done at the beginning of each school year. I think this will be tremendously helpful to me in the future so that I don’t overlook things that need to be done. No doubt, it will help me manage my time more efficiently!
New Student Procedures
New School Year Procedures
Do you have a list of procedures that you follow at the beginning of the school year and when you enroll new students? Or can you think of any other situations for which it might be helpful to have a list of procedures?
What would you say would be the best way for a new piano teacher to go about advertising for getting students? This isn’t in the hypothetical, I am thinking about beginning piano teaching. I’ve never done taught piano before so am a little intimidated by the whole idea. I realize that just because I can play doesn’t necessarily mean that I can teach…
This is an excellent question and observation! The fact that you are asking it before jumping in is a mark that you are on the right track. Here are some things I would suggest as far as starting a new studio:
1. Engage in some vigorous self-education. Check pedagogy books out from your local library or university; spend some time at a music store exploring and learning about the different methods; browse the Internet for tons of pedagogy-related sites, forums, and blogs. You’ll probably feel somewhat overwhelmed, but just try to pull tips here and there that you think will be helpful as you get started.
2. Set up a free website with Music Teacher’s Helper. Take the time to think through your policies and any other information that you want to make available to prospective students. (Here’s a studio policy website with lots of examples to help with this process.) I would highly recommend purchasing your own domain name. The cost is nominal, and it will look more professional – not to mention shorter!
3. Design and print some professional business cards (Please no perforated edge cards that you print and tear apart yourself…you can get great deals on hundreds of business cards through VistaPrint and similar on0line printers. Just stay away from the free ones that have the VistaPrint logo on the back – also highly unprofessional, in my opinion.). Include your website on your business card.
4. In all conversations, make a point to share that you are opening a piano studio. Almost everyone has some connection to someone who is looking for a teacher, wants to take lessons, etc. Give them your business card, or two or three! Word-of-mouth is still the best advertising!
5. Join a local music teachers association. (Run a search on the Internet like: Wichita Kansas local music teacher association.) Most local associations offer referral programs to help new teachers build up their studios. Plus, you can learn from the experience of other teachers, attend workshops, enroll students in events, etc.
These are a few starter ideas. You may also be interested in reading another post I wrote on Advertising for New Students. Just remember to take one step at a time, with a mind to learn from the varied people and opportunities that cross your path.
Also, you will notice that I emphasize professionalism a great deal. Whether you view your teaching as a ministry, a side business, a hobby, or a full-fledged business, both you and your studio families will benefit from clear communication of expectations and policies. I learned this the hard way! Just remember that you will tend to attract the kind of students that reflect your philosophies and policies. If you are flaky, distracted, and putting in minimal time and effort, don’t be surprised if your students and their parents are the same. Conversely, if you are committed, focused, and clearly investing your time and energy to provide the best music education possible for your students, they will appreciate that and reflect it in their side of the relationship as well.
If you have other ideas or important pointers for a new teacher, please chime in!
Remember, if you have a question you’d like to contribute to next week’s Monday Mailbag, leave it in the comments below or send me an e-mail sometime this week with Monday Mailbag in the subject line!
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