Here’s my short answer:

1. You do not have to have a music degree to be an excellent piano teacher.

2. You do have to be well-educated to be an excellent piano teacher.

Now, for the long answer:

Degree programs may be helpful for those who want a systematic approach designed by someone else to prepare you for a given field according to the criteria of those designing the program. However, there are many, many other ways to become well-educated. In fact, the more you are willing to take responsibility for your own education, the more lasting value you will gain from your efforts and studies. And asking the question above is a great first step! Here are my top 5 suggestions pulled from a previous post on preparing to be a piano teacher:

1. Continue studying with a private teacher who is also willing to mentor you as a teacher. This has been and continues to be an invaluable part of my education! There’s just nothing that beats continued improvement in your skill as a pianist and working through your own difficulties to equip you to help your students do the same. And my teacher (and author of the book, Thinking As You Play) has done worlds for me in working with me through intermediate-level repertoire and learning to think conceptually.

2. Start reading and do lots of it! There are numerous piano pedagogy books, blogs, websites, articles, magazines – way more than you’ll ever have time to get through! – that are a great way to build your understanding of issues related to teaching. In addition, I highly recommend reading business-related books that will get you thinking about your  studio not just as it relates to teaching, but also as it relates to being a successful business. The book, The Savvy Musician, would be a perfect starting place for a book that combines the two worlds. To paraphrase a thought I read recently in another book, having a right knowledge about teaching doesn’t necessarily make you a good teacher, but it’s a whole lot easier to go from right knowledge to good teaching than from no knowledge to good teaching!

3. Walk with the wise. As soon as you possibly can, find and join a local music teachers association and become actively involved in their events, workshops, and meetings. Get to know the other teachers – many of whom have years of experience. Ask them all your questions and take as much advice as you can get. Visit their studios and take notes while observing their lessons. Every time I observe another teacher, I take away valuable tips and ideas that I can immediately apply in my own teaching. And the camaraderie shared among fellow teachers is priceless. I know that I have over a dozen teachers that I could call in a heartbeat with a teaching issue and they would gladly offer whatever help and advice they could. For those who don’t have the luxury of living in an area with a teachers association, if there are other teachers in the area, consider starting an association or at least getting together informally. And if even that doesn’t work, connect with other teachers on-line through a forum or through blogging.

4. Start teaching. Take on a few students so that you can start implementing the ideas and things you’re learning. If possible, I recommend taking on a couple of transfer students rather than beginners. Teaching while you are studying and learning makes everything so much more relevant! Plus, if you opt to chart more of a customized course for your studies, you can use your teaching as a springboard for what to study. For example, if you have a student who is ready to branch out from just using method books, you might want to explore the earliest original classical repertoire and the various composers of it. You can learn more about the historical eras and share what you learn right away with your student, thus cementing the knowledge in your own mind. Or perhaps you will have a student struggling to play even eighth notes, so you will be compelled to explore new technical and rhythm development ideas. And so on.

5. Work toward and get your MTNA certification. This was one of the most helpful things I did to organize my own teaching philosophies and methods. Plus, it gave me the extra push to streamline my procedures and documentation so that I would have a smooth and professionally-run studio. As I comment in the article I linked to, I have no doubt in my mind that I am a better teacher today because of the things I did to earn my certification. Not to mention that it was highly practical so that the things I was working on were immediately applicable to my teaching and studio operations. It was well worth every minute and dollar I spent on it!

Now, as to the question of how much you should make…there are lots of factors involved. Your own education/investment in your field is one of them, but you also have to consider what your studio is going to offer, what your actual operating expenses are, what kind of clientele you want to attract, what the going rates are for other teachers in your area, what your other fee-related policies are, etc. All of those issues are beyond the scope of this post, but hopefully that will give you some good food for thought!

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 was immediately compelled to ask myself the same question in relation to my teaching. What is the purpose of my studio? I ponder this on a regular basis and feel like I am always refining the answer and readjusting my priorities. One thing that occurred to me after I read Mr. Linzey’s “correct” answer was to contemplate whether my business is something that I would continue doing at no cost if it wasn’t necessary for me to make a living doing it. Perhaps that’s a good litmus test of sorts for evaluating business motives – or even whether your job is a good fit for you if you’re employed by someone else.

So…I’m curious to know. What’s the purpose of your studio? Would you keep teaching at no cost to your students even if you didn’t have to make a living at it?

[please note: this is meant to be purely philosophical in nature, not practical, since there are many reasons why it's important to charge for lessons even if it's not financially necessary.]

I had several people ask about whether or not I charged the family in the case where they missed two months of lessons due to a move, so I thought it might be helpful to address it as a separate post. Basically, I’ve tried to structure my policies in a way so that I never credit a student for a missed lesson. The family that moved did pay the full amount for the two months even though they didn’t end up getting any lessons. They never even questioned it or hinted at not having
to pay. On one side I feel SO bad charging them when they aren’t even attending their lessons, but I know that on the business side of things I have to stick to my policies on this. Plus, if I make an exception for one family, then it’s not fair to charge other families for lessons that they miss, whether it’s one here and there, or a month or two of lessons for
some reason.

My policy also allows for me to cancel one additional lesson per student each semester as necessary and I’ve never had to cancel more than this. As long as I am holding the reserved time slot for the student, it must be paid for. Sometimes that seems hard, but business-wise, this is the only way I can make a living and be fair across the board. For broken wrists/arms, etc. we just spend the time on one-handed pieces and focus on other areas that the student can handle – theory games, technique, improv, a super fun listening activity, etc.

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!

In general, yes, I expect students to attend their lesson weekly. But I know that piano lessons are just one part of their lives. They have other responsibilities and events and I understand that piano won’t always be the priority. I adhere to a pretty strict no make-up lesson policy because I don’t have the flexibility in my schedule to give lessons outside my regular teaching hours. For this reason, my studio families know that if they can’t make it to a lesson, they will just miss that lesson.

As scheduling conflicts arise, students and families have to make difficult choices about which activities to attend. If basketball tryouts are the same afternoon as the piano lesson, they have to decide whether to make the lesson or try out for the team. If a friend schedules a sleepover for the night of the piano lesson, they have to decide whether to skip the lesson or come anyway and maybe just arrive late at the party. And so on. Most of my studio families see their lessons as a long-term pursuit, not just a short-term stint, so I don’t give them a hard time for missing lessons. That’s life. And we’ll just pick back up the following week and press on.

As an aside, if we recognize and want parents to understand that the students’ music education encompasses so much more than just their weekly lesson, we have to not act like the world will fall apart if they miss one lesson. In fact, I have a family who moved this fall and ended up missing two months of lessons while making the adjustment and getting settled into their new place. We are just now getting back into the swing of lessons. They may have forgotten a few things, or be a little rusty technically, but we are picking up where they’re at and moving forward. And in the long run, they’ll be just fine!

[NOTE: If you want to see the exact verbiage of my lesson attendance policies, just visit the Lesson Info page on my studio website.]

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!

Here are the three that I receive and really enjoy:

American Music Teacher – automatically included in MTNA membership; lots of great articles and current info.

Clavier Companion – good interviews, teaching tips, etc.

Listen – a more generic music magazine with some interesting articles on a wide variety of topics.

If you’re looking for something for your students, Piano Explorer is a great monthly magazine!

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!

Anyway, if you are thinking about designing and launching a studio website, already have one and want to improve it, or are considering a complete revamp of your studio website, you can get hundreds of dollars worth of fabulous advice just by reading his post with links to existing websites and his critique of each one. My studio website is badly in need of a revamp, and I know I’ll be studying this collection of websites and suggestions as I develop my new site. In fact, just reading the post inspires me to get a move on with several redesign projects! Hopefully the Music Matters Blog revamp (that has taken forever!) will be done soon and I’ll be able to spend some time working on a new studio website.

Also, if you have a studio website and want to include it on the Studio Website Listing, just send me an e-mail with your studio location and website address and I’ll add it to the listing. This page of websites will be much more prominent in the new blog design!

“I believe the next 15 years will be the most challenging in our history and will require more commitment to innovation. Over the past 135 years in general and the last 15 in particular, we have done a great job with the second part of our mission statement: to support the professionalism of music teachers. However, we haven’t done as good a job on the first part of our mission: to advance the value of music study and music making to society…

if we don’t aggressively and innovatively pursue the first part of our mission, there will certainly be no need for the second.”

More commitment to innovation. I love the prospect of innovation in the world of music study. The word innovation means, “the act of introducing new things or methods.” Just like every other business and organized activity, we are competing for the time and attention of the market. And just like anyone in the business world will tell you, in order to remain viable in the marketplace, you have to be innovative. The one who stubbornly refuses to understand the changing times and resorts to whining about declining interest in his field might as well close up shop and apply for a job somewhere else. But the one who sees, embraces, and learns to utilize the changes for greater effectiveness has unlimited opportunity for creative development and growth!

I know this is all more philosophical than practical, but (to borrow a quote from author Voddie Baucham in an entirely different context) “it is much easier to go from good theory to good practice than it is to go from no theory to good practice.”

And so I find myself thinking about this whole concept of commitment to innovation and wondering how I can apply this to promote music study and achieve greater effectiveness as a music teacher in the coming years. Any thoughts?

When I first started developing yearly practice incentive themes (visit this post for a list of some of the earlier themes that aren’t available in the resource store), I just charged families $10 for the student assignment book and then covered all the other costs from the amount I charged for lessons. This was not a good plan for my financial situation.

Several years ago I started charging a yearly registration fee of $50 (due by August 1) that helps offset the cost of running practice incentive themes, printing materials, purchasing awards, renting facilities, etc. This has been SO helpful! Since I develop our theme for the year in the late summer/early fall, this usually gives me plenty of time to keep my eyes open for good deals throughout the year. Sometimes I know exactly what I want and do tons of research to find good deals; other times (like with the Traveling to Triumph auction) I had a general idea that I wanted items from each of the countries to which we traveled. I found the desired items throughout the year, either on-line, at stores around town, or occasionally when a friend or parent suggested something. (The only exception was the chocolate kinder eggs from Germany that I had my heart set on, so my neighbor had her Germany-dwelling son send her a box of them for me!)

Most of the time, I try to avoid trinkets and instead develop the theme in a way so that the end goal is more about personal achievement. When I use tangible awards, I like it to be something meaningful, lasting, and related to the students’ musical growth (e.g. a trip to a symphony rehearsal or a recording studio, the opportunity to produce and sell music-related projects, a custom-designed and printed name plaque, etc.). I usually allocate $200-$300 to the year-end trip/award/project, etc. – whatever it may be.

For others who use incentive themes and plan special awards/events for your students, do you collect a registration fee? Or do you cover these expenses out of the regular lesson fee? Or do you have parents contribute separately for these things? Or something else?

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!

Eve though I’m not located on the east coast, I think there are several guiding principles you can use to help determine what to charge. Perhaps the best approach is to ask yourself these three questions:

• How much do I want/need to make? – I do most of my budgeting on a monthly basis, so I know how much I need to make per month in order to meet my expenses and other budget line items. Everyone’s needs are different and that’s the beauty of setting prices in a free market society. You can set up your business structure and cash flow according to what works best for you.
• What type of clientele do I want to attract? – And, consequently, how much will they pay for lessons? One could have a very successful business offering private lessons in-home to wealthy retired, but active, people who would love to play that gorgeous grand piano sitting in their living room (my financial adviser is always trying to talk me into doing this!). That teacher could charge a premium for their services. Conversely, you could have a successful business offering in-studio lessons to predominantly one income families with multiple children who value a well-rounded music education (which happens to be my current model). Therefore, I charge a lower rate than the above scenario would allow, thus keeping lessons affordable for these families.
• How do I provide excellent value for my clients in a way that promotes the professional nature of my business? – You do not want to sacrifice your business image in the name of cheaper prices. You have to charge enough and in a way that helps the families value what is being offered and make it a priority. For this reason, I charge a flat monthly rate (never a per lesson rate – I don’t even have a clue what one lesson would cost) and do not offer make-up lessons. When I switched to this payment structure quite a few years ago, I saw a huge improvement in lesson attendance, practice consistency, and the level of importance that lessons took in my studio families. I think charging per month or semester is one of the best decisions a studio teacher can make finance-wise.

I know there are lots of other factors involved in determining what to charge, but these three fundamental considerations have probably been the most helpful to me in establishing and running my studio. If you have other suggestions, though, please feel free to share! How do you determine what to charge for lessons?

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!

Since we’re at the start of a new teaching year, I’m pulling questions that have a bit more to do with the business side of running a studio. And I’m really glad that this one wasn’t phrased as a direct question toward me because I don’t think I can offer much input! I started out as a sole proprietorship and have remained that way ever since. At one point, I visited with an accountant to discuss the pros and cons of incorporating. After reviewing my particular situation, neither of us thought it was the best route at the time.

There are certainly risks associated with running a website and I’ve had to deal with legal things I never expected as a result of it! My best advice, though, is to educate yourself. Whether it means setting up a consultation with an attorney or accountant, reading through legal and business books, scouring the internet for helpful resources, or discussing situations with friends who own businesses (or all of the above!), the best thing you can do for yourself and your business is become knowledgeable about laws and policies governing the market. If and when someone does come after you, there’s nothing that beats being able to quickly send a well-written, well-researched, and well-documented response that addresses the concerns or accusations that have been raised.

I know of a few teachers who have incorporated their studios, but most of the ones I know operate as a sole proprietorship. It would be great to hear from others, though, about how they have structured their studios and the reasoning behind it! So, please share: what kind of business entity is your studio?

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!