One of the frustrations Independent Music Teachers often deal with is requests from parents that seem unreasonable and outside of what is allowed in our studio policy. The importance of communicating openly and clearly with parents became clear to me in a recent situation I encountered.

A student showed up at my studio for her lessons even though I had scheduled that week off, as I was out of town. (There was a phone message waiting for me when I got back home alerting me to this.) In addition, the student was going to be unable to attend another lesson that month, thus reducing the number of lessons she would receive that month to two. Her Grandma (the one who pays for and brings her to lessons) called me and expressed concern that her granddaughter would only be receiving two lessons that month and that she was paying more for lessons now since I raised my rate the first of the year. I acknowledged her concern, but also tried to let her know my perspective on the situation. Later that day I decided to send her an e-mail explaining things more clearly. This is what I wrote,

Because you expressed some concern over the cost of lessons, I wanted to let you know that once you spread out the cost over the spring semester (18 scheduled lessons), it averages out to just under [$$] per lesson. This doesn’t factor in the additional group classes that are also offered and included in the regular monthly payment. This is actually at the low end of what most of the teachers in the local associations charge for lessons and I try very hard to make sure that I offer all of my students a good value for their money. I put in quite a bit of time outside of the lessons planning and preparing for lessons and organizing different events so that students gain the most benefit possible from their music lessons. I am so pleased with how [student] is doing in piano and I’m so grateful for your willingness to invest so much in seeing that she takes piano lessons.

I hope this adequately addresses some of the concerns you mentioned. Please feel free to let me know if you have any other questions or concerns. Thanks!

A short while later, I received this very nice reply,

Natalie, thanks for explaining to me. I guess I was just thinking of a monthly rate, instead of the overall lessons. I really do appreciate the way you work with [student] and feel she is making much more progress this year. I will let you know about this week’s lesson, as soon as I talk with my daughter. You are a wonderful piano teacher! [signed]

It is SO important to communicate to our students and their families what we expect and to address their concerns in an honest and kind manner. It’s so much more effective than taking these misconceptions personally and getting frustrated and irritated over a [often perceived] lack of respect. We’re all coming from different perspectives and different frames of reference in regard to music lessons. Try to get right to the heart of the issue, address it, then move on and continue being the best teacher you can be!

It’s getting closer to Tax Day. As an Independent Music Teacher/Business Owner, be sure you’re taking advantage of all tax deductions available! Check out this list of 25 Common Business Deductions and Expenses to make sure you’re not missing anything.

Do you ever have trouble keeping track of all those business-related receipts throughout the year? Here’s an idea that’s helped me stay more organized in this area. Place 12 clear sheet protectors in a 1″ binder. Use a sticky label to make a little tab for each sheet protector with the name of each month on a tab. Throughout the year, just drop receipts into the corresponding month’s sheet protector. Make a new binder each year and easily store previous years’ binders until you can rotate them back around again (the above linked article suggests saving receipts for all common business expenses for 3 years).

Here’s a snapshot of my binder:

If you’ve never visited it before, I highly recommend checking out the Piano Teachers Policy Site and Great Idea Exchange. It is a collection of studio policies and ideas from music teachers all over the world. The exchange that led to the creation of this site was an invaluable resource to me when I was writing my studio policy. (In fact, my policy is listed somewhere on the site, but I can’t remember which letter it is!) My current studio policy can be viewed on my studio web site.

Implementing a studio policy is one of the best things a teacher can do. Here are a number of benefits that I’ve found from having one:

1. It forces me to think seriously about my teaching practices - why I’m teaching and what my goals are for my students.

2. It provides a way for potential students to determine before arranging an interview whether my philosophy and policies will be a good fit for them. (I send all lesson inquiries to my website to review my policies with instructions to e-mail or call me after reading over them if they want to arrange an interview. I have been very pleased when, on several occasions, I have received a call from the parent expressing that after reviewing my policy, they decided either to not take lessons at all or to pursue another teacher. This is exactly why I do this - so that we can avoid potential conflicts that might otherwise arise after lessons have begun.)

3. It allows me to clearly communicate with all of my students what my expectations are and what their responsibilities are.

4. It assists me in making difficult decisions. When questioned, I can state my position matter-of-factly according to what is written in my policy. I have become much better at kindly, but firmly, stating, “No, it’s my policy to charge a flat monthly rate regardless of the number of lessons that month.” Or something along those lines, depending on the situation.

As long as you teach, your policy will need periodic tweaking. Don’t be afraid to try something new and then adapt as necessary according to what works best in your studio.

Every music teacher needs a white board. My students love writing messages on my white board. Here’s one that showed up today:

“I want stay in your lessons till a’m 35 years old”

This particular white board is one I picked up at a local teacher supply store. It’s magnetic, 24×36″ and has a grid with 1″ squares on it. An on-line search turned up a Magic Wall Reversible Magnetic Poster. It’s not quite as big (18×24″), but looks the same otherwise.

What an incredibly handy studio “prop” this has been - for uses other than just writing messages! It’s a step away from the piano and is perfect for having students write out clefs, scales, key signatures and more. I’ve also used it for rhythmic dictation. I play a rhythm at the piano and the student arranges the magnetic notes on the board to accurately reflect the rhythm I played.

And of course, it’s just fun! Kids love white boards and magnets…and so do I!

This Music Exchange Program sounds like a great concept! You can send in sacred piano arrangment books to Brio Music Shop and they will credit 25% of the cover price to your store account. You can then use this credit to purchase from the many products they offer, particularly sacred music books. They’re also running a special right now where first time customers placing an order will receive an A Mighty Fortress Is Our God CD with 10 hymn arrangements by Marilynn Hamm for free!

I have a bunch of sacred piano arrangement books that came from my church. This might be the perfect way to trade them in for some newer books.

To the music files I go!

What an amazing organizational tool! Have you ever wanted to let a student listen to a CD recording of a certain piece and spent a great deal of time looking at the back of each CD cover, only to discover that you must not have it after all? You absolutely must check out the Readerware software! Several months ago I purchased it with the intent of using it to catalog all of my books. Just a couple of weeks ago, I recalled that there was an audio cataloging capability as well. So, I opened it up on my computer and was overjoyed to find that it worked like a charm!

Here’s the amazing part…all you have to do is scan the bar code on the back of the CD case and all the data will be retrieved and entered automatically! (A few of my CDs have had unrecognizable bar codes, so I entered those in manually, but the rest have been scanning in automatically just fine!)

Here’s a screen shot of how the collection is organized once the data has been entered:

Here’s a screen shot of how the info for each CD is organized:

If you want only the CD cataloging software, it’s $40. But if you are also interested in the book and DVD/VHS cataloging software, you can get the whole bundle of three for $75. I love to be organized and to have ready access to information, so this has been a very worthy investment for me! Now if only they had such a software for piano music…

The best thing happened today! A student was having trouble with a particular rhythmic concept and I realized I had a worksheet that would help reinforce at home what we had just been working on at her lesson. Now, a week ago, I would have had to rummage through several folders full of worksheets to find the appropriate one, only to find that I had given out the last one and would have to try to track it down on-line again and print off a new one. Of course, this would have to wait until the following week, since I couldn’t use valuable lesson time to do this, providing that I remembered to do it at all before said student arrived the following week for her lesson. Sound familiar?

Well, no more! Last weekend I decided I absolutely had to figure out a better system for keeping all those great worksheets organized. So, this is what I came up with:

I labeled each binder with a different category: rhythm, note identification, intervals, scales-keys-chords, musical terms and symbols-puzzles and riddles, composers-instruments, listening, general, blank staff paper - nine in all.

I placed master prints of each worksheet in a sheet protector and then placed them in the corresponding binder. Any additional copies of worksheets were 3-hole punched and placed directly following the master sheet.

So, today, I grabbed the “rhythm” binder off the shelf, flipped to the appropriate worksheet, pulled out a copy of it and sent it home with my student. Isn’t organization wonderful?!

My dear friend, and fellow music teacher, Azure gave me a mini tour of her studio this morning. The studio was so fun and cheery! She pointed me to this site where you can print your own bulletin boards. She used the Music is a Treat and Kick-Off the New Year in Music bulletin board sets in her studio and they looked great!