Any other piano teachers here?

[pianojazzgirl]

I've just re-opened my piano studio after taking a 7 yr break (I stopped after I had dd and since then I've focused more on performing... and mothering!).  So far I have 3 new students.  Two of them started this Monday and I have another one starting next Monday.  One is a transfer student who poses a few challenges!

Anyway, I'd love to chat about teaching if anyone is interested!

[CatsCradle]

Just wanted to say congrats on re-opening your studio!  I've been a life-long lover of the piano (although not a professional like you).  Recently got a piano after many years of not having one and it is wonderful.  I can't believe I went so long without one. 

I would have been qualified to teach a long time ago but it seems after such a long hiatus, I really need to spend some time brushing up, so to speak.  Just curious, how do you seek students?  What's the going rate for lessons in your area?

[scottishmommy]

Oh I'm so excited there's another piano teacher out there! I'm a classical singer and I teach piano and voice. Right now I have a handful of private students and quite a few at a musical school. In the future, when we can afford a bigger place to live, I'd love to have a studio above my garage or something and teach from home. I think it would be the perfect setup! Where's your studio?

[pianojazzgirl]

Hi guys! 

I teach in my home, in our "music room".  Dh and I are both professional musicians so we have a pretty nice studio set up for rehearsing, and teaching of course.

CatsCradle - before I took a break from teaching I was teaching in the students' homes.  I'm an anglophone living in a primarily French-speaking city so what I did was put up a bunch of posters in a mainly English-speaking area of town.  I got one or two students that way and the rest was by word of mouth.  This time around I have kids of my own so I know a lot of parents, so what I did was just email everyone I thought might be interested in having their kids take lessons, or might know anyone who would want lessons.  From that one email a couple of weeks ago I already have 3 students and one adult who is going to take jazz theory lessons every once in a while.  I'm hoping word-of-mouth will help fill out the studio a bit more.  I'm actually not looking to teach more than a couple of days a week.  What I'd *really* like is to tap into the homeschooling market - to teach to kids during the "school day" (which is when it's most convenient for me to teach).

scottishmummy - what kind of students are you teaching right now?  Mostly beginner/intermediate or do you have more advanced students?  What method(s) do you use?

I'm a jazz musician and I'm mostly focused on performing, but I do really enjoy the challenge of teaching... I love the problem-solving of how to reach each student.  Right now 2 of my students are beginners and one is a transfer student who's had 2 years of group lessons.  She can play at an early intermediate level, BUT has such a great ear (and is so bright) that she's managed to get that far with really quite poor reading skills.  On top of that she plays with crazy posture (leg under her, body twisted to the side, back hunched) and TOTALLY flat fingers (she says it makes her play faster, lol!).  So this is my big challenge right now.  We've only done one lesson so far and I guess it'll take a little more time to see exactly what needs doing.  Next lesson I'm going to start her on the Piano Adventures Accelerated Book 1, which starts at a primer level (easy songs to focus on reading and proper hand shape, etc) but progresses at quite a quick pace to some more interesting and challenging songs.  I'm hoping that by billing it as a book for "much older kids (!)" she won't feel as bad at being put back in "book 1".

Anyway, that's me in a nutshell, lol!  Looking forward to chatting with you guys!

[pianojazzgirl]

CatsCradle - I forgot to answer one of your questions.  I charge $25 per half hour lesson which seems to be average for my area.  You can look at listings on Craigslist and similar sites to get an idea of what teachers are charging where you live (and/or call your local music stores).  I also noticed that the cost of lessons seems to vary with teacher experience which makes sense.  I saw some listings by people who were undergrad students in Music Performance and generally they were charging less than teachers with a degree and more experience.

Speaking of Craiglist I haven't placed an ad there yet, but I will if I don't get more students by word-of-mouth.  I have friends who have picked up quite a few students that way.

[One_Girl]

I don't teach music, but I got my dd's piano teacher by looking at the listings at on our local music stores website.  Most of the teachers on their site have degrees and are in music organizations, her teacher goes to a music teachers group monthly but I am not sure if that helps her get the word out.  If you have music stores in your area you might consider seeing if they keep lists of teachers that you can get yourself on.

[Ekatherina]

Hi there! ...I am a piano teacher here in Lebanon. I teach piano at the local music school where I have around 26 students. I teach every couple half an hour and that is convinient for me, i mean they can practice four hands and that is fun for them too. The school gives me 10$ per hour for each student, which is cheap but the town is really very poor. At home I have only one student right now, people who would love to study music are NONE here...LOL anyway, teaching from home is challenging since half an hour is not always half an hour and I am so overloaded with writing my thesis already that I dont need that extra time spending. yesterday my student's mom called and said that she'll put her girl for 1 and a half hour so that she can go and spend time with her son, who can't be left alone in a karate lesson... as if I have nothing to do but babysit her girl for 7$ of supposedly half an hour! 

[Thandiwe]

I have taught piano lessons quite a bit in the past.  We fostered unexpectedly back in 2008 until late 2010, and when our fosterling came to us she was a newborn and we already had an 8 month old and a 3 year old.  It was too much, so I stopped lessons and just never picked back up.

I studied piano through a professional who attended a Russian musical boarding school.  She was excellent.  I was, for about a year and a half, a piano major in college before switching to psychology.  I've considered teaching again, but right now there doesn't seem to be much of a market for it here and I'm really unsure about my teaching, since it's been several years.  I do love to play, and I've been playing in our church's contemporary praise band.  It's awesome, because my training is classical, but they utilize mostly chord sheets, so I've learned a great deal about accompanying by chording just by being thrown into it. 

[pianojazzgirl]

Hi guys!  Glad to see a couple more piano teachers around here!  :)

I have another new student starting on Monday - the younger brother of a girl I started teaching a month ago.  I'll be teaching him using a method that I haven't taught from before (one for younger kids) and I've had so much fun "practicing" it with my two kids this week.  It starts off with lots of songs to sing along with (there's a CD included) and games.  I'm so excited to start teaching my new student!

[Thandiwe]

How old is the new one?  CD's sounds like a great starting approach with a young one.  I had a little girl once who was young 5, and had some developmental issues, and we sang a lot of songs. 

[pianojazzgirl]

Originally Posted by Thandiwe 

How old is the new one?  CD's sounds like a great starting approach with a young one.  I had a little girl once who was young 5, and had some developmental issues, and we sang a lot of songs. 

He's 5 (though turning 6 soon).  The method is My First Piano Adventures.  I've already taught using a lot of Faber materials (which I love) and I'm stoked to try out this method for younger kids.  :)  There's a lot of great technique-building ideas in there that I'm totally going to use with my older students as well.

[redvlagrl]

Hi Kate!

Old thread, but congrats on your new students! When I re-opened my studio I made sure I had a pretty tight set of studio policies. LMK if you want a copy.

I also arranged the year into terms and the last week of the term is set aside for make-ups so I don't have to teach a second day in a week.

[Thandiwe]

Originally Posted by redvlagrl 

When I re-opened my studio I made sure I had a pretty tight set of studio policies. I also arranged the year into terms and the last week of the term is set aside for make-ups so I don't have to teach a second day in a week.

What an awesome idea!  That's ingenious!

[Thandiwe]

I'm building a website right now for independent work (playing for weddings and events, etc) and for lessons.  I'm nervous to hop back in.  My skills are up to snuff, but it's been quite a while since I've taught and I'm nervous about choosing materials.  I found what I was doing before ended with students being bored after a while.    But I really love teaching and could use an extra income in the house.  We're also in a reasonably lower-income area, so I'm concerned I won't get any interest.  We're in a good-sized city, but the city itself is poorer than the township.  We're in the actual township, so maybe because it's a tad bit more affluent than downtown, maybe it will help??  I hope.

[redvlagrl]

Originally Posted by Thandiwe 

What an awesome idea!  That's ingenious!

It seems to work well so far. Most students do end up being sick one lesson. I thought of it because we really can't have me teaching more than one afternoon a week and school holidays are usually hard to organise makeups. I also hate giving credit for the following term. You do lose out on one week tuition, though ti is worth it for us.

I have to admit that my plan is to only teach for one more academic year after this one becuase my DD will then be at school and I will need to be able to pick her up.
 

[pianojazzgirl]

Originally Posted by Thandiwe it's been quite a while since I've taught and I'm nervous about choosing materials.

I swear I am not being paid to endorse this method, but....

As I mentioned upthread I have really come to love the Piano Adventures method series (by Faber).  It is pretty amazingly well thought-out pedagogically, and the pieces themselves are very student-friendly (ie. not boring, lol).  In the past I have taught using Bastien, Alfred, and Hal Leonard.  I found the Faber series to be heads above the rest and I won't be going back to any of the other methods!

Leila... I'd love to see a copy of your studio policy (do you have my email address?)!  I love the idea of an extra week per term to allow for make-up lessons!

[Thandiwe]

Originally Posted by pianojazzgirl 

I swear I am not being paid to endorse this method, but....

As I mentioned upthread I have really come to love the Piano Adventures method series (by Faber).  It is pretty amazingly well thought-out pedagogically, and the pieces themselves are very student-friendly (ie. not boring, lol).  In the past I have taught using Bastien, Alfred, and Hal Leonard.  I found the Faber series to be heads above the rest and I won't be going back to any of the other methods!

Leila... I'd love to see a copy of your studio policy (do you have my email address?)!  I love the idea of an extra week per term to allow for make-up lessons!

I've worked with Thompson and Bastien quite a bit and a little with Alfred, but I will have to explore Piano Adventures more.  Thank you for the tip!!

[pianojazzgirl]

Originally Posted by Thandiwe 

I've worked with Thompson and Bastien quite a bit and a little with Alfred, but I will have to explore Piano Adventures more.  Thank you for the tip!!

You might be interested in looking at their website (pretty sure it is pianoadventures.com ).  There is a whole online video teacher's guide for the Primer level which is really great, and gives you a great sense of the course.  There is also a great overview (including some videos) of the course for younger kids (My First Piano Adventures) that might interest you if you're looking to teach 5-6 yos.

[pianojazzgirl]

Leila... got your pm and pm'ed you back ;)

[redvlagrl]

KAte - it's on my other computer. I will email them to you soon!