Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Teachers Forum How long did it take you to build up a healthy full studio?

Hi Sparkler,

I had 5 students my first year. Then advertised on Craigslist and gave a certificate for a complimentary month of lessons to a raffle/fundraiser at my son's elementary school. Still have 3 students who found out about me thru Craigslist and one student plus two referrals from the winners of the raffle. The second year I had 12, and now starting my 3rd year I've gotten word of mouth referrals...now at 18.

I did get inappropriate responses also from Craigslist...but just deleted them. And now I no longer have to advertise. Still, it helped me get started.

I too made policy changes shortly after a couple of new students started lessons. But it went over OK. Now I'm planning rate increases and any policy tweaking to be done once a year.

I wish you well!

I wanted to say it doesn't look "flakey" to change your policy. You could give the updated policy saying you think this will work better for parents (to pay by check or cash)...showing you're making every effort to change when needed to meet their needs.

The benefit of the additional choices is that you are giving them more options with which to make payments to their convenience.

Think in "benefits" to the consumer in voicing any changes or implementing new things in your studio policy.

The times during the year I consider ripe for changing policy are for September new enrollment, January, the new year, and sometimes, June if I am picking up new students for the summer.

The policy signed previously with current clients is in force until their calendar date which begins a new year of learning.

I give out the new policies as they are instituted with new students. Present clients know the change will affect them on their next anniversary.The contract they signed with me at their enrollment rolls over into each new year until they give me 30 days notice to terminate.

About your MTNA membership - chapter, state, and national: You don't have to be prepared to be certified to join. And, you do not have to become certified unless you wish to go that route either through academic credits you have earned, or by "testing", or both. There are a few programs leading up to passing the certification exam around the country, and possible someone is doing the teaching for preparing for that in your own commuinity. Your state should have a "Certification Chair" to ask questions of which would be a good step for you since you have a degree in place already.

I paid about $139 for chapter, state, national this past June. It has always been between $100 and $139 since I've been a member in 1981. It's incredible that we get this huge professional association and their benefits in behalf of music teachers at such a low annual price.

If you haven't visited the national website before, please do.
www.mtna.org

With every encouragement and good wishes as you build your career and business!

Betty

I agree with most everything that has already been said. I also think that cash only is more difficult to keep track of. It is a lot easier to keep track of checks that have parent's names on them. I have had a few parents that paid in cash and I felt obligated to give them a receipt. I have had one bad check in almost 20 years and the parent called and told me before I even knew about it.

As far as parents at lessons, I encourage that, especially for young beginners. I want the parents to be resonsible and involved in the student's daily practice. Plus they see their progress and appreciate their accomplishments more when they hear what we are doing from week to week. If the parent hears me praising their son/daughter for doing such a good job at the lesson then everyone goes home feeling good about what they are doing. Likewise the parent can hear when the lesson is not quite up to standard and can help son/daughter get back on track.

Also I would recommend joining your local MTNA organization. They often have programs and events that can involve your studio.

As far as helping your studio to grow. My first students were from friends at church. My children were in school and their friends began calling for lessons. It can be challenging to teach a student one day and have them come over and play with your children the next but we made it work.

Good luck.

I was going to echo Betty's comment about MTNA. Joining MTNA is different from being MTNA certified. You do have to meet certain qualifications to join, and there are a wealth of programs available to you and your students when you do join. That, in itself, will set you apart from other neighborhood teachers, particularly those who are just teaching for 'a little extra spending money'. You can then decide if you want to become certified.

I would venture that if you joined MTNA and/or Guild, and mentioned it in advertising for students, you would have no trouble getting a nice number of students. Many MTNA branches are listed in the yellow pages, have their own websites, etc..., and include a list of all teacher-member names and contact info.

I agree with all of the statements made here. I would make your policy sound as welcoming as possible without compromising the content.

This is how my policy is organized

LESSONS: Lessons are held once a week…..Lessom are held in a room closed off from the rest of my home, do not knock, come in and have seat. Parents are encouraged to sit through…All music and materials are provided…..

FESTIVALS RECITALS COMPETITIONS: Several events are planned through out the year and each is optional. (List events and brief description)

TEACHER RESPONSIBILITY: Student are taught from the Piano Adventure method books. The curriculum is supplemented with addition and even advanced music theory….at an intermediate level students are given the opportunity to study a much more demanding classical curriculum. This includes…..

STUDENT RESPONSIBILITY: Student should practice on a well maintained piano….Students are expected to practice the assigned pieces. Bring all music and binders to each piano lesson. Fingernails should be trimmed. Listen to and purchase piano music CD’s

CANCELLLATIONS: Cancellations should be made before the lesson. If a lesson is cancelled, it can be rescheduled the first Saturday of the month at 8:00 a.m. Periodically, soccer, baseball of other seasonal activities my interfere with piano lessons. Since this usually happens to several students at once, moving lesson times may be possible…. If public school classes are cancelled due to weather, piano lessons are cancelled. Tuition statement will be prorated…… .If a student is discontinuing lessons, notice is appreciated

TUITION and COSTS: Monthly Tuition for the 2009/2010 year is……There are no lessons scheduled for two weeks over Christmas, one week Thanksgiving…..Monthly tuition will not be prorated for those holidays. Other holidays or teacher cancellations will be prorated…….All music and books are provided at no extra charge. Students are required to purchase an inexpensive metronome and pocket Music Dictionary…..There may be additional registration fees for competition, auditions and recitals.


FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

TEACHER BIOGRAPHY:

This is a very condensed version of my Policy Statement. Notice that I start by selling lessons. My studio nitch is auditions. So I sell that first. Then I list Teacher Responsibilities and THEN Student Responsibilities. At the end I discuss tuition

Just some ideas.

If you live in an area with a plethora of piano teachers and 15 "music schools" within a 10 mile radius, you're not likely to have a healthy full studio, no matter how good you are--unless you charge way less than everybody else.

Being a member of a professional organization does help, of course, unless there are 200 other teachers in the organization vying for the same 2,000 students in the local area. You're lucky if you get 20 students.

Location, location, location...applies to piano teachers, too.

You asked how long it took to build a studio. I don’t think anyone addressed that question.

I certainly paid my dues playing for Christmas programs and church services. Before I started teaching I had many people ask me if I taught because they saw me playing for an event. I also worked with many of the musical people in the community. One dear lady, who was the music director of a large Lutheran church referred many students to me. I grew very quickly. I had 20 students in six months. I hit the jack pot when an elderly teacher decided to retire. She referred her whole studio to me.

Then we moved to another community. I had no exposure in this new community and no desire to play for many events. I could hardly get off the ground. In two years I had a handful of students. Fortunately my husband’s job took us back to the original community and I was able to quickly grow a studio again.

I would suggest you play for as many events as you can. Credentials are important but doesn’t carry much weight for those who know little about music. Let people see you play for a Christmas Cantata. Get to know the music teachers in you school district and offer to play for their programs. Parents often ask their school music teacher for a piano studio referral. Ask your piano families to refer others.

Good Luck.

Mrs. A,

You're right and I was hoping some would. So thank you, this was helpful. I, too, moved to this area a few yrs ago and didn't really have time/desire at the time to get involved with the music community, except for church. Unfortunately, I actually have had a lot of ppl ask me if I teach, and I had told them all no, because I didn't at the time. Wish I could remember everyone that asked, now! Def need to start networking.

Also, thanks for sharing how you organize your policy. That was helpful to me also. I appreciate it.

Thank you so much
-Sarah

Are you saying I should quit now...?
I know you are right, because my one friend who teaches piano (and is not a pianist) charges very little and has a full studio. She has tried referring her wait list to me and they all think I'm too expensive, so....

I didn't realize before that there was a difference between becoming MTNA certified and being an MTNA member. So thanks for pointing that out!!!

Gotcha. Thx!

Thx, Ann in Kentucky. I've thought about Craigslist as well. I'm really going to start drumming it up after straightening out my policy thx to you guys.

Thank you! I have many friends from church too. Unfortunately (?) I do have one friend who had already been teaching most of these kids and charging peanuts. So none of them would be crazy about paying my prices. But I do go to a large church so I will have to keep trying.

That happens way too often. I used to attend a church. The pastor's wife gave keyboard lessons for free. There are free keyboard lessons for the grannies, and they'd give keyboard recitals. I was in the sixth grade, but even back then I was cringing at those recitals.

If you are always worrying about the "competition" then you are in the wrong business!

My philosophy is:

"Give them just a little more than they expect" and truly believe in what you are selling"! Then they will be banging your door down!

Talking down about another teacher's studio is a "no-no"! Truthfully, some people should just absolutely "not" be piano teachers, even though they have all the credentials.

When first starting out, I was constantly told by certain people that I should not be teaching (usually by my competitinon). But I believed in my heart that I should! So I started with just 5 students. If they stayed, I'd continue. The next year, I said, if I have 10 students, I'll continue. And so it went! And I taught the way I would have wanted to be taught when I was young! And that proved successful.

But each year, I gained more and more confidence and was getting more and more students by word of mouth!

An important aspect is Honesty! I never lied about anything! Was always upfront! Gave parents names of other teachers so they didn`t feel pressure to take me!

But I truly believed and still believe in myself. Took me years to get here, but if I didn`t believe I was good, I would go work in an office or something!

Lots of different students and lots of different teachers! Just have to find the right match!

This discussion really piqued my curiosity. Exactly what is the student to teacher ratio in our county?

By doing a demographics search on the web, I found that there are roughly 32,000 students county wide between the ages 5 and 17. There are a minimum of 120 people teaching piano. That works out to 266 potential students per teacher.

I frequently quiz my young students asking if there are other kids in their school class who take piano. The answer is generally no, but sometimes, there is one other student.

I realize that this is really WAGing (you all know what a WAG is? A wild a$$ guess) but we're talking between 2% and 4% of students, max, take piano lessons. So, based on this, in our community at least, a studio of 15 to 20 students would be superior, and that is what I'm hearing from colleagues.

The best I did was peak out at 27 students a few years back. At the moment, it has dropped quite a bit. Some of that may be due to the economy. And I'm sure that if I dropped my rates, I'd enroll more students, but those who come, take trial lessons, always continue on. So at least in our neck of the woods, competition is fierce and parents/students are fortunate to have their pick of many fine teachers at competitive rates.

John, the technical term for your calculation is order of magnitude estimate. Also know as a back of the envelope calculation.

Looking at demographics across the US, your target age group is only about 17% of the population. Sounds to me like this is a good reason to focus on bringing in more adult students.

Rich

Rich, excellent suggestion!

Here's another thought. I'm one of two teachers in town who actively push parents to upgrade instruments. I work closely with dealers, not on commission, but as a "let's help each other out because it's in both our interests" type of arrangement. Students will enjoy the piano more if they learn on a better instrument, they will be more likely to pursue arts as adults if their childhood experiences were positive, etc. If we could bump that 4% figure up to 8% in a generation, wow, what it difference it would make for all concerned.

I relocated my piano studio in October 2006 to a new area. I think about 7 students continued with me as they were coming from quite a distance, not as the crow flies, but as traffic jams during commuter hours. It would add an extra 30 - 45 minutes on to their trip from my old location. So I now have 1 student from that group of students who is continuing again this year - since 2001, actually. The other long term students had dropped by September 2008 after 6 to 8 years of study. So I have been in the rebuilding stage of my studio for the past 3 years.

Some may remember reading that in September last year I had about 9 students drop when it was back to school time. Email messages were their vehicle, not in person at all. It just seemed like "crunch" time for them as we entered this past difficult year. One person cited distance and I could understand that, distance AND traffic jams. The others were in their first or second year. What a big disappointment that was and beleive it or not, the first time I'd experienced someone leaving without giving me 30 day notice.

Since then the inquiries from the music directory services seem to fall flat before much information is given. I think perhaps people are very cautious and want people lessons but when it comes to writing the check or making the appointment, something cautions them in their minds about now not being the time.

I've been wondering about something that works along with this caution. So many teachers talk about students not practicing, parents not supportive when there are problems, and many students have keyboard that do not compare with acoustic music instruction so the sounds and touch are different than the ones they have lessons on. Given the rapidity that some teachers dismiss a non-thriving student, perhaps we all have inadvertently painted a negative picture of what "traditional" piano lessons are in today's society. I think we're being replaced by keyboard lab studios who group teach, the learning experience groups like KinderMusic which teach general music from toddler age up to about 8, and early beginners level 1 (usually). I haven't done a price comparison as consumers would see it, but I've been wondering how it factors out for us as private teachers.

These groups are reenrolling in the next step of lessons in about 10 - 13 week units. They can catch the next class now or later in another semester.

I wonder what we might do to invite more serious inquiries into our studios because the past 3 years to me have been like in the real estate lingo "looky-loos".

Yes, there are several that have enrolled and are in their 3rd year here and we are getting along nicely, several joined in the past year, I have a few new starts this week as my studio opens again, and I have a few inquiries that are pending an appointment. So, I'm building very slowly compared to other years in two other locations where from 1981-1993 I had 35-40 students, moved 1993-2006 about 25-30, and now between 10 and 20 so far.

I think this is a revelation.

One of the other considerations is that many musical people have started teaching piano due to the economy and losing other jobs in the families. I think churches and their children's schools and sports teams are where they meet their prospective students.

The referrals from the local music stores are few and far between, as are the inquiries from my music teaching chapter's website. So, I expect that the word of mouth netwook is working very well.

Is anyone else perplexed about these kinds of influences on our established businesses? How long do you think we will remain affected by these situational concerns? Do you see options?

Betty