Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Teachers Forum The Art of Raising Fees

Absolutely! I'd suggest that the primary teacher give the introductory lesson, but with the younger teacher present, and then either sit in on, or give the young student one lesson per month, so you can correct minor errors before they become major problems. Also, I think you would probably want to go through the method books with the young teachers, making sure they can play each piece to a very high level and musically, of course.

Jonathan, thanks for the additional thoughts. My studio pricing philosophy squares with yours. (It was John v.d. Brook who had confused me by his graduated pricing ideas.)

Nice to hear from a neighborhood NYC piano teacher on this board!

I have always thought that it would be a good idea for teachers to have a kind of mentorship or apprenticeship, where they are taught teaching - not just abstractly in a classroom pedagogy course - but working with a teacher. Would you envision preceding this with the intermediate student observing his teacher teach, with discussion and explanation or question-answer afterward? In fact, that in itself might be a kind of (paid?) lesson.

Keystring, I suspect that this idea is fraught with potential problems, if the supervising teacher isn't really committed to excellence. Perhaps a productive approach would be for the teacher to gather the apprentices together during the summer months and do teaching classes, where they literally go through the primer and lower grade material together, with the students being Guinea pigs for each other.

I suspect that my idea was received backwards. I was thinking of the advanced student observing the teacher teach a number of students over a period of time, asking questions afterward and the teacher point out things - not of the student teaching and the teacher observing. I was seeing this as preliminary to your idea of this student starting to teach beginner students, which would be without this step. I have always believed that beginners should be taught by experienced teachers if at all possible.

I like your idea of group classes and these students being guinea pigs for each other. I'm wondering, though. These students have already been trained, so they would come to the piano bench, sit at the right height and distance, use their hands and bodies as they have been taught to do, and understand what is expected. It doesn't duplicate a true beginner and what to watch for. (?) Anyway, I suspect that we've slipped into a new topic.

My friends usually call me John, so like an over-eager dog I respond automatically to that whistle. LOL.

Graduated pricing? I don't think so.

1. Teaching beginners is harder than teaching other levels.

2. You penalize people for sticking with it!

Having more advanced students teach the beginners?

1. Not without tons of supervision, which would take tons of time and effort.

2. Not without systematic training, also taking tons of time and effort.

Abstract pedagogy courses: They don't have to be. The pedagogy courses I took and the pedagogy courses I teach include lecture, observation and actual supervised teaching.

I tried once in my life, letting one of my high school student teach beginner (theory only) and I swear I will not do that anymore in the future because it takes me three times effort to get things done.

If I teach it myself, I just need 15 minutes.

If I let my high school student teach it, I will need 45 minutes in total because that include training, supervising, and followup.

Only if I do not care the outcome, then I can skip training and supervising, but I am not that kind of teacher.

Like AZNpiano, we have several fine teachers who are not realistic with their pricing, probably charging one-half to two-thirds what they should. As a parent, why would I go to a good teacher who charges $160/mo when I can send my student to a good teacher charging $80/mo? This is even more of a problem for teachers located in smaller communities.

What is your solution?

The teacher who undercharges has only so many spots. Once full, the best one can do is to get on his/her waiting list. If your market is large enough, having a few teachers who do this doesn't create much of a problem. They fill, and life goes on. In fact, once they see that you too can have a decently full studio charging a higher price (and by all means tell them about it) they may get the message that they are undervaluing their time.

In a very small market, it's a real pain, I know. But if there is someone of your ability who willingly accepts half of what you would otherwise change, then that person will affect the pool of families that seek your services. That's life. Other than talking to the person, there is little you can do.

Of course, the problem is parents with decreasing or stagnant incomes and decreasing interest in music lessons, or just plain ignorance. There are days which I think I'll offer a "fire sale" at half what these teachers charge. It may be life, but at least here we can bitch and moan about it.

AZN: you might try reducing the number of minutes but keeping the same price.

One reality we need to face is "we" who value music and an authentically artistic culture need to have more children. The higher priced teacher can thrive in such a situation because the most talented/wealthiest students are selected from a larger pool.

In general, more children would help the economy. As stated earlier, going back to a more manufacturing-based economy would help.

I want to reply to this initial post BEFORE reading other replies.
I am NOT a music teacher, or employed in the "music industry" in any way.

With that out of the way, it IS necessary to raise fees & prices from time to time in ANY business.
a) To keep up with increasing costs, including your own cost of living, i.e. inflation.
b) Because you are WORTH it.

No kidding, have something that sets you ABOVE other teachers.
Do NOT join the "race to the bottom", doing so just increases the pace of that race.
Walmart make very little on anything, as the saying goes they make it on volume.

You cannot double your volume, you may want to NOT be seen as a "Walmart quality" teacher (-:

I have a small business, I have ways to AVOID price shoppers.
When I sense that price is a significant factor for them I make sure that my quote is HIGH and/or I am "booked".
If a cold call starts out with "How much..." instead of "When could you..." or "Could you at this time on this day..." it is a price shopper for sure.

They want cheap, they can find it, just not HERE.
Anyone who is GOOD at what they do doesn't need to be in the market at the "going rate".
Premium product or premium service command premium prices, no need to ever apologize for your prices/fees - IMO etc.

Hello RB,

Every time I raised my rates I never lost business. There is no question about that. But I cannot make a formula from that for anyone else, or even myself. However, if I lowered my rates by 50% my business would drop off by probably the same ratio. Many people associate price with quality, and sometimes I do as well.

If I had to choose between a dentist charging a flat fee of $17 per hour and one who charges $170 per hour, and all I knew about them was their pricing, there is no way I would go to the $17 dentist because I would presume, sight unseen, that he is running a seedy place and on the verge of losing his license. I might be wrong, of course, but that is the presumption I would jump to. Admittedly, piano lessons are not as scary as dental procedures gone awry! And by the time my dentist is done with me it always ends up costing a lot more than $170 per hour.

I should mention that whenever the first words from a caller are, "Is this piano lessons? How much do ya charge?" - that person never, never works out as a student. That is an absolute 100% truth, no exceptions. Their first priority is a cheap deal, not a good piano lesson. They will never get through the first difficulty in music with that cut-a-deal mentality.


If my pricing of piano lessons is within reasonable reach of the population I am serving and not wildly beyond the competition, my focus forwards to questioning whether I am presenting myself to the community intelligently. Am I being clear, relevant to their needs, easily comprehended without dumbing down? I never question the market place - that is like the starry universe - it is out of my control. But I continually question how I am interacting with it because that is the only thing where I have some leverage.

To me, it's all about value. What exactly are you providing for your price?
I don't charge as much as other teachers in my area because I don't offer programs such as festivals, certificate of merit, Guild, etc. In addition to weekly private lessons, my students have 2 recitals per year and optional group lessons 4 times per year and that's it. It's my job as a teacher to make sure that students who want or need more should move on to someone who provides those services.
When you say that the family may be shopping for a "cheaper teacher", would that student's opportunities to participate in programs be limited?

Are these teachers offering the same programs and curriculum that you are?

Well, I'll chime in.

I have not raised my rates for a couple of years, but this year I added 2 more weeks off per year to the 12 month schedule (which breaks down to a few cents more per lesson if you look at it that way). The monthly fee has stayed the same. Now I'm taking a total of 6 weeks off (that includes holidays).

This year I decided to do myself a favor and felt that taking just 4 weeks total was not enough. Up to this year I taught the week of Thanksgiving and even had a parent say to me "You didn't cancel lessons for Thanksgiving?!" I found that parents do want the time off, but feel obligated to attend all scheduled lessons to get their money's worth. Anyway, I changed the schedule in January and so far no one has complained or asked any questions about it.

Perhaps they have not ready my updated policy. I did not point out the change. I just let them know a couple of weeks in advance of the upcoming break.

In other words, I have no set schedule for raises. When I feel like it's time, I make a change.

If anything, the student's opportunity to participate in musical events would be doubled, if not tripled. Not that it is of any value to the parents in this case. In fact, most folks here will be glad if their kid can plod along to Mary Had a Little Lamb.

Actually, quite a few parents I've worked for expected to pay higher fees once their kid get past a certain level. I remember my own (really good) piano teacher having that exact discussion with my parents once I got to the sonatinas. My lessons went to an hour, and the fee was raised slightly more than double of the 30-minute fee.

Another reason I may be in favor of the graduated price structure is that I might attract some talented students while they are still young, whose parents may or may not realize there's talent there at that stage.

It is so much easier to work with kids from the beginning. For many years I took transfer students left and right, and most of them were so horribly taught, I truly thought about never accepting transfers ever again.

Yes, but those families are simply getting fleeced …