Top 5 Considerations to Set the Best Tuition Price in Your Music Teaching Studio

Setting pricing is something important to running any business. But where do we start, as music teachers?

My opinion is that there needs to be a balance between charging a rate that is low enough to be fair and reasonable, that students are willing to pay, and also charging a fee that is high enough that it reflects our experience and expertise, so students value what they are getting, and that sets you apart from other less-experienced teachers. You also want to be covering your own costs, plus making a profit.

How can we, as music teachers, go about setting our tuition costs? Where do we even start? Here are

the top five factors to consider, to help you set the best tuition price for your music studio:

1. Consider the market where you live. Supply and demand. What people are willing to pay will differ by location, and will be impacted by how saturated the area is with teachers of your instrument, and how high the demand for teachers is. If you are new to an area, or are just getting started, you can start by doing a little "market research". Go ahead and contact a few teachers, tell them who you are and that you're trying to get a feel for the going rates in the area, and straight up ask them how much they charge. In my experience, I've haven't found a teacher who wasn't willing to help by giving me this helpful information. Use this as a starting place to get familiar with the going rate, and what people are willing to pay in your area. I don't recommend significantly underselling other teachers, because this can lower your own credibility (from a student's perspective: "Hmm, I wonder why this teacher charges so much less? She must be less experienced. Maybe she doesn't know what she's doing?"). It also makes it harder to raise your rates later to the market rate.

2. Consider your teaching experience and educational background. As you are looking at the pricing of other teachers in your area, look to those with similar education and experience as you. This can help you set your prices in an appropriate range.

3. Consider your own costs. This varies widely from studio to studio. Having a projected budget makes it easier to get an idea of what you need to make in order to be successful. I'll cover this more in a future post, but it will also guide your goals and business decisions as well.

Ask yourself these questions:
Do you rent a studio space?
Do you drive to your students' homes? (In the past, when I've driven to students' homes, I always charged an extra fee for my driving costs.)
What are your expenses, or projected expenses? What is your biggest expense, or projected expense, for your music studio?

4. Consider what other student fees your tuition fee will cover. What exactly is included in what the students pay for tuition? Is it tuition only? Recital hall rental fees, membership dues, materials fees, etc.? Some teachers choose to have a separate materials fee or recital fee. If you include these all in tuition, take that into account as you set your price (and let your students know it's included, so they recognize the value they're getting!). What other expenses will you need to cover, while still making a profit for yourself?

5. Consider whether you will charge by individual lesson, monthly fee, or a semester fee. This decision is a very individual one, and I think any choice can work for a number of reasons. Ultimately, it's up to you as the teacher to decide what works for you. When setting your pricing, you'll need to take your "billing cycle" into consideration.

Charge by Lesson
If you are charging per individual lesson, there may be months when you make more, for example if there are five weeks in the month, and some months when you make less, such as when holidays occur. Decide if you are okay with this. Overall, it should more or less even out, you'll just need to be aware if it's a month where you'll make less and plan accordingly.

Monthly Fee
If you are charging a monthly fee regardless of how many lessons there are, you may have some months with fewer lessons due to holidays, and some months with more, but you'll be making the same amount each month and it's predictable. This predictability can be nice, and the regular amount can be easier on your students to remember.

Semester Fee
Another option is to charge per semester, and give an option to pay all up front (some offer a discount for this), or to split it up over several months. One advantage to charging by semester is that once students have paid up front, you don't have to worry about billing for the course of the semester. Also, it's nice to know they've paid in advance and have committed to those months of lessons.

As you take these five points into consideration while setting your tuition prices in your music studio, I'm confident you'll be on the right track to both cover your own costs and make a profit, while being at an appropriate market rate.

What other factors have you taken into consideration while setting your pricing? Please comment below to let us all know!

Teaching Music to Adult Students

I have a confession. I really love teaching adult students! I love all adult learners, but this post is specifically addressing beginning and intermediate adult students. It’s refreshing and motivating and exciting to me to see them grow and learn. Adult students are truly motivated to learn in a way different from kids. They have the advantage of maturity and perspective that come from having more years on this planet. I’ve found, though, that adult learners also encounter unique challenges, which kids do not. I’d like to take a minute (just sit right there), I'll tell you how we as teachers can help.

• Lack of time. Adults can be very busy. Most of those whom I’ve taught are working full time, or are college students, or both. Many have families of their own to take care of. 

Set realistic practice goals. Because I know it’s challenging to even get started at something that is either completely brand new, or has been neglected for a long time, my first thought when an adult approaches me asking for lessons is, “Yaaay!! Good for you!!!!!!” I automatically have so, so much respect for these people. So, I really want to help them be successful and to love it.

With each student’s unique situation and schedule, I try to find a balance between high standards and attainable, realistic goals. I have to recognize that an adult student’s reachable, attainable goal for practice frequency may not be the same as a child student. And that’s okay. We take it week by week and adjust according to their needs and demands that week, and set a realistic goal for how many days they will practice that particular week. This may be different this week than it was last week, but it’s important for them to gain encouragement from seeing themselves reaching their goals. It is important to also try to set goals to make them stretch, of course, but just keep in mind that if it stretches them too far, they may get frustrated or stressed. So try to find that balance for each individual student, because the last thing we adults need is more stress.

Be flexible with lesson frequency. I work with each student’s needs and goals individually to determine how frequently we meet. I’ve had adult students come weekly, biweekly, or monthly. In the case of less frequent lessons, make a plan to follow up with the student between lessons, such as writing an email or text, or making a quick phone call to make sure they are doing okay and see what questions they have. It’s essential for the student to still feel supported by you between lessons. I find the student is more likely to practice consistently all month long (and not just the days right before the lesson), if they know they will be held accountable more often and have me following up with them.

Another option, which may suit some situations, would be to offer a lesson online in between the in-person lessons. There are many available video conferencing options, such as Skype or Google Hangout. I’ve recently learned of JamKazam, which is intended for groups of musicians to be able to rehearse remotely as if in the same room. I have yet to try it out, but if it solves the issues of sound delay and allows for the teacher and student to play together simultaneously, then this may be something of value for teaching as well. If any of you have already tried it out for teaching, please let me know of your experiences.

• Student gets frustrated, impatient, or is too hard on themselves. This often is a result of the student’s musical ear being developed beyond their actual technical playing ability. This can lead to the student having feelings of frustration, or even embarrassment about their sound (I’ll get to that second one later).

Help them see/feel their own success. One of my main goals with adult students is to keep that spark for learning alive. Something motivated them and pushed them to change up their routine and budget and comfortable life and start violin lessons. I don’t want them to ever lose site of that. I really, really want to keep them motivated, and keep them excited, which comes from helping them see and feel their own success.

When I was twenty-one, I started learning German. I had learned French and American Sign Language before, but this time was different. This time, I was going to do service abroad as a missionary for my church. I had 9 weeks to learn German. All of it. The entire language. One time, when I was feeling especially frustrated that I would never, ever learn German, my wise teacher explained to me the importance of taking a moment to not focus on what I hadn’t learned yet, but to see how far I had already come. In doing so, I realized that, yes, I had actually made tremendous progress. I had begun knowing absolutely no German, and after just a few short weeks (and a lot of hard work), I could carry on conversations and even understand native speakers.

My point in relaying that story is that we need to help all our students to see how far they’ve already come, which can give encouragement in place of frustration. [“Hey, six months ago you weren’t even taking lessons, and now you’ve learned this many pieces!! And you’ve improved this and that (be specific).”] Help them to set small goals and help them recognize when they have met them. And celebrate the small victories with them!!

Offer Rewards and Incentives. Rewards and incentives will definitely come in a different form than with young students. Why not encourage the adult student to set a goal that will make them stretch, and once they’ve reached it, they get to treat themselves to something special, whatever that may be. This can help keep them motivated and encouraged to see their progress.

• The student is embarrassed or self-conscious of playing in front of others.

Give lots of opportunities to perform. A student can gain confidence by performing over and over in low-stress situations, such as a group performance class, at recitals, in rest homes or assisted living centers. The more they do it, the more comfortable and confident they will become, as long as you keep it positive and low-stress.

Play duets with the teacher (or other advanced player). I always feel more confident when playing with someone else, which may be why I love chamber music so much. Playing with someone who is more advanced can build confidence, as the overall tone will be better, and the confidence of the teacher may rub off on the student.

Perform for kids. This one may sound strange, but it stems from my experience learning foreign languages. I found that the most patient and nonjudgmental teachers were, in fact, children. They would tell me straight up that I was saying something wrong and had no problem correcting me, but they did so with complete sincerity and caring. Although they were blunt, it was never in a way that made me feel self-conscious. Anyway, I think performing for children can be a great chance to learn and improve confidence in a friendly environment where it’s safe to make mistakes.

So, these are just a few ideas to help adult students be successful. What other challenges have you seen adult students face? And what have you been able to do to help them?

Music Teachers Book Club September 2014

For my Music Teachers Book Club in June/July 2014, we read Principles of Violin Playing & Teaching by Ivan Galamian.

The next book we are reading for August/September 2014 is Nurtured by Love by Schinichi Suzuki.

Feel free to read along too and comment here with your thoughts on what you learned. How does it apply to your teaching? What was new to you? What did you agree or disagree with? I look forward to

hearing your thoughts.

Printable Music Award Certificates - Blank Template

I've had a request to make my printable music recital certificates with a blank line, so the teacher can
write in what the certificate is for. What a great idea! Now these can be used for anything, from passing off a level, to completing a music festival. The possibilities are endless, and they're free, so why not go ahead and print 'em and use 'em all up. Your students will love them, I'm sure.  Who doesn't love getting recognition for a job well done??

You can still download the original recital award certificates here or under the printables tab.

Below are the links to the new printable music award certificates with a blank line to fill in yourself to indicate what it is for (also available under the printables tab). I hope you enjoy!

Outstanding Performance Award Certificate

Certificate of Excellence Music Award

Bravo Music Award Certificate

Bravo Music Award Certificate

Music Teachers Book Club June 2014

Well, I finally did it! I organized a Violin Teachers Book Club!

I've been wanting to do this for a looooong time (years!), and life finally slowed down a second for me

to get it together.

Here's how I've worked it out: I invited a small group of fellow violin teachers (really, it could be any instrument) to join me. Together, we voted on some suggested books on the subjects of violin playing and pedagogy, and chose the top pick as our selection to read for this month. On an upcoming day, we'll join together after reading it, and talk about our thoughts and questions and what we learned. I feel it's also going to be a great opportunity to network and become closer friends.

If you'd like to join me, I'll post the information for our reading selections as we go along so you can read as well. Then I'll post some of the highlights of our book club discussion afterward.

For this month, we are reading Principles of Violin Playing & Teaching by Ivan Galamian.

Feel free to join in the discussion by posting your comments on the reading below! I'd love to hear from you and learn from your expertise!

Music Composition with Found Objects, Part 2 - Group Music Lesson Plan Idea

The blog post to date with by far the most views is my post on Music Composition with Found Objects - Group Music Lesson Plan Idea.  Check it out!  It's a very fun way to help your students find music all
around them.

I want to add an update now.  In the original post, I linked to some youtube videos of John Cage's "Water Walk".  I've since been exposed to some awesome, fun, upbeat videos of my husband's friend making music with found objects in various locations, which he calls a "Beat Scout".  These videos are very easily accessible for a young audience and will help your students get really excited about making music with found objects and searching for music all around.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Fun!  I love these so much.  Even my three-year-old kid asks all the time to listen to Beat Scouts! :) If you are interested in checking out the rest of his videos, click here for his channel.

So, I just wanted to add this to the original lesson plan and I hope you and your students can have some fun with them!

DVD Case Wipe-off Boards for Music Group Lesson Activities

I really enjoy teaching group lessons.  It's really fun for kids to learn about music theory and composers and other topics in a group setting.

I just finished making these awesome Wipe-off Boards out of old DVD cases.  These "boards" have so many possibilities for the classroom or group lessons.  I think they are super rad!

There are so many ways to use these!  Just swap out the liner inside to fit your needs.  I printed the insert double sided, so its easily interchangeable.

So to make one yourself, just print out the sheets below, cut them to size, and insert in an empty DVD case.  Then give yourself a high five because you're done!  Best teacher award goes to you.

DVD Case Wipe-off Board Printable Insert 1
DVD Case Wipe-off Board Printable Insert 2

Then you can use the inside of the case to store the markers and eraser.  Love it!

I hope you have fun with these!  Feel free to share any ideas you have for learning activities and games to do with these.  Leave a comment below!

The Importance of Having a Good Online Presence for Private Music Teachers

I was recently interviewed by firstsiteguide.com on the importance of having a strong online presence for music teachers.  This is a topic I've thought a lot about, and it's part of the reason I decided to start a professional website and a music teaching blog.  It's a great way to boost your professional image while expanding your teaching pool.  The majority of my students now have come from google searches that led to my website.

Check out the full interview here.

So, if you are on the fence about whether you need to start a professional website for your teaching studio, I would highly recommend doing it!  First Site Guide has some great resources and steps to help you easily get online:

I am often asked how I made my studio website, so I'd like to share how easily I did it.  I used Music Teachers Helper, an online resource for music teachers.  They have free templates that you can use to get your website up, and you can link it to your own domain name.  It's super easy!

Beyond the studio website, Music Teachers Helper offers great resources such as lesson scheduling and invoicing for your students.  It makes organizing things and keeping track of things so easy!!  I've been using it for about a year and a half and I've noticed it saves me time when it comes to tracking payments, my lending library, and calendaring.  My students also have a log in so they can see their account and schedule.

Music Teachers Helper is now offering a FREE month trial so you can check it out and see how much it rocks.  There is no obligation to continue after that.  But I'm sure you'll like it. :)  They offer different tiers of usage based on your studio size, so 5 or fewer students is completely free!  And from there you only pay for what you need, and you can downgrade or discontinue at any time if you have fewer students over the summer, for example.

I am planning to write up more of a review on Music Teachers Helper soon, but for now, I wanted to let you know that I have coordinated with them to offer you a discount off of your first paid month (so sign up for the free trial, then the first paid month after that you can get a 20% discount!).  Use the promo code 32678E when you sign up for your free month trial so you can get your discount.

Again, if you are wondering if you should get a studio website, I say go for it!  If you're wondering where to start, check out firstsiteguide.com and their helpful resources, and look into musicteachershelper.com for free templates and further studio administrative help/services.

For those of you who have a website already, what benefits have you noticed?  How has it helped your studio?

Setting Goals for Yourself & Your Students in the New Year

This past week, I've been setting goals with my students for the new year.  This doesn't necessarily have to be associated with the new year, that was happenstance, but it is something I like to do often to help them have a focus and a deadline and a specific thing to work toward.

As teachers, it is equally important that we set goals for ourselves for improving our playing and our teaching skills.  There are always new ideas to try and we can always get better, no matter how good we already are!

So, while we are all in new year's resolution mode, I thought I'd share again some past posts about setting goals: one to help students with setting and reaching practice goals, and one that talks about setting goals for yourself as a teacher.

Enjoy!

  

Introducing Note Reading to Pre-Reading Students, Part 2

Well, life has been totally crazy, but I want to quickly share a NEW (FREE) printable piece of sheet music!  This particular piece is written for an easy, simple violin duet.  Which piece is it, you ask?  Hot Cross Buns!  It doesn't get much simpler than that.  The first violin part uses fingers, while the second violin uses open strings only, and both parts stay on the A and E strings.

I have two versions available: one with staff lines, and one (even simpler and easier to read) without staff lines.  How does that work without staff lines?  And why?  Just check out my post about a simple step you can take in teaching note reading so it's not overwhelming.  The no-staff-lines approach is meant to be a temporary stepping stone for very young, pre-reading students who are transitioning to note reading.

So, here you go!  Enjoy!

Hot Cross Buns With Staff Lines
Hot Cross Buns Without Staff Lines

You may also be interested in a similar arrangement of Mary Had a Little Lamb With Staff Lines or Mary Had a Little Lamb Without Staff Lines.

Recital Schmecital, Part 5 - Recognition Certificates for Your Studio Recital

A little affirmation goes a long way!!  Who doesn't like to receive recognition for their achievements from time to time?  What great motivation comes from knowing you've done a great job!  Music students put so much work into preparation for a musical performance, and a little recognition can go a long way.  It can be something as simple as handing out certificates after a recital.  This is something very simple for you to prepare, but it's exciting, especially for young students, to receive an official-looking certificate to say, "well done!"

I've prepared a variety of printable recital certificates for you to use!  You can write in the student's name, the date and place of the performance, and then sign it.  I hope they can bring a smile to your students' faces and that they motivate them to keep on going strong.

Outstanding Performance Award!
This is a colorful recognition certificate, which has a slightly casual feel to it.  







 





 Certificate of Excellence
This recognition certificate has a very formal look.

Bravo! Award
This certificate is less formal and has a fun border of musical notes/symbols.

Bravo! Award in Color
This certificate is like the one directly above, but it is bright and colorful.












What other ideas have you used to congratulate your students on a great performance?

Recital Schmecital - Preparing for Your Music Studio Recital, Part 4

Whew, life has been crazy.  Sorry I've been so silent lately.

As promised in this earlier post about recital preparation, I'm excited to unveil some new printable, customizable recital invitations!  They'd be perfect for a spring music recital, and they're free!

Here's a preview: 

I think they're pretty cute, and it's a great way to help your students to invite other people to come.

These are super easy to download, customize, and print!

1.  Click here to download the Word document (it's on Google drive, so you'll then have to just save it to your computer).
2.  Click here for a post on how to customize them.

And that's it!  Also, there are Winter Recital Invitations and Fall Recital Invitations available, also for free!

And don't forget to check out the Recital Planning Checklist!  So helpful!

Enjoy!  And keep musicking.

Let me know how these work for you, and if you have questions, feel free to contact me.

Making Listening Tasks More Beneficial for Music Students

There are many benefits for music students who listen to recordings often.  To name a just a few: Listening to music is essential for developing a keen ear.  Listening to a recording can help a student understand the piece differently, helping with interpretation and style.  The recording can also model good tone and expression.

When done with purpose and direction, listening can offer these and many other benefits to students.  But, if students are not given direction and focus in their listening tasks, they may be missing out, and worse, it may become uninteresting and daunting to them.

How can we as teachers make listening more fun and interesting for our students?  How can we make it have more purpose and direction?  How do we help our students reap all the rewards of purposeful listening?  Below are a few ideas that can help.

1.  Ask yourself first what the purpose of the listening task is.  If you don't know it yourself, don't expect your students to figure it out.  Why would you like this particular student to listen to this particular piece?  What do you want them to gain?  The answer to this will guide a lot of your choices for how to direct the attention of the student.

2.  For young students, and especially in group settings, limit listening excerpts to no longer than three minutes.  If you'd like them to hear a longer excerpt, ask yourself what the value is of the longer excerpt, which couldn't be gained in a shorter one.  Consider maybe breaking it up into smaller segments, with discussion and questions in between to help with wandering attention spans and to keep the focus on what you'd like them to learn.

3.  Based on your answer to number one above, give the student something specific to listen for before you begin.  Any discussion and questions afterward will be based on this.

4.  Discuss what the student is hearing (giving prompts before listening can help them focus in on what you'd like them to hear).  Ask specific questions based on what you asked them to listen to, and allow the student to discuss and ask questions as well.

5.  Have the student draw while listening.  They can draw their own interpretation of what they hear.  This especially works well with young students, but can be used for all ages.

6.  Move to the music.  This eliminates boredom, and allows creative freedom to interpret the music in a new way.  It can be as simple as marching around the room to the beat, or moving close to the ground when it is soft and standing tall when the music is loud.  Allowing the student to interpret the music freely through impromptu body movements can be a lot of fun.  The type of movement you choose will depend on your purpose for the listening task.

7.  Give the student a specific task while listening, such as holding the instrument in perfect playing posture for the duration of the excerpt.  Give them something specific to focus on, again based on what you want them to gain from the experience.

8.  Follow along with the music, especially the full score.  Ask the student to look for something specific, such as when the voices play similar parts simultaneously, or to find which voice has the melody at any given time.

These are some ideas that have worked well for me and my students.  What other ideas have worked for you?  Feel free to share in the comments below so everyone can benefit.