PRIVATE MUSIC TEACHERS: this one is for you! (degree, business, credentials) - Teaching -Issues affecting teachers - City-Data Forum

RomaniGypsy · 11-26-2012, 07:09 PM

As a private music teacher myself, I felt compelled to ask other private music teachers how they handle what I have determined are common issues that plague people in our profession.

I've taught music for almost 10 years, figuring by now that I've done well in excess of 20,000 music lessons. I have taught people from ages 2 through 80, people with special needs and people with many times the talent that I ever had, people of all types. I have often been called an excellent music teacher, and I can count on one hand the number of families who have cut their professional relationships with me over disagreements with my teaching style (not one of which gave me any indication ahead of time that there were issues).

I am a professional-caliber performance musician on multiple instruments and I can teach everything in the rock band. My recitals have consisted of solo performers, duets, trios, all the way up to full rock bands staffed entirely by students (save for me on bass because that is somehow a very unpopular instrument). Let's face it. As a music teacher, I am very good at what I do. I'm excellent with kids and adults, I miss nothing, and I have a lot of patience for my students.

But still I find myself struggling. Below, I'm going to list the reasons why, and see what y'all have to say about this. (Understand that, if you know of an area that doesn't have a high cost of living and also doesn't suffer these ills in huge quantities, I'd like to know what that area is!)

1) Music lessons are often the least important line item on the family budget.
People will purchase music lessons when they've purchased everything else and there is still money left over. With God as my witness, my music lessons rank below "cigarettes" on many families' scales... and I know this for a fact because there is proof. My music lessons also tend to rank below "eating out", "having a fancy new car", and "having a big fancy house". (I just LOVE when a family moves from a house that was perfectly fine for them, into a larger house that's more opulent and more expensive... and then they can no longer afford music lessons.)

2) Students don't practice anywhere near as much as they should.
Ten years into it, and I am completely at a loss for how to motivate these kids to practice. I'm nice to them, I don't berate them, I praise their accomplishments, I do whatever I can to get them playing music they want to play. If I cannot find an arrangement of a song someone wants to play, I will arrange it myself, by ear, so the student can play it. If a student wants to be in a band, most of the time I can make that happen. I've had students play in just about every solo or ensemble situation imaginable. But yet, they still won't practice regularly. Okay, so I understand this from the perspective of one who was once a music student of considerable ability and advancement, who still didn't practice enough. However, I had parents who pushed me and refused to allow me to quit.

3) Parents don't see the value in music lessons.
If they did, they wouldn't tell me things like "[My 8-year-old son] has decided that he just isn't interested anymore, so this will be his last lesson". OF COURSE your kid THINKS he isn't interested, because it ain't as easy to play a real guitar as it is to "play" that cheap plastic piece of junk that plugs into the Guitar Hero game! As soon as the kids realize that it takes WORK to become a good musician, suddenly they aren't as excited about it as they used to be. Again, I was there myself (and I became a pro!) so I know. But this is where the parents kick in! "Son, you wanted these lessons, we talked about this and you said you wouldn't quit, so there's no quitting. You're going to practice for a half hour every day or that Xbox gets locked away in my gun safe."

4) I have lost countless students to sports.
Logically, I cannot see the value in contact sports. A teenage drum student of mine, before his brain kicked in and told him how stupid football really is, regularly came to his lessons limping or groaning or displaying huge bruises or wearing various braces or whatever. When I asked him why he continued playing football and what the point was, he said it was for the glory. FINALLY someone was willing to come clean and tell me what I already knew to be true! Parents somehow place this huge value on sports, which are often just barbaric games that depend upon ridiculously complex sets of rules and generally ensure that people are going to get hurt badly on a regular basis. Even if that isn't the case, these kids will have to practice 4-5 days per week after school for their sports, 2-3 hours a day... and games will be on the weekends, sometimes taking the form of "tournaments" which last for the entire weekend. I can't tell you how many students' parents have said "[sport] is taking up too much time now - we'll have to suspend music lessons for now"... naturally, they never come back. That's what I call a "soft letdown". They know they aren't coming back, but they don't want to say so because they know you'll get mad or hurt or whatever. (Gee, thanks for considering my feelings. That's like saying "you're fired, effective immediately, but we will give you a good recommendation for your job hunt".) Anyway, they'll invest some double-digit number of hours into these sports every week... sports that the kids won't play after high school or college anyway... but they won't find a way to invest 3-4 hours a week into music, which is a lifelong thing that can be done at all ages.

5) Students (and their families) regularly come to my house sick.
I'm sitting here typing this while barely able to speak because I have, once again, gotten sick due to students coming to my house sick. Whenever that happens, I am forced to scramble for reschedules, or I wind up losing income. (Pay day comes for the next month's lessons... "How much is it this month, given that you cancelled that one lesson last month when you were sick?") It is the height of inconsideration when families do this, and words cannot describe how mad I get when a sick student comes to my house (or when a sick parent comes to my house and STAYS INSIDE DURING THE ENTIRE LESSON! Go out and sit in your car if you're sick! Neither I, nor my wife, want what you have!).

6) Adult students who smoke, and young students' parents who smoke, regularly come to my house reeking of smoke.
Have a little consideration! If you're going to give yourself another carcinogenic respiratory treatment before the lesson starts, STAY OUTSIDE for several minutes after you finish, to air yourself out! If you finish your cigarette outside and then come inside immediately afterward, you're going to stink up my entire house! My house ain't that big, because my students and their families are not loyal enough for me to be able to bank on always being able to afford the payments on a larger house!

7) The infamous "no-call/no-show".
A student doesn't show up. No indication was given in advance that the student wouldn't come. Several minutes into the lesson time, I contact the student (or his/her family) and ask if I already knew that the student wasn't coming. (I put it on myself - "am I just forgetful?" - even though I know, in almost all cases, that it was merely because the student or his/her family didn't find the music lesson to be important enough to remember, or put into the daily planner.) If I even get a response, it is usually "I forgot, can we reschedule?"... I want to tell them NO, you can't reschedule!! You want to take ANOTHER block of my time after rendering your normal block useless to me? If I knew in advance that you weren't coming, I could have rescheduled another lesson into your normal time block. And then, if I can't reschedule it, many of them will want to deduct the cost of that lesson from the next month's payment. Now, some of you may say "Just don't allow it! Tell them "no"! Tell them they still have to pay for it!" That's all well and good... sounds great on paper... but remember what I told y'all before about how little value these families place on music lessons. Often, it takes only something very small to make them quit. That could easily be what makes them quit, and it's not a risk I'm willing to take when the financial security of my family depends upon my music lesson income. If I make it seem like I'm really strict, it may be off-putting to people. After all, it's hard enough to attract students at my prices anyway, because...

8) Price shoppers!
Not all music teachers are created equal. Many of them can't even read music... and this area is practically saturated with teenagers who think they can make a quick buck teaching music. The people who buy lessons from them, in the paraphrased words of John Ruskin, are their lawful prey. I have had people tell me that their budgets are barely half what I charge, and I respond by telling them that if they CAN find a teacher in this area who will do the amount of lessons they want for the price they're willing to pay, they should not take those lessons because the person will be incompetent. Recently I had a woman tell me, through e-mail, "You sound great, you are exactly the teacher I need to take lessons from, and your performance experience includes exactly what I want to do. However, I simply cannot afford to take lessons from you. Therefore I must wish you the best of luck in your business, and look elsewhere." Look - if I'm the perfect teacher for you, FIND some way to afford me! Because, if you go with anyone else (who is ostensibly "not perfect"), you're wasting every penny you put into it! You know how many times I have had students (usually adults) tell me I'm too expensive, then try lessons with one of the cheap teachers, then call me back quickly to tell me they want to do lessons with me because the other guy was a knucklehead?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

One could argue that it's an issue of the culture here in central Texas. When I taught in New Jersey, admittedly I taught at the students' houses... which may have increased the "convenience" factor for the students... and contributed to the fact that my students were very loyal. I rarely lost one even when I was running close to 70 students. However, I couldn't teach "in-home" down here even if I wanted to. I couldn't charge enough to make up for drive cost and drive time, and then the frequent student attrition would mean that, after I made a really nice route, I would get a hole in that route which I could only fill with a student in that same vicinity. If I can't fill it with a student in that vicinity, I am left with a time slot which isn't generating income. Besides, with the sheer volume of instruments I teach, and the number of other resources I need to have when doing lessons, I can't really do what I do if I'm teaching in the students' houses. (Plus, I know what I have to deal with, at students' houses, due to having done it for years. Loud obnoxious dogs, siblings running all over the place distracting the lessons, houses reeking of cigarettes, walking into a germ circus due to there being sickness in the house... "but your student isn't sick! We'll just keep our distance!"... etc!)

It seems to me that a huge number of people want to learn how to play an instrument. I'm just not sure how to tap into that. It's really hard to leverage very much when I am the least important service provider on the totem pole. A coach can punish his players, make them run laps, bench them during games, etc... for things such as not practicing, not coming to practice, or goofing off. I can't levy any kind of punishment apart from withholding a song I said I could teach or arrange for that student. If I were to try any punishment, I would probably lose the student. Kids won't quit football if they get benched, but kids will quit music lessons for the slightest little thing. All they'd have to say is that I'm mean and they don't want to take lessons with me anymore, and Mommy Dearest will just cave in and let them quit.

So, private music teachers! Let's rock! What are your thoughts?

Coney · 11-27-2012, 12:23 AM

I haven't taught music privately in a while but some of your gripes are really age-old that are just part of the territory, especially about kids not practcing and the competition with sports.

Where I am, we have some of the opposite problems. Here, many parents are highly educated, few smoke, and we push our kids until they drop so that they can be the best and get into a top 5 college. It's a pressure cooker. Parents tend to hover during the lessons, tell the teacher how to teach, or teach the child themselves when they are practicing, thereby conflicting with your instruction. Then we've got the tiger moms who want their children to be models of perfection and set impossible goals. We've got kids here who do it all, and do it all very well. And hopefully, do not develop anorexia or have a nervous break down. The teacher is held accountable if little Johnny didn't win the competition or didn't get that scholarship. A lot is at stake at the high school level because many students submit a CD or DVD of them playing, even if they have no intention of taking music at the university, as part of their college application process.

So it can go either way.

To avoid cancellations and parents not paying on time, some teachers here insist on weekly lessons being prepaid at the beginning of each month. They do not give refunds if a student misses a lesson, but do reschedule for a make up lesson. The going rate here is $60-$70 per hour. Much more if you are big league pro but still give lessons to talented youngsters.

Time for music lessons and practicing not only is in competition with sports, but religious instruction, school drama programs, the private tutors for academic subjects and the SATs/ACT, dance, kickline, Model UN, and the science projects for submission for Siemens and Intell.

Your region obviously has a different culture than mine.

RomaniGypsy · 11-27-2012, 09:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coney

I haven't taught music privately in a while but some of your gripes are really age-old that are just part of the territory, especially about kids not practcing and the competition with sports.

Where I am, we have some of the opposite problems. Here, many parents are highly educated, few smoke, and we push our kids until they drop so that they can be the best and get into a top 5 college. It's a pressure cooker. Parents tend to hover during the lessons, tell the teacher how to teach, or teach the child themselves when they are practicing, thereby conflicting with your instruction. Then we've got the tiger moms who want their children to be models of perfection and set impossible goals. We've got kids here who do it all, and do it all very well. And hopefully, do not develop anorexia or have a nervous break down. The teacher is held accountable if little Johnny didn't win the competition or didn't get that scholarship. A lot is at stake at the high school level because many students submit a CD or DVD of them playing, even if they have no intention of taking music at the university, as part of their college application process.

So it can go either way.

To avoid cancellations and parents not paying on time, some teachers here insist on weekly lessons being prepaid at the beginning of each month. They do not give refunds if a student misses a lesson, but do reschedule for a make up lesson. The going rate here is $60-$70 per hour. Much more if you are big league pro but still give lessons to talented youngsters.

Time for music lessons and practicing not only is in competition with sports, but religious instruction, school drama programs, the private tutors for academic subjects and the SATs/ACT, dance, kickline, Model UN, and the science projects for submission for Siemens and Intell.

Your region obviously has a different culture than mine.

I insist on lessons being prepaid monthly, and right now I'm collecting for December because I collect in the end of the previous month (such that one lesson is always paid ahead of time). Of course, at least 1/3 of my students' families forget to pay up, every month, so I wind up having to take their money in the beginning of the month anyway. Or, they'll give me a check, but it'll be post-dated for the first of the month. I love how they can always afford their cigarettes but they're so broke that they can't pay me my rate (which is barely $20/half hour) until their next paycheck comes in.

I checked some of your posts and it appears that you are either on Long Island or in New York City. In that case I wouldn't be surprised about the going rate of $60-70 per hour. However, one of your posts also said that a small house starts at about $350,000. Everything is relative. My rate for music lessons is about $40 per hour in an area where a small house (in an average area) starts at $60,000 and a decent-sized house in a nicer area starts at $95,000. In order to afford living in an area where a house cost almost four times as much (and everything else was commensurately more expensive due to higher taxes on everything and higher prices for most things), I'd be lucky to be doing even as well up there on $65 per hour as I do down here at $40 per hour. That's why I said that it's important for me to find a place where it's cheap to live, but music students are still loyal.

Where I used to teach was in central New Jersey (rate I charged was $45-50/hour), so I know a bit about what you're saying. I had some really good students who were really good because their parents made them practice. I can still remember my little 10-year-old Korean girl who was good enough to play songs involving octaves and larger intervals (because she was made to practice an hour a day and her family's culture forbade her from failing to do what her parents told her to do) but whose tiny fingers could only stretch a 7th. I had to rearrange her music so that she could play it and it'd still sound good.

I liked the Jersey people's attitude toward music lessons, on the whole. I just didn't like the congestion, the cost of living, and the Jersey political attitude in general. Jersey has been improving lately, but it'd take significantly more improvement to convince me to go back.

marigolds6 · 11-27-2012, 01:16 PM

My experience is based on Iowa, Missouri, and Illinois. My wife has taught strings privately in all three states, mostly through music schools that have even more firmly established rules than these. (The real problems for her are much more similar to Coney's problems.)

In this region, lessons are taught on a school year contract. This applies for both schools and private teachers. You pay for the entire year up front or in contracted monthly installments. Each student has a signed contract setting up the rules for lessons. Summer lessons are a separate contract.

On practice, recognition can help. My wife does Suzuki, and the 100 days challenge is a strong motivator there (even the teachers do the challenge). But if students will not practice, do not be afraid to drop them. A student who will not practice will hurt your reputation. A dedicated student will improve your reputation, even if their performance is all them!

Consider scholarships after the first year. This is much easier for a school than an individual, but can help with both continuity and price shoppers. If the family cannot make it through the first year, you still get some financial reward up front. If they have financial difficulties after the first year, scholarships can keep them involved and dedicated through lean times. It might even help a family on the bubble of whether or not to continue lessons. After all, if you do not have a full schedule, then partial hours are better than none at all. Keep in mind, this will mean having to deal with families providing you with financial information. (Do you have an accountant for your taxes? They can help with this to.)

Families are more important than students. When a whole family is dedicated, you might get three or four students instead of just one; and they will bring in other families in the long run too.

Smoking: Thankfully my wife has always taught at non-smoking campuses. You are completely in your rights to make a rule that there is no smoking on your property, and make it part of your lesson contract.

No call/no show/sick student: This goes back to having enforceable annual written contracts. Create a designated make up lesson period; 2 weeks per school term when you only do makeup lessons. Since the parents are contracted for the school year, there will be none of this "I'm going to deduct from next month's payments". If the provide advance notice, they get one makeup per term. If they no call no show, then they are out of luck. Since standard makeups are only offered during a specific week, there are no makeups for missed makeups.

But you give the most flexibility for sick students/parents. (One simple rule for this is that if they had to stay home from work or stay home from school, they are too sick to come to music lessons.) For sickness, allow multiple makeups as your schedule allows with plenty of advance scheduling. They still are prepaid, but the makeups are free. Still apply the same no call/no show rules though to makeup lessons.

Price Shoppers: Beat them to the punch. The least expensive teachers out there are grad students, strong undergrads, and very advanced high school students. If you can develop your own list of these teachers to give to someone who cannot afford you (even better if they are your current or former students), they would hopefully recognize the gap in quality and stability in exchange for lower costs. Remember, with your quality and credentials your goal is to have strong dedicated families of students. If you are able to provide them with a support network for lower costs, they might still come back to you down the road. And you can still explain to them that if your services are a financial difficulty for them, that you provide need based tuition reductions after the first year.

sll3454 · 11-27-2012, 04:57 PM

About the practicing:

Unless you can afford to teach just the elite, you will always have students who don't practice. They like to play, they like to learn, but they do not have the dedication to become great. Try to change your way of thinking so that that's okay, because you aren't going to change theirs. If it's okay with the person who's paying, just let it be. So they don't reach their full potential - so what? They may be taking lessons for enjoyment, not achievement. Teach them what you can, encourage them when you can, accept their payment cheerfully, and save the intensity for the more-driven students.

If you insist that every student practice regularly, be prepared to lose those who just want some fun.

germaine2626 · 11-27-2012, 05:35 PM

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