I'm a developer, not a music teacher, so I'll be upfront: I'm in the process of improving a small integration with google calendar that helps teachers cut down on forgotten/missed lessons, and before I go further I'd rather actually understand how you all handle this today than assume.

From talking to a few private teachers, the pattern seems to be: a student or parent just forgets, the slot goes empty, and depending on your policy you either eat the lost income or have an awkward conversation about charging for it. A 24-hour cancellation policy helps with the deliberate cancels, but it doesn't do much for the honest "oh no, I completely forgot" ones.

What actually works for you to reduce the "I forgot" no-shows? Text the night before? Get the parent's number too? Something in your booking software?

For those of you not on a full studio-management platform - just Google Calendar, a spreadsheet, whatever - how do you keep on top of reminders without it becoming a second job?

In a few years, I'm considering to move abroad like Germany or Australia. I have given my grade 8 piano exam from ABRSM London board. I'm from India. Are there any other qualifications needed? Is the demand good?

Disclaimer - I’m not a music teacher. But I am the secretary of an NFP association for Music Teachers and just found myself taking on the role of editor of our quarterly member magazine.
Im specifically curious and interested in any hot topics, issues or challenges that teachers are having to face currently, and if there might be some to potentially research further to include in our next issue.
Or additionally, I am open to any topic or subject that might be of particular interest or relevance to music teachers, both as classroom and private studio teachers.
Am based in Australia.
Thanks!

For those of you teaching private lessons, what do you say when a student/parent is late on payment?

Do you have a standard message for this, or do you just handle it case by case?

It seems like one of those small admin things that can get weird fast.

I teach piano online and I've been trying to build more of a feedback loop between lessons. I give students assignments, they practice, then I want them to send me a video so I can actually see if they're getting it right and send feedback back.

Today, it all goes through WhatsApp. It works but with multiple students it becomes a mess with videos buried in different chats, no structure, hard to track who sent what. I've seen that students who get quick feedback between lessons improve faster and I get more referrals from them. So I want to keep doing it, just not through WhatsApp.

Is this something y'all teachers even do, or am I overcomplicating it? If you do it, how are you handling it?

I'm a K-5 Music Teacher. I am applying for a job that will have band. I'm not a band person but I played in Jazz Band as the Pianist. Is this impossible for someone with a choral background only to do 6-8 band

Hi all,

I’m just asking this as I’ve been playing electric and upright bass for about 9 years now, and I’ve been out of work for a while so I’ve been looking to make some extra money. I mainly ask this because I’m not sure where to begin or what I would teach. I know I’d teach any potential students the obvious things like different techniques (fingers, pick, slap, double thumb, etc), timing, scales and arpeggios, etc. But what else beyond that? Could any bass teachers share some tips? Thanks!

I’ve been working at a chain music school similar to School of Rock (but a different company) for the past four years, but I’ve only been at this location for two months. For the past two months, I have been asked to come to teach just one lesson several times a week, which are only 30-minute or hour-long shifts.

I am only paid $21 an hour while they charge almost $100 an hour for lessons. With the 20-minute drive there and back, I’m basically making pennies when considering gas prices.

The directors have assured me that this is only the case until more lessons are placed on my schedule, but it’s been two months now that they’ve been having me come in for these short shifts 2-4 times a week.

My question is, has anyone gone through something similar working at a music school? Is this an acceptable practice? How much longer should I tolerate this? Should I put my foot down about this situation?

I appreciate any input. Thanks for reading.

I'm writing a screenplay and my main character (a high school sophomore) to be playing the violin in her school's band.

Wel... I have never played violin nor been in school band so please drop literally anything (songs, activities, concerts, what you do in class, etc.) that might help me!

Feel free to be as spesific as you can :)

Hi, I made a small free web app called Note Buddy to help kids and beginners practice piano notes.

The web app helps kids and adults, beginners and intermediates:

• Identify and sight read notes
• Learn the names of notes, currently using ABC notation (let me know if I should add Do,Re,Mi as well 🙂)
• My favorite: ear training (recognize notes by listening)

It's free, runs in the browser, and works well on phones. Make sure your phone is not on silent if you want to hear the notes.

I built it to help my kids learn to read notes and help me with ear training. I’d love feedback from piano teachers, parents, adult beginners, or anyone learning music. What feels confusing, what would make it more useful, any bugs you encounter?

Link: https://pebblebuddy.com/games/notebuddy

I teach high school music in a rural town, and my intermediate ensemble for the upcoming year is pretty imbalanced due to scheduling conflicts.

There are 21 students, only 3 of which are boys (all baritone-ish in range). Does anyone have any fun/challenging SSAB repertoire recommendations?

I’m already planning on arranging some rep, but I’m trying to minimize how much I’ll have to arrange because I also teach the instrumental program and I have to write or arrange everything for that class because of the low numbers and wonky instrumentation makeup of that class.

Any and all help is greatly appreciated!

Hello music educators:

Broad question if you have feedback -

As I think about the next school year, I want to have a guiding question that dictates the whole year and would like some help working out this idea.

I’m somewhere in the neighborhood of:

Musicians/Artists create things that ideally cause their audience to THINK, FEEL, and/or TAKE ACTION: What does a musician need to do/need to know to help the audience think, feel and/or act?

Think, feel, act — is there something else I’m not thinking of here? Another vague but somewhat powerful verb? Think/feel are pretty self-evident concepts — music history has run back the “Apollonian versus Dionysian art” debate for thousands of years. In the case of gebrauchamusik (coined by Hindemith but obvious throughout history), some music is also for specific purpose like military or ceremonial music, propaganda, documentation/storytelling (lore music, balladiers, bards, etc.)

John Ruskin also uses a similar trifecta of “the head the heart and the hand”

Without getting too far into specifics… is there something else? I want to have a relatively narrow scope for this overarching question but don’t want to be like “and I didn’t think of this before, but music is also….”

TIA for any thoughts!

I'm building an app for music teachers and I'm honestly scared of building the wrong thing so I'm bribing teachers with $5 coffees to tell me what actually drives them nuts about the business side (scheduling, getting paid, all of it). 5-min form, $5 coffee, no catch.

Comment "coffee" and I'll send the link 👇

https://preview.redd.it/ujh75bp6ra9h1.jpg?width=2316&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=29905bf19181504f8a4a9f696c23b692366c4b4e

Hey pianolearning,

Music theory can feel like a rigid textbook, so I wanted to make something highly visual to help with improvisation improvement.

How it works:

1. Select your Root Key.
2. Pick a Mood (Happy, Sad, Epic, Bluesy, Jazzy, etc.).
3. Instantly see your safe notes, interactive chord cards, ready-made progressions, and classic pop/rock song examples.

Cool features:

• 🎹 Interactive piano layout (click to play or use your computer keyboard).
• 🧰 Custom sequence builder to map out a backing track.
• 🎙️ Built-in local recorder to save your ideas.
• 🔌 Web MIDI support (plug your keyboard in and play).

It just runs right in your browser.

Would love to get some feedback from people currently learning to improv!

Pick your key and mood

https://preview.redd.it/r3b0icmca39h1.png?width=968&format=png&auto=webp&s=73c601ece968ea3f3d76361f7ff4e8c1433af49a

https://preview.redd.it/gba6od8fa39h1.png?width=972&format=png&auto=webp&s=f94d78cc7ea4bb02e35a80cf917ac63786bc31c2

https://preview.redd.it/63odd35ha39h1.png?width=961&format=png&auto=webp&s=10055c1c6fb5ec9136e4dd358bed728c23a809a4

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twXJgXi3EEo

Hi! I'm an adult student (late-40s's) been studying with a new music teacher on Skype for the last few months. Things started out fine and then a month in, my teacher's life imploded. Their wife left them, they started a divorce, one of their loved ones died and then the teacher told me they have attempted to end their life multiple times in the last month. They are currently working with a therapist, are under watch and are getting care. They also talk about how they are drinking quite a bit.

They share this with me in lessons. The mental health story was shared after I mentioned I was having a hard time because my aunt had passed from something similar. And then my teacher started sharing their recent mental health struggles.

My teacher has an incredible career. They have produced many music albums and has a large teaching studio of children and adults.

The mental health struggles and then talking about it during lessons is one thing, but it's my teacher's attitude the last month. The recently they were rude, snippy and were borderline yelling at me, "I already specifically told you..." When we were working through a new piece of music. The whole lesson was very uncomfortable.

They are irritable and always seem impatient and annoyed with me. We haven't been working together that long.

I have had many teachers over the years (I've been playing my instrument for 10 years) and I've had my share of teachers that weren't a great fit, but this has been a unique experience.

How do you kindly end lessons with someone who is not doing well mentally? I mean they are still scheduling concerts, keeping a performing schedule, judging and more, so there is some level of functionality.

Thank you for any advice. 🙏

I’m interested in doing some drum circle activities/ games/ songs with my middle schoolers on the first two weeks of school. Anyone have some good resources and/books that they would recommend ?

I teach guitar at a local music school. Been asked to cover for another guitar teacher’s students for the next couple weekends while he’s on vacation.

With my own assigned students I have a pretty good idea of assigned repertoire, where they’re at with it etc. Obviously I don’t have this with the other teacher’s students.
What are some good approaches to teaching cover lessons to make sure the student gets something out of it/it isn’t just me effectively saying “cool, keep doing what [other guy] told you to do”?