r/pianoteachers

Has anyone else noticed that parents who want to call and talk about their children with you before ever scheduling or paying for a lesson are always the biggest headaches?

Last year, I had a mother request a phone call about her child's needs because of neurodivergence. I have a lot of neurodivergent students, and I didn't know better yet, so I said sure, why not. I assured her for about 15 minutes that I was comfortable teaching her child, she spent about 45 minutes telling me why it was so complex (it wasn't), and the call ended with an hour of my time spent for free. She scheduled a lesson, but ended up cancelling and never rescheduled. So I was never compensated for the time spent.

A few months ago, a grandparent wanted to talk in person about her prospective student. She assured me she would pay me for the time, and that it would only be 30 minutes. Lo and behold, it ended up being nearly an hour and a half, and she never reached out again to schedule or pay me for that time, even though she seemed to like me and enjoy spending an hour and a half in my studio.

This isn't to say that I don't bear some responsibility for allowing these chats to occur without prepayment.

So, this week a prospective parent was scheduled for their kids to attend intro lessons tomorrow. They reached out saying they can't tomorrow, and would like to talk on the phone about it because they're getting a divorce (another massive red flag for student behavior).

I really, really don't want to talk on the phone about this. I have a million things going on this week. I currently have 35-40 students on my schedule per week, and I don't need to give any time away for free at this point. I don't need these students. My mistake was offering them a recently vacated slot at all, because at this point I need to just stop accepting students. I know this.

My question is this:

How do I gracefully get out of this phone call? Tell them the slot is no longer available? Tell them I have a no phone call policy for incoming students? Does that sound bad? I just absolutely can't with problematic, time-sucking families any more, and I know this is ultimately my fault, but what would you do?

Thanks in advance, sorry it's so long

TLDR: I'm wondering if there are any good technique books that would substitute well for Piano Adventures levels 1-2B and appeal to a middle school aged child.

I've been teaching my first year at a music school that only stocks and recommends the Piano Adventures Lesson and Theory books for each level. I found it odd and a little lacking, but tried it out - and now I know better. My students will be having Technique & Artistry going forward because they and I need the scaffolding for developing good technique and pattern reading.

I started teaching recently at a new school. Funny enough, one of my new students is a transfer from my old school! They are 11 and about to complete level 3A. The problem is, they are not confident in reading the entire staff, and their technique is not what I'd expect at that level. Flat fingers, no legato, generally just a lack of musicality. Fortunately they seem to have a good musical vocabulary thanks to middle school band.

My plan is to have them work on some supplemental books at the 2B level (ChordTime series), but I don't know what to do for technique. I think they need to start where the Level 1 technique books cover, but I'm giving that book to their younger sibling and I don't want them to feel bad. I can photocopy selected sections, but loose papers quickly become a mess.

Any suggestions on a technique book that may be a good fit?

Piano teachers, how do you handle a student who simply refuses to play? I’ve been teaching piano for 10 years, and I’ve never really had a situation like this before. I currently have a young student who is a genuinely sweet, nice kid. The problem is that he basically doesn’t practice because he says playing piano is “boring.” I’ve talked to his parents about it, and I’m constantly trying different ways to motivate him during lessons. The biggest issue is that I spend SO much energy trying to convince him to actually play for me. Sometimes almost half of the lesson is spent negotiating, encouraging, redirecting, etc. rather than actually playing. I’m also in a slightly awkward position because I teach him at their house, and the parents are usually home. So I’m very aware that they can hear what’s happening or, more accurately, that they can hear that there is barely any piano being played for a significant part of the lesson. I don’t want to be overly strict with him. I don’t think threatening, shaming, or forcing a child is the right approach, especially when the goal is for them to eventually enjoy music. But honestly, I leave these lessons feeling completely drained. It takes so much energy just to get him to play for me. I motivate him, make things into games, give him choices, praise him, try to make the music more interesting, etc. But I’m starting to feel like I’m fighting a battle that I can’t win if he simply doesn’t want to participate. For those of you who teach children: What do you do in this situation? At what point do you tell the parents that the child may simply not be ready or interested in piano? And how do you handle it when you’re teaching in the family’s home and feel awkward because the parents are literally listening to the lesson? I would really appreciate advice from teachers who have dealt with something similar.

Hi fellow teachers! I am a younger piano teacher (female), teaching 6 yrs now as a side gig, but I'm now at the end of my 1st year doing it pretty much full-time. I have managed to build a studio of around 25 students. All my years prior to this one, I was looking to gain experience working with all age types (and was desperate for any student that wanted lessons tbh), so I accepted students literally 3 yrs old all the way to retired individuals. I don't regret this at all; it gave me a ton of experience.

But now that I've worked with a ton of age groups, I'm coming to realize that my favorite age group is the younger kiddos. I absolutely love the process with my younger students -- I've invented fun musical games for them, and the slow and steady progress is really rewarding. For this reason, I've pretty much stopped taking adult students altogether recently, or I'm at least a lot more reluctant.

In any case, I have a 14 yr old male student who started with me about 6 months ago. He's super sweet, loves music, and has no experience other than playing from ear. I majored in music theory at conservatory, so my aim is to help him start understanding the music he is playing, instead of just playing it by ear. I went through the whole pre-college in NYC to conservatory, classical music route, so I'm realizing that my scope of education is somewhat limited when faced with a student who is unconventional (he has great ear, can improvise, and likes some jazz).

He is also a young boy who I think would benefit from an older male piano teacher/role model who would be more okay with him taking an unconventional route. I'm fine continuing to work on building his fundamentals and the like, but I can't help but wonder if he'd be better off working with someone who is less concerned with playing things "accurately" and the "classical way." I guess I wonder if I'm just getting in my head a little bit -- there is definitely a ton I can teach him -- he doesn't know any scales, chords, circles of fifths, harmonic analysis, etc., but again, I just wonder if he'd do better with someone who could offer a different approach.

I, for one, have no experience in jazz or playing by ear. What are everyone's thoughts? Should I encourage him to find a new teacher? Or should I continue offering my services in building his foundation?

And I guess a small part of me also wonders if it's okay to turn down students because they don't fit the mold of the ideal type of student I want to teach? I hate saying no and closing doors because you never know, but I wonder if now is the time to start getting more picky about the age/gender of students I take moving forward?

I have been teaching a student for 4-5 years, who's a very casual player (family never really had practice schedules) and as of the last year pretty much stopped playing between lessons. She's quick to learn, polite, and will try things in lessons, but I've only seen a positive reaction to something once in the last year, that was playing 5ths along with a chord chart she knew while I sang lyrics or played melody. Her mom said she came out of her lesson smiling that day but it hasn't happened again since. Her parents want her to keep playing (ie taking lessons) but don't seem to have any interest in supporting home practice, saying she's "very unmotivated to play piano right now." (bit of an ego hit but her sister is doing great so I'm trying not to take it personally)

I've tried providing more challenge in case she was bored, giving her my favourite/exciting piece options that normally grab my early teen beginners' attention, and we've done some chording which she enjoyed if I sang along, but man, all the songs kids know these days have brutal lyrics that I do not want to sing out loud in a lesson or even have the chord/lyric charts up for!

What would you do? She gives me very little to go on, answers "I don't know" or "doesn't matter" to just about every question I prompt to try to figure out what she likes or doesn't like. I'm at a loss! Thanks for any suggestions.

Hi! I am a music tutor, and music history is a huge part of my lessons. I know how important it is for students to understand musical context for interpretation, and also I am a bit of a music historian myself, so I find it super helpful to teach students as much music history as possible.

This being said, I am finding an increasing number of students disinterested in any sort of classical music, let alone music history. I especially have this one student who just started teaching elementary students, but has no grasp on any basics of music history, but is more interested in rag and movie soundtracks. I have taught those to him for years - I usually teach what the student is interested in as much as possible, but I know I actually have to teach him classical music at some point 😅

What is a good starting point for exposing my disinterested students to classical music? I usually start through the eras, and teach forms as well quite early. What approach can I take that will help students get excited about classical music? What music listening pieces have you all had success with?

Right now I am at:

Baroque - Some Bach suites, Four Seasons, Bach Keyboard concerti
Classical - No idea, as I am not super keen on the era
Romanticism - Some Chopin, Rachmaninoff PC 2 and 3,
Impressionism - Debussy, Satie

Could I get some help for music listening recommendations?

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Hi, I have a professional music-teaching setup and many years of in-person teaching experience. However, I've decided to switch from in-person to online and have no idea how to find clients / students. Where can I go to find them quickly and consistently? Here's a picture of my setup. Thank you.