r/pianoteachers

Hi everyone, I'm a young piano teacher (F22) with 20 piano students, teaching in a big city. I've gotten a few requests from time to time from my piano students' parents that they'd like me to pick their kids up from school, then give a piano lesson, pick up from camp, babysit in the evening, etc. etc. I care deeply about my students, piano teaching is my full-time gig and I genuinely love kids, so in the past I've always been more than happy to be of extra help in any way. However, I'm starting to encounter the issue of parents negotiating my babysitting rate and trying to pair it with lessons so they pay me less than if we just did babysitting on their own. I'm starting to realize there's a potential conflict of interest with me being babysitter and piano teacher sometimes, not only in the minds of the kids, but mostly in the parents. It's a weird in between when I am serving as both. I'm curious, do y'all ever babysit your piano kids? Is this something I should stop offering going forward?

Next week I am moving city, and so will be leaving all of my pupils. Very very sad. I have been teaching some for up to 5 years and now I have to leave all of them in one go.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? Got any advice on what sort of presents go along way to say farewell?

What sets the successful ones apart from those who plateau?

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?

I’ve been self teaching for a couple of years but need help please

This is the first student I've taught in my whole career where I just can't continue on. I told myself this past year I'd see how it went and it was bad. Sweet family and sweet kid but most lessons I have to give 150% just to get a slight response from him. I remind the family about practice every week and occasionally they've had good weeks. He's now resisting a new book I bought to interest him and reinforce skills, and we've been working on basic reading and playing skills for almost 3 years with barely any progression. I've set manageable practice goals, send more detailed notes than I usually do...the list goes on and on. And yet, somehow they always want to continue lessons.

I am very conflict avoidant and don't want to make this about the kid, but I can't bear another year of the energy suck for 30 minutes each week.

How would you go about talking to the family? I feel like if I talk to the kid it'll crush him. When we have a good lesson it can be really fun, but I'd say it's 1 out of 5-10 if that.

I'm a 54F returning student after a very brief period of lessons in my childhood (6 months at 10 y.o.) and lots of unstructured playing for fun in my preteens-teens-early 20s. Very poor sight reading skills (though have picked up several more 'landmark' notes in the last 2 months).

My teacher is my *mother-in-law*!! Who is actually a very skilled pianist and experienced piano teacher, though until now, she hasn't taught since 1990. She offered to give me lessons when I said I had started practicing consistently again and really wanted to give it another try.

We've had 2 lessons, 2 weeks apart. We both think every 2 weeks is what we should try for, but might be difficult that often since she lives in a town 45 minutes away. I am realizing that any less often might really make it difficult to progress. The plus side of using her is, she has a gorgeous baby grand, our lessons can go as long as feels right (1st lesson was 2 hours, 2nd was 90 mins), and she's doing it for free as she's retired and she likes having something fun to do.

So right now, I/we are trying to figure out where to pick up in a method book that matches my current level. I have a John Thompson Adult Piano Course 1 (her previous preferred course - the regular, not adult, she's never taught an adult beginner), but also a Faber Adult PA Book 2, which looks just about right for where I am.

At the beginning of the first lesson, I brought everything I use for her to look at, both these method books, my Dozen a Day book 1, my sight reading exercise book, the Faber supplementary books, and the other books that I play easy pieces out of. We did the first 4 exercises in A Dozen a Day, I showed her my C major scales, we worked on a couple songs I'd already been playing, and we picked out a new song to start working on.

I left my Faber and JT method books for her to have time to look through before the next lesson, she doesn't have her own copies (question one - should she??)

Second lesson, we didn't do ANY Dozen A Day warmups, even though I've got through the first 12 at home - should she be watching me do them to see if my technique is right?, though we did do more C major scales, on which she said my technique was better this week. Introduced G major scales (need to catch up to where Faber 2 is) and 2 octave C major scales. Introduced pedaling, as part of the songs I'm already working on. Played my songs, one just needs work on dynamics (and now pedaling), and picked one more new song to work on before next time (which will be ??)

I took my method books home with me, of course. She put post its in a few places in the JT book for me to look at, but not the Faber. We didn't exactly pin down how we are going to use both books, I guess we'll play it by ear. I really like how the Faber has theory and technique as part of the unit.

Is this going to work without her having copies of the books I'm using? It's not that I'm expecting to progress super fast, I understand what it means long term to study piano. But I AM wanting to be as smart and efficient as possible in my habits, practices, and lessons.

Also, I find the prospect of having to transpose pieces as given in the Faber book slightly terrifying...

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!

Hi,

I learnt piano all throughout my childhood and got to a good level (grade 8 and regular performances). However I haven't played now in years and my piano (keyboard) went into storage. Fastforward to yesterday and we had the keyboard delivered to the house. My soon to be 6 year old now wants to learn and asked me to teach her. Her twin has no interest (wants a drumset!).

I'm no teacher, and I think she should probably wait a couple of years before having lessons, but I was wondering if there is anything I could do with her now, to get her playing a bit and enjoying it. Are there any resources you would recommend? I'm also very conscious that I don't want to teach her bad habits that any teacher will then have to spend time trying to undo. Or is she not too young, and should I try and find lessons for her (we live in a rural area, so not sure there are any teachers nearby)? And to be honest, once I start her on lessons (now or in the future) I'd like him to have lessons as well as I've always thought that the piano is a good start for all children.

Would love to get teachers' point of view on this

Teachers,
I'm going on vacation for a whole week in August. My lessons are invoiced monthly for 4 or 5 lessons (5 depending on the day of the week and months with an extra day). When I was doing the math, I concluded that I'm going to be losing over $200 in income from lessons since I'm going on vacation. I had planned to charge for 3 lessons in August instead of 4 since I'm missing a week. $200 seems like a bit much to be losing out on. What are your policies or things you've done for invoicing when you have a vacation planned?

Hi,

I learnt piano all throughout my childhood and got to a good level (grade 8 and regular performances). However I haven't played now in years and my piano keyboard (Clavinova) went into storage. Fastforward to yesterday and we had the Clavinova delivered to the house. My soon to be 6 year old now wants to learn and asked me to teach her. Her twin has no interest (wants a drumset!).

I'm no teacher, and I think she should probably wait a couple of years before having lessons, but I was wondering if there is anything I could do with her now, to get her playing a bit and enjoying it. Are there any resources you would recommend? But I'm also very conscious that I don't want to teach her bad habits that any teacher will then have to spend time trying to undo. Or is she not too young, and should I try and find lessons for her (we live in a rural area, so not sure there are any teachers nearby)? And to be honest, once I start her on lessons (now or in the future) I'd like him to have lessons as well as I've always thought that the piano is a good start for all children, but I'm wary of forcing him to do it when he's reluctant.

Any advice or tips? Thanks

Yeah... I know this is a weird post.

I like the studio I teach at a lot, and the pay is actually good compared to what studios usually charge. But there used to be a problem where the studio would have me come in several days... and sometimes it would end up one of those days it would only be 2 students, another day maybe 3 or 4, and then a couple more filled days as it should be. Though frankly, I think even on my busiest days (4 hours) I could still teach more (at a studio I used to teach in NJ I sometimes taught for 6 hours from 3-9pm). It seems that rather than booking teachers later, they just hire more and more teachers to teach primarily a window of 3-5:30pm.

I asked, because I was commuting far for the time (and still am until I move next month), that I needed a minimum of 2 hours teaching, and really three to make it worth it, but would prefer more than that (ideally 4 or more). And the studio was and is respectful about it; I go in a few days a week, and even if one of the days might be lighter, I'm teaching at least 2.5 hours, and heavier days of 4 hours.

Meanwhile, I've needed unfortunately some support from my parents when I needed to cut back on some other work (I was doing dance accompanying, music directing youth theatre, subbing at a church some Sundays, other freelance gigs), to the point when I was doing other things I was so burnt out and exhausted that at one point I briefly blacked out while driving over a bridge, and started having nightly hot flashes.

I'm finally moving closer to where the studio is, but my mother is getting so trigger happy about it saying "It's much less a big deal to have only one or two lessons on a given day since you live in the area" (and thus do more days and spread myself thin over them). And I'm explaining to her that it's much more than the commute but the fact that you're now blocking out that day where you really can't do anything else, and also giving the impression that it's 'ok' to the studio to let them do this ("Oh, well a student could've come Wednesday, but since now she can teach any day and it doesn't matter, why not Thursday... or Saturday?")

I've already mentioned to her in the past when I would, when I used to music direct a theatre group, be asked to come in to teach the music to kids for two hours, that it really entailed 2 hours prep the day before (listen to the songs, figure out how to split the harmony parts, pre-diagnose trouble spots), plus an hour (or more) commuting each way... to teach (and thus get paid for only) two hours, and thus it works out to about $18/hour (I would get paid $100 for two hours)... and I live in NYC currently. But she doesn't see it that way. She sees it as "It's a little more money that you have." And saw that with everything... dance accompanying ($40 an hour but only there for 2.5 hours plus an hour commute each way)... that musical theatre directing... going into Manhattan (when I one point did door-to-door on my own) one day for one student and $90 (45 minute lesson) and another day for two students for $120 (two half hour lessons). "It's not a big deal, you wouldn't be working anyways".

Should I eat it? Allow myself to go in and teach only one or two students more days a week without any promise of more students those days (because when that originally happened, nothing changed until I asked to consolidate my schedule)?

I'm a parent. I've read that there are professional concert pianists who started learning piano at ten or even later. If that's the case, why do people start their kids at younger ages? Finger coordination, general understanding of things, etc., are much more advanced in a 10yo. Isn't that more efficient?

I don't know if this is the best place to ask, but I'm looking for somewhere to sell my teaching supplies. I used to use a Facebook page for selling materials but it's pretty dead these days. I don't want to use Etsy anymore. I try to keep my prices lower to help teachers but still make a tiny bit. I'm saving up for some extra piano repairs outside the usual yearly maintenence.

I make music thery themed buttons, custom music clips with names, piano coins for prizes, magnets, game pieces, puzzles. All kinds of stuff. Any suggestions?

Also if you buy materials, where are you buying them from? I'm always looking for new materials too.

I teach various genres of music to my piano students. Most of my students are beginners or early intermediate, so in some ways "which genres to teach" is a moot point because I'm primarily teaching music basics. I personally feel that pop music is as valid a pedagogical choice as classical, jazz, world, rock, or whatever. There's so much to learn, regardless of which direction you focus towards.

I have this idea that there are many teachers out there who do not like to teach pop music because they consider it too easy. But maybe that's not true, so I thought I'd ask.... How do you feel about teaching pop music? I'm curious about all aspects of how you feel about it, including whether or not you feel comfortable teaching it, whether or not you enjoy teaching it, and how you feel about its pedagogical and/or practical value. So, what do you each think?

I have a student (11) who does zoom piano lesson with me each week, and she never practices (which I am not holding against her, cuz I just know thats how it is for some kids so I try to make lesson time as learning and fun filled as possible), but I struggle to come up with game ideas to do since obviouslt we are not in person and it makes it a lot more difficult.

I wanted to ask if you guys might have any ideas? Especially games relating to sharps and flats, and also reading and identifying notes on the staff. One game I started using is Headbanz and I had her print out some cut outs we can use over the camera, but again, thats just one game ya know. Your ideas will also carry over to ones I use in person, so don't think it might just get wasted on one zoom student!

Also, for more advanced students who are wanting to get into ear training, when they are familiar with it but now want to learn the "official way" (learning chords, extensions, scales, intervals etc.), how to you approach this and make it fun, and not overwhelming, especially to keep their interest so it doesn't become daunting? Thank you all in advance for you advice!

Hi everyone, I have a 7-year-old boy whom I started teaching about 2-3 months ago. He is very smart when it comes to musical concepts. He is taking to note reading very well, has a good sense of rhythm, and is very interested in music history/classical music in general. However, I'm having the most difficult time with him over any student I've had so far with his hand technique. He plays with completely straight, flat fingers.

So... just for some context: I have 20 students currently and have been teaching 7 years now, so I have a few tricks up my belt. I use this little crochet turtle called "Hermon" -- I place the toy under their palms to teach them to curve their fingers. If he flattens, he will send Hermon to the ER. I use various metaphors -- from "upside down beggar hands" to "waterfalls from a cliff." These tools tend to be enough for my students to get the point and curve their fingers. When they failed to work on him, I had him purchase a Dozen a Day mini book to combat his technique. As a last resort, I purchased "bubble handz" off of IG with is a wrist/hand corrector device (this was pretty much a waste of money).

Point is: No matter what I tell him or what I do, he can't seem to correct his technique. His fingers are very double-jointed, and his joints are hypermobile, and when I tell him to (for example) make the tips of his fingers strong and not collapse, the middle of his finger (the other joint closer to the knuckles) completely straightens and hyperextends. If I tell him to make that joint strong, he will collapse the tip. I keep working on it week by week, but at this point it is completely stunting his progress, and I can not move him forward in his books if he cannot correct it (and I can tell he is getting frustrated that we aren't really moving along)

Has anyone dealt with hypermobility finger issues in young students? What did they use to correct it? Should I keep pushing him along and hope it fixes naturally later? Any tips/tricks would be appreciated!

Hi everyone, I’m not sure whether this post is allowed or if I need to wait until Saturday, but I’m looking for some input on good lesson books or other resources for an adult with zero experience. I’ve personally been playing piano for over 20 years, but I haven’t taken lessons since I was a kid, and I’ve never given lessons myself. However, my girlfriend recently bought herself a keyboard and wants to learn, and she wants me to teach her. I want to get her started with a good beginner course that we can go through together, but there are so many resources, I’m not sure where to begin. When I first started, I learned with James Bastien and Alfred’s books. Are those recommended, but those were definitely intended for children. Is there a gold standard adult beginner course I don’t know about? Thanks!

I am questioning my entire career, teaching style, and curriculum.

Okay maybe my emotions are high, I just finished my recital with the kids, there were 6 who attended as the other half went on vacation.

One of those students was a transfer one, looking to take it easy with learning piano and theory with me. Let's call them Clover. They had a previous teacher, I have no idea what their style was, but this student came to me with good foundation, RCM 8 despite just finishing elementary, technique, everything. Just high intermediate stuff. But it was the source of their burnout.

Fast forward, the other 5 are mine. But the student mentioned above played MILES better. Obviously results show when you put in the work. But my teaching style is so much different. I let kids pick the songs they like, let them decide whether they want to pursue levels or not, I don't yell, I don't insult them, the closest I've ever gave a negative emotion was when I was openly upset (only because the student was giving the attitude). If they don't practice, I don't scold them, I ask why they did not, and how we can work around scheduling, strategy, or motivation.

I'm worried if I look bad in front of Clover's parents. And I feel so helpless because no matter how much knowledge or insistence I ask my students to practice regularly, the choice is up to them. They can do well in class but completely forget what was done the week after. I can explain and demonstrate why strategic practice is more effective but it's them who chooses to adapt. And here I am wondering: should I lead my curriculum by scaring them a little?

I had planned for this four year old boy to participate but he told me he didn't want to. On top of the fact that in the previous recital, he had a breakdown before stepping on stage. I thought I made the right choice to consult him. The mom came to me and said that I have to push him, because for every other activity, the boy always stays in his comfort zone.

Hence I'm panicking over my style. About being strict. It's not that I'm afraid to have them dislike me, I'm afraid that they will dislike music. In the past, I had a little girl quit because she felt too pushed (albeit it's only because I saw how smart she was and believe she can shoot high). Since then, I've prioritized fun and happiness.

And now I wonder if I am holding them all back because of it.

I have a dear student I've been teaching for 6 years. She's in her early 70s now and just becoming more and more frustrated with piano. I do my best to stay positive for her each week, but it's hard on me too to see her progress stagnate, or even regress.

I have been going very very slow with her, simplifying pieces, not being strict with tempo. Super gentle pieces and books.

I've run out of books and pieces I can give her that she enjoys, and that she can play.

I think it's not healthy for her to have this constant pressure and frustration each week, but I don't want her to feel like a failure. It's just time for her to "graduate" from this.

I've never done this before, how should I approach this with her? It breaks my heart, but it's better for her. I just don't know how to say it to her.