The original reason why I first decided to offer piano lessons is because I figured it was a decent way to make some money on the side while pursuing my career in other facets of music (performing, composing, selling my music online, etc.). The other reason is that it's a good way to network and connect with local musicians. The idea was that I would have a couple of students, maybe three, and that I would meet them once a week to make a few bucks and help pay the bills.
The first music student that I ever had was in 2011, and it was my friend's 10-year-old son. My friend knew how much I loved music and composing, and it was partly his idea for me to teach piano lessons, so he told me I could "try it" on his son just to see if I liked it. I only charged my friend $15 per lesson, because it was my first student and we considered it a "Guinea pig rate". This worked out fairly well for a while. I was living in Quincy at the time, and even in such a small town the word went around fast. After I had been teaching my friend's kid for a couple of months, I got a second student. News travels fast in place like Quincy, so that worked to my advantage. I have since then moved to Salinas and then to Chico again.
Both the students I had in Quincy worked out well. The first one learned a few of the basics (I only taught him for a few months) and the other one learned enough to where we actually had a small, informal recital at his mother's house. The experience was enjoyable enough for me to seek out possibilities to teach piano lessons in Chico, after moving there from Salinas. What I didn't expect is that I now have 10 students -- more than I expected, initially -- and this has kept me extremely busy because I have two regular day jobs on top of this (teaching English as a Second Language and substitute teaching for Chico Unified), and all of this is in ADDITION to trying to keep up with creating, performing and recording my own music, while maintaining my new website, etc.
Row boats have nothing to do with this
Don't worry about the unrelated heading title above, it doesn't really relate to the point I'm making in this part of the blog. What I really want to point out is that there is a possibility for me to quit my English teaching job and try to take on a full load of music students, even though this is risky financially. It's a financial leap of faith, more or less. It's kind of like sitting in a row boat, and everything is fine and dandy, and then you try to stand up, and you try to step into another row boat that's right next to it, and you're basically trying to safely get into the other row boat without falling in the water. It's exactly like that, except that I've seldom been in a row boat, and boats in general have absolutely nothing to do with music. Anyway, taking on a full load of music students is not exactly where I was headed with my musical pursuits, nor is it what I expected. The word went around and it just sort of happened. Whether or not I want to take on a boat-load of students (sorry, I had to) meaning that I would end up accumulating 30-40 students, or even more, is not actually the issue I want to discuss in this blog. So basically I just filled your head with a completely useless analogy about row boats.
What I actually want to do, now that I have more students than I anticipated, is pick the brains of other music teachers a little bit. I've had one thing going for me, which is that I've had a little bit of regular teaching experience already, with a different subject (English). This has made the patience factor a non-issue for me. Those who have never tried to teach a kid to play an instrument will quickly find out that it takes an enormous amount of patience, and my prior teaching experience prepared me for this. Either way, I feel like a lot of things have worked with regard to my teaching approach when it comes to private lessons, and I've learned a lot in the five years or so that I've been doing this. Experienced music teachers are welcome to comment on this if they wish, but what I'm still curious about is:
1) Are flashcards a healthy/productive way to get the kids to learn their notes? I've tried this a number of times and it does seem to work for those who actually quiz themselves with the cards, but I've heard a few people say that flashcards shouldn't be used.
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| Flashcards used to train students to identify different notes |
2) I've had a couple of students who figure out the notes by looking at the finger numbers on the sheet music, instead of looking at where the notes actually are on the staff, and thereby "cheating". One student did this for months before I realized it. Thoughts?
3) I use the Alfred's method as part of my curriculum (do you even call it a curriculum?). I hear great things about this publication, which is part of why I use it, but many of the songs in the book are regarded as "old-fashioned", trite and "cheesy," like a waltz you might hear at a carnival. I've been somewhat successful about giving kids a heads-up about this, which works to some extent, but are there supplemental publications that I can use that include pieces which are, shall we say, more modern? Children definitely seem to benefit from the songs featured in the Alfred's method, it's just that some of them (especially the teenagers) seem to roll their eyes at the songs. I'm really interested in people's thoughts on this because a few of the songs that are in the last half of the book ("On Top of Old Smokey," "O Solo Mio," "Jericho," "Greensleeves," "Go Down, Moses", "Scarborough Fair," and "Raisins & Almonds,") seem more popular and most students actually like them. These later songs seem more "serious" and not as corny, so naturally I'm interested in the idea of including similar styles of songs earlier on in the Beginner Course.
4) What are some ways that I can make the learning of the five first notes (C, D, E, F and G) more interactive and fun for the younger bunch? I have a five year-old, and he has struggled somewhat with just knowing the letters, let alone making a connection between these letters and pressing a certain key on the piano. Even in my several years as a school teacher I never worked with that age group, so this is slightly further away from my element than what I'm used to.
Ideas are brewing
Relax, I'm not going to use a coffee-brewing analogy to describe the process involved with my ideas. But I did speak to a teacher at The Music Connection, and she has more than 40 students. Even if she charged as low of a price that I do, she would still be pulling in a comfortable $3,800 a month, which is higher than the salary I was making as a middle school teacher in Salinas. And she undoubtedly charges a much higher rate than me, so she could very well be clearing $4,000 a month, even after taxes. Money isn't everything, of course, but pursuing something you love to do and dumping a job that you don't love as much, in the interest of still being able to put food on the table, is something worth investigating. Besides, coffee is getting really expensive. Did you know that a "tall" house coffee at a Starbucks used to be a dollar, and now it's like $1.95? That's 2 minutes and 30 seconds worth of a half-hour piano lesson!
But all coffee aside, I spoke to this teacher for a good half hour or so, and part of her success is that she teaches multiple instruments, including not just piano but also guitar, ukulele, and some brass instruments, as well as voice. Now, if I try to sing, I sound something like a dying whale, or (in the words of "Penny" from a Big Bang Theory episode) a cat being run over by a lawnmower. So I don't think I have any business teaching people how to sing. But my experience with the violin as a kid may be a more promising situation, meaning that if I wanted to expand my teaching services, I might just "have to" get my violin repaired and fixed up, and buy a new bow, and I might just "have to" brush up on my violin skills by practicing it at home (darn) along with the piano (darn) so that I can also offer beginner-level violin lessons and get more students that way (darn). Variety in a job is good. It's kind of like tasting different blends of coffee, with all the different flavors they have.
Thanks in advance for any and all thoughts, comments, inquiries, insults, etc. I'll be posting part of this blog on my discussion forum on the ThorGunter.com website as well, so comments on it are also welcome!
Ideas are brewing
Relax, I'm not going to use a coffee-brewing analogy to describe the process involved with my ideas. But I did speak to a teacher at The Music Connection, and she has more than 40 students. Even if she charged as low of a price that I do, she would still be pulling in a comfortable $3,800 a month, which is higher than the salary I was making as a middle school teacher in Salinas. And she undoubtedly charges a much higher rate than me, so she could very well be clearing $4,000 a month, even after taxes. Money isn't everything, of course, but pursuing something you love to do and dumping a job that you don't love as much, in the interest of still being able to put food on the table, is something worth investigating. Besides, coffee is getting really expensive. Did you know that a "tall" house coffee at a Starbucks used to be a dollar, and now it's like $1.95? That's 2 minutes and 30 seconds worth of a half-hour piano lesson!
But all coffee aside, I spoke to this teacher for a good half hour or so, and part of her success is that she teaches multiple instruments, including not just piano but also guitar, ukulele, and some brass instruments, as well as voice. Now, if I try to sing, I sound something like a dying whale, or (in the words of "Penny" from a Big Bang Theory episode) a cat being run over by a lawnmower. So I don't think I have any business teaching people how to sing. But my experience with the violin as a kid may be a more promising situation, meaning that if I wanted to expand my teaching services, I might just "have to" get my violin repaired and fixed up, and buy a new bow, and I might just "have to" brush up on my violin skills by practicing it at home (darn) along with the piano (darn) so that I can also offer beginner-level violin lessons and get more students that way (darn). Variety in a job is good. It's kind of like tasting different blends of coffee, with all the different flavors they have.
Thanks in advance for any and all thoughts, comments, inquiries, insults, etc. I'll be posting part of this blog on my discussion forum on the ThorGunter.com website as well, so comments on it are also welcome!
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