Simpedia

Francine V. AU

I think I would just tell them I’ve made a mistake, this is what all the other SM teachers around the world are doing. I think you should let them know that none of us offer this and you’ll be changing it starting from the next account they get (or whenever you think).

Kerry V. AU

I would simply talk to my students about the error I made and that my times will now reflect the rest of the SM communities. I’d also use an alarm clock or some kind of reminder to cut it short. You could use that new time for a new group to start! Be aware that, as you have been in such a ‘habit’ in your time frame, for you and your students, adjusting to the new time may take a bit of getting used to.

I’d also mention to them that you are aware of the adjustment that may need to be made however this is the way you are handling it from now on. If you have any rejections, I’d simply say that this is the way it is from now on. Of course there are apologies towards them for your misunderstanding of time but you do need to move on. If you don’t, eventually you will start feeling ‘cheated’ by this/these groups you keep on as an hour.

Marg G. AU

However, apart from explaining your “little slip up”. I’d put it in the positive to those families and tell them what a GREAT START you’ve given them with all that extra time to date so now they will be ready to have a shorter time and know exactly how to work well and achieve well. What a wonderful gift of your time you’ve given them.

I firmly believe, after many years of teaching, that the more positives you can put into the conversation about what you’ve GIVEN them rather than what they may not now have shows your generosity. It’s also important not to “grovel” too much, as they’ll try to then take advantage of you, but put it in a positive and almost funny footing. This keeps you in control.

Marg G. AU

I would absolutely NOT even consider a price reduction and really strongly (yet kindly) reinforce that you have been giving the 60 minutes to these students at the amazing value, of the rate for 30 (35 minutes – or whatever it is according to you normal fees).

There’s no way you can afford to drop your fees down and it’s important, as Kerry was saying, to ensure all future classes (shared lessons) are as you now want them to be.

Mark M. New York

My knee-jerk was to agree with the other teachers who have recommended that you not reduce your rate. However, there is another way of looking at this that you should at least consider as part of your decision-making.

When I set my rates, I think about what I feel is reasonable compensation for time worked for both private lessons at the private rate and two-person groups at the group rate. Then, I know that, even in those circumstances, I’m earning what I feel is a worthwhile amount of money for the time I put in. Then, extra students beyond that for larger groups, it’s all just gravy.

If you followed anything like that approach, if you set your rates in the first place so that you felt you were being reasonably compensated for working a one-hour lesson, then it can be entirely reasonable and fair to cut your rate for a lesson half the length. Because the issue is never really what are you charging students per lesson, it’s really what total are you earning per unit of time worked. You gave them X amount of work for $Y, now you want to give them half of X, and that extra time will now be freed up for you for other teaching which will earn you money. So it’s about as reasonable as can be to consider charging half of $Y. This is, in fact, why you have a quandary in the first place. You naturally don’t want to reduce your income, but some part of you very clearly knows that it’s utterly fair to charge your clients less if you’re going to start giving them less.

Now, of course, it’s not quite that simple because there is lesson planning, administration, overhead, etc., time and money you’re spending for each lesson anyway independent of how many students are in them and how many minutes they last. So it isn’t really that lesson duration and lesson cost should be directly proportional. It can be very reasonable to give 50% of the time for somewhat more than 50% of the tuition. But the general point holds. You intend to give them less, you’ll have that time free to earn other income, so, sure, charge them less. It’s really only fair. Truly.

If, however, cutting your rate along with the lesson duration would result in per-unit-of-time earnings that are simply not “enough” for you (through whatever cost/benefit determination you think is reasonable), well, on one hand we could say that you simply can’t cut your rate, or at least not cut it as far as you might have otherwise considered cutting it, because you just can’t afford to. But on the other hand, if that’s the case, it begs a question. It means that you were never charging enough in the first place for the hour-long lesson. And that would be your real problem — the fact that even now, at one hour, even before you ever realized there was anything “wrong” with your schedule, that you’ve been charging less for your time worked than what you really believe is reasonable. That, then, would be the real thing you’d owe your clients an explanation for, and you’d need to make changes anyway even if you kept their lesson duration unchanged.

Cheri S. Utah

I see three different issues here: 1) how long lessons should be and what should you charge, 2) how your current families will respond to any changes and what conversations you will have with them, and 3) how to adjust the lesson time, since that seems to be the direction you want to take.

You’re most likely to be happy with the outcome if these issues are considered separately. So, #1: First, you clearly want to decrease lesson times, so taking that as a given, what should you charge? Here’s one way to approach that. If you had all the teaching experience you now have, and you moved into a new town, where you could open a new studio, what would you charge? In addition to the questions Mark raised, you’d want to take into account local Simply Music rates. Your price will influence how the public views the brand name, including how they view other teachers in the area.

When you’re very clear about #1, set that in stone as your current advertised rate, which would apply to all new students.

Then move on to #2: How will your current families feel, and what would you like to do about that? Can you have a conversation with them that will preserve the relationship and have them pay the rate set in #1? Or will you feel more at ease by offering current students a “grandfathered” rate, based on what they were paying per hour before? Or is there a compromise somewhere between pure grandfathering and paying the new rate? If your studio policies include regular price increases, then this conversation can take place in that context: “In place of this year’s rate increase, we will instead move toward shorter lesson times . . .” It sounds like Marg could be very helpful as you plan this conversation.

And then there’s #3, how to actually implement the decreased lesson time. After two years, you probably have some pretty strong habits and routines. Neil has an excellent Time Efficiency audio file in the Teacher Workshop Series. Buy or revisit that as a starting point, and also use this forum to get more ideas. I’m always trying to improve efficiency, so I’d love to hear what’s worked for other teachers.

Maureen K. California

I too have been giving my two-person classes 45 minutes to an hour. I’ve known for quite a while that this is more time than most Simply Music teachers usually give, and that as my studio grows and gets busier, I’ll need to shorten that time.

I haven’t been seeing it as a problem, though. When people first contacted me and asked the inevitable question “How long and how much,” I’ve answered the “how much” with something like, it depends on what type of class, but anywhere from a half hour to 50 minutes. I never stated firmly to anyone how long a lesson would last. It lasts till I’m done teaching the lesson.

The way I figure it is that it is up to the teacher to deliver the weekly dose that the students can manage, as efficiently as possible. I am a newer teacher, my studio is not yet very busy, and I am not as efficient in delivering the material as I hope to be with more experience.

Another way to look at it is, the families have been generous in giving me more time to deliver the weekly dose of material. Their kid could be doing homework or getting some playtime in the park for that extra 25 minutes, or the family could be getting their grocery shopping done. So it is as much their gift to me as it is my gift to them.

I know that as my studio gets busier and I have more back to back classes, the class time will be shorter. I don’t foresee it being a problem with my families, as long as they feel taken care of and their children continue to learn well.

There are plenty of examples of professionals who are paid for serving the client well rather than by how many minutes they spend. Doctors, housecleaners, painters, high tech professionals are a few that come to mind. To be sure, for plenty of other professions, the culture is pay-by-the-hour, but I am hoping that I can cultivate a music lesson culture in the former category. Families pay me monthly tuition, I deliver high quality piano teaching.

Elsie, this is not really specific to your issue, just my thoughts. But unless you have been saying “x amount of dollars for an hour of my time,” I wouldn’t assume that your families will have a problem as you gradually shorten your time as your studio gets busier. You could give them a heads up that you are getting busier and will need to gradually shorten the lesson time to the standard Simply Music practice of 35 minutes for a two-person lesson.

Stan M. Ohio

I have been teaching for about three years and I too have found changes needing to be made as I move along. Many of those changes have come after attendance to a SM conference. I have students that have reacted to me going to the symposium with, “Argh, that means changes.” I took that as an impression on how I handled those changes vs. the changes themselves.

I would like to offer up another take on handling this circumstance and the usefulness of this idea is based on how many groups you are teaching. If it is your entire studio, this might not be the best approach; however, if it is just a small handful, it might be worth consideration.

I use changes in Foundation Level to help me make corrections in what I am doing that require a change in the commitment of the student. For instance, I realized I wasn’t holding students strong enough to a solid play list and needed to change that culture I had allowed. As students moved to the next foundation, I had a pointed conversation about their commitment to practicing every day.

“I am excited about you moving to this new level. But, frankly, there is no real need to go to the next level unless I have a solid commitment from you towards your ‘learning time’. This and the following levels are only for students who are willing to commit to a higher level. I am tied to your success and I want only the best for my students. I love pouring into my students but I really can only afford to do so with those students willing to follow me. So parent are you on board with the 15 – 20 min learning time for five to six days a week (I always have the parent commit first)? Student?”

So as my studio ticked through to the next Foundation Level, all my students committed to what I needed them to commit to from the beginning. And as new students joined, I had this conversation right up front. This lead to 100% coverage in just a few months (By the way, I am not perfect at this play list commitment and I am still a work in progress).

Back to your example
So, is this extended lesson time something you can live with for a short period of time and then make the change at the foundation level change? I might say something like this to my current classes:

“Ok, so you all are approaching the next level and we will be cutting back to (time) per lesson. The extra time I have been putting into this class per lesson has really been great and I have really enjoyed having the extra time. However, I am going to require a little more from each one of you and a commitment in order to move to this next more-advanced level. We need to increase the focus being at home and your time unfolding material there vs. here at the studio. This will help strengthen your ability to be self generating, reaching out to each other (other students) during the week, among other things (have a list in your mind). This is just great stuff. So are you with me on moving to the next level of this incredible experience? I think you are ready but I also need to hear you are feeling the same.”

There are some fantastic good consequences that come from just saying, “Hey, I made an error in how much time I have been giving you. Other SM teachers and the standard in the community is BlaBla time for this many students. So starting . . . ” and so on. I really do like that idea. However, there are circumstances that the idea I am presenting will make sense as well.

Good luck and know that you have an incredible program that is just like nothing else out there. You have a diamond that is polished and is just a fantastic piece of art. Be generous but not because others expect it.