Simpedia

Robin Keehn, Washington

I’d like to answer your questions about attrition rates from my personal experience and what I see in our studio overall.

I’ve been teaching eight years now. My first year of teaching I know that I made some mistakes. I made mistakes in how I often talked to people about the relationship conversation (peaks, valleys and plateaus that last short, medium or long times). I didn’t bring in the various streams, such as Comp and Improv and Arrangements in particular, early enough or regularly enough. Parents came as coaches but I let them sit in the back of the room and didn’t require them to participate in any meaningful way during the lesson. I made exceptions in what I required of students who were my personal friends.

By my second year, it was clear that I was losing students too often and that I was encountering resistance when I introduced anything other than the Foundation Pieces. I got on the phone with Neil (there was a limited Teacher Intranet) and through a series of conversations, identified what I needed to change. Here are some of the things that I now understand and have changed.

First, in our studio, we use the very end of each FIS to talk about our studio policies. As a part of that, I have a brief version of the relationship conversation. I tell prospective students that Simply Music lessons are not a “drop your child off” format. I talk about the fact that playing the piano requires a long term relationship that children are not capable of understanding or maintaining. I tell them that although Simply Music is a breakthrough and students find success week after week, they will at some point experience valleys and plateaus. Being able to work through those periods of time requires a Life Coach and that is the role of the parent who attends each week. Because that coach is in lessons weekly and sees the value of what is being learned (and is investing their time AND money–I don’t point this out to them), the coach is much more committed to working with their student through the valleys and plateaus. I let people know that we require that each student (not adults) to come with a coach each week. We will not take a student who cannot come with a coach. No exceptions–ever.

I say all of that in the FIS. Some may say that is too much information but I would rather eliminate the “looky lous” as I call them–people who just want their child to TRY piano lessons. I don’t want people who just want to try lessons and have no intention of committing to their child having music as a lifelong companion. I prefer to eliminate them before putting them in a group and investing time and energy in them. People who are just looking require so much more attention. 99% committed is much hard than 100%!

In the Foundation Session (which I present over the first two weeks of class rather than take an entire class time), I reiterate the commitment that I am expecting and that I am making as their teacher.

In lessons, I regularly have the Relationship Conversation–and I mean regularly! Even if I have young children, I am going to have the conversation in a way that they can understand. I have recorded my version of the conversation in the Teacher Reference Library. The beauty of doing this in a group is that students (and their coaches) will be able to observe each other experience those peaks, valleys and plateaus and see how normal it really is.

During lessons I require parents to sit next to their child and have their full attention on what we are doing. No one is chatting, texting, reading, etc. I am including them in conversations, learning patterns, clapping rhythms, or whatever we are doing. They are not playing the piano but they are right there when their student is at the piano.

I am not going to address how I integrate all the streams in this email, but that was another significant change I made after my first year of teaching. It made a tremendous difference.

I’ve seen my attrition rates go way down over the years. Yes, we still get those parents who get in too deep and want out when they understand the level of commitment we require. We have a fair number of adult students and they sometimes don’t stay as long in lessons. Part of that is that older adults seem to have a lot of big “life” events that happen with spouses or elderly parents. The economy has certainly had an effect on our studio–it is across the board in our dance programs, gymnastics, other music programs and Simply Music. I cannot say it impacts any area more than another.

I hope that gives you some perspective on attrition and how to get and keep the students you really want!

Carrie L. Michigan

Our Foundation Level 1 attrition rates (lost students) tends to be higher because we’ve done many workshops in the past and did many of them this summer, fall and will do some more starting next month. The students take four-six weeks (depending on the workshop length) and they don’t always continue afterward. It occurs to me (and like I said this is a ‘ball park’ report) that once students hit Level 3, Level 4 they’ve gotten to the point that they are fully committed. After Level 5 the retention rate continues to get higher although the students that get to that level are not as high as those that get through Level 1.

What strategies do you use to reduce attrition? We strive to keep a personal touch. It occurs to me that knowing the families well, managing the relationship graph, managing ANY problems or concerns parents have immediately or preferably in advance of any challenges. Having conversations the 1st couple weeks are crucial. Going through our student handbook right away, preparing students to using the home materials, utilizing the parents as coaches. Are they effective? I believe so… My attrition rate has gotten much better as I’ve been teaching longer.
1. Do you believe your studio policies affect attrition rates? This was a bit unclear.., What I actually meant was that we RETAIN students by having studio policies long-term.. We do lose students because of it as well, but that to me is ‘no problem’ because we want students in the studio that meet our ‘conditions of satisfaction’. YES.Why? I students are clear about what to expect it really helps overall eliminate frustration and helps everyone become clear about what to expect. Which policies do you believe are most likely to cause students to stay or leave your studio? Students stay because we are consistent with our policies. Students leave because they weren’t clear about our expectations or do not want to follow them.
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We recently had a student (adult) quit because he didn’t care what was in the handbook he wasn’t going to do it and wasn’t going to sign anything saying he would follow them. No problem for us… he can find another studio!

Stephen R. California

I’m surprised attrition would be so high in Level 1! My 26 students so far in Level 1 seem to be enjoying it and it sure beats teaching traditionally! I hated seeing students struggle with learning to read! So far this method has been like night and day and much more enjoyable for me as a teacher! I could never go back to teaching traditionally now!

Evan H. Kansas

Procedures to Reduce Attrition

1. Take time in each lesson to talk about long term relationships. I’ve found that telling my own personal story about a year-long valley I encountered really helps to reinforce just how normal these peaks, valleys, and plateaus are. Are you at a peak? Enjoy it! Are you at a plateau? Just keep trucking along with your practicing and you will be fine! Look for opportunities to play in public. Are you in a valley? It will pass! When I broke out of my valley, I found myself at the highest peak I had ever been at, and I’m still there to this day. I like to end the conversation like this: “As you go through these peaks, valleys, and plateaus, you’ll discover just what a wonderful friend music really is: it sticks with you through thick and thin, even when you don’t think you want it, in your best or worst of days.”
2. Better screening of prospective students. We go through our studio policies during the FIS, rather than waiting until the Foundation Session. We ask the parent/student at the FIS if they can keep the agreement, and if they have any questions/concerns. We used to not do this in the FIS because we feared it would come across as too heavy-handed. In reality, it merely “weeds out” the students who would cause attrition later or disrupt the group dynamic. It is much easier if that student is identified and weeded out before the lessons even begin.
3. Speaking of the group dynamic, we’ve found that students who don’t practice really, really drag the group down. More than we expected. We recently encountered a little girl who had not practiced for a couple of weeks and was lying about it (her grandmother lied for her over the phone as well and read us the riot act simply because we asked her if she had practiced). She left the studio and blamed her failure on us. At the very next lesson, the group dynamic was completely different. A group that had previously been rather low-energy was now very high-energy. All we had to do was “cut the dead weight!”
4. Encourage composition and improvisation more. I assign a short composition project every lesson and give the students a different tool each time (e.g., the week before they learn Jackson Blues, I’ll have them come up with something that only uses chords, so that they learn how to move around with chords more easily). I’ve found that if I don’t demonstrate composition in the lesson, the students won’t do it. Once they try it, however, they realize just how much fun it is!
5. Every now and then we will call students and parents during the week, just to make sure everything is going alright.

Another idea we’ve been kicking around to reduce attrition is to provide frequent opportunities to play for others and enjoy listening to them. Therefore, we plan to include a piano lounge in our studio for weekly to semi-weekly jam nights. These sessions would be open to all Simply Music students in the area and their friends. We’ve attached our floor plan for the studio to show how we plan to accommodate students and their parents. The folding wall can be collapsed to open the space all the way up to wall #1, and the wheeled stage can be reconfigured and moved to that wall so that we can seat as many as 50 – 60 people. (All walls are soundproof so that we can conduct multiple classes at the same time.)

Why jam nights? Because they emphasize the total fun that students experience when they play the piano and will help prepare our students for the kinds of playing opportunities that will become open to them as their skills grow. We were mulling over the idea of paying some of our friends at the university to come over and play their instruments; we could even put together a little jazz combo for the blues songs!

This kind of event emphasizes that the music doesn’t just occur in the lesson or in practice. It is a very social activity, and a “piano party” of this nature would give students the opportunity to show off their skills, could help draw attention to Simply Music in the area, and would be an absolute blast for the students and parents.

Has anyone else tried anything like this? Please let us know what you think!