Studio Management

I had a huge reminder this week that we can’t always see where we are going to end up with students. Remember the story that Einstein failed math?? People are different and the overview is just a suggestion. What brought this home to me: I…

• Last updated 12 years ago
• learning slowly, pacing, practice

With regard to the recent discussions about Practice Pads, I wish to add a word of caution. Please be careful to make sure that only a small or modest percentage of your class time is spent with individual students processing content on their individual Practice…

• Last updated 12 years ago
• group lessons, Neil Moore, observatory learning, patterns, practice pads, shared lessons, special needs, use of class time

Kerry V (Aus)  When I started with SM I found that I had to go through a lot of sorting out such as, how to teach clearly, how to have conversations, how to study, etc.  Sometimes Neil would have some advice as to how to…

• Last updated 9 years ago
• chat, communication, following the program, requirements, sticking to the program, writing extra notes

I have struggled with this alot. Half of my students are in Private Lessons but paying Shared Lesson rates, as I don’t have someone to partner them with. What I need to do is cut down the lesson time by 5 minutes as I resent…

• Last updated 12 years ago
• can't afford lessons, Laurie Richards, rates, shared lessons, tuition

I was approached by a parent of 2 students that would like me to consider teaching at her home in the summer. She said that her sub has many children that may have interest in piano lessons and she’d round them up for a FIS…

• Last updated 12 years ago
• location, summer lessons

I have a student who is not happy in her shared lesson. She’s in a shared lesson with one other student around the same age and has been for about 2 months. It seemed she was happy in the situation for the first month or…

• Last updated 5 years ago
• dislikes shared lessons, Laurie Richards, Robin Keehn

I was wondering if there might be any quick solutions for this:  Two girls, same age, been together in shared lesson for couple of years are about to start level 4. Girl 1 is ready, girl 2 is not. Girl 1 does arrangements, composition, improvising, accompaniment.…

• Last updated 12 years ago
• Laurie Richards, Level 4, private lessons, shared lessons

I know from my experience as a traditional piano teacher that (at least for me) scheduling more than 3 or max 4 hours of lessons straight with no major break is very draining (physically & mentally). I do much better with a 1/2 hour break…

• Last updated 12 years ago
• scheduling, shared lessons

I’m full only because I have 5 private lessons that are probably too far from each other to catch up and pair together. Any thoughts on this? For example I have one student at the beginning of Book 4 and one finishing Book 4, one…

• Last updated 12 years ago
• group lessons, Laurie Richards, private to shared lessons

I have been gradually changing my studio over from Private to Shared Lessons. I need some suggestions from those of you who teach in small groups of up to 5.  I have a lot of trouble timetabling. I have 10 new students at the moment all…

• Last updated 12 years ago
• group lessons, scheduling, shared lessons