Finding New Students in the Summer

May 15, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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While in college, I would come home for the summer. I needed a job, and wanted to teach, but wondered how I could find students just for the summer! Anyone ever have a similar predicament?

I advertised a lot (in ways such as these) and was happy to end up with about twelve students – not too shabby!

I think that with a little creativity and with a good attitude, the summer months really can be ideal for building up your studio & recruiting new students. Even though a lot of people like to start up lessons in the fall with the beginning of school, and summer can be a really busy time for some families, I do think that it is possible to be successful in finding new students during these months. Here’s what I did…

I made flyers advertising “SUMMER PIANO LESSONS” (because in my case, I would only be there for the summer months…I wasn’t sure how many students I could actually get, and was pleasantly surprised with the response!). Here is what my flyer said:

SUMMER PIANO LESSONS

any age, any level, everyone welcome! (does this scream desperate or qualified? hmmm…not sure. hehe. and no, this part in parentheses was not on my flyer.)

Have you ever wanted to take piano lessons, but never had the time?

Have you had lessons in the past, and would like a refresher course?

Is your child too busy during the school year, but would like to start piano?

Has your child been asking for piano lessons, and you’d like to give it a try?

By being a bit creative in the way I advertised and in the target audience I was advertising to (people who otherwise might not sign up for long-term lessons), I was able to get a pretty good-sized studio for the two summers I was home from college. I had a wonderful mix of ages and levels, including young beginners, older beginners, adults, teenagers, and transfer students of various ages. Sadly, I had to leave my students at the end of the summer to go back to school, but they knew that would happen all along, because that is how I advertised it! (Luckily I also have younger siblings who also teach, so I was able to pass on a few of my students to them!) We had an end-of-summer recital, and I think the students/parents were all pleased with the progress made in those short few months. Here is one of my cute little beginners who started lessons that summer – definitely one of the students I was sorry to leave!

So my point – you can see either see summer as a tough time to get new students (which it can be), OR you can work hard, use a little creativity in your advertising, and have a great summer teaching your new students.

Those Lazy Summer Days

May 14, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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When I was a teenager, during the summer months my piano teacher challenged us to practice three hours per day (a big jump from my usual one hour per day of practicing).

Admittedly, my younger sister and I would often spend at least an hour of those three hours practicing duets together (three hours is a long time when you’ve never practiced that long before!). I can still hear in my mind this Mozart duet we played for hours and for some reason we thought it was hilarious, and never took the piece too seriously. (It sort of reminded us of the ballroom scene in Roger’s and Hammerstein’s Cinderella where everyone is wearing purple.) Serious or not, it makes a good memory and we did have fun.

We also had this great duet we played (The All-American Hometown Band by Walter and Carol Noona – one of my absolute favorites duets – my husband and I play it all the time) where we would switch places on the piano bench in the middle of the song. To mix things up a bit, we decided to play it on two different pianos, and then switch pianos halfway through. Problem was, the pianos were in two separate rooms of the house. We would play the first half of the piece, then it was a mad dash through the house to switch pianos. We not only got in our required practicing time, but some good exercise 🙂

Boy am I glad my teacher had us practice more during the summer. Even though I didn’t always get the three hours in (and I often would goof off with my sister for the last hour), it really taught me how to practice and prepared me for college. It helped me to be a much better, dedicated pianist. Thankfully I have great memories from it, and it was a wonderfully positive experience.

Summer can be an interesting time as a piano teacher. Because many students have much more time in the summer, piano study can feel a lot more relaxed (which can be good or bad…), and with this extra time the teacher can add in some fun, supplementary activities (or at least more practice time! bwah haha). There are also obstacles, such as students going out of town and missing more lessons than usual.

I personally was never involved in any special summer music camps or classes or activities (other than the increased practice time mentioned above). However, I do love to come up with fun summer ideas to use in my own studio, and hope to implement them in coming years.

What things do you do in your studio during the summer? Any special piano or theory “camps”? Fun classes? Practicing contests, fun recitals? Field trips? How do you handle lesson scheduling and missed lessons during the summer? Did your teachers ever do anything fun or exciting during the summer? How were your lessons different during the summer months? Did you ever attend any camps or festivals? We’d love to hear your experiences and ideas!

We’d even love to hear any fun summer piano memories (why not, I’m in a random mood). This one time, my sisters and I went to piano lessons on a summer morning, and somehow ended up downstairs watching a parade on tv with my teacher’s cute, grandfatherly husband, eating bowls of Cheerios. Good times.

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Summer is coming…

May 12, 2010 Jennifer Boster

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Well folks, it’s on to a new topic! We so enjoyed exploring ways to balance teaching and family, and hope you got something out of it too! Here are the poll results:

Do you ever struggle with how to balance teaching and family?

This week we’d like to talk about Ideas for Summer Teaching. As a piano teacher, summer can be an interesting time. With people traveling more often, it can be harder to schedule regular piano lessons. However, with most students out of school for the summer it can also be an ideal time to fit in some extra, supplementary activities in your studio (and maybe even more practicing than usual!) With the summer months approaching, we thought this would be an excellent topic to explore. We’d love to hear what you do in your studio for the summer months – how do you make scheduling work, what extra things do you do (group classes, camps, field trips, etc.), do you require more practicing time, etc. Can’t wait to hear from you!

Also, if you haven’t already, please take our reader survey so we can learn a little more about you and what you want us to write about on the blog. You can also become a follower or subscribe to our email feed to get all the updates on The Teaching Studio. Thanks for reading!