Free Printable: Piano Lesson Contract

September 18, 2013 Jennifer Boster
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As a piano teacher/business owner, it is imperative to have some sort of a studio policy and contract to help lay out and enforce your studio rules and practices. I have had one for years and am constantly updating it. (It definitely does evolve as you get more and more experience!)

I had a little “a-ha!” moment though at my son’s meet the teacher night at his elementary school. One of the forms they had us fill out was a little teacher-student-parent contract, outlining the responsibilities of each in helping the child make the most of the school year. It included things such as parents making sure their children get enough sleep so they are well-rested for school, students reading for 20 minutes each day, and so on. I realized that a similar contract would be so helpful for piano lessons.

Yes, a studio contract from a business standpoint is great and wonderful (we all do want to be paid and have a well-run business, after all); but how about a contract that is purely aimed to helping our students get the most out of piano lessons? This type of contract would help make the teacher stay accountable to do their best in helping each student; it would allow the parents to realize what kind of a commitment music lessons really are, and that they are needed and responsible for so much more than just paying the tuition; it would also allow students to see what being a good student entails, and it would be a great opportunity to sit down with a parent and the teacher and commit to doing their best.

I particularly think this type of contract is so needed in many studios because I have come to learn just how important parental involvement is in piano lessons. Educating parents of this fact is imperative! About a year ago I had a couple of students who were perfect reminders to me of just how important parental involvement is. Both students came to me as beginners:

Student A enjoyed piano lessons, but for whatever reason (the parents both had busy careers, that may have been a factor) she was left to practice on her own most of the time. The mom even commented to me once that she was so frustrated that Student A just would not practice on her own and wouldn’t unless mom would help. (The student was about six years old.) I wished that she would have been more supportive in her daughter’s daily practicing, because she had a strong piano background herself. Despite my efforts to make piano lessons a positive experience, Student A became disinterested and, sadly, discontinued lessons.

Student B (about the same age as Student A) did not have a piano in his home. His mom took him to his grandparents’ home every single day to practice. She sat down with him and practiced with him every day. They were always sure to read the assignment book together and practice each assignment very thoroughly and effectively. When Student B would struggle with a concept, the mom would always communicate to me what/where the problem was, and we were able to address it in the piano lesson and fix it. Student B progressed very quickly. He always had extended family around who would encourage him and listen to him play. At studio recitals he always had the most family in attendance who were all genuinely interested in and proud of his progress. Student B is still playing the piano and doing remarkably well (although sadly I am no longer his teacher!).

Parental involvement is key! We need to educate our students’ parents of this fact and encourage them to be a bigger part of their child’s musical education.

Now added to my Free Printables page is a Teacher-Student-Parent piano lesson contract. My hope is that this will be a helpful thing to go over with new students to help explain expectations, and a nice catalyst for some good discussions with parents about their responsibilities in conjunction with their child’s piano lessons. I have included three different versions with different clipart at the top. I hope you enjoy!

Pedagogy Books: Practical Piano Pedagogy

July 9, 2010 Jennifer Boster
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Practical Piano PedagogyPractical Piano Pedagogy by Dr. Martha Baker-Jordan is a wonderful resource for any piano teacher looking for some great ideas and printable resources for their studio. Yes, this book includes TONS of free printables (you can photocopy them from the book, or load them on your computer from the included CD!) – including all sorts of studio forms and other resources. (I mentioned this book before in a post about personality types and piano methods.)

The author has written a great chapter called “The Business of Piano Teaching,” which discusses good business procedures which help to make you more professional. This chapter includes many forms such as a Telephone Interview form, a Beginner Interview form, a Readiness Evaluation for Beginner form, a Studio Policy, Billing Form, Yearly Tuition Schedule, Letterhead Stationary, etc.

Other great chapters include: “Tuition: Being Paid What You Are Worth,” “Strategies for Acquiring Students,” “Now You Have Them – What Do You Do?,” and “The ‘Black Hole’ of Piano Teaching: Why Does it Exist?” (Can you guess what the “black hole” refers to? – Improvisation, Harmonization, Composition and Transposition!)

I have not yet finished reading this book, but so far have enjoyed it very much. I definitely will use it as a resource in the future!

Poll Results: Studio Policies – plus a new topic!

March 24, 2010 Jennifer Boster
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I have loved all the input and ideas this week about studio policies, and now plan to implement a couple more things in my own studio. Thanks to our wonderful contributors for their great posts!

Ok so I can’t believe another week has already gone by! I am so happy that spring is here – anyone else? It has been a beautiful week here in Utah! Here are the poll results for both of our polls about studio policies:



What kind of studio policy/contract do you have?


What is your make-up lesson policy?

Our three “other” responses for this question were as follows:

  • I make up lessons when they can switch with another student in the schedule
  • For each 13-week semester, the student gets 12 lessons
  • I have one day per month set aside for make-up lessons, if needed

Thank you to all who participated in our polls this week! Polls are a great way to participate and give your input, without having to actually type something 🙂 So take a second each week and share your ideas with the click of a button 🙂

And now for our new topic: Your Studio Space. We want to hear all about how you set up your studio space: do you have a studio in your home? If so, how do you make it nice and inviting to your students? Is your studio outside of your home? How do you organize your studio and your teaching materials? Any money-saving decorating/organizing tips for a piano studio? Anyone want to share a picture of their awesome studio to give us all a little inspiration? How do you decorate your studio? What fun things do you do with your studio to make it an environment conducive to learning? What hangs on the walls in your studio?

Anyway, you get the idea! Seriously, we’d love to hear from you! Leave us a comment or shoot us an email. We’d love to feature some of your great ideas on the blog.

p.s. a little reminder, please go take our reader survey! We’d love to know more about our audience, and more about the things that are important to you as a teacher that you’d like us to discuss on the blog.

Have a wonderful week!

shared by a reader: studio policies

March 24, 2010 Jennifer Boster
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We received this studio policy from a reader and thought we’d share! If anyone else would like to share some of their policies, feel free to comment or send us an email! Sometimes I think it is so helpful to read other policies to get some ideas. Here is what our reader, Michelle, said:

I have been teaching for 7-8 years. I currently have a small studio with only 2 students. I’ve had excellent piano teachers who had smoothly-run studios, which is where I have gotten ALL my ideas. I live in a small-town, relatively low-income town and especially enjoy teaching children.

Payment: I typically request that payment is received at the end of the month. However, my student’s parents (or students if they’re adults) commit to paying at the end of every month. If they can’t commit, then I ask that they pay by lesson. For example, I have a student now who has a pretty fluid lesson time because she’s heavily involved in dance as well. Since once every 2 months or so she has to miss a lesson for a major rehearsal, we usually pay per lesson–that way neither of us is being cheated out of money.

Practice: For younger students, I tell them how many times they need to practice each song. It’s easier for them. They have to keep track of it. That way I can ensure that they get all of their practicing in, even if if takes longer than a certain number of minutes. For older students who I know are more dedicated to improving their songs daily, I recommend a certain amount of time because they’re more likely to use it wisely.

Rates: I typically charge $10 for 1/2 hour and $15 for an hour. Here in my town, I’m one of the more expensive teachers (they’re SO cheap here, but then again, I’m one of the only ones with a degree too). If a student can’t afford that, then the student’s parent and I will sit down to discuss a better cost for their family.

Recitals: Twice a year I have the students do recitals for the student’s family. As my studio grows, I will be doing group classes every other month and recitals 3 times a year for everyone in the studio.

Missing Lessons and Making them up: If a student has to miss a lesson, I need to know beforehand. I’m willing to do a make-up lesson, as long as it’s a valid excuse. If the student is a no-show, there is no option of a make-up lesson.

Materials: I order the materials for my students (because there is no good music store in town and I know what I’m looking for) and the student pays for the material. Understanding that music can be expensive to buy, I try to be judicious in my purchases. I also have a good library of my own for more advanced students and will (sometimes!) make copies of individual pieces if I think that we’ll only be doing one or two songs out of that particular book. Students are required to have their own notebook.

Thanks for sharing, Michelle!

Another Payment Option

March 22, 2010 Jennifer Boster
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These posts about the studio policy and contract have been great! So many smart ideas have already been shared so I don’t have much to add. However, I thought I would share the way I do lesson payment in my studio.

First of all, let me say that automatic online payment (like mubus.com) is the ideal collection method for the teacher. However, if your students’ parents feel at all uncomfortable with providing their credit card information or having payments automatically drafted from their account, another option is to use post-dated checks. At the beginning of each semester, my parents write checks for each month of that semester and date them the first of each month. This means that I only have to collect payment once a semester (because isn’t asking for payment the worst?), but parents don’t have to pay for the entire semester all at once, which can be a financial burden to some families. The bonus for me is that at the first of each month, I already have all the checks for that month in my possession and they are valid for deposit.

Just an idea, but it has worked really well for my studio.

the evolving studio policy

March 20, 2010 Jennifer Boster
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Importance of a studio policy/studio contract:

Every teacher should have some sort of typed-out studio policy and contract. I believe these are important for many reasons:

If nothing else, it forces you to sit down and decide how you are going to run your studio – what kind of billing practices you will use, how you will handle missed lessons and other things that come up, what is expected of students, etc. It makes you more professional. It gives students and parents a clear-cut knowledge of what to expect out of lessons in your studio.

Also, particularly if you have a contract to sign that goes along with your policy, it protects you, as well as the student. Ninety percent of the time you will have no problems, but the other ten percent of the time you will be so glad that they signed that contract.

This is something you learn as you get experience, and it is just that – experience – that has shaped my policy over the years. I think my first policy was a one or two paragraph thing that basically told what my rates were, and possibly some kind of make-up lesson policy. But then as I taught lessons, I learned exactly what I wanted and needed to put in my policy (and it is still always evolving!)

It is times like these when you learn what you really should put in your studio policy:

  • One week when I was in high school a little girl showed up to her lesson with a note from her mother saying, “This will be so–and-so’s last lesson. Thank you.” She had only taken lessons for about a month. Are you kidding me? Who does that? But alas, I had no policy about a situation like this, so I couldn’t do much about it.
  • I taught a little girl for a few weeks and the parents just did not pay me. I ended up having to knock on their door to get the check.
  • One boy showed up at his lesson acting quite a bit under the weather. When I questioned him, he told me he had strep throat. I think I was pregnant at the time. Boy was I bugged that this kid showed up, coughing, to his lesson that day.
  • A parent strongly questioned the tuition amount (which is the same every month) because her daughter had missed a lesson (which was a no-show).
  • A teenage boy hardly ever, and I repeat EVER practiced, despite my noble efforts. (Hence came the line in my policy, “Students who do not practice do not belong in my studio.”)
  • A student was consistently at least ten minutes late for his lesson.

Anyway, I could probably go on and on. The point is, as you teach and encounter weird (and sometimes annoying) situations, that is when your studio policy really starts to take form, and you learn exactly how you want to run your studio. Hopefully we can all learn from each other, and hopefully avoid some of these situations by starting out with a great policy that covers all the bases.

I decided to share my (current) studio policy with you (I probably change things in it each semester) – and I am sure you will be able to pinpoint which parts of it were results of previously mentioned situations 🙂

If any readers would like to share all or part of their own studio policy (because sometimes it is helpful to read some examples of different policies), then feel free! You can either put it in a comment, or email it to us and we will post them all together in a post. (If you do share your complete policy, I’d suggest taking out any personal information such as email address, phone number or address.)

The Piano Studio of Jennifer Boster – Studio Policy & Contract

Studio Policy Essentials

March 19, 2010 Jennifer Boster
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A good studio policy can make the difference between loving and hating your job as a teacher. While there are many things you can address and ways you can personalize your policy, I would like to talk about two essential areas that can make a big difference in your relationship with your students and their parents.

  • Make-up lessons: This is an area where I think many teachers fail to demand the respect they deserve. Do not let your students take advantage of your valuable time! If you are clear and up front about your policy, parents will respect you and your time.
    • Don’t offer refunds for missed lessons.
    • Don’t offer make-ups for no-shows or late-cancellations (less than 24 hours notice). Some people will think this is unfair in the case of illness, which often doesn’t allow for advance notice. But though it may seem unfair to the student, consider that it would also be unfair to the teacher to ask them to reschedule. I am sympathetic to the situation, but it doesn’t magically free up my schedule. If, on the other hand, I do happen to have an opening later in the week, I will often offer it to a student who is ill (provided they recover in time, of course).
    • Be clear about how you will handle lesson conflicts for which you do have advance notice. Some teachers offer make-up lessons one Saturday a month. Others have students spend extra time in their computer theory labs. I prefer to give my students a phone list and have them trade with other students when they have a conflict. Occasionally this doesn’t really work (if the student is gone the whole week, for instance), and I will make other arrangements with the student. Because I don’t teach in my home, and I have to arrange childcare anytime I teach, I only teach these rare make-up lessons when I will already be at the studio, and when my husband can easily be home. You may want to limit the number of make-up lessons to one per quarter per student, if you have students who are constantly rescheduling. Don’t be afraid to revise your make-up policy as you discover what does and doesn’t work for you (although don’t spring changes on parents mid-semester—it is probably best to make revisions at the beginning of the calendar year or the school year).

  • Tuition and Billing: This is another area where you want to be very clear and professional. Nothing is more awkward than having to ask a parent to pay you, so it is best if you can set up a system that is very clear, and won’t require a lot of follow-up or maintenance. In fact, if at all possible, I would recommend using a service like mubus.com to handle your billing automatically, so that you don’t really even have to think about it, and you are guaranteed payments every month.
    Include the following information in your policy:

    • How much is your tuition? How often is it to be paid? Are there any discounts for paying several months up front, or for multiple students in one family?
    • When is tuition due? Is there a late fee?
    • How is tuition to be paid? (include details if you are using an external service, or just make it clear to parents when and where they need to provide payment, so you won’t have to ask for it)
    • Will there be an extra charge for recitals, festivals, and other activities?

There are obviously many other things you will want to include in your studio policy, such as practice expectations, how music purchasing will be handled, recital participation, and calendar events, but these are two areas that, if handled professionally, will significantly increase your happiness as a teacher!

poll results & a new topic!

March 17, 2010 Jennifer Boster
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It’s the end of our second week here at The Teaching Studio – thanks so much for reading and sharing! We have had many wonderful comments and ideas shared, we have a lot of new followers this week, and we are so excited that we got seventeen votes on our poll! Here are the poll results:

What has been your most effective way of finding new students?

The “other” answer that we had was:
contacting local music stores, giving them my info

Looking forward to this week:

Our topic this week is going to be Setting Up Your Studio: Studio Policies. So whip out your studio policies and get ready to share your great ideas! This could involve policies about tuition rates & billing, make-up lessons, practicing expectations, required supplies, recitals, etc. Should be a helpful week!

Also, if you have not taken our reader survey, take 1 or 2 minutes and fill it out! We would love to learn a little about you!

We also will be starting a regular feature where readers will have a chance to submit questions about teaching, and they will be answered (and hopefully discussed through readers’ comments!) We want readers to have the chance to discuss the things that come up in their own teaching, whether or not it fits with the topic of the week. So, start thinking about the things you need a little inspiration on, and submit your questions here!

Have a wonderful week!

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Free Printable: Piano Lesson Contract

Pedagogy Books: Practical Piano Pedagogy

Pedagogy Books: Practical Piano Pedagogy

Poll Results: Studio Policies – plus a new topic!

shared by a reader: studio policies

shared by a reader: studio policies

Another Payment Option

the evolving studio policy

the evolving studio policy

Studio Policy Essentials

poll results & a new topic!

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