Before you teach your first piano lesson, consider that you will be required to be two people at once: a teacher and a business owner. To successfully and effectively teach piano, you must be adept at both of these, and recognize the fact that they require two completely different personalities.

When most people decide they want to teach piano, they only consider the teaching aspect. They get excited about the music they’ll be able to teach, excited to share their love of music with others, excited when they pick out their preferred curriculum books. It’s a fun part of the process, and should not be ignored. For it is teaching expertise that parents pay for. It is teaching that creates long-lasting memories for students. It is teaching that gets you excited! 

The teacher’s personality puts the focus on others. A true teacher will be looking outwardly, not inwardly. A true teacher will put the needs of the student in front of their own needs. A true teacher will passionately work to ensure each student is learning to their fullest and enjoying the process at the same time. 

But somewhere along the line, even the best teacher will experience challenges. Your passion for music won’t be shared by 100% of your students. Your desire to give as much information as you can won’t be respected by the occasional student who runs late each week. Your love of music, that has so far been enough to motivate you to work for less money, suddenly isn’t enough for the student who cancels lessons without warning. 

Enter the business aspect of teaching piano lessons. 

At some point, every experienced teacher has come to realize that you must run your piano teaching business like a real business, not necessarily like a school. Failure to do so will eventually cause frustration and a lack of money. Those who teach piano and treat it as a business have the following in common:

• They have policies created, typed out, handed out to each parent and signed. Your policy sheet should tell parents how to treat you like a professional, which includes: payment deadlines, cancellation policies, attendance and tardiness policies, recital and summer lesson policies, etc.

• They remind parents of these policies when necessary. Far too many teachers create policies, but don’t abide by them!

• They act like teachers around their students. They act like business owners around the students’ parents. 

The most successful and effective piano teachers put the teaching aspect and business aspect of their personalities to work with a delicate balance. Both must work in harmony in order to be able to make money doing what you love long term.

Most of us are very good at one of the aspects needed to teach piano. So how do you improve upon the other? There are many resources online which will help you develop skills in either areas, or both. See the website www.TeachPiano.info for free and purchased courses on both the teaching and business aspects. Finding a balance of the teacher’s personality and the business personality will give you what you need to happily teach piano for a lifetime.

 

Tags: Teach Piano