The fact that piano lessons have fully moved online has pushed me to take a closer look at the materials that I offer to my students, as well as to the materials offered by my colleagues.
The next few are practices that I am tweaking.
Entry Interview
This interview used to take care of the basics: age, musical background.
Nowadays is also an opportunity to ask questions about musical interests, motivations, and goals. This last bit helps me clarify what is my role here: educator, motivator, practice coach,etc. In this way, the interview helps to set a route forward and create some guidelines together with the student.
Develop technical material through videos.
I am fond of teaching technique as in dealing with sound production, muscle tension, troubleshooting passages. However, I am not incredibly fond of teaching technique as repeating x fingerings/note names for a given scale/arpeggio/skill. In order to be that happier teacher that deals with subtler musical aspects, I am in the process of creating and compiling a library of materials that could be learned at home.
Grid that categorizes payments.
This was suggested by the infinite wisdom of my wife. As she overheard a conversation in which I struggled to determine a price tag for my lessons, she suggested I create a grid I can share with parents/students wishing to sign up. In the process of creating this grid I became aware of a few issues.
First, I was trying to give the same experience of piano+theory+mindfulness+movement to both the students signing up for thirty minutes and to those signing up for an hour. The truth is that time is the value I give, and in order to make the experience enjoyable on both ends, I need to be realistic about what can get accomplished in thirty minutes.
Secondly, in doing this grid I was reminded of the amount of work that I do in preparation for lessons, and which I sometimes forget when the question of payment arises.
The next few are practices that I am tweaking.
Entry Interview
This interview used to take care of the basics: age, musical background.
Nowadays is also an opportunity to ask questions about musical interests, motivations, and goals. This last bit helps me clarify what is my role here: educator, motivator, practice coach,etc. In this way, the interview helps to set a route forward and create some guidelines together with the student.
Develop technical material through videos.
I am fond of teaching technique as in dealing with sound production, muscle tension, troubleshooting passages. However, I am not incredibly fond of teaching technique as repeating x fingerings/note names for a given scale/arpeggio/skill. In order to be that happier teacher that deals with subtler musical aspects, I am in the process of creating and compiling a library of materials that could be learned at home.
Grid that categorizes payments.
This was suggested by the infinite wisdom of my wife. As she overheard a conversation in which I struggled to determine a price tag for my lessons, she suggested I create a grid I can share with parents/students wishing to sign up. In the process of creating this grid I became aware of a few issues.
First, I was trying to give the same experience of piano+theory+mindfulness+movement to both the students signing up for thirty minutes and to those signing up for an hour. The truth is that time is the value I give, and in order to make the experience enjoyable on both ends, I need to be realistic about what can get accomplished in thirty minutes.
Secondly, in doing this grid I was reminded of the amount of work that I do in preparation for lessons, and which I sometimes forget when the question of payment arises.
