Happy New Year
I hope everyone had a great 2009 and that we all have an even better 2010. I will continue posting my thoughts, questions, ideas, and materials as I can and look forward to interacting with all of you.
I was wondering if anyone has found any of the materials I have created useful or if there is anything you would like to see me do this year that I haven’t been doing so far?
Payment Issues
So I’m sure every teacher runs into payment problems with at least one student at some point. I have a student whose mother is working out of town because she is finishing up some school requirement for nursing. She’s a single mom and my student is living with grandma. In my lesson policy my students pay monthly at the beginning of the first full month of lessons. Previous to that they pay weekly to make sure we are a good fit. For most of my students this has worked out very well.
With this student it took an entire month of each week telling them we need to pay monthly (the grandmother’s English isn’t great). Once we got that worked out I felt it would be fine. Well this month she didn’t have the money and told me the mother would be giving it to her this week and she would pay me next week. I feel bad because this isn’t an issue with the student but rather the parent. I know their situation is difficult and I really don’t know how to handle this. As I generally collect the payment at the end of the lesson I had already provided the lesson.
I am thinking I will have to ask for it up front next week and leave if it isn’t there but this really pains me and I’m not sure if that is the right thing to do. Any ideas out there on how I should handle this?
Rhythm
I have a young student who had problems with rhythm. I didn’t want to make him play the same songs over and over so I wrote a few rhythm songs to help him out. I call them rhythm builders. They are written for different fingers and I allow him to play them on any keys he chooses. This allows him to experiment with different sounds while he learns. I have included Rhythm Builder 2 and 3 for you to see. It seems to have really helped him out. Any feedback would be great.
Parents Who Don’t Follow Rules
I am having problems with one of my piano parents. I have a written lesson policy that I provide to new students and have them or their parents sign at the first piano lesson. Overall they’re pretty straighfoward and common rules such as payment structure, cancelations, etc. Well I have one student, well their parent actually, who isn’t following the rules. Lessons are to be paid monthly at the first lesson of the month. So far this student has paid per lesson this month. I was kind of letting it slide even though I e-mailed his mother a few times. Mom is currently out of town for work and my student is with grandma who doesn’t speak great English. I am a traveling teacher and one of the rules is a parent or guardian must be in the home while I am there. Today I get there and grandma had her other daughter and 2 very young children in the home. She decided they would be too loud and left with them. I do not want to punish the student due to problems with the parent and this student really wants to learn to play. I just don’t know what I should do. Any ideas?
Trouble with Rythm
I have a 5 year old student who seems to really enjoy the piano but he is having troubles with rythm. I am a bit reluctant to introduce him to more information (such as the names of the keys) while he is having problems. I have played a rythm game I made up where we turn over 3 to 5 cards with quarter and half notes on them and then clap the rythm in the order they were turned over. I have reassigned some easy pieces from when he was learning finger numbers. I have introduced him to the metronome but I don’t want to overdo that because at his age that gets old fast. I’m really at a loss as to what to do. I have suggested his mom turn on some kids music and just have him dance to it and then clap the beats, I have played with him and counted out the pieces while we play together. He seems to do alright if I’m counting with him but if he’s just playing he totally loses it. Does anyone have any ideas how to help him out with rythm? Also would you introduce him to new stuff while he’s still trying to get the hang out of that?
Good News
Well the student I who was crying when lessons would start is now starting his lessons off on a great foot. He no longer cries when he sees me and actually wants to play with me. Now if I could only get him to run over and want to start playing piano with me right away. At least the lessons are starting off well and getting him to start playing isn’t so bad. I’m happy with the progress I’m having with him.
Another Song
Recently I wrote another song for one of my young students. This is a pre-reading piece for the sets of 3 black keys. I really don’t like how some books have practice for only one of the 2 hands. For this particular student I am using Bastien’s Piano for the Young Beginner. There are things I like about it and things I do not. I like the pictures because they are fun and my student loves them and I like many of the drills such as playing the piece on your arm first. I don’t like how they have many pieces for only one hand but no pieces for the other. A five-year-old student is still developing some of the fine motor skills required to play piano and it would be nice to practice using both hands. I also don’t like how it is going to have him playing in the Middle C position for quite awhile. I will be writing him a lot of stuff as well as I have been looking into getting him another book just for the pieces that are not in middle C position.
The only other thing I would say is I wish it had one more book with songs that are fun to play and sound nice. I know he is only 5 and cannot always sit at the piano for 30 minutes at a time but because there is a theory book and a lesson book he would only be playing for 3 to 5 minutes at the most if I didn’t bring in more stuff for him. So I’ve been writing some short and fun little songs for him to add to his practice.
Here is The Crazy Kangaroo .
New Hymn Arrangements
Wendy (see the blogroll link to the right as well as the link at the end of this post) recently wrote a set of books containing hymn arrangements for elementary and intermediate students. They look like they’re going to be great and I can’t wait to get my hands on a set. Oh, and she is actually going to be giving away a set of all 3 books! Just hop on over to her blog to get yourself entered. Wendy’s blog is full of great resources and you really should check it out if you haven’t been there yet.
Discounts
This week I’ve had to deal with a couple of interesting calls about my pricing. I do choose to offer a discount to families with more than one member enrolled and a discount on the next month if they refer a student to me. My tuition rates are clearly stated on my website and I discuss them over the phone when people call.
This is the first time I have been asked about discounts other than the family discounts. I discussed my lesson practices with one mother and e-mailed her a copy of my policies as well as directed her to take a look at my website. On the phone we discussed the tuition rates as well as she read them on my site. She then e-mailed me and said she felt I would be the best teacher for her daughter but wanted me to teach her at a discount that came out to 20% off my rates. After being mad she put me in the situation of dealing with my rates I decided to wait a few hours to respond. I finally told her we had discussed tuition and it is applied the same for everyone.
Later that same day I had another mother call about lessons and she wanted me to give her son lessons for only 50% of my fees. I pretty much just found that to be totally insulting. I gave her the same answer I gave the previous woman and sent her a copy of my policies. After awhile I decided that was a mother I wouldn’t want to deal with and decided to decline my services.
How do you handle it when people ask for discounts? Maybe I’m strange but I would never do that to a teacher (I may wish they were less expensive but I’d never ask) and I find it rather offensive. Do you feel the same way or am I out of line?
I Wrote my First Children’s Song
I wrote my first children’s song today for a student of mine. He is using an early beginner set of books and it only has the lesson book and theory book so he needs more material each week with worksheets and such. Well I decided to write a song for him because the song in the lesson book on the sets of 2 black keys was written only to use the left hand and it is boring. So I have included the song here for you. I’d love any feedback you have on it.
