A studio full of hard-working and well-mannered students is every piano teacher's dream. But few teachers actually have the opportunity to live this dream for their entire careers. The truth is that most teachers have at least one student that they do not enjoy teaching. It might be due to a communication problem, a mismatched energy issue, a behav...

In Part 1 of "Are your marketing strategies deep enough?" (Jan/Feb 2017), we talked about the first four frequently overlooked principles of marketing: 1. We must know what our clients really want. 2. We must make sure we have a product or service that they want. 3. Regardless of how they hear about you, we must remember that parents of school-age ...

One of our greatest responsibilities as teachers is to provide our students with the skills and strategies to practice and improve independently. In working to attain this goal, we carefully plan our students' course of study, meticulously analyze their pieces, and walk our students through detailed workouts of their new repertoire in their lessons...

Frances Clark was right when she said, "All students are transfer students. Even if our students are our own, the teacher we were last year is different from the teacher we are this year. In fact, the teacher we were last week is different from the teacher we are this week!" We are always changing and our students are always changing." We do change...

​During this political season, you will hear a lot about small businesses and their role as the engine that drives our economy. Did you ever stop to think that the politicians are talking about piano teachers? As an independent teacher, YOU are a small business.You are the owner and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of your business—a business dedicate...