Why would teachers want to encourage parents to attend lessons? Although some teachers—Suzuki, Yamaha, or preschool, for example—routinely invite parents, not all music teachers find that children or their guardians benefit from a shared experience. The following is an overview of some of the rewards and challenges of parental attendance at lessons...

If you have successfully moved from a per-lesson payment system to a tuition-based structure,1 you may still be left with the challenge of parents paying on time. There are many ways to tackle this issue, so choose what works best for your business.   Prepay in full The most effective means of ensuring that payments come to you on time is prep...

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...

One of the unhealthy mindsets in our profession is the notion that piano teachers cannot make a reasonable or a consistent income. This is tragic because it is simply not true! Adjusting your business policy to ensure a consistent and reasonable income can be accomplished in three steps. Reframe how you think and talk about payments When we charge ...

I am a very happy and fairly healthy "Baby Boomer"—my father was a World War II veteran, and I was born in the fifties. We "Boomers" are your current and upcoming adult piano students. Why? Because we realize we have more to learn—we are excited learners. We are not isolated but are well read and intelligent—we are logical learners. We are wonderfu...

Why do I need policies? Constructing effective and enforceable policies is ultimately about preserving relationships with our piano families. By communicating our expectations formally, we are making space to concentrate on what is most important—teaching. It may feel a bit stiff to require that parents read and sign a contract, but clarifying expe...

I want to express my deepest appreciation to the many readers who write in to share their ideas and teaching tips with us! Your ideas are always interesting and challenging. Generally, we share these ideas in the Post Box section of each department. However, due to the generosity of our readers, the Magic Triangle Post Box has fallen behind. S...

Where Do You Teach and Why? Piano teachers are always looking for another angle. They have to! What works to motivate one of your students fails with another. The suggested fingering in a score may be awkward, so you try another one. This search for alternatives is also true when it comes to where we teach. Let's explore the possibilities. Now...

I am sure that all of us are familiar with the old real-estate axiom that the three most important factors for a property are Location-Location-and Location! I would like to steal (or borrow) that idea and say that three of the most essential ingredients for a successful Magic Triangle relationship are Communication-Communication-and Communication!...