Private Lesson Cancellation and Make-Up Policy

One of the most uncomfortable issues a private music teacher faces is what to do about students who cancel a lesson at the last minute or don’t show up. A few strategies have helped me deal with this issue:

1. I charge for the month up front. If a student misses a lesson, they’ve already paid for it, so there’s no uncomfortable conversation the next week like “By the way, you still owe me for last week.”

2. I teach in a rented room in a music store. Doing this has helped keep my business more professional. I make it clear to parents that I have to pay to use the room, and other teachers use it the other days of the week. I remind parents that I only have access to the room for a limited amount of time and can’t just do a make-up any time.

In the past, I had taught lessons out of my home. This this kind of situation may give some parents a misconception that they’re really not inconveniencing me if they cancel at the last minute or don’t show. It can also make parents think they can schedule a make up lesson anytime because they think you’re always available anytime.

3. When a student cancels in advance, I try to call other students to offer that time slot, even if I don’t owe them a make up lesson. I think parents appreciate that offer even if their schedule doesn’t allow it. I’ll even admit that I know in advance that some families can’t make it at that time, but I call them anyway just as a goodwill gesture.

Also, I try to remember that a majority of lessons are missed because of the parent, and through no fault of the student. So I try to avoid reprimanding the student if the parent brought them late.

Teaching private lessons definitely has a business component to it. I think the more we do to demonstrate professionalism and treat our students and their parents as business clients, the more likely we are to make wise decisions about how we handle issues like cancellation, no shows, make-ups and billing.

In the Music Teacher’s Helper blog, Sarah Luebke wrote a post dealing with the issue of cancellation and make-up policies for private lessons. Some great thoughts and good discussion there.

Your thoughts?

Secretary’s Day

Here’s a reminder that Secretary’s Day is coming up on April 23, 2008.

Any experienced music teacher should already be aware how valuable the school secretary is. A helpful secretary can make your job much easier. A combative one can make your job frustrating.

One of the best ways to stay on your secretary’s good side is to make sure you have paperwork taken care of. Secretaries may not fully appreciate whether your students can play in 5/8, or if they can construct harmonic minor scales. They do, however, appreciate when you’ve properly handled paperwork like purchase orders, field trip forms, facility reservations, and invoices.

If you are relatively new to your school, it might take some time to build your secretary’s trust in you. She might have a bad opinion of music teachers if your predecessors were disorganized. On the other hand, your predecessor may have been God’s gift to that school, and how can a whippersnapper like you think you can fill his shoes? Your goal in either case if to make sure she knows you know how to handle the business aspects of teaching.

Here are a few ideas of what you might give your secretary on her special holiday:
* A card with an appreciative handwritten message
* Bagels, donuts, brownies, cookies, etc.
* A gift certificate to her favorite store or restaurant

Also, not all secretaries are created equal. In my own experience as a traveling teacher working various schools, I can say that some secretaries like to socialize and others are all about getting to business. Some are willing to go the extra step to help you, and some won’t give you the time of day unless you have your i’s dotted and your t’s crossed. The trick is to figure out what makes each person tick and respond accordingly.

Elementary Band Repertoire: Spring 2008

I recently had the opportunity to spend some money at J.W. Pepper, and couldn’t be happier with this new music.

Midnight Mission by Brian Balmages/FJH Music. This has been turning out to be a real favorite this season. Read my previous comments here. One warning: If your group has too many alto saxophones or too few flutes, be careful of balance in this piece.

Starfire March by Bruce Pearson from the Standard of Excellence First Performance collection. An easy march my students love to play. It is arranged with too much verbatim repetition, but the melody is catchy. My groups almost always cheer when I call this piece, and I frequently hear complaints when we don’t rehearse it.

Olympia by Brian Balmages/FJH Music. Balmages’ writing here is very harmonically colorful, yet the accidentals are playable by young students. I had really been looking forward to working on this one with my groups, but I have been disappointed with the results so far. My groups’ lack of full instrumentation contributes to the less than ideal outcome, so I would advise anyone considering this wonderful work to consider that factor.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious arranged by Michael Sweeney/Hal Leonard. An easy arrangement of the classic Mary Poppins song. This one has been working well for my groups, but is being overshadowed by some of the other titles this season.

Temple of Darkness by Rob Grice/FJH Music. Another one my students can’t seem to get enough of. It’s one of those pieces that makes a young group sound impressive. It rehearses pretty easily too, so it doesn’t tax the students’ patience… or mine!

Sahara by Roland Barrett/FJH Music. Again, another one which makes a young group sound impressive and rehearses easily. It includes an aleatoric passage which initially intimidated my students. They’ve had a little trouble grasping the concept, and it has been surprising how much time it has taken to rehearse something which is meant to sound improvisatory. But the students love it.

Aunt Rhodie’s Appetite by Joseph Compello/Carl Fischer Music. This arrangement uses actors and a narrator to link several familiar beginning band tunes like Hot Cross Buns and Go Tell Aunt Rhodie. Although it doesn’t necessarily make a young band sound more mature, it does serve to lighten up a concert program. Audience members who are more likely to enjoy drama rather than instrumental music will appreciate this choice.

If you have a comment or would like to suggest a title, by all means do here.

Honor Band & Orchestra Concert Reflections Part III: More is Caught than Taught

Last night was my district’s Honor Band and Orchestra concert. In other posts, I have written about the audition process, music advocacy, and celebrating excellence.

On a personal note, one of the ensembles made the debut performance of my newest orchestra composition. One other music teacher also had a new piece premiered. While I don’t mean to pat myself on the back, I was reminded of the impression these compositions might make on the students. Among those student musicians are likely to be some future aspiring composers. I remember when I was in school I was always impressed with my teachers who also performed regularly around the community. It meant something to me that one of my teachers recorded an album or performed with well-known artists.

A pastor at my church once offered an axiom to parents: “More is caught than taught.” Children learn more from what they observe than from what they hear. This is true on a number of levels. A student will really learn what staccato means by hearing it demonstrated rather than just by reading a definition. Students will believe they can become excellent performers when they see their peers do so.

My point is that hopefully a few students will carry a memory with them that their teachers are also composers, and that composition might be something they might want to try for themselves. Let me offer a little encouragement to music teachers to teach by example, demonstrating that in addition to being a teacher, you are also a performer, a composer, a recording engineer, whatever.

Honor Band & Orchestra Concert Reflections Part II: Music Advocacy

Last night was my district’s Honor Band and Orchestra concert. In other posts, I have written about the audition process, celebrating excellence, and having my newest composition premiered.

Virtually every person who took the microphone at last night’s concert spoke of music advocacy. California is facing a huge budget crisis, which inevitably puts music and arts programs at risk. They spoke of how even in the midst of a dire financial crisis we can’t afford to eliminate the arts from our schools. As each person spoke, you could feel the audience’s energy rise, resolving not to allow music to be cut.

Fortunately, my district has historically taken a great deal of the pride in its music program, so we were able to celebrate some victories in the midst of budget challenges. I am concerned, however, that this may not be the case for many districts across the state.

California’s situation is another reminder that all music teachers must also become advocacy experts.

Music advocacy is a subject worthy of volumes of writing, so I won’t attempt to tackle the subject here. Let me just note that for the past several years, advocates have used the high test scores of music students as one of their strongest points. If the educational pendulum eventually swings away from emphasis on test scores and NCLB, music advocates will need to shift our attention to other points. Character traits such as self-discipline and critical thinking skills may become the focus in the future.

Here are just a few of many resources related to music advocacy:
http://www.menc.org/information/advocacy/main.html
http://www.kmea.org/advocacy/
http://www.childrensmusicworkshop.com/advocacy/index.html

Honor Band & Orchestra Concert Reflections Part I: Celebrating Excellence

Last night was my district’s Honor Band and Orchestra concert. In another post, I have written about the audition process.

During the concert, I was struck by the importance of events like this. In the introduction and welcome, our district music coordinator spoke highly of the students and faculty for all their hard work. He introduced a few dignitaries from the district and the local music community. Each of them spoke proudly of our music program, offering kind words about the accomplishments of various students and teachers.

In the day to day grind, we all face difficulties, distractions, interruptions, discipline issues, and disappointment about lack of student progress. Sometimes we might even wonder if all our energy is misspent or fruitless. But events like honor concerts give everyone a reminder that our efforts are not in vain. True, not every student with an instrument gets to participate, and the musical selections might be challenging even to those who pass the audition. But isn’t that the point?

Events like this allow us to focus on the accomplishments of students who actually do practice, take private lessons, invest in quality instruments, and generally take music seriously. Honor groups allow us to correct the instrumentation flaws which might exist in our schools. They allow us to combine the best musicians from one school with the best musicians from another school and create something better than any one teacher could produce alone. They give us the opportunity to bring in guest conductors or even performers who we might not otherwise be able to have work with our groups. And most importantly, we give our students the opportunity to create music as part of an exceptional ensemble, where each musician is as dedicated as they are to striving for excellence.

Practice: Establishing a Routine

This is just the beginning of what I hope will be a series of conversations about all things related to practice.

Yo-Yo Ma and Wynton Marsalis had an interesting conversation about practicing in this video. One of Ma’s most memorable quotes was “I hate the idea of practicing.” Motivating students to sit down alone with their instrument is one of the most difficult challenges a music teacher faces.

My hunch has been that many students don’t practice because it’s just not part of their daily/weekly routine. This is especially true among beginners who lack in self-discipline and work ethic anyway. Some parents aren’t much help in this area, not being eager to hear their kids make all that noise.

One technique I’ve used to get students thinking about their practice habits is to help them find best time to practice. I ask them about their daily and weekly schedule and get a picture for their time commitments. If they have soccer practice on Tuesdays and church events on Wednesdays, those might not be realistic days to practice. “But Mondays are open, and so are Thursdays. And since your lessons are on Fridays, Thursdays would be a perfect time to prepare.”

Sharing this conversation with parents can be helpful on a number of levels. Parents who pay for music lessons will appreciate your help in getting a good return on their investment. They can remind their child to practice at the determined times instead of nagging all week. You can also establish credibility as a professional by talking with parents about how you want to see the child develop life skills like self-discipline, time management, delayed gratification (practice before T.V.), etc..

Here are a just a couple of the many great blogs and posts related to practice:

- Music Practice Tips

- Music Matters Blog

How about you? What are your thoughts on helping students develop a practice routine? Let’s start a dialogue here!