Meri’s Musical Musings

Do:

Find out what opportunities are available for students to perform or audition for, such as arts-focussed middle and high schools, or special youth bands and orchestras for students of different abilities outside of school.

Get a copy of the syllabi for the instruments you teach, even if you don’t plan to use the exam system, this can help create a progression of repertoire as well as determine if the minimum repertoire level for a audition with the pieces a student wants to audition on is at the required level.

Get your name out there, by assisting with school ensembles and music camps for example.

Connect with teachers of other instruments, and those you play your instrument but live a significant distance from you. I regularly refer students to a violin teacher, a trumpet teacher, and a flute teacher, and have done so at least once for several other instruments. Also have referred potential clarinet students who were too far for me to travel to one of my past students who is about to start his final year as a performance major, and a second one who wanted a time that I was completely unavailable for lessons to another college student. Also connect to other teachers if you are more focussed on teaching beginners and intermediates, and they tend to do well with upper intermediate and advanced students.

In your first 3-5 years, stay in touch with your teachers and ask them questions on how to teach something when a student of yours is having trouble.

Get some teaching tips from teachers of other instruments, many top teachers have similar tips that apply to all instruments. Consider even taking a few lessons from a teacher of a different instrument to focus on interpretation skills or how you approach performance psychologically or playing the instrument from a physical perspective. I know a cello teacher and a clarinet teacher who are specialists in various body techniques such as Feldenkrais and Alexander technique, and a piano teacher I studied with has done amazing things for my psychological performance skills, which I am passing them down to both my clarinet and piano students.

Have your students do both solos (for orchestral instruments) and chamber ensembles. Weaker private teachers of orchestral instruments tend to not teach students to play solos with piano accompaniment.

Use a method book that is designed for students in private lessons, which is not a method used in school music classes.

Teach technical elements (scales, arpeggios, chords), studies to develop playing skills and technique, AND repertoire.

Attend seminars and masterclasses, especially if they’re free or low cost. Where I live, a couple large music stores offer them a couple times a year, and the main conservatory usually offers free or low cost ones 3-4 times a year.

Provide non-food rewards/trinkets for students up to 11 or 12 years old for successful completion of weekly assignments, going beyond what is required, and more. (party favours are often loved by students)

If you teach orchestral instruments, and don’t play piano well enough to sightread with ease moderately difficult piano music in tempo, hire a regular, reliable, quality accompanist.

Have other streams of income other than teaching, from performing, compositions, music teaching products, and arrangements for example.

Host student recitals, or combine one with another teacher or two.

Have a clear unambigious studio policy, eg: “30 days notice to terminate lessons”, not “a month’s notice to terminate lessons”.

Don’t:

Project your fear of performing on the students; play with them and especially in concerts you host for students, unless you are physically unable to do so.

Project your own fears of exams onto the students; many examiners, especially in the early levels, understand the difficulties of performing for an evaluation and usually accentuate the positives in the elementary and intermediate level exams.

Use food rewards as incentives, as students may have food allergies or restrictions, particularly candies.

Charge for lessons by the week except for students which it is financially not possible, and even then try to get them to pay at least two lessons at a time. There is a tendency for students who pay by the week to miss lessons whenever they can’t afford it or don’t feel like it. Charge for 4-6 weeks of lessons at a time. But don’t go to the opposite extreme and ask for a term or semester’s worth of payment (though some teachers advise you to do that), you never know when things may happen to you or the student, plus many people, especially for families with more than one person taking lessons, don’t have a large amount of funds available for lessons.

Charge too little. Find out what the musician’s or music teacher’s association recommends charging for lessons (in most places it’s between $40-$60 an hour, and in cities that have a high cost of living, $75-$100/h is not unusual for a reasonably experienced teacher with a good track record) and go between 10% under the going rate (new inexperienced teachers only) to 25% above the going rate (for well established teachers producing a track record of students who do extremely well in auditions and competitions) Teachers in huge demand can go double the going rate or more.

Accept every student who comes asking for lessons, even though it may be tempting to do so. I once did a background check on a potential student several years ago, and the mother had been indicted for fraud. Especially turn down beginning students who want less than weekly lessons, or want a day and time that you have frequent performances or need to spend with family, for me, I haven’t taught on Sundays for years as I often have Sunday services to perform at, sometimes with a second performance late in the afternoon or early evening. In addition, with one exception, my Sunday students were usually my WORST students in terms of consistency of lessons and practice habits.

Attend and participate in studio recitals.

Participate in exams.

For orchestral instruments, audition for and participate in special ensembles outside of school which your odds of being accepted are very good or excellent. There are quite a few even for relative beginners, especially for those in the band.

Learn and apply your music theory.

Learn your technical elements (scales, chords, arpeggios, etc.) well enough to at least 4 sharps and 4 flats, major and minor.

Practice 5-6 days a week with good practice techniques for at least 45 min a day, at least 60 to 90 min if you are past the mid-intermediate level. Parents, bribe your kids to do it if you need to, tying in part of their allowance, earning TV, video game, or computer time for practicing, allowing them to getting out of a chore they dislike if they practice.

Ask questions related to playing technique or the music on things you don’t understand, sometimes a quick message or phone call can save you a lot of trouble.

Participate in competitions if your teacher recommends you for them.

Find out the names of the great artists on the instruments you student, and listen to them perform, with online videos and recordings.

Discover the major solo and chamber works for your instrument, and listen to them frequently.

Register for music camps that are offered by school boards and sometimes by churches that the student qualifies for. If funds are limited, you can often get a bursary and there are even a few camps that are free for anyone.

Attend concerts by professional ensembles, especially chamber ensembles.

Seek additional performance opportunities within and outside of school, and/or ask your teacher, eg: my husband and I have our top students perform for services at least a couple times a year.

Do research on the history of the instrument, periods of music history, composers, and works they have written that include or feature the instrument you are studying.

Many teachers, whether they are just starting out, have lost a large percentage of students in a short time, or have cut back the number of students they teach, became worried that their student recitals will not be impressive because the number of students is small, under a dozen, and sometimes with less than half that number. As a teacher who has hosted a number of small student recitals over the years (although my upcoming one will be the biggest in years thanks to a sudden dramatic increase in student numbers in the past month), there are a number of ways to make it more impressive, to make them last approximately 45 min. (Plus I recently sat through a recital that had about 20 students playing over a period of 90 minutes with no break, and I was quite sore physically after that)

One way to make your small studio recital more impressive is to have each student play more pieces in the recital. In a larger studio, they might only be permitted to play one or two pieces; in a smaller studio, some students, especially beginners, can do 4-6 pieces easily.

Another way to make small studio recitals impressive is to have ensembles, with the teacher, siblings in the same family, parent and student, or students who are close friends at school. Traditionally this is like-instrument duets, such as four hands one piano duets, or duets for orchestral instruments, but can include recorder ensembles if you have at least two other students playing it in school, or if siblings are studying two or more different instruments, have ensembles with the different instruments; one year at a clarinet student’s sister’s piano teacher’s recital, they got a lot of applause even though the piece was a late elementary clarinet piece with a mid-intermediate level piano accompaniment.

A third way is to combine a recital with other teachers, especially if at least one of the other teachers has free access to a quality performance space and you don’t, eg: one of the teachers has a church with a well-maintained grand piano because of being a musical director. This is especially effective if the teachers combining the recital teach instruments other than the ones you teach, or if they teach the same instrument, specialize in a different level of students than you do (eg: you work really well with beginners and intermediates, while one of the other teachers works best with advanced students) It can give the less advanced students a glimpse of what they could play if they stick with it, and, for students learning band and orchestra instruments in school, or will be within a year or two, instruments they may want to learn to play.

A fourth idea is to invite guest artists to perform a piece. This can also give students a sense of what they can achieve if they stick with it, as well as give students ideas of what instruments they might want to play. However, if you do this, seriously consider paying the guest musicians for their time, say $50-$75 or whatever the standard rate for a single piece is by the musician’s union.

A fifth idea is to incorporate a little info about the piece, the composer of the piece, or interesting facts about the student. In my studio recital last spring, I had a student who shared my birthday, and twice had students whose birthdays fall on the US Independence Day. (they weren’t my students at the same time, however) and have had students whose birthdays fall on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Years Eve, and Valentine’s Day. Sometimes a piece is based on a certain type of scale (eg: whole tone scale, pentatonic scale, or blues scale), or only uses as few as three different letter names of the notes (in different octaves) in the piece the student is playing.

Sixth, the teachers could also perform a solo for the students and parents. This idea is typically a hit with students, especially if most of the students are no more advanced than early or mid-intermediate level. Students LOVE to see the teacher in action, and the teacher could demonstrate what they’ve talked about covering up mistakes they made.

Finally, there could be additional presentations, with a short 3-5 minute photo slide show, a presentation of awards or participation certificates, or giving away cool door prizes that would be valuable in the students musical education.

Enjoy the small studio recital, by making the most of it! Many parents and students appreciate a studio recital that after performances, presentations, and post-recital reception, does not last for more than an hour and a half, especially if the families are busy or have young children that require a babysitter.