Knowing the Piano
Practice playing the piano often. Teaching piano is a skilled job! It will be harder to recruit and teach students if you do not have extensive playing experience. If you have been playing piano for a long time and have a significant repertoire under your belt, you are probably already qualified to teach. That said, you should still practice playing the piano daily so that your skills stay fresh and up to date. A degree is not necessarily required if you have a high playing skill level. However, most successful piano teachers are highly trained with the equivalent of a bachelor's degree in piano with coursework in piano pedagogy (instruction).
Advertise the genres of piano music that you're qualified to teach. Learning classical techniques is helpful for increasing overall playing skill and are necessary for aspiring concert pianists or future teachers. However, if your student wants to learn how to play jazz music in addition to classical, and you don’t know how to play jazz piano, you may not be the best teacher for them.
Brush up on your music theory. While some students take piano lessons to show their friends their favorite pop songs, others may learn piano to make a career out of it some day. In either case, being able to explain and demonstrate technical knowledge of scales, chords, intervals, clefs, meter, phrasing, and harmony is essential to their musical development. If you find your music theory to be lacking, there are many resources that can help, but a music theory course on Coursera or Nicolas Carter’s book “Music Theory: From Absolute Beginner to Expert” or can improve your theory skills in an approachable way.
Invest in professional development. This can include taking private lessons from teachers who are more advanced than yourself, reading music teaching literature, attending concerts, practicing and learning new repertoire on your own, or browsing the internet or YouTube for inspiration. Remember that a good teacher is also a good student. Join your local, state, or national music teacher's associations to network with other teachers and be informed about new teaching methods and publications. You can also learn about various pedagogical techniques and select the method that you think will work best for you and your students.
Planning Your Lessons
Make a business plan according to your time allotments. If you plan on making music instruction your full-time occupation, a thorough business plan is absolutely essential. If you are more of a hobbyist in your teaching, you will still need to prepare, but it may require less time and effort depending on the size of your studio.
Set your rate. Lessons for beginners are typically 30 minutes long and will increase to an hour as the student becomes older or acquires more skill. If you have no teaching experience but are skilled at the piano, it is appropriate to charge $15-20 per 30 minutes or $30-40 per hour. Keep in mind that the rate you charge is dependent on many factors, including your educational pedigree, playing and teaching experience, references from your students, and the city you live in. As you gain experience, it is recommended that you increase your rates a little each year. Piano teachers with significant experience and skill can charge up to $60 per 30 minutes or $120 per hour. Charge a flat, monthly fee for lessons instead of a rate per session. This is to discourage skipping lessons, and it increases desire to make up missed lessons.
Find a place to teach. While many teachers hold lessons in their own home, you may also travel to a student’s home if they have a quality piano that has been tuned recently. You can also rent a space at a music store or community center. Be sure to use a space that will allow you to keep as much of your earnings as you need while being clean, welcoming, and conducive to learning. Factor the time and cost of travel into your fees if applicable.
Purchase books at the level of piano you will be teaching. Some great titles for beginners include Alfred’s Basic Piano Library Lesson Book series, Bastien Piano Basics Primer Level, and the Hal Leonard Piano Method Book series. While you may sell your copies of the books to students, it is better to have them purchase their own personal copies so that they can mark up their sheet music with notes and tips from lessons. It is also time-consuming to be constantly replacing books that you’ve given to students. Use a well-developed method, such as the Suzuki method, if you prefer its teachings or if you are having trouble finding a place to start. Some methodologies require official certification before they may be taught for commercial purposes, so research the certification costs and requirements before using that method in your pedagogy.
Write out your studio policies. Make a comprehensive list of policies for your studio including information about payment schedules and amounts, weather and holiday cancellations, lesson make-ups, notice of termination of lessons, and attendance and practice expectations. Share this with the parents of your students at their first lesson, and ensure that both the student and their parents understand all of your policies.
Advertise your services online, in print, and in person. Place an ad in your local paper, on CraigsList, and inside the building where you’ll be teaching if you’re holding lessons outside of the home. Ask to place fliers on the bulletin board in your local community buildings such as a recreation center, church, or library. Tell everyone you know that you’re teaching piano, and offer a referral discount for current students. Only advertise the ages and genres you’re qualified to teach. Reach out to local school music teachers. Introduce yourself, and offer free workshops and accompaniment for concerts and musicals. Be sure to stress that you want to help their program, rather than insisting that they send their students to you for piano lessons. Advertise on websites specifically designed to help people find music teachers in their area (like https://takelessons.com/), but be aware that you may have to pay a fee to promote your services.
Teaching Your Students
Plan personalized lessons thoroughly. Your lessons should be tailored to each student, taking into account their current skill level, goals, and weekly schedule. This is not to say that you cannot reuse lesson plans, but each student will require a different approach. Guide your lesson plans around their practice routine, which can be either a distinct to-do list that they must adhere to, or you can create a custom one with your student that varies daily. Be consistent about what they can expect at each lesson.
Start your lessons with a warm-up. Effective warm-ups will involve slowly warming and loosening the hands for playing. Use technical exercises including scales, arpeggios, ear training, and chord progressions. Have your students show you how they usually warm up at home. If they rush through the warm-up, have them slow down to improve their accuracy and warm the hands safely. It is important to cover both ascending and descending scales and arpeggios since both occur in all music. Also, don’t leave the lesson on minor scales for later - it is best to teach both major and minor from the start so that the ear can be trained to recognize each one over time.
Review topics from the last lesson. A "topic" is usually a piece that the student is working on from a lesson book, but you may also focus on études, or small pieces of music that are used to drill a particular pattern. This may take up all of the lesson time occasionally, but that is not cause for concern. Other topics may include technical or music issues and nuances such as dynamics, pacing, or evenness of playing.
Introduce new material slowly. Go over the key signature of the new piece by having them play that scale in different meters and tempos. Have them focus on one small, logical section of the music at a time, working down through the piece. Then they may string the units together and practice transitions. Don't push students to a harder skill too early. Instead, make sure that the current skill can be demonstrated repeatedly and consistently before moving on to a new one. Check in with your student periodically. Ask if they’re happy with what they’re working on, and if they're not, be open to requests from the student and their parents. Repetition is important, but boredom can diminish enthusiasm.
Work music theory into everything you do. Quiz them on theory topics during your lessons, so that they can apply their knowledge to their instrument. For example, if you have been teaching them about intervals, play two notes from their piece one after the other and have them name the interval. Make sure that you use proper musical notation when talking about music theory, since you will want your students to eventually be able to identify features and patterns of the music by just looking at the page. It’s important to make learning theory fun by offering verbal affirmation of progress and rewarding mastery of concepts. Younger students respond well to candy or stickers on the pages of music they’ve mastered.
Have reasonable expectations for practice and progress. Some students will love practicing and will have a hard time taking breaks. Other students will resist practicing since it can be repetitive and highlights their areas for improvement. Do not make your students feel bad for their learning style, but stress the fact that practicing often and well is the key to real progress.
Encourage your students often and be patient. Unforgiving, inflexible, and mean teachers can sometimes cause students to quit music altogether and develop an aversion to it, so always be aware of how your words and actions come across. It is your job to adapt to your student’s needs, not the other way around. Never judge a student for their playing ability since everyone was a beginner at one point. However, if the student has demonstrated that they are not fully invested in paying attention during lessons or practicing, it may be time for a conversation with their parents about whether or not piano is the right activity for them.
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