Do you teachers charge everyone the same?

[rachmaninoff_forever]

Both of my teachers don't charge the same for every student.  Well, it's just me.

My old teacher charges everyone X for half an hour, but whenever I come to him, he used to do X for a couple of hours, now he says I can come whenever I want for free.  I gave him a check one day and he just ripped it up lol.  And over the years, he bought me roughly 600 dollars of music! 

I've known him for several years, and I initially started at the same rate as everyone else, but now he says come over whenever My new teacher isn't in town.

My new teacher also charges me less for a couple hours with some free lessons while he charges everyone else more for only one hour.

I wasn't the best student I could be with my old teacher, and we argued A LOT, almost every lesson but we're pretty good friends.  So do you guys have any students where you really stick your neck out for them?

[jesc]

My first teacher who actually exposed me to the rigorous training of classical music taught me for free.

I'm definitely curious at how the teachers here will respond to this thread. Cause I only have the perspective of a student. More importantly this person was not particularly close to my family, of course he became close when he volunteered to teach me but before that we were total strangers.

[love_that_tune]

Interesting topic.  I would teach for free gladly.  But each time I have done it, it has not worked out.  value is a curious animal in the culture of the U.S. 

It's hard to get the respect of the student and/or parents without payment.  I tried to teach an adult once only to find out he had a mistress who called me up in a fury that he was married and i was to leave him alone.  Yah, so lol, I gave that up.  Trust me I was not going to go there.

Any service that is provided gets us all into squirrely situations.  NO?

[urlicht]

My teacher growing up taught me for free because my mother couldn't afford lessons and I had a feral drive to learn piano. So in lieu of payment I pulled weeds in her yard every week (using gloves of course!).

[Bob]

Interesting. 

The teachers I know of are charging everyone the same.

That could get tough to keep track of with a lot of students.

I think I ran into someone who prefered hour long lessons.  Their hour length lessons were a little lower than 30 minute lessons to encourage people to go with the hour.  Easier to teach.  And it also encouraged people to pay more.  People thought they were getting a better deal with the hour long lessons.  I can't remember who it was though.  It would have been something like $25/half-hour, $40/full-hour.

[pytheamateur]

Why do some teachers charge more for advanced students?  What's the rationale behind this?

[ajspiano]

Why do some teachers charge more for advanced students?  What's the rationale behind this?

I'm not sure - I've had people enquire and be somewhat shocked that I don't charge less for beginners..

[rachmaninoff_forever]

Why do some teachers charge more for advanced students?  What's the rationale behind this?

Maybe it's more difficult to teach advanced people?  I always thought it was the other way around though!

[ajspiano]

Maybe it's more difficult to teach advanced people?  I always thought it was the other way around though!

You certainly need a higher skill level to be able to effectively solve problems for advanced students. The repertoire is large, I think it's a big ask for a teacher to be able to give solid technical advice on concert repertoire that they have not studied themselves extensively. It's not impossible given enough experience but its a more developed skill than may be required for a lower level perhaps..

I consider my current "qualification" to be approaching 20 years private study, so I think my knowledge should be worth $$. When I started teaching though (8 years ago) I was certainly a long way back in progress from where I am now and it would've been inappropriate for me to charge money for advice on high level material i think, especially a decent amount of money..

[jayeckz]

No.

One teacher I had charged me $60 an hour.

I quit taking weekly lessons with him about 7 years ago, but I've randomly called him up and had lessons with him.

Although I hear he charges $100+ now, he still charged me $60.

[johnmar78]

I charge nothing for my own kids , at higher level charge more. For friends, charge nothing.