Lessons Every Other Week for Beginners

[rgh55]

Does anyone give lessons to beginners every other week vs. weekly? I have been teaching a family of 3 students weekly for a little over 2 years and they told me they wanted to switch to lessons every other week since their kids are getting too "overwelmed" with activities.  The ages are 5th grade, 4th grade and 1st grade. The youngest has only been taking lessons for 6 months. They are all beginners and do minimal practice. (I do teach a few advanced students and adults every other week if the want.) I will probably not continue w/ this family since it is a loss of income and I have other students that I am trying to fit it. Money is not an issue w/ this family, they just dont think their kids benefit from having weekly lessons but are coached for swimming 5 days a week. (By writing this I have decided what I will do.)

[allthumbs]

Does anyone give lessons to beginners every other week vs. weekly? I have been teaching a family of 3 students weekly for a little over 2 years and they told me they wanted to switch to lessons every other week since their kids are getting too "overwelmed" with activities.  The ages are 5th grade, 4th grade and 1st grade. The youngest has only been taking lessons for 6 months. They are all beginners and do minimal practice. (I do teach a few advanced students and adults every other week if the want.) I will probably not continue w/ this family since it is a loss of income and I have other students that I am trying to fit it. Money is not an issue w/ this family, they just dont think their kids benefit from having weekly lessons but are coached for swimming 5 days a week. (By writing this I have decided what I will do.)

It is obvious that piano lessons for them are not on the top of the list of priorities. If they are practicing minimally as you say, you’re wasting your time teaching them as it is. Taking lessons every two weeks would be like taking one step forward and two steps back.

Cheers,

allthumbs

[slobone]

Yeah, they have to meet you halfway. If they're not practicing enough for a weekly lesson, I can't see any reason for you to indulge them, especially if it means a loss of income for you. Hopefully you can fill their spots with people who are more serious.

[pairra]

Lessons every other week never work out. Either they need to commit to weekly lessons or that need to quit.

[keyofc]

I just had a student leave from her lesson that I decided to take on every other week.
I think it's a really big mistake as a beginner student.
I told them today, unfortunately, that it might just be a waste of time.

If you really want to teach them - and money is not a problem - you might mention
your prices are higher for that kind of arrangement, since it's not easy to book others the weeks in between.  But it's really hard when they are not practicing to be engaged as a teacher, I think.

My student was planning on coming every week in a short time - but I can see that the appreciation for piano - the practice level, and the understanding of learning piano is not there.

The only other time I've done this is with kids I've taught for years - and when they went to college - or moved on to something like that - they still wanted to continue.  By then we had a great base - and so it was ok.

[anakha13]

It doesn't work. With kids especially...I'd never heard of anyone taking fortnightly lessons when I was a kid. Even with adults, I don't think it works. I had a student who came every fortnight and after sometime he asked me whether he could come monthly!

That being said I still take lessons fortnightly from a pedagogue I respect. However I'd consider the arrangement to be alright because I've already done my diploma exams and am just looking to get tips and improve my repertoire. If it's alright with the teacher, I suppose it's alright. But I wouldn't even consider the arrangement with children.

[outin]

I have had a really horrible workload lately and a few weeks ago I told my teacher how stressed I was about being too tired to practice after too much overtime...which of course cause stress if I haven't progressed enough in my pieces after a week. So she asked whether I wanted to have lessons every other week for a while. But it doesn't feel like a good idea. It would just cause me confusion, I'd probably forget to go some day  

But when I occasionally have a week without a lesson because of public holidays, it does feel nice to be able to do more work between lessons. Especially since I am slow in memorizing the notes. And it gives me time to work a little bit on my side projects (old pieces). I see no reason why it wouldn't work with an adult who is used to studying independently. But only if one has the habit of practicing as much whether the lesson is tomorrow or next week... and maybe not to a complete beginner though.

What I don't like is the summer break, much too long...but that's how lessons are around here