Do you charge more for exam/competition prep?

[green]

Do you charge more for exam/competition prep? Do you place higher demands on the student in terms of practice time, and perhaps negotiating with parents for a longer lesson - 2 hours at intermediate to advanced?

In follow up to my post about a request from a parent about entering their son into a Beethoven competition, while it is 5 months away, I feel the structure of lessons and practice and what I am paid should all go 'up'. In part also because I want them to take this seriously and those extra demands are going to be necessary first of all to get through the next 5 months, but also so that I am not held responsible for any lack of preparation. The demands and stress this sort of prep requires I feel demands a higher rate of pay.

Any experience here?

[quantum]

A lesson is a lesson.  I do not teach any more just because there is a performance coming up, and I do not teach any less without any foreseeable exam, recital or what have you in the near future.  My own fee remains the same regardless of the urgency or seriousness of the student to acquire knowledge or skill.  The student pays the same hourly rate.

However, when a performance does come up I may recommend the student take lessons more frequently in order that we may cover the material.  Again the lesson fee remains the same hourly rate.  It may mean increasing the weekly lesson time from 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours.  Or it may mean two 1 hour lessons a week, as the time gets closer to the performance. 

In my studio, it is the student's responsibility to manage practice time.  I do not nag students that come to lesson without sufficient practice.  It is made clear that the student is expected to take their own initiative in completing their end of the work.  As a teacher my work happens in lesson, instructing the student on good practice habits and how they can continue working at home what was covered in the lesson.  It is up to them if they wish to follow the advice or not. 

[green]

In my own case, I have never previously charged more for exam or competition prep; but I definitely feel more under pressure, I do spend more prep time looking at the students work, asking colleagues and here for advice on situations, lessons are always more more more than usual. Also there is a higher expectation on results from parents, the demands are higher all round, and so thus I am considering a higher rate plus that there should be two lessons a weeks, with the student spending an increased amount of time practicing. Higher demands, higher fee.

[j_menz]

In my own case, I have never previously charged more for exam or competition prep; but I definitely feel more under pressure, I do spend more prep time looking at the students work, asking colleagues and here for advice on situations, lessons are always more more more than usual. Also there is a higher expectation on results from parents, the demands are higher all round, and so thus I am considering a higher rate plus that there should be two lessons a weeks, with the student spending an increased amount of time practicing. Higher demands, higher fee.

So basically you want to charge extra because (1) your student has to work harder and (2) you have more inadequacies to make up?  I wouldn't pay.

[keypeg]

I've been reading this entire story.  You have a transfer student who I imagine has been going along this kind of path, with parents acting as (uninformed?) advisors all along.  So now you have someone who does things well which come naturally, while missing a pile of basic skills.  You already know that he is not ready for this event that the parents want him to do.  From what I gather, the student has neither the technical skills, nor the reading skills.  I don't understand why you are even considering this.

No, it does not make sense for you to be charging more.  A professional should be doing his best at all times anyway, and you can't be doing more than your best.  The extra practice time is up to your student.  The only thing that I would see is more lessons or longer lessons, in which case more hours equals more pay.  But tbh, I question the decision of going ahead with this at all.  In fact, is it a decision, or just going along with the parents?

[green]

Well if I were a top notch concert pianist/teacher then I would already be charging perhaps 3-4 times what I charge, I plan to now simply raise my rate by about 8 dollars starting from August, after the summer holiday. That takes me up to about 40USD/hour.

I talked to the student today, laid out the situation, I think he knows he isn't ready for this, and said perhaps we could look at some of the pieces to get a feel for what is involved and plan to maybe enter next year.

[keypeg]

Green, that sounds promising.  Raising your rates to be more in line with what you're doing generally makes sense, while what you wrote first seemed to make less sense.

[green]

Yes I'm getting more calls now from new students, with the new rate in tact, while I have a fairly full schedule, I will be able to put the rate up without that worry about losing students...how many students do people have? I can only teach 2-3 hours/weekday, and only on Sat/Sun if necessary. At the moment I have 12.5 hours/week, mon-fri, for my area 30-50 dollars/hour is about the 'advertised' limit people are willing to respond to...all I can really do is gradually raise my rates with existing and new students, with about 4 months of holidays/year, 8 months of lessons or 36-40 lessons/year. My students are all from Int'l schools, so while my income is not bad on a good month, with all holidays taken into account not a whole lot of savings over the course of a year...

[Bob]

Nope.

There's never enough time in lessons though.  If it's for including a better grasp on theory or ear training, it might be easier just to do separate lessons just for that.  Otherwise a lesson is a lesson.