scheduling lessons together

[Bob]

What do you do to get your parents to agree to YOUR schedule?  I hate having large gaps of time between lessons.

[ptmidwest]

Years ago, I had lessons scheduled back-to-back.  I had to be able to switch gears very quickly, and I was able to keep those lessons streaming successfully, if I do say so myself.  (If students were late, I could not hold them over, and they learned to be on time.)

When parents and I set up the lesson time, I explain that I will have to start on time, because another lesson begins at whatever- o'clock.  Remember that they are paying you for your time as well as for your experience.

Of course, I was younger and quicker then.  I am not so strictly scheduled these days, even though I still teach many students.  (Sometimes a 45-minute lesson throws  the clock off by 15 minutes for scheduling, and now I am grateful for a 15-minute "break". )

So I have learned to avoid the long gaps in between lessons, but I am am still trying to get the kids out at the end of the lesson when there is not another lesson immediately following.  They (and their parents) linger.  A compliment to me, I am sure, but it eats up those few little 15-minute spots that were to be mine, all mine.

[anja]

One suggestion is the alternative close, a selling technique in which you present options, and the buyer feels an need to be constrained to those options. So ask, "would you prefer Monday at 4:30 or Tuesday at 4:45?"

Also, you could get more students and you will see the schedule fill up and people needing to accomodate you. But really, you should be accommodating them if at all possible. This is because the time has to be convenient for them if you expect them to stay for the long haul.

It's all about repetitive behaviour. They should be coming to piano lessons almost as if in a trance for at least five years.

[lagin]

I only have three students, so I can easily move them to keep them together.  How many are you trying to coodinate?

[Bob]

It's really not the number.  I'm just thinking about ways to control my time.

I guess it's just up to what you are willing to do.  If I don't want to teacher lessons with large gaps, then I have to be willing to give up some students.  If I want all the students I can get, then I have to be willing to adjust to their schedule.

I don't want to be so blunt with the parents though.  Some of them don't quite have it all together and I don't want to get stuck going out of my way if they're not trying hard to work with my schedule either.

[ptmidwest]

One of the more effective things I still try to do is to plan in advance exactly what my activity will be during a gap.  Sometimes gaps are unavoidable (kids gets sick, etc.), and if I have decided specifically what I will do during a 20 minute/90 minute/two hours gap, it is both productive and satisfying, and I skip the frustration I would have otherwise felt.

Sometimes I practice (every little bit helps), or do student prep, sometimes I read the paper.

It's just thinking ahead to what tasks would like to be done that day if I have a chance.

Alas,  written here it sounds so tedious!  But it helps me, anyway.

[lostinidlewonder]

Allocate set times for each of your students. If they can't keep it then you reschedule to a day which you keep free for for that reason. I do that on Sundays if I have to.

Most of my students pay upfront 10 weeks and we are in agreement that if they do not reshedule the lesson at least a day before the lesson, then that counts as a lesson. Teaching is a business in itself, you can't let yourself get jerked around. You cant let students have freedom to choose whatever time they want.  If you do it becomes routine and they will keep changing times on you throughout the year.

Students studying music with you should respect the times organised to meet up with with you. They should feel that skipping a lesson slows down the momentum of the work that the teacher and the student tries to maintain/guide. I have some very commited students that will sacrifice other commitments to just to make up for missed lessons. I really think that is the right attitude to have when you commit yourself to learn anything and it doesn't suprise me that those students who have that attitiude are the ones that give me the most work since they get through so much. At least they get their money's worth then, nothing worse than doing the same thing 100 times.

If you are not going out to teach at the students homes then you are relying on them  to arrive to you for the lesson on time. That can be very annoying and is the reason why I only have students come to me if they are able to keep strict times. Otherwise I drive out to their place, at least that way I can get there on my time.