Piano Time

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything about my piano lessons and music classes! I guess I have been pre-occupied…a wedding, new house and new family make piano lessons seem just slightly less important. 😉

However, I have recently been renewed in my enthusiasm and excitement about teaching. (I’m rarely sidetracked from music for very long…) Specifically, about starting my own piano studio soon! I just bought the book “How I Made $100,00 My First Year as a Piano Teacher” by Kristin K. Yost…….What are you laughing at?  That’s what I asked Abe after I read him the title. I’m sure if I were face-to-face with you, I might be asking you that too! OK, so I know that $100,000 and piano teacher aren’t usually heard in the same sentence. Maybe not even in the same conversation. But, I’m not going to let that stop me from enjoying and working at building up my students and studio experience.

I can’t wait to write more about the book—I haven’t even gotten past the first chapter because I have a list of things I need to do that I am behind on if I want to start teaching on my own. Thankfully, I’ve got the first item down: a place to teach. I’ve posted earlier about mine and Abe’s dream house and how we came to buy it. Here are some pictures of it, specifically what we call the “piano room” where I hope to teach piano lessons.

The room before we moved everything in and painted! Taken from the front entry way looking left, right leads to the rest of the house.

 

It’s a perfect room for piano lessons–sticking out of the front of the house, not too big not too small…and since it is pretty isolated in the front of the house, that gives Abe and Kali the freedom to continue “living” in the rest of the house while I teach. When I taught at my home in West Chester, the piano was in the living room. So my family was confined to their bedrooms, the kitchen, or the basement while I taught, because I really didn’t want people walking through the lesson every couple of minutes. With this front room, Abe and Kali can get to the kitchen, the big rooms downstairs, and the bedrooms without ever having to walk through or interrupt a lesson. Perfect! 🙂

Next, Kristin Yost says to figure out the demographics of your area–who lives there, average income, etc. So I just googled demographics with my town’s name. I found some interesting information that was good to know. I live in a family-oriented community, so I’m already thinking of ideas of how to make my studio family-friendly. For instance, we have a big room downstairs that we are not sure what to do with, except to make it into a toy room for Kali and keep all of our toys and work-out equipment down there. I could make it look pretty and put a rocker or little couch in there and let families with younger kids hang out down there during the lesson. I would also like to offer group lessons for cousins. Kali has two other cousins who are around the age where they could start music classes or lessons. I’m sure there are other kids in the area who have cousins around the same age–maybe I will offer a group lesson, and if your student brings their cousin, they get two for the price of one! (Each pays half price?) Anyway…just a few ideas, not sure what will come of them! Kristin has a quote that says “Daydreaming about your business is actually strategizing.” I do plenty of daydreaming about my beautiful piano room and piano lessons, so now I can call it “strategizing!”

“Daydreaming about your business is actually strategizing.”

Lastly, she recommends setting up a website before you even begin teaching your lessons. That is what I’m currently working on. She gives a handy checklist for what should be on your website, so once I am ready with everything on that checklist I’ll start a new site. The hardest part so far has been coming up with a name. I want a cute, catchy name, but also a name that goes with my philosophy of music and foreshadows what my general purpose is in teaching. I came up with a few ideas…texted them to Abe…he shot them down. 😉 I even used Canva, a free graphic design website, to make each idea look pretty, but I agreed with him–nothing was just right. After a few days (of impatience because I want to get my site up) I finally came up with an idea that seemed to stick. I did a little design on Canva, sent a picture and text to Abe, and he confirmed that he liked that new idea. And surprisingly, it made the rest of my information flow so easily! Now, it is still subject to change since my page is not up and running yet, but I’ll give you a sneak peak at what may be the title of my new website/piano studio:

Making Piano Possible Music Studio

Like it?? Tell me what you think…and if you have any other cool ideas, let me know!! It worked really well when I went to write my philosophy section, and requirements, etc. I believe that piano can be possible for everyone–whether it’s to make a career out of, go to school for, or just play the favorite songs for the family around the holidays. The title helped me hone my goals too–I want to make painless performances possible, excellent technique possible, and enjoyable practice possible. I really believe that all of those things are possible, and that you don’t have to suffer through piano lessons like so many do.

That’s all for now…I’ll be keeping you updated as I continue brainstorming and “strategizing” for my piano studio. 🙂