Music Teacher Helper

Music Teacher Helper: Taking the “Awkwardness” out of Piano Teaching

I hate getting myself into awkward situations and I bet you do too. Whether you’re a music teacher yourself or an individual who’s just curious about awkward music teaching experiences, please keep reading. I hope this article will be somewhat interesting to you and that it opens your eyes to joys and horrors of piano teaching!

Awkward Situation #1: The Unprepared Student and the Uninvolved Parents

Every week your piano student comes to his lesson unprepared. He somehow “forgot” to practice that song with “too many flats in it” and his parents are oblivious to what is going on. They are too busy to take a minute and talk to you after their son’s lesson and are not very involved in their son’s practicing routine at home. When you spoke to them on the phone they explained that they don’t understand his assignments and they aren’t sure how to help their son. Thus, your student becomes more and more frustrated and hits a piano-playing plateau. What do you do?

Solution: You sign up for Music Teacher Helper at http://www.musicteachershelper.com. Music Teacher Helper (MTH) provides you a space to communicate more easily with parents. After you teach a lesson, you can login to the website and It will give you a reminder, “THERE ARE ___ LESSONS THAT NEEDTO BE RECONCILED”. That reminder stays up until you type in your lesson notes. I love this feature because it means I’ll never forget who I need to email and I don’t have to waste time looking up email addresses because the program keeps track of all that for me. All I have to do is record how the lesson went, and remind the parent/student of what to work on that week. This system keeps the parent updated on their students progress and help remind me what to focus on the next week.There is also a convient “secret” place to write notes to yourself that you might not want the parents to read. For example, I wrote this the other day, “WOW! This kid is really hyper…I better think of some more games to get them moving next time.”  

Awkward Situation #2:  “Uh..You Forgot to Pay Me…”

It’s the second week of the month and your students’ monthly tuition was due last week. A couple students paid you through paypal, one paid with cash and the rest of them brought checks. You’re scrambling around trying to make a check-off list of who paid and who didn’t. You’re frantically checking your Paypal accout, your email and all the lists you’ve made only to discover that one student has not paid you yet! You scribble down a note to yourself to remind them when they come later that day. You’re hoping that they’ll remember so you won’t have to awkwardly say, “Uh….you forgot to pay me last week.” AHHHH! It’s so awkward!

Solution: Sign up for MTH! MTH has a wonderful system that keeps track of who has paid and who has not paid and exactly how much they owe you. MTH also has an invoicing system which is really helpful if your students’ parents are forgetful. MTH can automatically generate a professional looking invoice for you (it explains how much money they owe, when it was due and a link so that they can pay on Paypal if they would like to. This system has been  a lifesaver for me. No more figuring out the wording for awkward, “I need my money” emails and no more time wasted on trying to figure out a polite way of explaining the problem over the phone or in person. With MTH I can simply hand a professional looking invoice to the parent right as they drop their student off or email it to them. Parents who are constantly forgetting to bring their checkbook/cash can also have the convenience of paying by a click of the mouse. With MTH, I always know who owes me what and who has paid/not paid and I don’t have to think about it so much.

Awkward Situation #3: Redundant Basic-Info Phone Interviews

You keep getting calls from parents of potential students. They all want to know the following: your rates, your policies, a little more about you, your teaching philosophy etc. These phone calls can take up a lot of time and be a little redundant. It is also a little awkward to be put on the spot and to have to explain how wonderful you are while you’re frantically searching for a pencil and paper, checking your schedule and writing down their information.

Solution: Sign up for MTH! When potential students and parents call, you can direct them to your fancy, professional-looking website that will have all the answers to their questions. Not to mention…it is a great advertising tool. You can list your rates, a little about you, your rules and anything else you want! If anyone has further questions they can contact you and you won’t always have to repeat the same thing over and over again. In addition, having your polices/rules etc. online is wonderful because parents and students will not be able to lose them. That way there is no excuse for someone not knowing how things work.

Basically, MTH is the best thing that ever for my piano teaching business. If you’re a private music teacher, I really recommend that you try it out!. It has really made my life a lot easier. For those of you who are not music teachers, I hope you had fun taking a peek at the life of a music teacher.

MTH is a wonderful teaching resource that takes care of the awkward and annoying things and lets you sit back, relax and enjoy your teaching!